System and Method for Maintaining a Comprehensive Catalog of Hierarchical File Data

A system for maintaining a comprehensive catalog of metadata records that describes hierarchical file data held in one or more file systems, the system comprising:

• a Modular Change Processor (MCP) communicably couplable to one or more specialized file systems containing hierarchical file data, and to a catalog containing metadata corresponding to the hierarchical file data;
• an Enumerator Computer (EC) communicably couplable to the catalog and to the one or more specialized file systems;
• the MCP having a first memory, a first processor, and a first stored program in the first memory executable by the first processor, the first stored program configured to:
• (a) cause the MCP to capture event notifications in one or more native formats generated by the one or more specialized file systems, the event notifications pertaining to contents of affected directories within the hierarchical file data;
• (b) cause the MCP to translate the event notifications into a common format;
• (c) cause the MCP to coalesce the translated event notifications into one or more coalesced notifications for particular ones of the affected directories;
• and
• (d) cause the MCP to use the coalesced notifications to generate and transmit to the catalog, instructions to mark metadata corresponding to the affected directories as ‘out-of-sync’;
• the EC having a second memory, a second processor, and a second stored program in the second memory executable by the second processor, the second stored program configured to:
• (e) cause the EC to receive from the catalog, identities of directories having metadata marked ‘out-of-sync’ (the ‘out-of-sync’ directories);
• (f) cause the EC to receive, from the one or more specialized file systems, updated contents of the ‘out-of-sync’ directories;
• (g) cause the EC to generate replacement metadata for the updated contents;
• and
• (h) cause the EC to send the replacement metadata to the catalog.