Granular restore view using out-of-band continuous metadata collection

A computer program product comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code including instructions to:

• receive, by a metadata server, incremental metadata changes associated with objects in a client computer system, the incremental metadata changes collected in real time by a metadata agent executing in the client computer system;
• store, by the metadata server, the incremental metadata changes in a metadata database associated with the metadata server;
• receive, by the metadata server and from a backup server, a request to search the metadata database for metadata of the objects associated with a particular backup point, the request including information enabling the metadata server to construct search criteria, the information including at least point-in-time information;
• consolidate, by the metadata server, the incremental metadata changes to form a single consolidated metadata change in response to receiving the request to search the metadata database from the backup server and in response to determining a number of the incremental metadata changes collected exceeds a number of backups performed during a time period, the single consolidated metadata change applying all of the incremental metadata changes;
• associate, by the metadata server, the single consolidated metadata change with backup metadata associated with the backup server coupled to the metadata server in response to receiving the request to search the metadata database from the backup server;
• and
• search, by the metadata server, the metadata database based on a search criteria, the search criteria being generated by the metadata server using the information from the received request from the backup server.

A system comprising:

• a processor-based application, which when executed on a computer having one or more processors, will cause the one or more processors to:
• receive, by a metadata server, incremental metadata changes associated with objects in a client computer system, the incremental metadata changes collected in real time by a metadata agent executing in the client computer system;
• store, by the metadata server, the incremental metadata changes in a metadata database associated with the metadata server;
• receive, by the metadata server and from a backup server, a request to search the metadata database for metadata of the objects associated with a particular backup point, the request including information enabling the metadata server to construct search criteria, the information including at least point-in-time information;
• consolidate, by the metadata server, the incremental metadata changes to form a single consolidated metadata change in response to receiving the request to search the metadata database from the backup server and in response to determining a number of the incremental metadata changes collected exceeds a number of backups performed during a time period, the single consolidated metadata change applying all of the incremental metadata changes;
• associate, by the metadata server, the single consolidated metadata change with backup metadata associated with the backup server coupled to the metadata server in response to receiving the request to search the metadata database from the backup server;
• and
• search, by the metadata server, the metadata database based on a search criteria, the search criteria being generated by the metadata server using the information from the received request from the backup server.