SEARCH FILTERED FILE SYSTEM USING SECONDARY STORAGE, INCLUDING MULTI-DIMENSIONAL INDEXING AND SEARCHING OF ARCHIVED FILES

• US 20160253335A1
• Filed: 05/10/2016
• Published: 09/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Varadharajan, Prakash, Attarde, Deepak Raghunath, Bedadala, Pavan Kumar Reddy, Kilaru, Satish Chandra
• Granted Patent: US 9,773,002 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/11 File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots file system backup G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/148 File search processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/183 Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS network file access protocols H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2264 Multidimensional index structures

Abstract

Techniques for enabling user search of content stored in a file archive include providing a search interface comprising a search rules portion and an action rules portion, receiving a file archive search criterion comprising at least one search rule, and searching the file archive using the search criterion. The techniques also include generating a set of files filtered using the search criterion and performing an action specified in the action rules portion on a file included in the set of files.

Claims

1. A system for enabling a user to search from a user computing device for content stored in archive copies of data files, based on multi-dimensional indexing of the data files being archived, the system comprising:

a user computing device comprising one or more data files;

a secondary storage device for storing archive copies of the one or more data files;

an indexer that is configured to index content attributes of the one or more data files in the course of the one or more data files being archived to respective archive copies,

wherein, for any given data file being archived to a respective archive copy, the indexer identifies content attributes of the given data file, including at least one of;

textual content, picture content, video content, and audio content, and

wherein the indexer is further configured to;

(a) generate a searchable content index of the identified content attributes, and

(b) associate the content index with the respective archive copy; and

a search filter that is configured to search in the content index for one or more user-supplied search criteria, and

wherein the search filter is further configured to present to the user a fast-forward progression through a plurality of smaller portions of the respective one or more archive copies that satisfy the one or more user-supplied search criteria, without restoring the plurality of smaller portions to the user computing device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the indexer is configured to execute on the user computing device.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising a media agent component in communication with and distinct from the user computing device;

and

wherein the indexer is a sub-component of the media agent.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the indexer is further configured to perform file attribute indexing of the one or more data files in the course of the one or more data files being archived to respective archive copies.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein, in response to user input, the search filter is further configured to restore from the secondary storage device to the user-device one or more of the plurality of smaller portions of the archive copy that satisfy the one or more user-supplied search criteria and the user input, without restoring all of the plurality of smaller portions of the archive copy.

6. The system of claim 1 further comprising a media agent component that is in communication with and distinct from the user computing device, and wherein the media agent is in communication with the secondary storage device;

and

wherein a first instance of the indexer, which is configured to index content attributes, is a sub-component of the media agent; and

wherein a second instance of the indexer is configured to perform file attribute indexing of the one or more data files in the course of the one or more data files being archived to respective archive copies, and wherein the second instance of the indexer executes on the user computing device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the content index associated with the respective archive copy is stored as a logically separate data structure from the archive copy.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising a playback agent configured to execute on the user computing device;

wherein in response to a user request for playback of a first smaller portion presented in the fast-forward progression,

the playback agent causes the system to restore from the secondary storage device to the user-device the first smaller portion of the archive copy, and

wherein based on the user request, the playback agent speculatively restores additional smaller portions of the archive copy for playback to the user.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the restore operation plays back the restored smaller portions of the archive copy in a native non-archive format.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is a data storage management system.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the user computing device comprises one or more processors and corresponding computer-memory.

12. A system for enabling a user to search from a user computing device for content stored in archive copies of data files, based on multi-dimensional indexing of the data files being archived, the system comprising:

a user computing device comprising data files;

a secondary storage device for storing a file archive comprising archive copies of the data files;

a media agent in communication with the user computing device and with the secondary storage device;

an indexer that is configured to index content attributes of the data files in the course of the data files being archived to respective archive copies;

wherein, for any given data file being archived to a respective archive copy, the indexer is further configured to;

(a) identify content attributes of the given data file, including at least one of;

textual content, picture content, video content, and audio content,

(b) generate a searchable content index of the identified content attributes,

(c) associate the content index with the respective archive copy, and

(d) store the content index to at least one of;

the media agent and the file archive;

a search filter that is configured to search context indexes stored in the system for one or more user-supplied search criteria;

wherein the search filter is further configured to present to the user an indication of one or more archive copies that satisfy the search criteria; and

wherein the search filter is further configured to present to the user, for a given archive copy that satisfies the search criteria, a fast-forward progression through a plurality of content-indexed smaller portions of the archive file, without restoring the plurality of smaller portions of the archive copy.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein, for any given data file being archived to a respective archive copy, the indexer is further configured to:

(e) divide the archive copy into the plurality of content-indexed smaller portions.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the indexer is configured to execute on the user computing device.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the indexer is configured to execute on the media agent.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the user computing device comprises one or more processors and corresponding computer-memory, and further wherein the media agent is configured to execute on a secondary storage computing device that comprises one or more processors and corresponding computer-memory.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the media agent is configured to restore, from the file archive to the user computing device, the one or more archive copies that satisfy the search criteria.

18. A computing device for multi-dimensional content indexing of data files stored on the computing device, the computing device comprising:

one or more processors and corresponding computer-memory;

one or more data files;

an indexer that is configured to index the one or more data files according to a plurality of content attributes in the course of the one or more data files being archived to respective archive copies,

wherein the plurality of content attributes comprises;

textual content, picture content, video content, and audio content, and

wherein the indexer is further configured to;

(a) generate a searchable content index of identified content attributes for the one or more data files being archived, and

(b) associate the content index with the respective archive copies; and

a search filter that is configured to search in the content index for one or more user-supplied search criteria, and

wherein the search filter is further configured to present to the user a fast-forward progression through a plurality of smaller portions of respective one or more archive copies that satisfy the one or more user-supplied search criteria, without restoring the plurality of smaller portions to the computing device.

19. The computing device of claim 18 wherein, for any given data file being archived to a respective archive copy, the indexer is further configured to:

(c) divide the archive copy into the plurality of content-indexed smaller portions.

20. The computing device of claim 18 further comprising:

a playback agent configured to, in response to a user request for playback of a first smaller portion presented in the fast-forward progression, causes the first smaller portion of an archive copy to be restored from a secondary storage device comprising the archive copy to the user computing device.