System and method for involving users in object management

• US 7,844,582 B1
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Issued: 11/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Stored Iq
• Inventors: Arbilla, Laura, Zoellner, Keith, Funderburg, Brett A., Bone, Jeff G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Rones; Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): MACKES, KRIS E
• Application Number:
  US11/262,411
• Time in Patent Office: 1,859 Days
• Field of Search: 707/200
• US Class Current: 707/694
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/554 involving event detection and direct action

Abstract

Systems and methods for identifying objects in a managed storage environment with a user and involving the user with policy implementations or decisions associated with these objects are disclosed. These systems and methods may allow a single user identity for the managed storage environment to be assigned to a user and associated with a set of user identities, each of the set of user identities corresponding to the user'"'"'s identity with respect to a particular domain. Previous or subsequent to establishing a user'"'"'s enterprise wide identity, data and metadata may be obtained about objects residing in one or more of the domains in the enterprise as described in detail above. Objects within these domains can then be associated with a user using the set of user identities and a report generated for the user based upon these objects, including the policies associated with these objects.

Claims

1. A method for involving a human user in object management, comprising:

enabling an administrator of an enterprise to define an enterprise wide user identity for the human user;

obtaining a set of user identities of the human user associated with a set of filesystems;

associating the enterprise wide user identity of the human user with the set of user identities of the human user, wherein each of the set of user identities of the human user is associated with one of the set of filesystems;

before or after the associating step, extracting data and metadata associated with objects from the set of filesystems, wherein the objects include files and directories and extracting the metadata comprises;

collecting raw metadata of the files and directories,

filtering the raw metadata,

synthesizing synthetic metadata from the filtered raw metadata, and

generating content-based metadata wherein generating content-based metadata for a file comprises processing content of the file according to a type of the file to determine one or more content-specific entities within the file;

storing the data and metadata in a metadata repository as records, each record linking a set of attributes to an object in one of the set of filesystems, wherein the set of attributes includes information identifying an owner of the object;

locating a set of records for the human user within the metadata repository using one or more of the set of user identities of the human user, wherein the human user is an owner of each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records; and

generating a report specific to the human user based on the set of records for the human user, wherein the report includes information on adherence to enterprise policies only by the human user associated with the enterprise wide user identity in conjunction with each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records for the human user and excluding other human users of the enterprise from the report.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein locating a record within the set of records comprises comparing a user identification associated with the record to the set of user identities.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the report to the human user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the report is provided to the human user via email.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the report contains a set of policy violations by the human user.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein one or more of the set of policy violations is associated with an action by the human user.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the report is an HTML document.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the action includes using an HTML link.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the HTML link is associated with an application.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the report to the human user using an email address associated with the enterprise wide user identity.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining the set of user identities of the human user associated with the set of filesystems in the managed storage of the enterprise further comprises accessing the set of filesystems, an LDAP server, an NIS server or an active directory.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the email address is identical to the enterprise wide user identity of the human user as defined by an administrator.

13. A computer-readable storage medium having instructions embodied thereon, the instructions translatable for:

associating an enterprise wide user identity of a human user with a set of user identities of the human user, wherein each of the set of user identities is associated with one of a set of filesystems;

extracting data and metadata associated with objects from the set of filesystems, wherein the objects include files and directories and extracting the metadata comprises;

collecting raw metadata of the files and directories,

filtering the raw metadata,

synthesizing synthetic metadata from the filtered raw metadata, and

generating content-based metadata wherein generating content-based metadata for a file comprises processing content of the file according to a type of the file to determine one or more content-specific entities within the file;

storing the data and metadata in a metadata repository as records, each record linking a set of attributes to an object in one of the set of filesystems, wherein the set of attributes includes information identifying an owner of the object;

locating a set of records for the human user within the metadata repository using one or more of the set of user identities of the human user, wherein the human user is an owner of each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records; and

generating a report specific to the human user based on the set of records for the human user, wherein the report includes information on adherence to enterprise policies only by the human user associated with the enterprise wide user identity in conjunction with each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records for the human user and excluding other human users of the enterprise from the report.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein locating a record within the set of records comprises comparing a user identification associated with the record to the set of user identities.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, the instructions further translatable for providing the report to the human user.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the report is provided to the human user via email.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the report contains a set of policy violations by the human user.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein one or more of the set of policy violations is associated with an action by the human user.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the report is an HTML document.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the action includes using an HTML link.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the HTML link is associated with an application.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, the instructions further translatable for determining each of the set of user identities of the human user.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the set of user identities of the human user are determined using an LDAP server, an NIS server or an active directory.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the enterprise wide user identity of the human user is defined by an administrator.

