System and method for preventing sector slipping in a storage area network

• US 7,281,081 B1
• Filed: 07/19/2005
• Issued: 10/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Operating Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Ohr, James
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore; Stephen C.
• Assistant Examiner(s): KIM, DANIEL Y
• Application Number:
  US11/184,587
• Time in Patent Office: 812 Days
• Field of Search: 707/10, 707/201, 711/162, 711/5, 711/147, 711/148, 711/150, 711/152, 711/157, 710/200, 710/36
• US Class Current: 711/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/004 Error avoidance G06F11/07 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/412 Distributed storage methods, i.e. the system may autonomously determine for a storage device that provides enough storage capacity for recording
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users

Abstract

A system for protecting a block in a destination storage device including a data mover operable to move data from a source storage device to the block, and a controller coupled to the data mover, the controller operable to detect an application write request to the block and to stall the application write request while a data move operation initiated by the data mover is terminated.

Claims

1. A system for protecting a destination block in a storage device from being overwritten, the system comprising:

a data mover operable to perform a data mover operation involving the destination block; and

a controller coupled to the data mover, the controller operable to;

detect an application write request to the destination block;

send a request to the data mover to terminate the data mover operation in response to detection of the application write request to the destination block; and

stall the application write request until the data mover operation is terminated.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the data mover is disposed in a disk array comprising the storage device.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is disposed in a disk array comprising the storage device.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller is operable to complete the application write request upon a termination of the data mover operation.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the data mover provides an extent list including the destination block to the controller.

6. A method comprising:

initiating a data mover operation involving a destination block in a storage device;

detecting an application write request to the destination block;

requesting a termination of the data mover operation in response to detecting the application write request to the destination block; and

stalling the application write request until the data mover operation is terminated.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

completing the application write request upon the termination of the data mover operation.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

generating an extent list comprising at least the destination block; and

verifying the extent list prior to initiating the data mover operation.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the data mover operation is performed by a data mover.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the data mover operation comprises a third-party copy operation.

11. A computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions, wherein the program instructions are executable to implement:

initiating a data mover operation involving a destination block in a storage device;

detecting an application write request to the destination block;

requesting a termination of the data mover operation in response to detecting the application write request to the destination block; and

stalling the application write request until the data mover operation is terminated.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:

completing the application write request upon the termination of the data mover operation.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the program instructions are further executable to implement:

generating an extent list comprising at least the destination block; and

verifying the extent list prior to initiating the data mover operation.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the data mover operation is performed by a data mover.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11 wherein the data mover operation comprises a third-party copy operation.

16. A system comprising:

means for initiating a data mover operation involving a destination block in a storage device;

means for detecting an application write request to the destination block;

means for requesting a termination of the data mover operation in response to detecting the application write request to the destination block; and

means for stalling the application write request until the data mover operation is terminated.