US Patent 10437521 Consistent method of indexing file system information

Disclosed is a system that will update the metadata index at the consistency point. Accordingly, the metadata index will be updated at the same time that the data blocks and metadata updates are written to disk. Furthermore, the metadata index will be written in the same location as the file system data, and accordingly, when a snapshot is taken of the file system, the metadata index will also be copied and saved with the snapshot. Accordingly, the metadata index will travel with the snapshots of the filesystem, and will be up to date with the latest changes to the file data blocks.