Hierarchy of service areas

• US 9,361,354 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2007
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Bell, John Philip II
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet
• Assistant Examiner(s): Belcher, Herman
• Application Number:
  US11/772,179
• Time in Patent Office: 3,265 Days
• Field of Search: 709/223, 709/226, 707/694, 707/999.001
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

Systems and methods of classifying structured and/or unstructured data. Hierarchical categorization is used when evaluating and providing data services. For instance, service level objectives may contain sub-levels associated with additional service level objectives. This hierarchal system enables an entity to create a more efficient structure for managing and mapping service level objectives to the various services offered by a data center or by service providers associated with a network. Higher service level objectives are groupings of sub service level objectives. Decisions for each data object can be made independently and the hierarchical arrangement enables conflicting service levels to be resolved. An entity can adequately categorize its data, thereby allowing the entity to better maintain and service the data according to its needs using an information management system.

Claims

1. In a computer system that includes an information management server for providing customized services associated with service level objectives to files residing in the computer system, a method for mapping services to files hierarchically, the method comprising:

the information management server categorizing each of the files to assign one or more categories to each of the files by applying a pre-defined first set of rules to each of the files, and based on metadata associated with each file and metadata generated from each file;

the information management server generating service level mapping for each of the files to map each of the files to one or more service level objectives, wherein the service level mapping is multi-dimensional and hierarchical, wherein generating service level mapping includes;

mapping each file to one or more sub-service level objectives based on the categories that have been assigned to each of the files, wherein each file is considered individually to map the files to the sub-service level objectives, wherein the sub-service level objectives identify services that are performed on the file individually;

mapping the sub-service level objectives to service level objectives by applying a second set of rules to the sub-service level objectives to aggregate the sub-service level objectives into the service level objectives, wherein the service levels and the sub-service levels are hierarchically related, wherein each service level objective includes one or more sub-service level objectives, wherein each service level objective includes a different combination of the sub-service level objectives;

the information management server resolving conflicts among file included in the sub-service level objectives, wherein conflicts occur when at least some of the sub-service level objectives cannot be aggregated into the service level objectives;

identifying a service package that is capable of providing at least one of the service level objectives associated with the file; and

associating the identified service package with the file; and

performing services in the service package on the files, based on the hierarchically related sub-service level objectives and service level objectives mapped to the files, and wherein at least one of the service level objectives is configured such that services included in the at least one service level objective can be provided without specifying parameters for each of the services included in the at least one service level objective.

2. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising:

identifying a service package that is capable of providing at least one of the service level objectives associated with the file; and

associating the identified service package with the file.

3. The method according to claim 1 further comprising providing a user, via a user interface, with a number of selectable service level objectives included in the sub-service level objectives, wherein the selectable service level objective are capable of being associated with other service level objectives included in the at least one service level objectives.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sub-service level objectives include security measures, data recovery, data storage, and data indexing.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising assigning a priority number to the service level objective.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sub-service level objectives comprise one or more of retention, backup, corporate compliance, ownership, indexing, access control, or encryption.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising using one or more adapters to discover and classify one or more components, in the computer system, wherein the one or more components are capable of providing one or more of the services to the files.

7. In a network where an owner has multiple files, a method for providing services to the files, the method comprising:

an information management server classifying files of an owner using at least information discovered and generated for the files and by applying a first set of rules to the files in order to assign one or more categories to each of the files individually;

the information management server individually associating each of the files to sub-service level objectives included in a hierarchical service level mapping scheme, wherein;

each file is associated with at least one sub-service level objective by mapping each file to the at least one sub-service level objective based on the at least one category of each file, and

wherein the sub-service level objectives include service areas that are performed on the files and service levels that define an extent to which the service areas are provided to the files;

the information management server combining the sub-service level objectives into service level objectives by applying a second set of rules to the sub-service level objectives, wherein each service level objective includes a different combination of the sub-service level objectives, and wherein the service level objectives identify one or more services that are performed on the files individually;

wherein the hierarchically service level mapping scheme enable service level needs of each file to be determined independently and to be customized for each file;

selecting service packages for the files based on the service level objectives;

associating the service packages with the files; and

performing services identified in the service packages on the files individually, wherein at least one of the service level objective is configured such that services included in the at least one service level objective can be provided without specifying parameters for each of the services included in the at least one service level objective.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising orchestrating services included in the service packages.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein combining the sub-service level objectives into service level objectives further comprise aggregating the sub-service level objectives into the service level objectives according to a series of rules and priorities, wherein the rules and priorities account for conflicting service level objectives.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the sub-service level objectives comprise one or more of retention, backup, corporate compliance, ownership, indexing, access control, or encryption.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising requesting the sub-service level objectives for the files without specifying parameters for each service associated with the sub-service level objectives.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein combining the sub-service level objectives into service level objectives further comprises prioritizing the sub-service level objectives to resolve conflicts for any file as the service level objectives are formed.

13. The method according to claim 9, wherein the series of rules and priorities may be user-defined or defined by the default settings or constraints of the network.

14. The method of claim 7, further comprising matching the service level objectives with a service package.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein combining the sub-service level objectives into service level objectives further comprises resolving conflicts for files assigned to more than one sub-service level objective.

16. The method of claim 7, wherein each service level objective is a grouping of selected sub-service level objectives.

18. The method of claim 7, further comprising using one or more adapters to discover and classify one or more components, in the computer system, wherein the one or more components are capable of providing one or more of the services to the files.