System and method for improved media identification in a storage device

• US 7,739,450 B2
• Filed: 02/17/2009
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kottomtharayil, Rajiv
• Primary Examiner(s): Verbrugge; Kevin
• Assistant Examiner(s): CARDWELL, ERIC
• Application Number:
  US12/372,081
• Publication Number:
  US 20090198660A1
• Time in Patent Office: 483 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for improved identification of removable storage media. A scanner may be used to read an identifier, such as a barcode, on a removable storage media. In the event that the scanner reads the identifier incorrectly due to a defect in the barcode, such as a damaged label, misaligned identifier, or because the scanner is incapable of reading the identifier type or the scanner'"'"'s field of view is incorrect, a media management component receives the scanned identifier data and matches it to a known set of media identifiers to create a subset of matching identifier data. A closest matching media identifier may be identified from the subset of matching identifier data. An index may be updated with information indicating the closest matching media identifier and a location of the removable storage media.

Claims

1. A computer readable medium having computer executable code stored therein, which when executed causes a computer to perform a method for identifying a data storage medium associated with a data storage library, the method comprising:

receiving information associated with an identifier for a data storage medium, wherein the received information is not associated with an identifier associated with a data storage medium known to a data storage library;

comparing the received information to a set of identifiers for data storage media known to the data storage library;

determining whether the received information partially matches a threshold number of identifiers for data storage media known to the data storage library;

for every partially matched identifier, identifying match criteria satisfied by the partially matched identifier with respect to the received information;

determining the partially matched identifier is the identifier for the data storage medium based on the identified match criteria.

2. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the match criteria includes a threshold number of unique matching characters between the received information and the partially matched identifier.

3. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the match criteria includes a character pattern match between the received information and the partially matched identifier.

4. The computer readable medium of claim 1, wherein the match criteria includes a character position match between the received information and the partially matched identifier.

5. A method for identifying data storage media associated with a data storage library, the method comprising:

receiving from a scanner information identifying data storage media and identifying a location of the data storage media;

retrieving information from an index associating identifiers with data storage media known to the data storage library; and

identifying the scanned data storage media when determining the received scanner information matches an identifier associated with a known data storage medium, and identifying the scanned data storage media when determining the received scanner information partially matches two or more identifiers associated with known data storage media.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein determining the received scanner information partially matches two or more identifiers associated with known data storage media includes:

determining that the received scanner information partially matches at least a threshold number of identifiers.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein identifying the scanned data storage media when determining the received scanner information partially matches two or more identifiers associated with known data storage media includes:

for every partially matched identifier, determining match criteria satisfied by the partially matched identifier with respect to the received scanner information;

associating the received scanner information with the partially matched identifier that satisfies the most match criteria.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising updating the index associating identifiers with the data storage media to include the identified location information of the data storage media.

9. A system for automatically identifying a removable storage media identifier, the system comprising:

means for receiving data indicating a portion of an identifier associated with a removable storage media; and

means for comparing the received identifier data with a set of known identifier data;

identifying multiple known identifier data among the set of known identifier data that at least partially match the received identifier data; and

selecting one of the multiple known identifier data which corresponds closest to the received identifier data.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the selected one of the multiple known identifier data satisfies a threshold.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the portion of the identifier includes a portion of a barcode.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the portion of the identifier is associated with a portion of a radio frequency identification tag.

13. The system of claim 10 wherein the threshold is user defined.

14. The system of claim 10 wherein the threshold is pre-set.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the plurality of known identifier data is identified by matching a defined number of characters of the received identifier data with the set of known identifier data.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein the multiple known identifier data is identified by matching a pattern of characters of the received identifier data with the set of known identifier data.

17. The system of claim 9 wherein the means for receiving includes receiving data indicating a location of the removable storage medium, and the means for comparing includes updating an index entry associated with the selected one of the multiple known identifier data to include the location of the removable storage medium.

18. A method for maintaining an index of removable storage media items, the method comprising:

receiving data indicating an identifier associated with a removable storage media item and a location of the removable storage media item;

selecting multiple identifiers from a set of known identifiers, wherein the selected multiple identifiers at least partially match the identifier;

determining one of the selected multiple identifiers, wherein the determined one of the selected multiple identifiers substantially corresponds to the identifier indicated by the received data; and

updating an index entry associated with the determined one of the selected multiple identifiers to include the location of the removable storage media item indicated by the received data.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising verifying the location of the removable storage media item by:

scanning an identifier associated with the removable storage media item;

obtaining a current location of the removable storage media item based on the scanned identifier; and

updating an index entry associated with the scanned identifier with the current location of the removable storage media item.