System and method for extended media retention

• US 20050033755A1
• Filed: 04/05/2004
• Published: 02/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Gokhale, Parag, Lu, Yanhui
• Granted Patent: US 7,596,586 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0652 Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0686 Libraries, e.g. tape libraries, jukebox
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for extending media retention. Methods are provided in which a set of aging preferences are obtained. Data elements of a data set stored on storage media are evaluated against the aging preferences to determine whether each of the data elements satisfy the aging preferences. Each of the data elements that is determined to satisfy the aging preferences is aged. Aging can include freeing a portion of storage media, previously used to store a data element, for other storage usage.

Claims

1. A method for extending storage media retention, the storage media comprising a data set comprising a plurality of data elements, the method comprising:

obtaining a set of aging preferences;

evaluating each of the data elements against the aging preferences to determine whether each of the data elements satisfies the aging preferences; and

aging each of the data elements which is determined to satisfy the aging preferences.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein aging a data element comprises freeing a portion of storage media, previously used to store the data element, for other storage usage.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein aging a data element comprises returning a portion of media, previously used to store the data element, to a media scratch pool for reuse.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein extending storage media retention comprises increasing storage media usage efficiency.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein aging a data element comprises deleting the data element from a portion of the storage media.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising retaining in the storage media data elements determined not to satisfy the aging preferences.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining a set of aging preferences comprises obtaining a set of aging preferences from a storage policy.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data elements are data blocks.

9. A method for extending storage media retention, the storage media comprising a plurality of storage elements comprising a data set, the method comprising:

obtaining a set of aging preferences;

evaluating data stored on each of the storage elements against the aging preferences to determine whether data on each of the storage elements is to be aged; and

for each storage element containing only data to be aged, returning the storage element to a scratch pool for reuse.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the storage elements is a piece of media.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the storage elements comprises a tape.

12. A method for extending storage media retention, the storage media storing the data comprising a data set comprising a plurality of data elements, the method comprising:

obtaining a set of aging preferences;

evaluating, from an index, index data relating to each of the data elements against the aging preferences to determine whether each of the data elements satisfies the aging preferences; and

aging each of the data elements which are determined to satisfy the aging preferences by deleting data in the index associated with data elements to be aged.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein deleting data in the index comprises deleting at least one of pointers and data cache references.

14. A system for extending retention of storage media, the system comprising:

a storage device; and

a processor for;

obtaining a set of aging preferences;

evaluating, from an index, index data relating to each of a set of data elements stored in the storage device against the aging preferences to determine whether each of the data elements satisfies the aging preferences; and

aging each of the data elements which is determined to

satisfy the aging preferences by deleting, from the index, index data associated with data elements to be aged.

15. A system for extending retention of storage media, the system comprising:

one or more storage managers with access to aging preferences;

a storage device storing data elements of a data set;

one or more media agents, communicatively coupled to the storage manager and the storage device, and comprising one or more indices, the indices containing information associated with the data elements;

wherein the one or more media agents;

cause evaluation of data from the indices relating to each of the data elements against the aging preferences to determine whether each of the data elements satisfies the aging preferences; and

cause the storage device to age each of the data elements which is determined to satisfy the aging preferences.