Storage pools for information management

• US 8,229,904 B2
• Filed: 12/31/2004
• Issued: 07/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Claudatos, Christopher Hercules, Andruss, William Dale, Urmston, Richard, Rambacher, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): CHEMPAKASERIL, ANN J
• Application Number:
  US11/028,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20060004820A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,762 Days
• Field of Search: 702/190, 707/101, 707/102, 707/200, 707/204, 709/201
• US Class Current: 707/694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/125 characterised by the use of retention policies retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/2281 Call monitoring, e.g. for law enforcement purposes; Call tracing; Detection or prevention of malicious calls
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/5175 Call or contact centers supervision arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for managing an object are disclosed. In an embodiment, this comprises managing an object having content, in a system having a dynamic policy selector configured with at least one analytic policy applied to evaluate the content of the object. The object is associated to an information management policy. Classification levels may be used, in which classification levels are associated to information management policies and objects are associated with classification levels. Objects containing certain elements or related elements may be associated to form an information group, to which information management policies may be applied as a group. Storage pools may be used for managing objects with similar classification levels or information protection policies.

Claims

1. A method of managing objects in an information management system having a plurality of storage pools, the method comprising:

evaluating content of an object by applying an analytic policy on the content of the object to determine a classification level, wherein the classification level indicates importance;

associating the classification level with an information management policy, wherein the information management policy manages the object;

assigning the object to a storage pool from the plurality of storage pools based on the classification level of the object, wherein the storage pool is associated with a pool classification level corresponding to the classification level of the object, wherein the pool classification level indicates importance;

applying the information management policy to the content of the object in the storage pool, wherein the information management policy is applied after the object is assigned to the storage pool;

changing an association between the classification level and the information management policy upon change in the information management policy to a new information management policy, wherein the classification level is associated with the new information management policy without changing an association between the object and the storage pool, wherein the new information management policy is applied to the content of the object; and

changing the association between the object and the storage pool upon change in the content of the object if the classification level of the object changes to a new classification level, wherein the object is associated with a new storage pool from the plurality of storage pools, wherein the new storage pool is associated with a new pool classification level corresponding to the new classification level of the object.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one information management policy includes an action to be performed relating to the object, and the method further comprises performing the action.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the information management policy indicates at least one parameter selected from a group comprising performance, latency, bandwidth, security, availability, backup frequency, level of encryption, number of copies, compression, media type, data migration, retention period, or access control.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, wherein performing the action includes using the at least one parameter to perform the action on the object.

5. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the action includes copying the object to a storage device apart from the storage pool.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the storage device is remotely located from the storage pool.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the object is stored in a source storage.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising copying the object to the plurality of storage pools.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising accessing the object in the source storage for use by an application.

10. The method as recited in claim 9, further comprising accessing the object in the storage pool to perform information protection operations.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein performing information protection operations includes performing a group comprising backup, replication, mirroring, or failover.

12. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising moving the object to the plurality of storage pools.

13. The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising placing, on the source storage, a link to the object in the plurality of storage pools.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the link includes a group comprising a stub, shortcut, symbolic link, or Windows reparse point.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising accessing the object in the storage pool to perform information protection operations.

16. The method as recited in claim 15, wherein performing information protection operations includes performing a group comprising backup, replication, mirroring, or failover.

17. A system for managing objects having classification levels, comprising:

a plurality of storage pools and a processor configured to;

evaluate content of an object by applying an analytic policy on the content of the object to determine a classification level, wherein the classification level indicates importance;

associate the classification level with an information management policy, wherein the information management policy manages the object;

assign the object to a storage pool from the plurality of storage pools based on the classification level of the object, wherein the storage pool is associated with a pool classification level corresponding to the classification level of the object, wherein the pool classification level indicates importance;

apply the information management policy to the content of the object in the storage pool, wherein the information management policy is applied after the object is assigned to the storage pool;

change an association between the classification level and the information management policy upon change in the information management policy to a new information management policy, wherein the classification level is associated with the new information management policy without changing an association between the object and the storage pool, wherein the new information management policy is applied to the content of the object; and

changing the association between the object and the storage pool upon change in the content of the object if the classification level of the object changes to a new classification level, wherein the object is associated with a new storage pool from the plurality of storage pools, wherein the new storage pool is associated with a new pool classification level corresponding to the new classification level of the object.

18. A computer program product for managing objects in an information management system having a plurality of storage pools, comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having machine readable code embodied therein for:

evaluating content of an object by applying an analytic policy on the content of the object to determine a classification level, wherein the classification level indicates importance;

associating the classification level with an information management policy, wherein the information management policy manages the object;

assigning the object to a storage pool from the plurality of storage pools based on the classification level of the object, wherein the storage pool is associated with a pool classification level corresponding to the classification level of the object, wherein the pool classification level indicates importance;

applying the information management policy to the content of the object in the storage pool, wherein the information management policy is applied after the object is assigned to the storage pool;

changing an association between the classification level and the information management policy upon change in the information management policy to a new information management policy, wherein the classification level is associated with the new information management policy without changing an association between the object and the storage pool, wherein the new information management policy is applied to the content of the object; and

changing the association between the object and the storage pool upon change in the content of the object if the classification level of the object changes to a new classification level, wherein the object is associated with a new storage pool from the plurality of storage pools, wherein the new storage pool is associated with a new pool classification level corresponding to the new classification level of the object.