Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Microsft Corporation

Stefan Robert Steiner

Luis Felipe Cabrera

Sameet Harishanker Agarwal

Arkadi Brjazovski

Mahesh K Sreenivas

Rohan Kumar

Ravisankar V Pudipeddi

Deborah C Jones

Paul Adrian Oltean

David Golds

Atm Shafiqul Khalid

An operating system is provided. The system includes an agent component to monitor computer activities between one or more single-item access components and one or more set-based access components. A protocol component is employed by the agent component to mitigate data access between the single-item access components and the set-based access components.

Multi-protocol access to files and directories

A file namespace hierarchy bypass and method to access files are provided. The bypass can be employed, for example, as a computer-readable medium with instructions for generating a unique identifier associated with a file and instructions for accessing the file based on the unique identifier and a specified search space. A computer-readable medium having instructions for obtaining the unique identifier and specified search space associated with the file and instructions for generating a path designation by combining the unique identifier and the specified search space used to access the file may also be employed. The method for bypassing the namespace hierarchy of the file, for example, may include passing the unique identifier and specified search space to a program and accessing the file based on a path designation generated by the program by combining the unique identifier and specified search space.

Bypass of the namespace hierarchy to open files

An operating system is provided. The system includes an agent component to monitor computer activities between one or more single-item access components and one or more set-based access components. A protocol component is employed by the agent component to mitigate data access conflicts between the single-item access components and the set-based access components.

A file stream exchange system and method are provided. The system can be employed, for example, with a storage system that supports transactions as a primary mechanism and employs a rich type system. The system provides a mechanism for the storage system to provide reliable updates to file streams while preserving the common criteria for security. The system includes a replace stream component which is a kernel mode mechanism that allows transactional exchange of stream data of two file-backed items without violating the common criteria for security.

Mechanism to exchange primary data stream of a file

A technique is provided whereby a stream of data located in a first storage location is registered for migration administration and according to preset criteria, portion(s) of the stream of data that are suited to another storage location are migrated to maximize system storage efficiencies. The file system may have use of facilities that enable the monitoring of files/streams that have been registered for migration administration or files/streams may be polled according to preset criteria. If the stream of data has portions to migrate to another storage location, the hierarchical storage management (HSM) system migrates the data to the other storage location, such as to long term or off-line storage, and preserves the data relationships of the stream via metadata. The technique allows for multiple volumes to be spanned by the migration target location, and multiple file systems may service the source and target.

Partial migration of an object to another storage location in a computer system

A service specified by an application programming interface (API) acts as a coordinator/manager of different volume snapshot providers and an administrator of snapshot providers. The API acts to standardize protocols used in connection with different snapshot providers. An Interface Volume Snapshot Service Coordinator (VSSC) with appropriate API calls is provided, which is used to coordinate and administer multiple snapshot providers as well as maintain other snapshot information. The VSSC achieves this coordination and administration whether or not the snapshot providers are hardware-based, software-based or based in a combination of different underlying technologies. The VSSC thus performs coordination and administration operations, in addition to other operations relating to snapshot providers.

Method and system for providing common coordination and administration of multiple snapshot providers

A system, a method and a program product provide access to variable-length data segments on a sequential access storage medium using an iterative search for a specified data offset based on estimates of media offsets. The data is recorded in variable-length data segments aligned to predetermined alignment intervals. Each data segment has a predetermined signature field to identify the header of each data segment. Session data recorded on the medium so as to prevent session data that matches the signature field from being aligned with the predetermined alignment interval. Approximate or default parameters for data segment size are used for each estimate and are updated with each iteration based on actual data derived from data segment headers on the medium.

Efficient access to variable-length data on a sequential access storage medium

Many archive and backup systems write multiple copies of at least portions of a single file to various archive or backup storage sessions. Such is the case where an initial backup occurs followed by incremental backups at various times after the initial baseline backup. The present invention simplifies the long-term administration of remote or archive storage by collecting multiple portions of the same files stored in different backup or archive storage sessions at different times into a single updated version of the file. This updated version may then be placed on backup or archive storage. The present invention identifies the various backup or archive sessions containing portions of the file of interest. It then retrieves these various portions and determines which of the portions are the most current version. The most current version of all portions are then assembled and coalesced into a single updated version. The system works with remote or local backup or archive storage and reduces the time necessary to retrieve information from a backup.

System and method for long-term administration of archival storage

The present invention relates to systems and methods for archiving or backing up data. The systems and methods use a staging area to temporarily store data prior to transfer to backup or archive storage. Data is copied from local storage to the staging area and stored there temporarily until it is transferred to backup or archive storage. The staging area preferably uses sparse file technology which stores a mixture of zero data and non-zero data in a storage space substantially equal to the storage space required to only store the non-zero data. Once data is transferred from the staging area to remote storage, the storage space allocated in the staging area may be deallocated in order to minimize the amount of storage space required for the staging area. In addition, the local storage space may also be deallocated, if appropriate. Using sparse file technology as the staging area results in minimal storage requirements and minimal overhead for managing the storage space of the staging area.

Growing community of inventors

Issaquah, WA, United States of America

Stefan Robert Steiner