Confirmation of retention locked compliance data presence in a backup server

Abstract

Preventing unwanted instant data destruction of retention locked compliance data. A directory tree of the backup system is assigned a last expiry date value, which is originally initialized to zero. The last expiry date value is compared with an expiry date of a retention lock (RL) set on files in the system. If the expiry date of the RL is after the last expiry date value, the last expiry date value is updated to the expiry date so that the latest file expiry date is stored as the directory tree's last expiry date to indicate that there will be no locked files in the directory tree after the last expiry date. Upon receipt of a data destruction request the time of request is compared with the last expiry date and the request is allowed only if the current time is after the last expiry date.