摘要 |
A data storage system is disclosed in which a 3-party hand-off protocol is utilized to maintain a single coherent logical image. In particular, the functionality of the data storage system is separated into distinct processing modules. Each processing module is implemented in a distinct central processing unit (CPU). Alternatively, the first type processing module and the third type processing module can be implemented in a common CPU. Isolating the different functions of the data storage system into distinct CPUs facilitates failure recovery. A characteristic of the 3-party hand-off protocol is that, if an abnormal state occurs, a surviving module has sufficient information to proceed to recover from said abnormal state after detecting the abnormal state, without depending on a failing module, by retrying the data storage operation with another processing module or the failing module or cleaning up after the failed data storage operation, resulting in improved failure recovery.
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