SYSTEM, METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ENTERPRISE POLICY MANAGEMENT

• US 20100145917A1
• Filed: 10/01/2009
• Published: 06/10/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Storediq Incorporated (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: Kaplan, Jeremy, Lee, Peter A., Might, Bradley, Arbilla, Laura, Zoellner, Keith, Belkin, Morry, Jimenez, A. Paul, Funderburg, Brett A., Bone, Jeff G.
• Granted Patent: US 8,417,678 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/694
• 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 16/185 Hierarchical storage management [HSM] systems, e.g. file migration or policies thereof details of archiving G06F16/11

Abstract

Disclosed are systems, methods and apparatuses for managing objects (files and directories) in network file systems according to policies. Each policy may have one or more rules, each of which ties a condition to an action. Each condition can be expressed in terms of metadata harvested across file systems and stored in a metadata repository. The actions are user-programmable. Users can apply and/or enforce a policy by manipulating the metadata stored in the metadata repository. For example, suppose a policy prohibits storing MP3 files in corporate storage, a user can specify a rule that ties the condition “no MP3 files in volumes A-Z” to an action “delete MP3 files from volumes A-Z.” A file management application may apply a filter to the metadata repository to produce metadata records having values that meet the specified condition and take the corresponding action on managed objects associated with those metadata records.

Claims

1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer readable storage media storing instructions translatable by one or more processors to perform:

accessing network file systems at one or more physical locations;

collecting file system metadata from the network file systems, wherein the file system metadata comprises one or more pieces of metadata of interest;

applying one or more user-defined heuristics to the one or more pieces of metadata of interest to generate one or more file system statistics of interest;

storing the one or more pieces of metadata of interest and the one or more file system statistics of interest in a metadata repository;

enabling a user to define a rule via a user interface, wherein the rule comprises a pattern and an action and wherein the pattern comprise at least one of the one or more pieces of metadata of interest or at least one of the one or more file system statistics of interest;

searching metadata records in the metadata repository that match the pattern; and

applying the action on one or more managed objects in the network file systems that are associated with the metadata records, thereby changing a state of the network file systems.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the applying step is performed synchronously or asynchronously with a file system activity.

3. A computer program product comprising one or more computer readable storage media storing instructions translatable by one or more processors to perform:

harvesting metadata about managed objects across disparate network file systems residing in a computing environment, wherein the managed objects comprise files and directories;

storing records of harvested metadata in a metadata repository, each record linking a set of attributes to one of the managed objects;

searching the metadata repository to locate one or more metadata records having one or more attributes that satisfy a condition, wherein the condition is tied to an action per a policy rule; and

applying the action to one or more of the managed objects that are associated with the one or more metadata records, thereby changing a state of the network file systems in accordance with the policy rule.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the instructions are further translatable by the one or more processors to perform:

determining one or more actions to take on the managed objects based on information from the metadata repository, a report repository, or both.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein each of the one or more actions is specified in accordance with a defined policy.

6. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more actions is triggered automatically without human intervention.

7. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein at least one of the one or more actions is triggered by interacting with an end user.

8. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the instructions are further translatable by the one or more processors to perform:

applying a filter on the records of the harvested metadata in the metadata repository, wherein the filter comprises a filter definition with filtering criteria specifying which of the records of the harvested metadata in the metadata repository are to be selected.

9. The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the filter is a compound filter composed of multiple filters.

10. A method for policy management utilizing file system metadata, comprising:

harvesting metadata about managed objects across disparate network file systems residing in a computing environment, wherein the managed objects comprise files and directories;

storing records of harvested metadata in a metadata repository, each record linking a set of attributes to one of the managed objects;

searching the metadata repository to locate one or more metadata records having one or more attributes that satisfy a condition, wherein the condition is tied to an action per a policy rule; and

applying the action to one or more of the managed objects that are associated with the one or more metadata records, thereby changing a state of the network file systems in accordance with the policy rule.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

determining one or more actions to take on the managed objects based on information from the metadata repository, a report repository, or both.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the one or more actions is triggered automatically without human intervention.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein at least one of the one or more actions is triggered by interacting with an end user.

14. The method according to claim 11, further comprising:

applying a filter on the records of the harvested metadata in the metadata repository, wherein the filter comprises a filter definition with filtering criteria specifying which of the records of the harvested metadata in the metadata repository are to be selected.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the filter is a compound filter composed of multiple filters.

16. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

performing the harvesting step on demand, incrementally, or in batches.

17. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

performing the applying step on demand, incrementally, or in batches.

18. The method according to claim 10, further comprising:

providing a Web-based interface to allow a user to specify the policy rule.

19. A system useful for policy management in a computing environment, comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer readable storage media storing instructions translatable by the one or more processors to perform;

harvesting metadata about managed objects across disparate network file systems residing in the computing environment, wherein the managed objects comprise files and directories;

storing records of harvested metadata in a metadata repository, each record linking a set of attributes to one of the managed objects;

searching the metadata repository to locate one or more metadata records having one or more attributes that satisfy a condition, wherein the condition is tied to an action per a policy rule; and

applying the action to one or more of the managed objects that are associated with the one or more metadata records, thereby changing a state of the network file systems in accordance with the policy rule.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

a Web-based interface to allow a user to specify the policy rule.