Method and apparatus for maintaining compliant storage
AssigneeNetApp, Inc.
InventorsStephen Manley, William McGovern
Life of this patent
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Abstract
According to an embodiment of the invention, a storage server is mirrored onto a mirroring server. The mirroring server maintains point-in-time images of data stored on the storage server. The point-in-time images have a retention period. During the retention period, the point-in-time images must be maintained to comply with 17 C.F.R. 240.17a-4 (the “Rule”). When a command to delete a point-in-time image is issued, the file system of the mirroring server references a table including a list of point-in-time images and their retention dates. If the current date is greater than the retention date, the point-in-time image is deleted. If the current date is less than the retention date, the point-in-time image cannot be deleted.
Claims16
A method for complying with a data preservation regulation, the method comprising:
- mirroring data of a non-compliant storage server by using a mirroring server to generate mirrored data;
- generating a point-in-time image of the mirrored data according to a specified scheduling criterion;
- assigning a retention period to the point-in-time image;
- receiving a command to delete the point-in-time image;
- and
- preventing deletion of the point-in-time image in response to the command to delete, when the retention period has not expired.
A system to provide compliance with a data preservation regulation, the system comprising:
- a first storage server to maintain data, the first storage server being non-compliant with the data preservation regulation;
- and
- a mirroring storage server coupled to the first storage server, to provide compliance with the data preservation regulation by mirroring the data to generate mirrored data, generating a point-in-time image of the mirrored data according to a specified scheduling criterion, assigning a retention period to the point-in-time image, and responding to a command to delete the point-in-time image by preventing deletion of the point-in-time image when the retention period has not expired.
A method for complying with a data preservation regulation, the method comprising:
- mirroring data of a non-compliant storage server by using a mirroring server to generate mirrored data;
- generating a read-only point-in-time image of the mirrored data according to a specified scheduling criterion;
- assigning a retention period to the read-only point-in-time image;
- receiving a command to delete the read-only point-in-time image;
- and
- preventing deletion of the read-only point-in-time image in response to the command to delete, when the retention period has not expired.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.