| US 7,539,706 B1 | ||
| Methods and apparatus for collecting and processing file system data | ||
| John Anderson Campbell, Canton, Ga. (US) | ||
| Assigned to EMC Corporation, Hopkinton, Mass. (US) | ||
| Filed on Mar. 30, 2004, as Appl. No. 10/812,512. | ||
| Int. Cl. G06F 17/30 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 707—204 [711/162; 709/221; 709/222; 709/223] | 24 Claims |
| 1. In a data collection agent, a computer-implemented method for processing storage information concerning storage entities
in a storage area network environment, the computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving a data collection policy identifying storage information to be collected concerning a set of storage entities in
the storage area network environment;
collecting storage information concerning the set of storage entities according to the data collection policy;
processing the collected storage information to produce at least one summary record of the storage information for the set
of storage entities, the at least one summary record containing a summary of the collected storage information for the set
of storage entities calculated according to the data collection policy; and
transferring the at least one summary record from the data collection agent to a storage management application for presentation
to a user of the storage management application;
wherein receiving a data collection policy comprises:
receiving a collection level identifying a set of files corresponding to the set of storage entities from which storage information
is to be collected; and
receiving a collection period value indicating how often to perform collection of the storage information concerning the set
of storage entities;
wherein receiving a collection level corresponding to the set of storage entities from which storage information is to be
collected comprises:
receiving at least one of a host collection level, a file system collection level and a file set collection level; and
based on the collection level, identifying, as the set of storage entities, a set of file systems containing at least one
file from which storage information is to be collected;
wherein collecting storage information concerning the storage entity according to the data collection policy comprises:
detecting occurrence of the collection period;
in response to the occurrence of the collection period, parsing the set of file systems to query each of the at least one
files within directories in the set of file systems identified based on the collection level to obtain file metadata associated
with each file; and
based on the file metadata for each file detected in each of the set of file systems during parsing, collecting the storage
information related to ages and sizes of files and directories for each storage entity associated with at least one of the
host collection level, the file system collection level and a file set collection level.
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