DATA RETENTION FRAMEWORK

• US 20160364395A1
• Filed: 06/11/2015
• Published: 12/15/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/11/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: SHORTEN, Anthony, JAIN, Shrenik
• Granted Patent: US 10,783,113 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/282 Hierarchical databases, e.g. IMS, LDAP data stores or Lotus Notes

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments associated with a data retention framework that enforces archive eligibility criteria beyond a simple retention period are described. In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a record that has been stored in a primary data store for at least a retention period prescribed for the record and evaluating the record to determine if archive eligibility criteria for the record are met. When the archive eligibility criteria is met, the record is marked as eligible for archiving. When the archive eligibility criteria is not met, the record is marked as not eligible for archiving.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform functions, the instructions comprising instructions for:

identifying a record that has been stored in a primary data store for at least a retention period prescribed for the record;

evaluating the record to determine if archive eligibility criteria for the record are met;

when the archive eligibility criteria is met, marking the record as eligible for archiving; and

when the archive eligibility criteria is not met, marking the record as not eligible for archiving.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, where the instructions for marking the record as eligible for archiving comprise instructions for setting an eligibility value in a field of the record to a value that is recognizable by an archiving process as indicating that the record is eligible is archiving.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, where the record is an instance of an object, where the record stores a management date for the record, and where the instructions for identifying the record that has been stored in the primary data store for at least the retention period comprise instructions for:

determining the present date;

identifying an object retention period associated with the object; and

calculating a cutoff date for the record by subtracting the retention period from the present date; and

determining that the management date is prior to the cutoff date.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, where the record is stored in a table, and where the record comprises a field that stores the management date and further where the instructions comprise instructions for partitioning the table on management date.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, where the record is an instance of an object and where the record includes one or more status field values, where the instructions for evaluating the record comprise instructions for:

accessing archive option data stored in metadata for the object that specifies a combination of status field values that corresponds to the archive eligibility criteria; and

analyzing the record to determine if the status field values meet the archive eligibility criteria.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, where one of the status fields corresponds to a status for a business object that includes the record and one or more records related to the record.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, further comprising instructions for archiving marked records.

8. A computing system, comprising:

cutoff logic configured to identify a record that has been stored in a primary data store for at least a retention period prescribed for the record;

eligibility logic configured to evaluate the record to determine if archive eligibility criteria for the record are met; and

marking logic configured to;

mark the record as eligible for archiving when the archive eligibility criteria is met; and

not mark the record as eligible for archiving when the archive eligibility criteria is not met.

9. The computing system of claim 8, where the marking logic is configured to set an eligibility value in a field of the record to a value that is recognizable by an archiving process as indicating that the record is eligible is archiving.

10. The computing system of claim 8, where the record is an instance of an object, where the record stores a management date for the record, and where the cutoff logic is configured to determine that the record has been stored in the primary data store for at least the retention period by:

determining the present date;

identifying an object retention period associated with the object; and

calculating a cutoff date for the record by subtracting the retention period from the present date; and

determining that the management date is prior to the cutoff date.

11. The computing system of claim 8, where the record is an instance of an object and where the record includes one or more status field values, and where the eligibility logic is configured to:

accessing archive option data stored in metadata for the object that specifies a combination of status field values that corresponds to the archive eligibility criteria; and

analyzing the record to determine if the status field values meet the archive eligibility criteria.

12. The computing system of claim 11, where one of the status fields corresponds to a status for a business object that includes the record and one or more records related to the record.

13. The computing system of claim 11, where one or more of the cutoff logic, eligibility logic, and marking logic comprise a background process that has a lower priority than operations being performed on records in the primary data store.

14. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

identifying a record that has been stored in a primary data store for at least a retention period prescribed for the record;

evaluating the record to determine if archive eligibility criteria for the record are met;

when the archive eligibility criteria is met, marking the record as eligible for archiving; and

when the archive eligibility criteria is not met, marking the record as not eligible for archiving.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, where marking the record as eligible for archiving comprises setting an eligibility value in a field of the record to a value that is recognizable by an archiving process as indicating that the record is eligible is archiving.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, where the record is an instance of an object, where the record stores a management date for the record, and where identifying the record that has been stored in the primary data store for at least the retention period comprises:

determining the present date;

identifying an object retention period associated with the object; and

calculating a cutoff date for the record by subtracting the retention period from the present date; and

determining that the management date is prior to the cutoff date.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, where the record is stored in a table, and where the record comprises a field that stores the management date and where the method further comprises partitioning the table on management date.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, where the record is an instance of an object and where the record includes one or more status field values, and where evaluating the record comprises:

accessing archive option data stored in metadata for the object that specifies a combination of status field values that corresponds to the archive eligibility criteria; and

analyzing the record to determine if the status field values meet the archive eligibility criteria.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 18, where one of the status fields corresponds to a status for a business object that includes the record and one or more records related to the record.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising archiving marked records.