Abstract: Systems and methods for implementing volume sets in a storage system. According to a first embodiment, a system may include a volume server, a first and a second client computer system, and a plurality of physical block devices. The volume server may be configured to aggregate storage in the plurality of physical block devices into a plurality of logical volumes, wherein a given logical volume includes storage from at least two physical block devices, to distribute a first subset including at least two of the plurality of logical volumes to the first client computer system for input/output as a first volume set configured to be accessed as a single logical device, and to distribute a second subset including at least two of the plurality of logical volumes to the second client computer system for input/output as a second volume set configured to be accessed as a single logical device.

Abstract: An operating system is simulated to run in conjunction with a native operating system, allowing processes originally developed for the operating system being simulated to be ported to the environment of the native operating system with a minimum of effort. Ported processes will consume resources of both operating systems, the native operating system and the simulated operating system, that are cleaned or otherwise removed when the ported process ends by setting up a monitoring facility to detect when the ported process ends. When that occurs, the simulated operating system resources are cleaned by a cleanup process that impersonates the ported process that ended. The cleanup process is also monitored, so that when it ends, additional cleanup processes are called into action to cleanup the system resources of the remaining simulated operating system used by the ported process that ended, and the system resources used by the cleanup process.