Intelligent data inventory & asset management systems method and apparatus

• US 6,366,930 B1
• Filed: 04/09/1997
• Issued: 04/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/12/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Computer Associates Think Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Parker, James A., Legner, Gary J., Gunkel, James R., Lima, George, Schwartz, David P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jung, David Yiuk
• Application Number:
  US08/835,609
• Time in Patent Office: 1,819 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-206, 707/540, 395/701-712
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/565 by checking file integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99954 Version management

Abstract

A computerized process of intelligently inventorying data and managing assets includes the steps of initially inventorying a plurality of hardware, software, and data files on-site by assigning a hexadecimal signature identifying each file in the database, inventorying the files at a subsequent time by repeating the prior step and comparing the previous and current signatures of the files to determine whether any of the files have been changed, comparing the current version of a changed file to the last previous on-site version of the changed file, computing the differences between the two versions by different forward and reverse algorithms to provide a forward delta and a reverse delta, storing the current version and the reverse delta of the changed file on-site while deleting the last previous on-site version of the changed file, permanently storing off-site the forward deltas of each changed file and a baseline copy of each new file, restoring any requested file, if on-site, by recovering the current version and subtracting the appropriate reverse deltas therefrom until the requested file is produced, or, if off-site, by recovering the baseline version and adding the appropriate forward deltas thereto until the requested file is reproduced. The inventorying process enables the system to issue warnings for deleted files, possible corruption of files, and unidentified possibly valued asset files.

Claims

1. The computerized process of intelligently inventorying data and managing assets comprising:

inventorying a plurality of files;

determining a signature for each of the files;

determining which ones of the files have changed based on the signature;

storing a version of each file on-site;

for each changed file, storing a change on-site;

storing a version of each file off-site;

for each of the changed files, storing a change off-site; and

restoring a requested file by reconstructing the requested file by applying a stored change to one of the versions stored on-site or off-site.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein inventorying comprises inventorying a plurality of hardware, software, and data files.

3. The process of claim 1, wherein inventorying comprises identifying all of the hardware, software, and data files in a system.

4. The process of claim 1, wherein determining which files have been changed further comprises comparing current and previous signatures to determine whether any of the files has been added, omitted, or changed in any way.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein storing a version of each file on-site, storing a change on-site for each changed file, storing a version of each file off-site, and storing a change off-site for each for each of the changed files further comprises computing forward and reverse deltas for each changed file and saving the current version and reverse deltas on-site and the baseline version and forward deltas off-site.

6. The process of claim 5, further comprising repeatedly using the deltas and stored versions to recreate any requested version as it existed at any prior time.

7. The process of claim 5, further comprising restoring a particular version of the file by retrieving the original and a selected set of changes to reproduce the version.

8. The process of claim 5, wherein computing forward and reverse deltas further comprises comparing a historical and current version of a document.

9. The process of claim 1, further comprising deleting all prior file versions other than an off-site baseline version and an on-site current version.

10. The process of claim 1, further comprising storing only a baseline version of a document off-site with all forward deltas and saving only the current version of the document on-site with all reverse deltas.

11. The process of claim 1, wherein inventorying further comprises assigning a signature in hexadecimal format.

12. The process of claim 1, further comprising:

computing the differences between a previous version and a current versions to provide a forward delta and a reverse delta;

then, storing the current version and the reverse delta of the changed file on-site while deleting only the last previous on-site version of the changed file; and

storing off-site only the forward delta of the changed file and a baseline copy of each new file.

13. The computerized process of intelligently inventorying data and managing assets comprising:

periodically inventorying a plurality of files by assigning a signature to each file;

determining sing which ones of the inventoried files have been changed;

computing the differences between the previous and current versions to provide a forward delta and a reverse delta, wherein said computing uses different algorithms to compute the forward and reverse deltas;

storing the current version and the reverse delta of the changed file on-site while deleting only the last previous on-site version of the changed file;

storing off-site only the forward delta of the changed file and a baseline copy of each new file;

restoring any requested file by reconstructing the requested file by applying selected stored changes to the current on-site version or the baseline off-site version.

14. The computerized process of intelligently inventorying data and managing assets comprising:

(a) at time1 inventorying all files on-site on a selected hard drive inventory path of a database;

(b) calculating and assigning to each on-site file a signature which identifies each file in the database;

(c) at time2 repeating (a) and (b) for all of the files;

(d) comparing the previous signature of a file to the current signature of the file to determine whether the file has been changed;

(e) comparing the current version of a changed file to the last previous on-site version of the changed file;

(f) computing, using different forward direction and reverse direction algorithms, the differences between the two versions to provide forward deltas and reverse deltas;

(g) storing on-site the current version and the reverse deltas of the changed file while deleting the last previous on-site version of the changed file;

(h) storing off-site the forward deltas of the changed file;

(i) storing off-site a baseline copy of a new file; and

(j) restoring any requested file;

(i) if the requested file is on-site, by recovering the current version and subtracting the appropriate reverse deltas there from until the requested file is produced;

or

(ii) if the requested file is off-site, by recovering the baseline version and adding the appropriate forward deltas thereto until the requested file is produced.

15. The computerized process of intelligently inventorying data and managing assets comprising:

conducting an initial inventory of each file in a database, including calculating and assigning a signature to identify each file in the database;

comparing current and previous signatures to determine whether any of the files have been changed in any way;

as to each prior file which has been changed, computing forward and reverse deltas and saving a current file and reverse delta on-site while storing a baseline file and forward deltas off-site, using different forward and reverse algorithms to compute the forward and reverse deltas.

16. A computerized process of intelligently inventorying data and managing assets comprising:

repeatedly inventorying a plurality of files;

at each inventory after the first, determining which ones of the inventoried files had changed from previous versions of those files since the previous inventory;

during each inventory, identifying and storing a current version of each changed file and the changes since the previous inventory for those file on-site and a version of each changed file and the changes since the previous inventory for those files off-site;

computing a forward delta and a reverse delta for each changed file, using one algorithm to compute the forward delta and a different algorithm to compute the reverse delta, using a stored version in one of the deltas to construct a duplicate of the current version off-site;

storing the current version and the reversed delta at one of the locations consisting of off-site and on-site;

restoring any requested file by reconstructing a version of the requested file by applying selected stored changes to the current on-site version or the stored off-site version.