Patent attributes
A storage scheme allocates portions of a logical volume to storage nodes in excess of the capacity of the storage nodes. Slices of the storage nodes and segments of slices are allocated in response to write requests such that actual allocation on the storage nodes is only in response to usage. Segments are identified with virtual segment identifiers that are retained when segments are moved to a different storage node. Logical volumes may therefore be moved seamlessly to different storage nodes to ensure sufficient storage capacity. Data is written to new locations in segments having space and a block map tracks the last segment to which data for a given address is written. Garbage collection is performed to free segments that contain invalid data, i.e. data for addresses that have been subsequently written to.
