Secondary storage editor

• US 9,632,713 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2015
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Mutha, Manas Bhikchand, Bedadala, Pavan Kumar Reddy, Sinha, Prosenjit
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Dieu-Minh
• Application Number:
  US14/659,230
• Publication Number:
  US 20160162374A1
• Time in Patent Office: 771 Days
• Field of Search: 714 46, 714 471, 714 472, 714 473, 714 48
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3442 for planning or managing the needed capacity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/402 Encrypted data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0629 Configuration or reconfiguration of storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0638 Organizing or formatting or addressing of data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices

Abstract

Systems and methods for storage pruning can enable users to delete, edit, or copy backed up data that matches a pattern. Storage pruning can enable fine-grain deletion or copying of these files from backups stored in secondary storage devices. Systems and methods can also enable editing of metadata associated with backups so that when the backups are restored or browsed, the logical edits to the metadata can then be performed physically on the data to create a custom restore or a custom view. A user may perform operations such as renaming, deleting, modifying flags, and modifying retention policies on backed up items. Although the underlying data in the backup may not change, the view of the backup data when the user browses the backup data can appear to include the user'"'"'s changes. A restore of the data can cause those changes to be performed on the backup data.

Claims

1. A method of editing secondary storage data associated with a backup, the method comprising:

under control of a hardware processor comprising digital logic circuitry,

performing a backup of a primary data store, said performing comprising storing backup data in a non-human readable format on a secondary storage device and creating an index of the backup data, the index comprising original metadata associated with the backup data;

electronically generating instructions for outputting a graphical user interface for presentation to a user, the graphical user interface comprising functionality configured to enable the user to modify the original metadata associated with the backup data;

receiving, from the graphical user interface, a user modification of the original metadata;

generating a modified index that reflects the user modification of the original metadata to create modified metadata, without modifying the backup data;

maintaining the original metadata, which omits the user modification of the original metadata, in addition to maintaining the modified index, which includes the modified metadata;

in response to a user request to browse the backup data, outputting a custom view of the backup data that reflects the user modification of the original metadata; and

in response to a user request to restore the backup data, restoring the backup data to create restored data, said restoring comprising;

retrieving the backup data from the secondary storage device;

identifying changes in the modified metadata compared to the original metadata;

applying the user modification of the original metadata to the backup data to create the restored data based at least in part on the identified changes in the modified metadata as compared to the original metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises a change to a path of a file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises renaming a file.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises deleting a file.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises changing a retention policy for a file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises modifying a flag associated with a file.

7. A system for editing secondary storage data associated with a backup, the system comprising:

a hardware processor comprising digital logic circuitry, the hardware processor configured to;

perform a backup of a primary data store to store backup data on a secondary storage device;

create an index of the backup data, the index comprising original metadata associated with files in the backup data;

output a graphical user interface for presentation to a user, the graphical user interface comprising functionality that enables the user to specify a modification of the original metadata associated with the backup data;

receive, from the graphical user interface, a requested user modification of the original metadata;

update the index to reflect the user modification of the original metadata to create modified metadata, without modifying the backup data; and

maintain the original metadata, which omits the user modification of the original metadata, in addition to maintaining the modified index, which includes the modified metadata, to enable the backup data to be modified during restoration of the data to the primary data store based at least in part on identified changes in the modified metadata as compared to the original metadata.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises a change to a path of a file, renaming the file, or deleting the file.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to use the original metadata during a restore process to locate the file when performing a physical modification to the file based on the modification of the original metadata.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the hardware processor is further configured to use the original metadata to locate the file when performing a physical modification to the file based on the modification of the original metadata, in response to a user request to browse the backup data.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises changing a retention policy for a file.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the user modification adjusts an amount of time that the file is retained in physical data storage.

13. The system of claim 7, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises modifying a flag associated with a file.

14. Non-transitory physical computer storage comprising executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed in a processor, are configured to implement operations for editing secondary storage data associated with a backup, the operations comprising:

performing a backup of a primary data store to store backup data on a secondary storage device;

creating an index of the backup data, the index comprising original metadata associated with files in the backup data;

outputting a graphical user interface for presentation to a user, the graphical user interface comprising functionality that enables the user to specify a modification of the original metadata associated with the backup data;

receiving, from the graphical user interface, a requested user modification of the original metadata;

updating the index to reflect the user modification of the original metadata to create modified metadata, without modifying the backup data; and

maintaining an original version of the index without the user modification of the original metadata to enable the backup data to be modified during restoration of the data to the primary data store.

15. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to a user request to browse the backup data, outputting a custom view of the backup data that reflects the user modification of the original metadata.

16. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise, in response to a request to restore the backup data, restoring the backup data to create restored data by at least applying the user modification of the original metadata to the backup data to create the restored data.

17. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises a change to a path of a file.

18. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises renaming a file.

19. The non-transitory physical computer storage of claim 14, wherein the user modification of the original metadata comprises changing a retention policy for a file.