Rule book based retention management engine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020133781-A1
Application number	US-201816170738-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 25, 2018
Priority date	Oct 25, 2018
Publication date	Apr 30, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for determining retention periods or policies for backups are disclosed. A rule book stores relationships between rules and recommended retention periods. Data related to a backup is collected and organized. A query is generated from the organized data and used to identify a rule from the rule book. The retention period corresponding to the identified rule in the rule book is then applied to the corresponding backup.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for determining a retention period for a backup, the method comprising:
receiving raw data at a polling engine from at least a host, an application and a target device, wherein the host includes a source of data to be backed up during a backup operation and the target device is available space for storing the backup of the data; interpreting the raw data into categories of factors to generate grouped data; forming a query from the grouped data by a rule-maker; searching a rule book based on the query to identify a retention period for the backup; and storing the backup in accordance with the retention period.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein receiving raw data from a host includes polling the host and polling the target device and polling the application.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the target device includes one or more of a primary storage site, a disaster recovery site, and an archive site.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the raw data is mapped to the categories of factors, the factors including one or more of a data type, a data change, a schedule, a storage type, and a storage quota available.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving a user-defined retention policy that is added to the query before searching the rule book.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding a rule to the rule book.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising revising the categories of factors based on historical data associated with the retention periods.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the rule book stores predetermined rules and recommended retention periods.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising publishing the retention period to a final buffer, wherein a policy engine enforces the retention period for the backup.

10 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions for implementing a method for determining a retention period for a backup, the method comprising:
receiving raw data at a polling engine from at least a host, an application and a target device, wherein the host includes a source of data to be backed up during a backup operation and the target device is available space for storing the backup of the data; interpreting the raw data into categories of factors to generate grouped data; forming a query from the grouped data by a rule-maker; searching a rule book based on the query to identify a retention period for the backup; and storing the backup in accordance with the retention period.

11 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein receiving raw data from a host includes polling the host and polling the target device and polling the application.

12 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the target device includes one or more of a primary storage site, a disaster recovery site, and an archive site.

13 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the raw data is mapped to the categories of factors, the factors including one or more of a data type, a data change, a schedule, a storage type, and a storage quota available.

14 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising receiving a user-defined retention policy that is added to the query before searching the rule book.

15 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising adding a rule to the rule book.

16 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising revising the categories of factors based on historical data associated with the retention periods.

17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the rule book stores predetermined rules and recommended retention periods.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , further comprising publishing the retention period to a final buffer, wherein a policy engine enforces the retention period for the backup.

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Reddy Av Mahesh
• Kulkarni Gururaj
• Shankar D H Swaroop
• Muniswamy Lakshminarayanan

Classifications

• G06F11/1461

  Backup scheduling policy · CPC title

• G06F11/1464

  for networked environments · CPC title

• G06F11/1469

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/1448 Primary

  Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore · CPC title

• G06F16/125

  characterised by the use of retention policies (retention policies for HSM systems G06F16/185) · CPC title