Method and apparatus for using selective attribute acquisition and clause evaluation for policy based storage management

An apparatus for managing object storage, comprising:

• a processing hardware device coupled with:
• a policy engine module configured for receiving a plurality of cached attributes, clause results, change logs and future status for the plurality of stored data objects from a database for producing a policy evaluation result with low cost based on selective attribute acquisition and elimination of rule clause evaluations involving attributes determined to have infrequent changes based on historical information;
• a policy analyzer module configured for analyzing the object management policy for detecting involved attributes of the plurality of stored data objects, for identifying acquisition costs and clause failure probabilities required to execute the object management policy and for determining attribute acquisition order that has a data storage management cost which is minimal or below a predetermined threshold;
• and
• an information acquisition module configured to acquire the attributes of the plurality of stored data objects from the repository based on the low cost attribute acquisition order,
• wherein the policy engine module is further configured for executing an object management policy based on analysis of acquisition order for the acquired attributes for managing the plurality of stored data objects at the low cost for object storage, attribute acquisition and policy evaluation, wherein each attribute is associated with an acquisition cost value, and wherein selective attribute acquisition comprises determining expected data storage management costs for each of a plurality of possible orders of attribute acquisition for the detected attributes based on associated attribute acquisition cost for each attribute, and the determined expected data storage management costs is defined based on attribute acquisition costs and failure probabilities, wherein the failure probabilities are continuously refined based on statistics of evaluation results of actual attribute acquisition costs and failures of rule expressions.

A computer program product for managing stored data objects comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

• detect involved attributes of a plurality of stored data objects based on a plurality of object management rules;
• acquire the necessary attributes for producing the policy evaluation result with low cost based on selective attribute acquisition and elimination of rule clause evaluations involving attributes determined to have infrequent changes based on historical information;
• determine expected data storage management costs for each of a plurality of possible orders of attribute acquisition for the detected attributes, wherein the determined expected data storage management costs is defined based on attribute acquisition costs and failure probabilities;
• and
• execute an object management policy based on analyzing acquisition order of the acquired attributes to manage the plurality of stored data objects at reduced cost for object storage, attribute acquisition and policy evaluation, wherein each attribute is associated with an acquisition cost value.