Storage plane organization and storage systems based thereon using queries and subqueries for data searching

An article of manufacture for use in a computer system storing information units in a storage management system, the article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied in said medium which may cause the computer to:

• store information units, each information unit comprising a set of data elements and a set of index elements;
• classify information units into a plurality of information unit types;
• classify index elements into a plurality of index classes;
• determine one or more information unit types associated with a query and limiting search scope based on the information unit types;
• and
• process the query by generating subqueries referencing the index classes corresponding to the information unit types.

A storage management system comprising:

• means for storing information units, each information unit comprising a set of data elements and a set of index elements;
• means for classifying information units into a plurality of information unit types;
• means for classifying index elements into a plurality of index classes;
• means for determining one or more information unit types associated with a query and determining a search scope based on the information unit types;
• and
• means for processing the query by generating subqueries referencing the index classes corresponding to the information unit types.

A storage management system for storing a data collection of a plurality of information units, each information unit having an information unit type, comprising:

• means for determining information unit types addressed by a request to search for a particular information unit having a particular information unit type;
• means for determining a time frame concerned for the particular information unit;
• means for determining a storage segment storing the particular information unit type during the time frame;
• means for identifying at storage medium storing the determined storage segment;
• means for generating a set of search subrequests of data manipulation statements for each storage media, and for each version of the particular storage segments in the time frame;
• means for capturing the results of the search subrequests for each subquery, including the number, if any, of relevant information units;
• means for consolidating the result of each subquery into a hit list of reference pointers pointing to at least a portion of the relevant information units;
• and
• means for retrieving, using the reference pointers, at least a portion of the relevant information units.