Patent ID: 8595458

Claim:
A method for initializing a plurality of extents in a computing storage environment, comprising: defining a plurality of states for each of the plurality of extents to include either an initialized state or a modified state; initializing selected ones of the plurality of extents at an advance time, designating the selected ones of the plurality of extents as having the initialized state, wherein the initializing the selected ones of the plurality of extents at the advance time includes initializing each of the selected ones of the plurality of extents within a rank at one of a rank creation time, a volume at a volume creation, and a volume expansion time; prior to a first occurrence of a destage operation of a first extent of the plurality of extents, determining one of the plurality of states for the first extent of the plurality of extents, wherein an entry in a Volume Segment Table/Rank Segment Table (VST/RST) is examined to determine the one of the plurality of states for the first extent of the plurality of extents; designating the first extent as having the initialized state if the first extent of the plurality of extents is designated as having the modified state; upon the first occurrence of the destage operation of the first extent of the plurality of extents, designating the first extent as having the modified state; upon a deletion of the rank, reinitializing only the plurality of extents having the modified state; and upon a deletion of the volume, reinitializing only the plurality of extents having the modified state, wherein the plurality of extents having the modified state are reinitialized in one of a single instance and a batch.