Search filtered file system using secondary storage, including multi-dimensional indexing and searching of archived files

1. A method of archiving a file to secondary storage in an information management system, the method comprising:

archiving a file to secondary storage, by a media agent component of the information management system that has been identified for archiving the file, wherein the archiving comprises:

(a) dividing the file being archived into a plurality of independently accessible smaller portions of an archive copy of the file, and

(b) multi-dimensional indexing of the file being archived, wherein the multi-dimensional indexing comprises:

(i) generating a file attribute index, which includes extrinsic information about the file being archived that is independent of file contents, and

(ii) generating a content index of at least one of: text content, picture content, video content, and audio content of the file being archived, and

(c) wherein each independently accessible smaller portion in the plurality of independently accessible smaller portions of the archive copy is identified at least once in at least one of the file attribute index and the content index;

providing to a user of the information management system a fast-forward progression through the plurality of independently accessible smaller portions of the archive copy without restoring each independently accessible smaller portion from secondary storage,

wherein the fast-forward progression is based on searching at least one of the file attribute index and the content index; and

restoring a first independently accessible portion of the archive copy to a user-device component of the information management system without having to also restore the other independently accessible smaller portions of the archive copy,

wherein the first independently accessible smaller portion of the archive copy is found by a search filter searching at least one of the file attribute index and the content index within the information management system.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing a user of the information management system with a search utility coupled to the search filter, wherein the search utility is based on multi-dimensional indexing performed in the course of archiving a plurality of files in the information management system; and

restoring from secondary storage only those archive copies or independently accessible smaller portions thereof that satisfy the user's search criteria, based on a respective file attribute index and content index associated with each archive copy.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the file attribute index and the content index are located on the user-device component of the information management system; and

wherein the archive copy is located on a secondary storage component which is distinct from the user-device component.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the content index comprises pattern recognition that extracts content information about one or more images in the file being archived.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the content index comprises pattern recognition that extracts content information about one or more audio sequences in the file being archived.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating the content index comprises pattern recognition that extracts content information about one or more video sequences in the file being archived.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the multi-dimensional indexing comprises generating pointers to the locations in the secondary storage of each respective independently accessible smaller portion of the archive copy.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the content index to a first location where the content index may be searched by the search filter, wherein the first location is in the primary storage; and

storing the file attribute index to a second location where the file attribute index may be searched by the search filter, wherein the second location is also in the primary storage.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the content index to a first location where the content index may be searched by the search filter, wherein the first location is associated with the media agent; and

storing the file attribute index to a second location where the file attribute index may be searched by the search filter, wherein the second location is also associated with the media agent.

10. A method comprising:

multi-dimensional indexing of a file being archived to secondary storage in an information management system, by a multi-dimensional indexer,

wherein the file being archived is stored in primary storage which is in communication with a user computing device, and

wherein the multi-dimensional indexing comprises:

(a) generating a file attribute index, which includes extrinsic information about the file being archived that is independent of contents of the file, and

(b) generating a content index based on at least one of: text content, picture content, video content, and audio content of the file being archived;

archiving the file to secondary storage, by a media agent component of the information management system,

wherein the file archiving includes dividing the file into a plurality of independently accessible smaller portions of an archive copy of the file being archived, and

wherein each independently accessible smaller portion in the plurality of independently accessible smaller portions of the archive copy is identified at least once in at least one of the file attribute index and the content index;

providing to a user of the information management system a fast-forward progression through the plurality of the independently accessible smaller portions of the archive copy without restoring from the secondary storage each independently accessible smaller portion,

wherein the fast-forward progression is based on searching at least one of the file attribute index and the content index;

restoring a first independently accessible smaller portion of the archive copy to the primary storage in communication with the user computing device, without also restoring from the secondary storage the other independently accessible smaller portions in the plurality of independently accessible smaller portions of the archive copy; and

wherein the multi-dimensional indexer executes as computer-executable instructions on a hardware processor coupled to non-transitory computer memory storing the instructions.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the hardware processor is part of the user computing device that is in communication with the primary storage.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the hardware processor is part of a secondary storage computing device that executes the media agent component of the information management system.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

accessing, by the user computing device, the restored first independently accessible smaller portion of the archive copy in the primary storage.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the restoring is performed by a media agent component of the information management system.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the restoring is performed by a media agent component of the information management system in response to an indication received from the user computing device searching at least one of the file attribute index and the content index.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the file being archived is a media file, and wherein the restored first independently accessible smaller portion of the archive copy comprises a picture that satisfies a search criterion.

17. The method of claim 10 wherein the file being archived is a media file, and wherein the restored first independently accessible smaller portion of the archive copy comprises an audio segment that satisfies a search criterion.

18. The method of claim 10 wherein the file being archived is a media file, and wherein the restored first independently accessible smaller portion of the archive copy comprises a video segment that satisfies a search criterion.

19. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

providing the user of the information management system with a search utility for searching the secondary storage based on the multi-dimensional indexing; and

wherein the restoring comprises mounting to the primary storage only such independently accessible smaller portions of the archive copy that satisfy search criteria supplied by the user and applied by the search utility.

20. A computer-readable storage medium, excluding transitory propagating signals, storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to execute a method of enabling a user to search from a user-device for content stored in a file archive of an information management system, based on multi-dimensional indexing of a plurality of files archived to the file archive, the method comprising:

providing a search interface;

receiving a search criterion;

searching, based on the search criterion, indexing information about the file archive, which comprises respective archive copies of the plurality of files archived to the file archive,

wherein the indexing information comprises, for each respective archive copy in the file archive:

(i) a file attribute index generated by a media agent when the respective file was archived to the file archive, and

(ii) a content index generated by at least one of the media agent and a user-device when the respective file was archived to the file archive,

wherein the content index indexes at least part of the contents of the file being archived based on at least one of: text content, picture content, video content, and audio content, and

wherein the search criterion indicates at least one of: text content, picture content, video content, and audio content to be searched for; and

performing an action on a first archive copy in the file archive, which archive copy satisfies the search criterion used in the searching,

wherein the action comprises providing a fast-forward progression through a plurality of smaller portions of the archive copy without individually restoring the smaller portions of the archive copy,

wherein the fast-forward progression is based on searching at least one of the file attribute index and the content index of the archive copy, and

wherein each of the smaller portions of the archive copy is indexed at least once, during the archiving of the file to the file archive, in at least one of the file attribute index and the content index of the archive copy, and may be restored to the user-device without the other smaller portions of the archive copy also being restored.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein the method further comprises:

mounting the archive copy that satisfies the search criterion used in the searching to a drive accessible by the user-device using a network file system (NFS) interface without also mounting archive copies that do not satisfy the search criterion.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein the method further comprises:

mounting the archive copy that satisfies the search criterion used in the searching to a drive accessible by the user-device using a network file system (NFS) interface without also mounting archive copies that do not satisfy the search criterion; and

restoring to the user-device a first smaller portion of the archive copy without also restoring the other smaller portions of the archive copy.

23. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 20 wherein the method further comprises:

mounting the archive copy that satisfies the search criterion used in the searching to a drive accessible by the user-device using a network file system (NFS) interface without also mounting archive copies that do not satisfy the search criterion;

restoring to the user-device a first smaller portion of the archive copy in response to a user command indicating the first smaller portion; and

restoring to the user-device, without receiving a further user command, a second smaller portion of the archive copy which, according to the content index, is immediately before or immediately after the first smaller portion of the archive copy in the fast-forward progression; and

wherein the first and second smaller portions are restored without also restoring the other smaller portions of the archive copy.