Clustered hierarchical file services

A method for object-based archival data storage, the system comprising:

• Interfacing an administration interface subsystem having a graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface (CLI), the administration interface subsystem allowing an administrator to interface with:
• an object-based storage subsystem having an object store meta data subsystem that manages the information about stored objects, the object store meta data subsystem providing persistent recta-data about the stored object and executing the storage management policies,
• a meta data subsystem for storing meta data about files, and includes a virtual file subsystem having a virtual file server (VFS), wherein the meta data subsystem categorizes data into classes and maps classes to policies that are stored in the policy subsystem,
• a policy subsystem that provides system rules predetermined by the administrator for at least one of hash based integrity checking, read-only/write-ability/erase-ability control, and duplicate data treatment corresponding to files and file objects using the policy subsystem, using a scalable interconnect,
• a scheduler subsystem having a job scheduler control interface that communicates with the policy subsystem in order to receive policy enforcement scheduling rules, the scheduler further communicating with the object-based storage subsystem in order to duplicate, delete and migrate existing data, and an audit subsystem that provides system wide logging capability, threshold management of audits and logs at local processing environments, different notification mechanisms, and an administrator configurable parameter system that defines the type and length of audit information to be kept by the system;
• interfacing a client platform to the VFS of the meta data subsystem using at least one file presentation interface;
• and
• including a scalable interconnect to couple the object-based storage subsystem, the administration interface subsystem, the meta data subsystem, the policy subsystem, and the at least one file presentation interface.