Abstract:
Computer systems and methods for protecting data. A computer system includes a processor, a policy generator, and resources. Each resource has associated data. The processor accesses a data protection requirements specification (DPRS). The DPRS uses a common, non-application specific schema to represent first and second schema for expressing data protection policies. The processor triggers the policy generator to generate a first data protection policy for protecting a resource. The processor uses the first data protection policy to protect data associated with the resource. To generate the first data protection policy, the policy generator scans the DPRS and identifies elements of the DPRS. The elements of the DPRS are pre-defined in the common schema. The policy generator translates values of the elements to corresponding attributes of the first data protection policy expressed in the first schema. A value of a first element in the common schema corresponds to the resource to be protected.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to computer systems and, more particularly, to data protection methods within computer systems. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     There is an increasing need for organizations to protect data that resides on a variety of host devices via some type of data protection application. Data protection applications maybe employed to protect data from loss due to user error, system failure, outages, and disasters, etc. as well as archiving information for regulatory compliance, workflow tracking, etc. For example, data protection applications may schedule and perform various data protection methods such as full backups, incremental backups, replications, snapshots, etc. Different methods may be used in different circumstances. For example, if a user desires to protect a complete volume, a volume backup may be performed in which the entire contents of a particular disk drive are stored as a monolithic backup dataset. Volume backups may provide the advantage of rapid restoration. However, volume backups consume storage resources for data that may not need to be protected. For example, there may be times when protection may be desired for data related to one or more applications only. 
     An alternative approach to data protection is file-by-file backup. In file-by-file backup, a backup agent may identify a particular application to be protected and convey a copy of only those files that are related to the identified application to a backup medium including any metadata that may be required to restore the application-related files into the context of the application. File-by-file backups may therefore consume less storage space than volume backups. However, restoration from a file-by-file backup may be slower than restoration from a volume backup. Typically, to restore files to an application, the backup files may be copied to a temporary location from which a user may browse, search, or otherwise select files to be restored. While this approach allows for granular recovery of data files, it may be unnecessarily time-consuming. 
     Backup methods such as those described above may be performed in accordance with the values of a complex variety of configuration parameters. Among these parameters may be the type of resource to be protected, a priority level for the resource, the type of operation to be performed, the type of storage to be used to store a backup dataset, the time and frequency of performing the operation, the type of recovery technology that is to be applied to the resource backup dataset, and retention policies of the backup dataset, etc. A data protection application may store a particular set of values of the above parameters as a data protection policy. Unfortunately, to configure a particular data protection policy, an administrator or other user may be asked to select values for each of these parameters, which may be a time-consuming, complex, and error-prone operation. 
     In addition, each different data protection application may provide a different subset of the above parameters for configuration. For example, different data protection applications may support different sets of resource types. Some data protection applications may support only a single resource for each policy while others may support multiple resources per policy. Other parameters may be mismatched among data protection applications including support of different backup methods, storage management features, and backup retention features. Further, each different data protection application may have its own terminology for specifying the above parameters. Still further, each different data protection application may have a distinct user interface through which to establish values for these configuration parameters. Configuring a data protection policy may require a user to navigate through numerous dialog windows and correctly configure numerous arcane settings. For large environments, setting up many data protection policies may be a very challenging and tedious task. Moreover, any expertise that an administrator acquires in configuring a first data protection application may not be applicable to other data protection applications. 
     The above considerations may be rendered especially relevant when it becomes desirable or necessary to migrate data protection from one data protection application to another. Also, it may be difficult to translate existing policies to take advantage of new features of a new or updated data protection application. In view of the above, a more effective system and method for establishing data protection policies and configurations that accounts for these issues are desired. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Various embodiments of a computer system and methods are disclosed. In one embodiment, a computer system includes a processor, a policy generator, and resources, each resource having associated data that may be protected. The processor accesses a data protection requirements specification (DPRS). The DPRS uses a common schema to represent at least a first and a second schema for expressing data protection policies. The processor triggers the policy generator to generate a first data protection policy for protecting a resource. The processor uses the first data protection policy to protect data associated with the resource. To generate the first data protection policy, the policy generator scans the DPRS and identifies elements of the DPRS. The elements of the DPRS are pre-defined in the common schema. The policy generator translates values of the elements to corresponding attributes of the first data protection policy expressed in the first schema. A value of a first element in the common schema corresponds to the resource to be protected. 
     In one embodiment, the first data protection policy includes tasks to be performed to protect the resource, each task having at least one of the attributes. In a further embodiment, the attributes include storing data used to protect the resource on a particular type of medium, executing tasks at a particular frequency, and/or retaining data used to protect the resource for a particular length of time. 
     In a still further embodiment, at least one element specifies that other elements are required, preferred, or are to be used as a hint in adding a task to the first data protection policy. In a still further embodiment, at least one element specifies a frequency level and the processor includes in the first data protection policy, a frequency of execution of data protection tasks for the resource corresponding to the frequency level. In a still further embodiment, at least element specifies a retention level and the processor includes in the first data protection policy, a time period during which a dataset that is used to protect the resource is retained that corresponds to the retention level. 
