Patent ID: 9679165
Date: 2017-06-13
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L

Claim:
1. A method for managing access to encrypted data of a data storage system wherein changing encryption keys are used to store write data to the data storage system, the method comprising: providing a data storage system comprising a plurality of computer-readable drive storage devices, the data storage system storing a plurality of snapshots in at least a subset of the drive storage devices, wherein each snapshot or combination of snapshots provides a previous point-in-time copy of data in a volume of the data storage system, wherein a given snapshot identifies write data for the volume between a time when the snapshot is committed to disk as read-only and a time when a previous snapshot was committed to disk as read-only; storing in each snapshot, encrypted snapshot data comprising the write data for that particular snapshot; associating a decryption key identifier with each snapshot, the decryption key identifier identifying a decryption key corresponding to an encryption key utilized to encrypt the encrypted snapshot data for a particular snapshot, wherein the decryption key identifier is an identifier of the decryption key while not being or storing a decryption key itself and wherein the decryption key is not accessible to the data storage system; storing, with each snapshot, its associated decryption key identifier; and upon request for the encrypted snapshot data, providing access to the encrypted snapshot data and the decryption key identifier; wherein associating a decryption key identifier with each snapshot ensures accessibility to historical snapshot data if changing encryption keys are utilized.