System, method and apparatus for enterprise policy management
Disclosed are systems, methods and apparatuses for managing objects (files and directories) in network file systems according to policies. Each policy may have one or more rules, each of which ties a condition to an action. Each condition can be expressed in terms of metadata harvested across file systems and stored in a metadata repository. The actions are user-programmable. Users can apply and/or enforce a policy by manipulating the metadata stored in the metadata repository. For example, suppose a policy prohibits storing MP3 files in corporate storage, a user can specify a rule that ties the condition “no MP3 files in volumes A-Z” to an action “delete MP3 files from volumes A-Z.” A file management application may apply a filter to the metadata repository to produce metadata records having values that meet the specified condition and take the corresponding action on managed objects associated with those metadata records.
1. A computer program product comprising one or more computer readable storage media storing instructions translatable by one or more processors to perform:
accessing network file systems at one or more physical locations;
collecting file system metadata from the network file systems, wherein the file system metadata comprises one or more pieces of metadata of interest;
accessing one or more user defined heuristics, wherein each user define heuristic is an algorithm for deriving a file system statistic associated with a managed object based on the processing of one or more pieces of metadata of interest associated with the managed object, the algorithm and the one or more pieces of metadata of interest are specified by the user and the file system statistic is not file system metadata;
applying the one or more user-defined heuristics to the one or more pieces of metadata of interest to generate one or more file system statistics of interest;
storing the one or more pieces of metadata of interest and the one or more file system statistics of interest in a metadata repository;
enabling a user to define a rule via a user interface, wherein the rule comprises a pattern and an action and wherein the pattern comprise an expression including at least one of the one or more file system statistics of interest;
searching metadata records in the metadata repository that match the pattern, wherein determining whether a metadata record matches the pattern comprises evaluating the expression using the at least one of the one or more file statistics of interest associated with the one or more managed objects associated with that metadata record; and
applying the action on one or more managed objects in the network file systems that are associated with the metadata records, thereby changing a state of the network file systems wherein file system data is collected at a first time and the file system metadata is collected at a second time and the one or more file system statistics of interest are generated using the file system data collected at the first time and the file system metadata collected at the second time.
2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the applying step is performed synchronously or asynchronously with a file system activity.
3. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the one or more action is triggered automatically without human intervention.
4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the one or more action is triggered by interacting with user.
5. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the file system metadata to collect is specified by a user.
6. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the rule is associated with an operation on the one or more managed objects.
7. A system, comprising,
one or more network file systems at one or more physical locations;
a computing device, comprising:
a processor,
a metadata repository, and
a computer readable storage media storing instructions translatable by one or more processors to perform:
collecting file system metadata from the network file systems, wherein the file system metadata comprises one or more pieces of metadata of interest,
accessing one or more user defined heuristics, wherein each user define heuristic is an algorithm for deriving a file system statistic associated with a managed object based on the processing of one or more pieces of metadata of interest associated with the managed object, the algorithm and the one or more pieces of metadata of interest are specified by the user and the file system statistic is not file system metadata,
applying the one or more user-defined heuristics to the one or more pieces of metadata of interest to generate one or more file system statistics of interest,
storing the one or more pieces of metadata of interest and the one or more file system statistics of interest in the metadata repository,
enabling a user to define a rule via a user interface, wherein the rule comprises a pattern and an action and wherein the pattern comprises an expression including at least one of the one or more file system statistics of interest,
searching metadata records in the metadata repository that match the pattern, wherein determining whether a metadata record matches the pattern comprises evaluating the expression using the at least one of the one or more file statistics of interest associated with the one or more managed objects associated with that metadata record, and
applying the action on one or more managed objects in the network file systems that are associated with the metadata records, thereby changing a state of the network file systems wherein file system data is collected at a first time and the fie system metadata is collected at a second time and the one or more file system statistics of interest are generated using the file system data collected at the first time and the file system metadata collected at the second time.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the applying step is performed synchronously or asynchronously with a file system activity.
9. The system of claim 7 , wherein the action is triggered automatically without human intervention.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the action is triggered by interacting with a user.
11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the file system metadata to collect is specified by a user.
12. The system of claim 7 , wherein the rule is associated with an operation requested on the one or more managed objects.
13. A method, comprising
accessing network file systems at one or more physical locations;
collecting file system metadata from the network file systems, wherein the file system metadata comprises one or more pieces of metadata of interest;
accessing one or more user defined heuristics, wherein each user define heuristic is an algorithm for deriving a file system statistic associated with a managed object based on the processing of one or more pieces of metadata of interest associated with the managed object, the algorithm and the one or more pieces of metadata of interest are specified by the user and the file system statistic is not file system metadata;
applying the one or more user-defined heuristics to the one or more pieces of metadata of interest to generate one or more file system statistics of interest;
storing the one or more pieces of metadata of interest and the one or more file system statistics of interest in a metadata repository;
enabling a user to define a rule via a user interface, wherein the rule comprises a pattern and an action and wherein the pattern comprises an expression including at least one of the one or more file system statistics of interest;
searching metadata records in the metadata repository that match the pattern, wherein determining whether a metadata record matches the pattern comprises evaluating the expression using the at least one of the one or more file statistics of interest associated with the one or more managed objects associated with that metadata record; and
applying the action on one or more managed objects in the network file systems that are associated with the metadata records, thereby changing a state of the network file systems wherein file system data is collected at a first time and the file system metadata is collected at a second time and the one or more file system statistics of interest are generated using the file system data collected at the first time and the file system metadata collected at the second time.
14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the applying step is performed synchronously or asynchronously with a file system activity.
15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the action is triggered automatically without human intervention.
16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the action is triggered by interacting with a user.
17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the file system metadata to collect is specified by a user.
18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the rule is associated with an operation requested on the one or more managed objects.