Method and system for offline indexing of content and classifying stored data

• US 8,170,995 B2
• Filed: 03/28/2008
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Prahlad, Anand, Schwartz, Jeremy A., Ngo, David, Brockway, Brian, Muller, Marcus S., Gokhale, Parag, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Tim T
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ahn, Sangwoo
• Application Number:
  US12/058,487
• Publication Number:
  US 20080294605A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,495 Days
• Field of Search: 707/673, 707/696, 707/741
• US Class Current: 707/673
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2372 Updates performed during offline database operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/319 Inverted lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

A method and system for creating an index of content without interfering with the source of the content includes an offline content indexing system that creates an index of content from an offline copy of data. The system may associate additional properties or tags with data that are not part of traditional indexing of content, such as the time the content was last available or user attributes associated with the content. Users can search the created index to locate content that is no longer available or based on the associate attributes.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one data storage device, performs a method of controlling a computer system to identify stored data comprising:

receiving a search request directed to target content, wherein the search request contains classifications associated with the target content;

searching an index containing information associated with the target content to generate search results,

wherein the index contains information identifying at least one content item that is not available from mounted disk media or faster media,

wherein the faster media has a retrieval time or accessibility that is faster than mounted disk media,

wherein the information contained in the index is generated based upon analysis of content of a secondary copy of data created from a primary copy of data,

wherein the analysis is performed without impacting one or more systems from which the primary copy of data is available, and

wherein the information is associated with either the primary copy, the secondary copy, or both the primary copy and the secondary copy;

for search results identifying content items that are not available from mounted disk media or faster media, retrieving information about the target content from an archive or secondary storage location;

providing the search results in response to the search request,

wherein searching the index includes searching the index based on information about availability of content items, wherein the availability is based upon locations of the content items, and wherein providing search results includes providing search results indicating times required to access the content items based upon respective availabilities.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein searching the index comprises searching based on user-defined attributes.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein searching the index comprises receiving an availability criteria related to the content, searching based on information about the availability criteria of the content, and generating search results indicating an estimated time required to access the content.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein searching the index comprises receiving a range of time during which deleted content was last available, searching based on a time the content was deleted, and generating search results for accessing the deleted content.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein searching the index comprises searching based on a time range.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein searching the index comprises searching an original copy of the content.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises after receiving the search request, creating the index dynamically based on the content available in the computer system.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein searching the index comprises identifying data items deleted from primary storage but that are still available in secondary storage, identifying time information associated with availability of the deleted data items, and generating search results for accessing the deleted data items.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises ranking the search results based upon respective availabilities of content items.

10. A method of controlling a computer system to identify archived data, comprising:

in response to receiving a search request directed to desired data, searching an index containing information associated with the desired data to generate search results,

wherein the index contains information identifying at least one data item that is not available from mounted disk media or faster media,

wherein the faster media has a retrieval time or accessibility that is faster than mounted disk media,

wherein the information is associated with either the primary copy, the secondary copy, or both the primary copy and the secondary copy;

for search results identifying desired data items that are not available from mounted disk media or faster media, retrieving information about the desired data from an archive or secondary storage location; and

providing the search results in response to the search request,

wherein searching the index includes searching the index based on information about availability of at least the desired data,

wherein the availability is based upon locations of at least the desired data, and

wherein providing search results includes providing search results indicating estimated times required to access at least the desired data based upon respective availabilities.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein searching the index comprises searching based on user-defined attributes.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein searching the index comprises receiving an availability criteria, searching based on information about the availability criteria, and generating search results indicating an estimated time required to access data.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein searching the index comprises receiving a range of time during which deleted data was last available, searching based on a time the data was deleted, and generating search results for accessing the deleted data.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein searching the index comprises searching based on a time range.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein searching the index comprises searching an original copy of the desired data.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein searching the index comprises identifying data items deleted from primary storage but that are still available in secondary storage, identifying time information associated with availability of the deleted data items, and generating search results for accessing the deleted data items.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein the method further comprises ranking the search results based upon respective availabilities of desired data.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by at least one data storage device, performs a method of controlling a computer system to identify stored data comprising:

in response to receiving a search request directed to desired data, searching an index containing information associated with the desired data to generate search results,

wherein the index contains information identifying at least one data item that is not available from mounted disk media or faster media,

wherein the faster media has a retrieval time or accessibility that is faster than mounted disk media,

wherein the information is associated with either the primary copy, the secondary copy, or both the primary copy and the secondary copy;

for search results identifying desired data items that are not available from mounted disk media or faster media, retrieving information about the desired data from an archive or secondary storage location; and

providing the search results in response to the search request,

wherein searching the index includes searching the index based on information about availability of at least the desired data,

wherein the availability is based upon locations of at least the desired data, and

wherein providing search results includes providing search results indicating estimated times required to access at least the desired data based upon respective availabilities.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein searching the index comprises searching based on user-defined attributes.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein searching the index comprises receiving an availability criteria, searching based on information about the availability criteria, and generating search results indicating an estimated time required to access data.

21. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein searching the index comprises receiving a range of time during which deleted data was last available, searching based on a time the data was deleted, and generating search results for accessing the deleted data.

22. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein searching the index comprises searching based on a time range.

23. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein searching the index comprises searching an original copy of the desired data.

24. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein searching the index comprises identifying data items deleted from primary storage but that are still available in secondary storage, identifying time information associated with availability of the deleted data items, and generating search results for accessing the deleted data items.

25. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 wherein the method further comprises of claim 18, further comprising ranking the search results based upon respective availabilities of desired data.