Intelligent protection of off-line mail data

• US 10,204,010 B2
• Filed: 10/03/2014
• Issued: 02/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Mutha, Manas Bhikchand, Mahajan, Amit, Liu, Yan, Ahn, Jun H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Tuankhanh D
• Application Number:
  US14/506,164
• Publication Number:
  US 20160098323A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,593 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1402 Saving, restoring, recovering or retrying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]

Abstract

A system according to certain aspects improves the process of creating secondary copies of data (e.g., creating backup copies). The system can compute the score of the data (e.g., a computer file storing information) to be backed up, and determine whether the score satisfies one or more threshold criteria before backing up the data. In one example, a change in score indicates a change in the content of the data. The threshold criteria may be that the score be different from the score of the most recently backed up copy of the data.

Claims

1. A method for protecting mail data, the method comprising:

with a client computing device comprising computer hardware, processing a mail data file stored in one or more primary storage devices in preparation for creation of a secondary copy of the mail data file in one or more secondary storage devices, the mail data file containing a plurality of mail objects;

with one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware, creating a first secondary copy of the mail data file on the one or more secondary storage devices;

determining a first score associated with the mail data file as it existed as of the creation of the first secondary copy, wherein the first score is not a unique identifier of the mail data file as it existed as of the creation of the first secondary copy;

determining whether the mail data file has been modified since the creation of the first secondary copy;

in response to determining that the mail data file has been modified since the creation of the first secondary copy, calculating a second score based on the mail data file as it existed following the modification, wherein the second score is not a unique identifier of the mail data file as it existed following the modification;

comparing the second score with the first score, wherein the first score and the second score are based on one or more of a number of nodes in the mail data file and a life expectancy of one or more nodes in the mail data file; and

determining whether a result of the comparison satisfies one or more threshold criteria, wherein a second secondary copy of the mail data file is created on the one or more secondary storage devices in response to determining that the result of the comparison satisfies the one or more threshold criteria.

2. The method of claim 1, where said creating the first secondary copy is performed with one or more secondary storage computing devices which are in networked communication with the client computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more secondary storage computing devices comprise specialized computing devices having media agent components installed thereon.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the mail data file includes off-line mail data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more computing devices include the client computing device, and wherein one or more of said calculating, comparing, and determining are performed by the client computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the second score in association with the second secondary copy.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining of the first score comprises one of

calculating the first score at least in part based on the first secondary copy and

retrieving the first score stored in association with the first secondary copy.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first score and the second score are based at least in part on an age of one or more nodes in the mail data file, each node corresponding to one of the plurality of mail objects.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more threshold criteria comprises a criterion that is satisfied if the first score is different from the second score.

10. A system for protecting mail data, the system comprising:

a client computing device comprising computer hardware and configured to process a mail data file stored in one or more primary storage devices in preparation for creation of a secondary copy of the mail data file in one or more secondary storage devices, the mail data file containing a plurality of mail objects;

one or more secondary storage computing devices comprising computer hardware and configured to create secondary copies of data in the one or more secondary storage devices;

one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware and including a mail protection manager, the mail protection manager configured to;

determine whether the mail data file has been modified since the creation of the first secondary copy;

determine a first score associated with the mail data file as it existed as of the creation of the first secondary copy, wherein the first score is not a unique identifier of the mail data file as it existed as of the creation of the first secondary copy;

in response to determining that the mail data file has been modified since the creation of the first secondary copy, calculate a second score based on the mail data file as it existed following the modification, wherein the second score is not a unique identifier of the mail data file as it existed following the modification;

compare the second score with the first score, wherein the first score and the second score are based on one or more of a number of nodes in the mail data file and a hie expectancy of one or more nodes in the mail data file;

determine whether a result of the comparison satisfies one or more threshold criteria; and

in response to determining that the result of the comparison satisfies the one or more threshold criteria, instruct the one or more secondary storage computing devices to create a second secondary copy of the mail data file.

11. The system of claim 10, where the one or more secondary storage computing devices are in networked communication with the client computing device.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more secondary storage computing devices comprise specialized computing devices having media agent components installed thereon.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the mail data file includes off-line mail data.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more computing devices include the client computing device, and wherein the client computing device is configured to perform one or more of said calculating, comparing, and determining.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the mail protection manager is further configured to cause the second score to be stored in association with the second secondary copy.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the mail protection manager is configured to determine the first score by performing one of

calculating the first score at least in part based on the first secondary copy and

retrieving the first score stored in association with the first secondary copy.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the first score and the second score are based at least in part on an age of one or more nodes in the mail data file, each node corresponding to one of the plurality of mail objects.

18. A method for protecting mail data, the method comprising:

with one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware, calculating a first score associated with a mail data file stored in one or more primary storage devices, the mail data file containing a plurality of mail objects, the first score associated with the mail data file as it existed as of creation of a first secondary copy of the mail data file in one or more secondary storage devices, the first score is not a unique identifier of the mail data file as it existed as of the creation of the first secondary copy;

determining whether the mail data file has been modified since the creation of the first secondary copy;

in response to determining that the mail data file has been modified since the creation of the first secondary copy, calculating a second score based on the mail data file as it existed following the modification, wherein the second score is not a unique identifier of the mail data file as it existed following the modification;

comparing the second score with the first score;

determining whether a result of the comparison satisfies threshold criteria, wherein the first score and the second score are based on one or more of a number of nodes in the mail data file and a life expectancy of one or more nodes in the mail data file; and

if the comparison satisfies the threshold criteria, outputting a command for delivery over a computer network to another computing device to initiate creation of a second secondary copy of the mail data file in the one or more secondary storage devices.