Patent ID: 7577806
Filing Date: 2009-08-18
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A storage management system for backing up a plurality of units of storage, the storage management system comprising: at least one current store, separate from the plurality of units of storage, representing a current state of at least one of the plurality of units of storage; and at least one time store, separate from the plurality of units of storage and the at least one current store, the at least one time store storing old data copied from the at least one current store and associated timestamps; wherein the storage management system automatically records information associated with all write commands directed to the plurality of units of storage within the at least one time store, each write command comprising an instruction to overwrite at least one of the plurality of units of storage with new data; wherein the storage management system copies, prior to overwriting the at least one unit of storage, old data in the at least one current store, representing old data present at the at least one unit of storage, into the at least one time store, wherein the old data is timestamped in the at least one time store, thereby continuously indexing by timestamp in the at least one time store old data to be overwritten with new data prior to execution of each write command; wherein the storage management system is further configured to identify old data that were present in a specified portion of the plurality of units of storage at a specified time prior to being overwritten based at least in part on a timestamp corresponding to the specified time and associated with the old data in the at least one time store, without the use of a snapshot containing the old data at the specified time; wherein the at least one time store does not store the new data.