25. A method for involving a human user in object management, comprising:

associating an enterprise wide user identity of the human user with a set of user identities of the human user, wherein each of the set of user identities of the human user is associated with one of a set of filesystems;

locating a set of records for the human user within a metadata repository by comparing a user identification associated with each of the set of records to one or more of the set of user identities, wherein each record is associated with an object in one of the set of filesystems and contains information identifying an owner of the object, the human user is an owner of each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records, and wherein the each record includes metadata on the associated object, the associated object comprising a file or a directory and the metadata is extracted by;

collecting raw metadata of the object,

filtering the raw metadata,

synthesizing synthetic metadata from the filtered raw metadata, and

generating content-based metadata wherein generating content-based metadata for a file comprises processing content of the file according to a type of the file to determine one or more content-specific entities within the file;

generating a report specific to the human user based on the set of records for the human user, wherein the report is an HTML document containing a set of links associated with information on adherence to enterprise policies only by the human user associated with the enterprise wide user identity in conjunction with each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records for the human user and excluding other human users of the enterprise from the report; and

providing the report to the human user.

26. A method for managing network file system objects, comprising:

gathering metadata on managed objects across network file systems, wherein each managed object of said managed objects is associated with a user identity, each managed object comprises a file or a directory and the metadata is gathered by;

collecting raw metadata of object,

filtering the raw metadata,

synthesizing synthetic metadata from the filtered raw metadata and

generating content-based metadata wherein generating content-based metadata for a file comprises processing content of the file according to a type of the file to determine one or more content-specific entities within the file;

storing said metadata in a metadata repository as records, each record linking a set of attributes to a managed object per the user identity associated therewith;

associating an enterprise wide user identity of a human user with a set of user identities of said human user;

locating a set of said metadata records for the human user within said metadata repository using one or more user identities of said set of user identities of said human user, wherein the human user is an owner of each of the managed objects corresponding to each of the set of records; and

generating a user report specific to the human user based on said set of said records for said human user, wherein said report includes information on adherence to enterprise policies only by the human user associated with the enterprise wide user identity in conjunction with each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records for the human user and excluding other human users of the enterprise from the report.

27. A method for involving a human user in object management, comprising:

enabling an administrator of an enterprise to define an enterprise wide user identity for the human user;

obtaining a set of user identities of the human user associated with a set of filesystems;

associating the enterprise wide user identity of the human user with the set of user identities of the human user, wherein each of the set of user identities of the human user is associated with one of the set of filesystems;

before or after the associating step, extracting data and metadata associated with objects from the set of filesystems, wherein the objects include files and directories and extracting the metadata comprises;

collecting raw metadata of the files and directories,

filtering the raw metadata,

synthesizing synthetic metadata from the filtered raw metadata, and

generating content-based metadata wherein generating content-based metadata for a file comprises processing content of the file according to a type of the file to determine one or more content-specific entities within the file;

storing the data and metadata in a metadata repository as records, each record linking a set of attributes to an associated object in one of the set of filesystems, wherein the set of attributes includes information identifying an owner of the object;

locating a set of records for the human user within the metadata repository using one or more of the set of user identities of the human user, wherein the human user is an owner of each of the objects corresponding to each of the set of records;

evaluating each of the objects to determine if each of the objects is in compliance with a set of enterprise policies, wherein each of the enterprise polices comprises a set of conditions for evaluating one or more of the set of attributes and evaluating the object comprises applying the set of conditions to the set of attributes linked to the object by the associated record; and

generating a report specific to the human user, wherein the report includes information on adherence to the set of enterprise policies by the human user associated with the enterprise wide user identity.