SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXTENDED MEDIA RETENTION

• US 20090313448A1
• Filed: 08/28/2009
• Published: 12/17/2009
• 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 8,209,293 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• 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 computer-implemented method for storing and retaining data stored on at least one piece of removable storage media, wherein the removable storage media stores a data set including a plurality of data elements, the method comprising:

creating at least one full backup of data elements in the data set;

creating a plurality of incremental backups of the data elements in the data set, wherein the incremental backups comprise data elements that have been modified since the creation of the full backup;

storing the created full backup and the created incremental backups to a piece of removable storage media; and

managing retention of the data stored on the piece of removable storage media, wherein the managing includes, for each incremental backup and full backup stored on the piece of removable storage media;

obtaining an aging preference, wherein the aging preference defines a respective period of retention for the incremental backup or the full backup,

retrieving index data indicating a respective date of creation of the incremental backup or the full backup;

comparing the retrieved index data with the obtained aging preference;

determining that the incremental backup or the full backup exceeds the period of retention based on the comparison; and

allocating the piece of removable storage media to a scratch pool after all of the incremental and full backups exceed the respective period of retention, wherein the scratch pool includes a set of removable storage media to be overwritten.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising freeing a portion of storage media, previously used to store the data elements, for other storage usage.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising retrieving and consulting a storage policy that specifies storage patterns and aging policies for back up data stored in primary copies and other copies.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising deleting pointers or index references in the index data.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deleting the data elements from a portion of the storage media.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the managing comprises managing retention of individual blocks of data.

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

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

9. A system for storing and retaining data stored on at least one piece of removable storage media, wherein the removable storage media comprises a data set stores a plurality of data elements, the system comprising:

a processor;

memory;

a backup component, wherein the backup component is configured to create at least one full backup of data elements in the data set and to create a plurality of incremental backups of the data elements in the data set, wherein the incremental backups comprise data elements that have been modified after creation of the full backup;

a storage component, wherein the storage component is configured to store the created full backup and the created incremental backups to removable storage media;

a management component, wherein the management component is configured to manage retention of the data stored on the piece of removable storage media, wherein the managing includes, for each incremental backup and full backup stored on the piece of removable storage media;

obtaining an aging preference, wherein the aging preference defines a period of retention for the incremental backup or the full backup;

retrieving index data indicating the date of creation of the incremental backup or the full backup;

comparing the retrieved index data with the obtained aging preference;

determining that the incremental backup or the full backup exceeds the period of retention based on the comparison; and

allocating the piece of removable storage media to a scratch pool after the incremental backup and full backup exceed a respective period of retention, and wherein the scratch pool includes a set of removable storage media to be overwritten.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the management component is further configured to free a portion of storage media, previously used to store the data elements, for other storage usage.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the management component is further configured to retrieve and consult a storage policy that specifies storage patterns and aging policies for back up data stored in primary copies and other copies.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the management component is further configured to delete pointers or index references in the index data.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the management component is further configured to delete the data elements from a portion of the storage media.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the management component is further configured to manage retention of individual blocks of data.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein obtaining an aging preference comprises obtaining an aging preference from a storage policy.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the data elements are data blocks.

17. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer implementable instructions to cause a data storage system to perform a method of storing and retaining data stored on at least one piece of removable storage media, wherein the removable storage media contains a data set including a plurality of data elements, the method comprising:

creating at least one full backup of data elements in the data set;

creating a plurality of incremental backups of the data elements in the data set, wherein the incremental backups comprise data elements that have been modified since the creation of the full backup;

storing the created full backup and the created incremental backups to a piece of removable storage media; and

managing retention of the data stored on the piece of removable storage media, wherein the managing includes, for each incremental backup and full backup stored on the piece of removable storage media;

obtaining an aging preference, wherein the aging preference defines a respective period of retention for the incremental backup or the full backup,

retrieving index data indicating the date of creation of the incremental backup or the full backup;

comparing the retrieved index data with the obtained aging preference;

determining that the incremental backup or the full backup exceeds the period of retention based on the comparison; and

allocating the piece of removable storage media to a scratch pool after at least some of the incremental and full backups exceed a respective period of retention, wherein the scratch pool includes a set of removable storage media to be overwritten.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising freeing a portion of storage media, previously used to store the data elements, for other storage usage.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising retrieving and consulting a storage policy that specifies storage patterns and aging policies for back up data stored in primary copies and other copies.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising deleting pointers or index references in the index data.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the managing comprises managing retention of individual blocks of data.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein obtaining an aging preference comprises obtaining an aging preference from a storage policy.

23. A system for storing and retaining data stored on storage media, the system comprising:

a processor;

memory;

a means for creating a full backup of data elements in a data set;

a means for creating a plurality of incremental backups of the data elements in the data set, wherein the incremental backups comprise data elements that have been modified after creation of the full backup;

a means for storing the created full backup and the created incremental backups to at least one piece of removable storage media;

a means for managing retention of the data stored on the piece of removable storage media, wherein the means for managing includes, for each incremental backup and full backup stored on the piece of removable storage media;

means for obtaining an aging preference, wherein the aging preference defines a period of retention for the incremental backup or the full backup;

means for retrieving index data indicating the date of creation of the incremental backup or the full backup;

means for comparing the retrieved index data with the obtained aging preference;

means for determining that the incremental backup or the full backup exceeds the period of retention based on the comparison; and

means for allocating the piece of removable storage media to a scratch pool after at least one incremental backup or full backup exceed a respective period of retention, and wherein the scratch pool includes a set of removable storage media to be overwritten.