Audit record transformation in a dispersed storage network

• US 9,971,802 B2
• Filed: 07/20/2016
• Issued: 05/15/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Resch, Jason K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoffman, Brandon S
• Application Number:
  US15/215,274
• Publication Number:
  US 20160328440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 664 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1076 Parity data used in redundant arrays of independent storages, e.g. in RAID systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1612 where the redundant component is persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17331 Distributed shared memory [DSM], e.g. remote direct memory access [RDMA]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2365 Ensuring data consistency and integrity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2211/1028 Distributed, i.e. distributed RAID systems with parity
• 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 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• 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 2209/16 Obfuscation or hiding, e.g. involving white box
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/085 Secret sharing or secret splitting, e.g. threshold schemes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0863 involving passwords or one-time passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for using one-time keys in a packet data network H04L63/067
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0869 involving random numbers or seeds
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0877 : using additional device, e.g. trusted platform module [TPM], smartcard, USB or hardware security module [HSM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 : Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/321 : involving a third party or a trusted authority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3263 : involving certificates, e.g. public key certificate [PKC] or attribute certificate [AC]; Public key infrastructure [PKI] arrangements network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using certificates in a packet data network H04L63/0823

Abstract

A method for execution by a dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit includes determining an audit object to analyze, retrieving the audit object from a dispersed storage network (DSN) and verifying the integrity of the audit object. When the integrity of the audit object is verified, a set of audit records is extracted from the audit object, the set of audit records are transformed utilizing a transformation function into at least one transformed record for storage in the DSN.

Claims

1. A method for execution by a dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit that includes a processor, the method comprises:

determining an audit object to analyze;

retrieving the audit object from a dispersed storage network (DSN);

verifying integrity of the audit object;

when the integrity of the audit object is verified, extracting a set of audit records from the audit object;

transforming the set of audit records utilizing a transformation function into at least one transformed record, wherein the transformation function converts the set of audit records into the at least one transformed record in accordance with at least one of a comma separated values (CSV) file format, or a structured query language (SQL) format; and

facilitating storage of the at least one transformed record in the DSN.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining the audit object to analyze is based on one or more of:

where an analysis process ended, retrieving a next audit object identifier (ID) or receiving a message.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving the audit object includes one or more of:

performing a lookup to retrieve a vault ID corresponding to the audit object, retrieving a plurality of encoded audit object slices based on the vault ID, or decoding the plurality of encoded audit object slices to produce the audit object.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein verifying integrity of the audit object includes comparing integrity information extracted from the audit object to calculated integrity information based on a remaining portion of the audit object.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the integrity information includes a signature of a certificate, or a hash of the audit object.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein facilitating the storage of the at least one transformed record includes at least one of:

dispersed storage error encoding the at least one transformed record to produce a plurality of sets of transformed record slices, sending the plurality of sets of transformed record slices to a DSN memory for storage or sending the at least one transformed record to a DS processing unit for storing the at least one transformed record as the plurality of sets of transformed record slices in the DSN memory.

7. A processing system of a dispersed storage and task (DST) processing unit comprises:

at least one processor;

a memory that stores operational instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor cause the processing system to;

determine an audit object to analyze;

retrieve the audit object from a dispersed storage network (DSN);

verify integrity of the audit object;

when the integrity of the audit object is verified, extract a set of audit records from the audit object;

transform the set of audit records utilizing a transformation function into at least one transformed record, wherein the transformation function converts the set of audit records into the at least one transformed record in accordance with at least one of a comma separated values (CSV) file format, or a structured query language (SQL) format; and

facilitate storage of the at least one transformed record in the DSN.

8. The processing system of claim 7 wherein determining the audit object to analyze is based on one or more of:

where an analysis process ended, retrieving a next audit object identifier (ID) or receiving a message.

9. The processing system of claim 7 wherein retrieving the audit object includes one or more of:

performing a lookup to retrieve a vault ID corresponding to the audit object, retrieving a plurality of encoded audit object slices based on the vault ID, or decoding the plurality of encoded audit object slices to produce the audit object.

10. The processing system of claim 7 wherein verifying integrity of the audit object includes comparing integrity information extracted from the audit object to calculated integrity information based on a remaining portion of the audit object.

11. The processing system of claim 10 wherein the integrity information includes a signature of a certificate, or a hash of the audit object.

12. The processing system of claim 7 wherein facilitating the storage of the at least one transformed record includes at least one of:

dispersed storage error encoding the at least one transformed record to produce a plurality of sets of transformed record slices, sending the plurality of sets of transformed record slices to a DSN memory for storage or sending the at least one transformed record to a DS processing unit for storing the at least one transformed record as the plurality of sets of transformed record slices in the DSN memory.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprises:

at least one memory section that stores operational instructions that, when executed by a processing system of a dispersed storage network (DSN) that includes a processor and a memory, causes the processing system to;

determine an audit object to analyze;

retrieve the audit object from a dispersed storage network (DSN);

verify integrity of the audit object;

when the integrity of the audit object is verified, extract a set of audit records from the audit object;

transform the set of audit records utilizing a transformation function into at least one transformed record, wherein the transformation function converts the set of audit records into the at least one transformed record in accordance with at least one of a comma separated values (CSV) file format or a structured query language (SQL) format; and

facilitate storage of the at least one transformed record in the DSN.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein determining the audit object to analyze is based on one or more of:

where an analysis process ended, retrieving a next audit object identifier (ID) or receiving a message.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein retrieving the audit object includes one or more of:

performing a lookup to retrieve a vault ID corresponding to the audit object, retrieving a plurality of encoded audit object slices based on the vault ID, or decoding the plurality of encoded audit object slices to produce the audit object.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein verifying integrity of the audit object includes comparing integrity information extracted from the audit object to calculated integrity information based on a remaining portion of the audit object.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the integrity information includes a signature of a certificate, or a hash of the audit object.