Event notification management

• US 20080126441A1
• Filed: 08/04/2006
• Published: 05/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Knight, Brent, Giampaolo, Dominic, Cisler, Pavel, McInerney, Peter, Weiss, Eric
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,853 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3466 Performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring
• 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 2201/86 Event-based monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for event notification. In one implementation, a method is provided. A determination is made as to whether a threshold associated with pending event notifications has been exceeded by an incoming event notification. A plurality of pending event notifications that can be combined are identified. Two or more event notifications are combined.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining whether a threshold associated with pending event notifications has been exceeded by an incoming event notification;

identifying a plurality of pending event notifications that can be combined;

combining two or more event notifications.

2. The method of claim 1, where each event notification identifies a change to an entry in a data system.

3. The method of claim 2, where each event notification is associated with one or more parent levels of a hierarchical file system and identifying event notifications that can be combined comprises determining two or more event notifications having a common parent level.

4. The method of claim 3, where combining two or more event notification includes replacing two or more event notifications with a single event notification identifying a change to the common parent level.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

scanning the common parent level to identify the combined event notifications; and

performing a backup operation including backup data associated with the combined event notifications.

6. The method of claim 5, where scanning the common parent level includes comparing the parent data with data from a previous backup to identify changed data.

7. The method of claim 1, where receiving an incoming event notification includes receiving an event notification identifying a change to a file system at an event notification queue.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying one or more event notifications as protected, where protected event notifications can not be combined.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a number of event notifications to combine according to one or more criteria.

10. The method of claim 9, where the criteria include minimizing a number of combined event notifications.

11. The method of claim 10, where minimizing the number of combined event notifications includes combining a minimum number of event notifications such that the incoming event notification does not exceed the threshold.

12. A computer program product encoded on a computer-readable medium, operable to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

receiving an incoming event notification;

determining whether a threshold associated with pending event notifications has been exceeded by the incoming event notification;

identifying a plurality of pending event notifications that can be combined;

combining two or more event notifications.

13. A system comprising:

means for receiving an incoming event notification;

means for determining whether a threshold associated with pending event notifications has been exceeded by the incoming event notification;

means for identifying a plurality of pending event notifications that can be combined;

means for combining two or more event notifications.

14. A system comprising:

a monitoring engine for monitoring incoming event notifications;

an event notification queue;

an event combiner for combining event notifications in the event notification queue; and

an event notification manager.

15. A method comprising:

determining a backup event has occurred;

evaluating event notifications;

generating a backup according to the event notifications.

16. The method of claim 15, where evaluating event notifications further comprises:

identifying an event notification that is a combination of two or more event notifications; and

scanning data associated with the event notification to identify the combined event notifications.