SHARING OF SECONDARY STORAGE DATA

• US 20140201154A1
• Filed: 01/10/2014
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Varadharajan, Prakash, Vibhor, Anand, Karandikar, Amey Vijaykumar, Vijayan, Manoj Kumar, Attarde, Deepak Raghunath
• Granted Patent: US 9,760,444 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/647
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

An information management system according to certain aspects allows users to share a portion of a file (e.g., a document) stored in secondary storage. The user may specify a portion of a secondary storage file to share and send a link to the portion to another user. The other user can access the shared portion from the link, and just the shared portion may be restored from secondary storage. The system according to certain aspects provides a native view of secondary storage data on a client computing device. The index data and/or metadata relating to secondary storage data may be stored in native application format for access via the native source application.

Claims

1. A method of sharing a portion of a file in secondary storage, the method comprising:

receiving a request to share a portion of a file in a secondary storage subsystem from a client computing device residing in a primary storage subsystem, the request including at least one application offset generated in response to user selection of the portion of the file, the at least one application offset corresponding to the portion of the file and usable by a software application to access the portion of the file for presentation to a user;

identifying, with computer hardware and using the at least one application offset, a start secondary storage offset of the file, the start secondary storage offset separate from the application offset and corresponding to a location of the portion of the file on a first storage device residing in the secondary storage subsystem;

generating, using computer hardware, a link to the portion of the file, the link including a reference to the start secondary storage offset; and

in response to receipt of an indication of a user selection of the link, causing a restore of the portion of the file from the first storage device for presentation to a user of the portion of the file by the software application, without restoring the entire file from the first storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the link comprises the start secondary storage offset and an end secondary storage offset corresponding to the portion of the file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the link is authenticated to provide access to only an authorized entity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the link is usable to view a preview of the portion of the file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user selection of the link is by a user of a second client computing device, the method further comprising restoring the portion of the file from the first storage device to a second storage device residing in the primary storage subsystem and associated with the second client computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the file is contained within one or more chunks stored on the first storage device, and wherein said identifying a start secondary storage offset of the file comprises referring to an in-chunk index associated with the one or more chunks to identify the start secondary storage offset, the in-chunk index stored on the first storage device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the in-chunk index comprises a list of entries of mapping information, each entry providing a mapping between a secondary storage offset of the file and a corresponding application offset of the file associated with the software application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the at least one application offset comprises a start application offset to indicate a beginning of the portion of the file; and

said identifying a start secondary storage offset of the file comprises using the start application offset to identify the start secondary storage offset.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving user-entered search criteria from the client computing device;

determining that the file meets the search criteria; and

providing search results for display to a user,

wherein the user can interact with the search results to select the portion of the file for sharing.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said determining comprises performing a search based on the search criteria using content index data associated with a plurality of files in the secondary storage subsystem that includes the file.

11. A data storage system configured to share a portion of a file in secondary storage, the system comprising:

a first storage device residing in a secondary storage subsystem and storing a plurality of files including a first file; and

computer hardware configured to execute instructions that cause the computer hardware to;

receive a request to share a portion of the first file from a client computing device residing in a primary storage subsystem, the request including at least one application offset generated in response to user selection of the portion of the first file, the at least one application offset corresponding to the portion of the first file and usable by a software application to access the portion of the first file for presentation to a user;

identify, using the at least one application offset, a start secondary storage offset of the first file, the start secondary storage offset separate from the application offset and corresponding to a location of the portion of the first file on the first storage device;

generate a link to the portion of the first file, the link including a reference to the start secondary storage offset; and

in response to receipt of an indication of a user selection of the link, causing a restore of the portion of the first file from the first storage device for presentation to a user of the portion of the first file by the software application, without restoring the entire first file from the first storage device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the link comprises the start secondary storage offset and an end secondary storage offset corresponding to the portion of the first file.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the link is authenticated to provide access to only an authorized entity.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the user selection of the link is by a user of a second client computing device, the instructions further configured to cause the computer hardware to restore the portion of the first file from the first storage device to a second storage device residing in the primary storage subsystem and associated with the second client computing device.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first file is contained within one or more chunks stored on the first storage device, the system further comprising an in-chunk index stored on the first storage device and associated with the one or more chunks, wherein the identification of the start secondary storage offset is performed at least in part by referring to the in-chunk index to identify the start secondary storage offset.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the in-chunk index comprises a list of entries of mapping information, each entry providing a mapping between a secondary storage offset of the first file and a corresponding application offset of the first file associated with the software application.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein:

the at least one application offset comprises a start application offset to indicate a beginning of the portion of the first file; and

the identification of the start secondary storage offset of the first file is performed at least in part by using the start application offset to identify the start secondary storage offset.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the computer hardware to:

receive user-entered search criteria from the client computing device;

determine that the first file meets the search criteria; and

provide search results for display to a user,

wherein the user can interact with the search results to select the portion of the first file for sharing.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the determination that the first file meets the search criteria is performed at least in part by executing a search using content index data associated with a plurality of files in the secondary storage subsystem that includes the first file.

20. A method of sharing a file stored in secondary storage, the method comprising:

receiving from a client computing device a request to share a first file stored in secondary storage;

generating, using computer hardware, a link to the first file in the secondary storage based on metadata associated with the first file in the secondary storage, the link configured to, upon access of the link, cause a restore of the first file in the secondary storage to primary storage; and

sending the link to the client computing device.