Delegation of data management policy in an information management system

• US 9,461,890 B1
• Filed: 09/28/2007
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Nair, Manoj, Perrin, Stephen R.
• Primary Examiner(s): PEACH, POLINA G
• Application Number:
  US11/864,770
• Time in Patent Office: 3,294 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24564 Applying rules; Deductive queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services

Abstract

In an information management system operating in a networked computing environment, a method for delegating at least one data management process to an intelligent service provider connected via a network to the information management system, comprising associating data objects in the computing environment with one or more categories of data objects, providing a series of logic and rules to the intelligent service provider, the logic and rules pertaining to categories of data objects and one or more actions to be executed for the data objects based on the categories of data objects, and receiving reporting information from the intelligent service provider indicating that the one or more actions have been successfully executed.

Claims

1. In an information management system operating in a networked computing environment, wherein the information management system identifies and orchestrates services for data objects stored in the networked computing environment by delegating information management to intelligent service providers that operate on behalf of the information management system, a method for performing information management in the networked computing environment, the method comprising:

performing information management by an information management server on the stored data objects, wherein the data objects are each associated with at least one line of business, wherein the information management includes performing information management tasks that include;

collecting and generating, with the information management system, metadata about data objects stored in the networked computing environment in one or more locations remote from the information management system, wherein the data objects include any one or more of a directory, volume, folder, server, database, application, operating system, file, and email;

classifying each of the data objects individually to assign categories to each of the data objects individually by applying rules to the metadata, wherein data objects associated with a first line of business are classified by first rules and data objects associated with a second line of business are classified by second rules, wherein at least some of the first rules are different from the second rules;

performing service level management based on the assigned categories by mapping the categories of each data object to one or more service level objectives to determine service level objectives for each of the data objects and by mapping the service level objectives to services actually available to the information management system, and

orchestrating the services according to the service level objectives;

delegating, by the information management server, the performance of a first portion of a policy to the intelligent service provider, wherein the first portion of the policy takes the form of a first series of logic and rules that enables the intelligent service provider to perform a first portion of the information management tasks, the first series of logic and rules pertaining to the information management of the data objects stored in the networked computing environment and to one or more actions to be executed for the data objects based on assigned categories of the data objects, wherein the intelligent service provider performs the first portion of information management tasks on the data objects based on existing categories of the data objects assigned by the information management server or on categories of the data objects determined and assigned by the intelligent service provider while performing the first portion of information management tasks;

providing additional information, by the information management server, to the intelligent service provider in response to a callback issued by the intelligent service provider while performing the first series of logic and rules, wherein the intelligent service provider uses the additional information to perform the first portion of information management tasks, wherein the information management server performs additional logic and rules with respect to an object associated with the callback to determine the additional information;

receiving, at the information management server, reporting information from the intelligent service provider indicating that the first portion of information management tasks has been successfully executed for the data objects identified by the first series of logic and rules, the reporting information including results of the application of the first series of logic and rules to the data objects; and

performing, by the information management server, a second portion of the policy, wherein the second portion of the policy takes the form of a second series of logic and rules that enables the information management server to perform a second portion of the information management tasks, the second series of logic and rules pertaining to the information management of the data objects stored in the networked computing environment and to one or more actions to be executed for the data objects based on assigned categories of the data objects,

wherein the information management server accounts for the reporting information when performing the information management.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising using an adaptor to translate the first or second series of logic and rules from a first format to second format understandable to the intelligent service provider.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising using an adaptor to translate monitoring information from the intelligent service provider indicating whether the intelligent service provider has executed the actions for the objects from a first format to a second format understandable to the information management system.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first or second series of logic and rules are specified by a user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more actions to be executed by the information management server or the intelligent service provider comprise at least one of (i) the services, the services including at least one of backup services, retention services, corporate compliance services, regulatory compliance, data accessibility, data deletion, access control, or disaster recovery, (ii) discovery of the computing environment, or (iii) classification of the data objects or of new data objects.

20. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein one portion of the policy is performed with respect to a data object independent of any user action regarding that data object.

6. In an information management system operating in a networked computing environment, wherein the information management system performs information management that includes the identification and orchestration of services for data objects stored in the networked computing environment by delegating information management tasks to intelligent service providers that operate on behalf of the information management system, a method for discovering the data objects and performing a delegated data management process in an intelligent service provider connected via a network to the information management system, the method comprising:

receiving from the information management server, at the intelligent service provider, a first portion of a policy, wherein the first portion of the policy takes the form of a first series of logic and rules that enable the intelligent service provider to perform a first portion of the information management tasks, the first series of logic and rules pertaining to information management of the data objects stored in the networked computing environment and to one or more actions to be executed for the data objects based on categories of the data objects, wherein the information management system performs information management on the stored data objects, wherein the information management includes performing information management tasks that include;

collecting and generating, with the information management system, metadata about data objects stored in the networked computing environment in one or more locations remote from the information management system, wherein the data objects include any one or more of a directory, volume, folder, server, database, application, operating system, and email;

classifying each of the data objects individually to assign categories to the each of the data objects individually by applying rules to the metadata, wherein data objects associated with a first line of business are classified by first rules and data objects associated with a second line of business are classified by second rules, wherein at least some of the first rules are different from the second rules;

performing service level management based on the assigned categories by mapping the categories of each data object to one or more service level objectives to determine service level objectives for each of the data objects, and

orchestrating services according to the service level objectives;

