US Patent 10929238 Management of changed-block bitmaps

An apparatus includes an interface and a processor. The interface is configured to communicate with a computing system in which one or more workloads issue storage commands for execution in a storage volume comprising multiple storage blocks. The computing system continually updates a data structure that tracks which of the storage blocks of the storage volume have changed due to the storage commands. The processor is configured, in response to a request to create a copy of the storage volume, to instruct the computing system to (i) create a copy of the data structure and reset the data structure, (ii) create the copy of the storage volume, while continuing to execute the storage commands and update the data structure, and (iii) after the copy of the storage volume is completed, merge the data structure into the copy of the data structure.