Organically managing primary and secondary storage of a data object based on expiry timeframe supplied by a user of the data object

Abstract

Storage of data that no longer has a useful life is established by the data objects’ user(s) and overcomes predetermined rules required by information management policies. An illustrative data agent may receive instructions from an illustrative storage manager to perform secondary copy operations for certain data objects. The instructions may instruct that expiry-marked data objects are to be treated based on parsing each data object’s user-supplied expiry timeframe. The illustrative system (i) will delete expired data objects including expired secondary copies; (ii) will refrain from making secondary copies of expired data objects; and (iii) if an expiry-marked data object is not expired, the illustrative system will make secondary copies according to the instructions, but will track those expiry-marked secondary copies for future deletion after they expire, (iv) and will delete expired secondary copies even if the original expiry-marked data object has been deleted from the system prior to its expiration.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system comprising:
 a computing device that comprises one or more hardware processors, wherein the computing device is programmed to:
 receive instructions to perform a first secondary copy operation, wherein the first secondary copy operation applies to a data object that is stored in primary data storage,
 wherein the data object comprises a user-supplied expiry timeframe for the data object, and 
 wherein the user-supplied expiry timeframe was supplied when the data object was one or more of: created, received, and stored in the primary data storage; 
 
 determine whether the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed; 
 based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed: exclude the data object from the first secondary copy operation, and cause the data object to be deleted from the primary data storage; and 
 based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has not passed: include the data object in the first secondary copy operation,
 wherein each of one or more secondary copies of the data object that result from the first secondary copy operation comprises the user-supplied expiry timeframe, and 
 wherein each of the one or more secondary copies is stored in a format that is distinct from a native format of the data object, and 
 cause the system to track the one or more secondary copies of the data object, including the user-supplied expiry timeframe. 
 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein an expiry policy configured in the system governs whether the first secondary copy operation includes or excludes the data object based on whether the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed: cause any secondary copies of the data object to be deleted from the system. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed: cause any secondary copies of the data object to be deleted from the system even if the data object has been deleted prior to the user-supplied expiry timeframe. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed: respond to the instructions to indicate that at least one of: the data object has expired, and no secondary copies of the data object were generated by the first secondary copy operation. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed: cause the data object to be replaced by a stub in the primary data storage, wherein the stub comprises a pointer to an archived copy of the data object stored outside of the primary data storage. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system maintains an index that tracks any data objects in the system that comprise a user-supplied expiry date and further tracks any secondary copies of such data objects. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the computing device is further programmed to:
 receive instructions to perform a second secondary copy operation, wherein the second secondary copy operation applies to data objects comprising one or more of: the data object, and at least one of the one or more secondary copies of the data object; and   based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed: cause the one or more secondary copies of the data object to be deleted.   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system further comprises a second computing device that comprises one or more hardware processors, wherein the second computing device is programmed to: manage storage operations in the system; and wherein the instructions are received from the second computing device. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the system further comprises a second computing device that comprises one or more hardware processors, wherein the second computing device comprises an expiry policy that applies to one or more expiry-marked data objects in the system, which include the data object. 
     
     
         11 . A system comprising:
 a first computing device that comprises one or more hardware processors and computer memory, wherein the first computing device is configured to:
 determine whether a user-supplied expiry timeframe of a data object has passed,
 wherein the user-supplied expiry timeframe is associated with the data object, and 
 wherein the user-supplied expiry timeframe was supplied when the data object was one or more of: created, received, and stored in a primary data storage; 
 
 based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed:
 exclude the data object from a first secondary copy operation that is pending for data that includes the data object, 
 cause the data object to be deleted from the primary data storage, and 
 based on determining that one or more secondary copies of the data object are stored in the system, cause the one or more secondary copies of the data object to be one of: deleted from the system and marked for deletion from the system; and 
 
 based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has not passed:
 include the data object in the first secondary copy operation that is pending for the data that includes the data object, 
 wherein each of one or more secondary copies of the data object that result from the first secondary copy operation is stored in a format that is distinct from a native format of the data object, and 
 cause the system to track the one or more secondary copies of the data object, including the user-supplied expiry timeframe. 
 
   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the first computing device is further configured to:
 receive instructions to perform the first secondary copy operation; and   based on determining that the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed: respond to the instructions to indicate that at least one of: the data object has expired, and no secondary copies of the data object were generated by the first secondary copy operation.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the first computing device is further configured to: determine that that one or more secondary copies of the data object are stored in the system, based on tracking thereof. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein an expiry policy configured in the system governs whether the first secondary copy operation includes or excludes the data object based on whether the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the first computing device is further configured to: cause the one or more secondary copies of the data object to be one of: deleted from the system and marked for deletion from the system, based on determining that one or more secondary copies of the data object are stored in the system, even if the data object has been deleted prior to the user-supplied expiry timeframe. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the system maintains an index that tracks any data objects in the system that comprise a user-supplied expiry date and further tracks any secondary copies of such data objects. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the system further comprises a second computing device that comprises one or more hardware processors, wherein the second computing device is configured to: manage storage operations in the system, including the first secondary copy operation; instruct the first computing device to perform the first secondary copy operation; and store an expiry policy that governs whether the first secondary copy operation includes or excludes the data object based on whether the user-supplied expiry timeframe has passed. 
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the data object comprises an email message. 
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the data object comprises a file. 
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the data object comprises a folder in a file system.