Managing copies of data

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to create copies of data such that a subsequent request can determine the precedence with which to access the copies of data, by a method comprising:

• identifying source data stored within a computer system;
• creating a primary copy of the data stored within the computer system;
• updating a metabase with information describing the availability of the primary copy of the data stored within the computer system, wherein the availability information includes at least a type of media on which the primary copy of the data is stored or a location where the data copy is stored or types of data management operations that have been performed on the data copy;
• performing a data management operation on the primary copy to create at least one secondary copy of the data stored within the computer system by accessing the primary copy and without accessing source data,
• wherein the data management operation is selected from the group consisting of encryption, single instancing, and content indexing;
• and,
• receiving a request to access data and determining which of the primary and at least one secondary copy to use to access the data based at least in part on the availability information stored within the metabase.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a computer system to create copies of data such that a subsequent request can determine the precedence with which to access the copies of data, by a method comprising:

• identifying a primary copy of source data stored within a computer system;
• updating a metabase with information describing the availability of the primary copy of the data stored within the computer system, wherein the availability information describes the effort required to retrieve one or more data objects from the primary copy relative to other copies of the source data;
• performing a data management operation on the primary copy of the source data to create at least one secondary copy of the source data,
• wherein the data management operation includes encryption, single instancing, and content indexing;
• and,
• identifying the at least one secondary copy of the source data stored within the computer system;
• updating the metabase with information describing the availability of the at least one secondary copy of the source data stored within the computer system,
• such that a client can access the metabase to determine which of multiple copies of source data to access for performing a storage operation;
• and,
• receiving a request to access data and determining which of the primary and at least one secondary copy to use to access the data based at least in part on the availability information stored within the metabase.

A method in a computer system for accessing data stored in multiple copies, the method comprising:

• displaying a web-based user interface configured to receive a request identifying at least one data object to be accessed;
• receiving through the web-based user interface a request identifying at least one data object to be accessed;
• querying an index to locate data copies that contain the identified at least one data object, wherein the data copies are created from similar source data;
• and
• displaying a list of results comprising data copies located by the query that satisfy the request, wherein a user can access one or more of the data copy results through the displayed list,
• wherein the list reflects metadata information describing availability of a primary copy of the data stored within the computer system, wherein the availability information reflects an effort required to retrieve one or more data objects from the primary copy relative to other copies of the source data,
• wherein the list reflects metadata information describing availability of at least one secondary copy of the data stored within the computer system,
• wherein the secondary copy was created by a data management operation on the primary copy of the source data to create the at least one secondary copy of the source data, and
• wherein the data management operation includes encryption, single instancing, and content indexing;
• and,
• receiving a request to access data and determining which of the primary and at least one secondary copy to use to access the data based at least in part on the availability information stored within the list.