Patent ID: 11880334
Assignee: COHESITY, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 18:
19. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled with the processor, wherein the memory is configured to provide the processor with instructions which when executed cause the processor to:
perform a full snapshot archive of a tree data structure corresponding to a particular moment in time, wherein the tree data structure corresponding to the particular moment in time includes one or more nodes associated with a previous full snapshot of a primary storage system and one or more nodes associated with one or more incremental snapshots of the primary storage system;
determine a tree data structure corresponding to the previous full snapshot of the primary storage system and one or more tree data structures corresponding to the one or more incremental snapshots associated with the primary storage system;
determine a retention time associated with a retention policy associated with the tree data structure corresponding to the particular moment in time has passed; and
in response to a determination that the retention time associated with the retention policy associated with the tree data structure corresponding to the particular moment in time has passed:
traverse a tree data structure corresponding to the particular moment in time including by decrementing a count value associated with an encountered node during a traversal of the tree data structure corresponding to the particular moment in time, wherein a first further traversal of a first branch of the tree data structure is stopped in response to encountering a first node having a non-zero decremented count value and a second further traversal of a second branch of the tree data structure is continued in response to encountering a second node having a zero decremented count value, and
delete, from the tree data structure corresponding to the particular moment in time, one or more nodes of the tree data structure corresponding to the particular moment in time having the zero decremented count value.