performing, by the intelligent service provider, the first portion of information management tasks by applying the first series of logic and rules to the data objects in the computing environment;

performing a callback function to the information management system for a first one of the data objects during the process of applying the first series of logic and rules to the data objects, wherein the information management system makes a decision regarding the first data object in response to the callback function by applying additional logic and rules to the first data object to make the decision, the decision related to the information management performed by the information management server;

executing, by the intelligent service provider, the one or more actions for the data objects based on the first series of logic and rules received from the information management system and based on the decision made by the information management system for the first one of the data objects returned to the intelligent service provider; and

sending, by the intelligent service provider, reporting information to the information management system indicating that the one or more actions have been successfully executed, the reporting information including results of the application of the first series of logic and rules to the first one of the data objects.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising using an adaptor to translate the first series of logic and rules received from the information management service from a first format to second format understandable to the intelligent service provider.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein executing the one or more actions for the data objects comprises retrieving classification information for the data objects in the computing environment and determining if the data objects are associated with categories of data objects which require one or more actions according to the first series of logic and rules.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising using an adaptor to translate monitoring information from the intelligent service provider indicating whether the actions have been successfully executed from a second format to a first format understandable to the information management system.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the first or second series of logic and rules are specified by a user.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the one or more actions to be executed by the information management server or the intelligent service provider comprise at least one of (i) services, the services including at least one of backup services, retention services, corporate compliance services, regulatory compliance, data accessibility, data deletion, access control, moving data objects to a tier of storage based on the lifecycle of the data objects, or disaster recovery, (ii) discovery of the computing environment, (iii) classification of the data objects or (iv) orchestration of the services.

21. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein one portion of the policy is performed with respect to a data object independent of any user action regarding that data object.

12. An information management system for performing information management in a computing environment, wherein the information management system identifies and orchestrates services for data objects stored in the networked computing environment by delegating information management to intelligent service providers that operate on behalf of the information management system, the information management system comprising:

an information management server configured to perform a first portion of a policy, wherein the first portion of the policy takes the form of a first series of logic and rules that enables the information management server to perform a first portion of information management tasks with respect to data objects stored in the networked computing environment, the first series of logic and rules pertaining to one or more actions to be executed for the data objects based on assigned categories of the data objects, wherein the information management tasks include;

collecting and generating, with the information management server, metadata about data objects stored in the networked computing environment in one or more locations remote from the information management server, wherein each of the data objects is associated with at least one line of business, wherein the data objects include any one or more of a directory, volume, folder, server, database, application, operating system, file and email;

classifying each of the data objects individually to assign categories to each of the data objects individually by applying rules to the metadata, wherein data objects associated with a first line of business are classified by first rules and data objects associated with a second line of business are classified by second rules, wherein at least some of the first rules are different from the second rules;

performing service level management based on the assigned categories by mapping the categories of each data object to one or more service level objectives to determine service level objectives for each of the data objects and by mapping the service level objectives to services, and

orchestrating services according to the service level objectives and when a data object is associated with conflicting service level objectives, resolving the conflicts without disassociating the data objects from the services;

a data storage device that is accessible by an information management server included in the information management system, the data storage device storing categorization information, wherein the categorization information includes categories assigned to each of the data objects during classification of the data objects;

an intelligent service provider including a computing device configured to perform a second portion of the policy, wherein the second portion of the policy takes the form of a second series of logic and rules corresponding to a second portion of the information management tasks which pertain to the information management of the data objects stored in the computing environment and to one or more actions to be executed for the data objects based on the categorization information of the data objects, the second series of logic and rules delegated to the intelligent service provider for execution on behalf of the information management server, the intelligent service provider initiating the second portion of information management tasks that the information management server is capable of performing by applying the second series of logic and rules to one or more of the plurality of data objects in order to determine which data objects require the one or more actions and executing the one or more actions for the objects identified by the application of the second series of logic and rules using its own internal logic and capabilities and based on the categorization information, wherein the categorization information is already determined or is assigned by the computing device of the intelligent service provider;

wherein at least one of the intelligent service provider and the information management server identifies the service level objectives for the data objects identified by the application of one of the first or second series of logic and rules and orchestrates services for the identified data objects based on the service level objectives.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the intelligent service provider is further capable of sending monitoring information to the information management system indicating whether the actions have been executed for the objects.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising an adaptor capable translating the second series of logic and rules to a format understandable by the intelligent service provider.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising an information management module capable of sending the second series of logic and rules to the intelligent service provider and receiving monitoring information from the intelligent service provider indicating whether the intelligent service provider has executed the actions for the objects.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising an adaptor capable of translating the second series of logic and rules sent by the information management module from a second format to the first format and translating the monitoring information from the first format to the second format.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein the information management server is further capable of:

identifying one or more service level objectives for each object based on the assigned one or more categories;

mapping the one or more service level objectives to service levels available from service providers; and

sending a series of logic and rules which pertain to the categorization of objects in the computer system and one or more actions to be executed to the objects based on the categorizations of the objects and the service levels available from service providers to the intelligent service provider.

18. The system of claim 12, wherein the intelligent service provider is capable of executing backup services, retention services, corporate compliance services, regulatory compliance, data accessibility, data deletion, access control, moving data objects to a tier of storage based on the lifecycle of the data objects, and disaster recovery.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein the first and second series of logic and rules pertain to categories of data objects and determining which data objects require the one or more actions comprises retrieving classification information for the data objects and applying the logic and rules pertaining to the categories of data objects to the classification information for the data objects.