     In another embodiment, the processor receives requirements for protecting data associated with the resource as user input data. The processor converts the user input data into the DPRS using one or more elements pre-defined by the common schema 
     In yet another embodiment, the first data protection policy protects data associated with the resource using a first data protection application. The processor extracts attributes from the second data protection policy. The attributes are expressed in the second schema. The processor maps the extracted attributes to values of elements pre-defined by the common schema and uses the values of elements pre-defined by the common schema in the DPRS 
     These and other embodiments will become apparent upon consideration of the following description and accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  illustrates one embodiment of a computer system. 
         FIG. 2  illustrates one embodiment of a computer. 
         FIG. 3  is block diagram illustrating the operation of one embodiment of a data protection application. 
         FIG. 4  illustrates one embodiment of a system that uses a data protection requirements specification. 
         FIG. 5  illustrates one embodiment of a process that may be used to capture user inputs for generating a DPRS. 
         FIG. 6  illustrates one embodiment of a process that may be used to export a data protection application configuration for generating a DPRS. 
         FIG. 7  illustrates one embodiment of a process that may be used to generate a data protection application configuration from an existing DPRS 
     
    
    
     While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments are shown by way of example in the drawings and are herein described in detail. It should be understood, however, that drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  illustrates one embodiment of a computer system  100 . As shown, system  100  includes hosts  110 ,  130 , and  140  interconnected through a network  120 . In one embodiment, network  120  may include one or more interconnected local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), the Internet, and/or one or more a modem banks that are coupled to a public switched telephone network (PSTN). Hosts  110 ,  130 , and  140  are representative of any number of stationary computers and/or mobile computing devices such as laptops, handheld computers, etc. Both hosts and mobile hosts may operate as peers in a peer-to-peer configuration or as clients and servers in a client/server configuration. In one embodiment, computer system  100  or a portion thereof could be implemented as part of a cloud computing environment. 
     In alternative embodiments, the number and type of hosts and network elements is not limited to those shown in  FIG. 1 . Almost any number and combination of server, desktop, and mobile hosts may be interconnected in system  100  via various combinations of modem banks, direct LAN connections, wireless connections, WAN links, etc. Also, at various times one or more hosts may operate offline. In addition, during operation, individual host connection types may change as mobile users travel from place to place connecting, disconnecting, and reconnecting to system  100 . 
     In the illustrated embodiment, host  110  includes resources  112 A- 112 N that may have associated data to be protected. As used herein, elements referred to by a reference numeral followed by a letter may be collectively referred to by the numeral alone. For example, resources  112 A- 112 N may be collectively referred to as resources  112 . Resources, as used herein, may refer to data in general including picture, music, or video files, or to one or more specific volumes, directories, folders, and/or files as well as to the state of a host, a server, or an application or to the contents of a database, etc., such as Exchange, SharePoint, Oracle, DB2, SAP, etc. In the illustrated embodiment, host  110  also includes an agent  115 , host  130  includes a data protection application  135 , and host  140  includes a media server  145  that is coupled to a backup medium  155 . Data protection application  135  may be configured to protect one or more of resources  112 , such as by retrieving backup data associated with resource  112  from agent  115  and conveying the backup data to media server  145  to be stored on backup medium  155 . Backup frequency may depend on a variety of factors including the urgency of data protection, storage pool capacity, network connection state, and enterprise policies. In one embodiment, backups may be done according to a schedule or at other times determined by administrative policy, security policy, or to meet other requirements of an enterprise. 
     In alternative embodiments, data protection application  135 , media server  145 , and resources  112  may be located on a single host. In other embodiments, resource  112  may be located on any number of hosts including host  130  and/or host  140 . In one embodiment, backup medium  155  may be part of or included in one of hosts  140 ,  130 , or  110 , or another host coupled to network  120 . These and other embodiments, which will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, once the disclosures of this application have been appreciated, are possible, and are contemplated. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates one embodiment of a computer  200 . Computer  200  may be representative of any computer apparatus described herein, e.g., host  110 . Similarly, computer  200  may be used to implement any of the below-described methods. Computer  200  may be any of various types of devices, including, but not limited to, a personal computer system, desktop computer, laptop or notebook computer, mainframe computer system, handheld computer, workstation, network computer, a consumer device, application server, storage device, a peripheral device such as a switch, modem, router, etc, or in general any type of computing device. It is noted that any of hosts  110  and/or host  130  or  140  may be embodied according to configuration similar to that of  FIG. 2 . 
     Computer  200  may include one or more processors  250 , each of which may include multiple cores, any of which may be single or multi-threaded. Computer  200  may also include one or more persistent storage devices  240  (e.g. optical storage, magnetic storage, hard drive, tape drive, solid state memory, etc), which may include various data items (e.g., files), such as  242  and applications, such as  244 . Example applications include databases, email applications, e.g. Microsoft Outlook, email and collaboration servers, e.g. Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SharePoint, and a variety of others as known in the art. Computer  200  may include one or more memories  210  (e.g., one or more of cache, SRAM, DRAM, RDRAM, EDO RAM, DDR 10 RAM, SDRAM, Rambus RAM, EEPROM, etc.). Computer  200  may include one or more network interfaces  260  for transmitting and receiving data, such as between agents and data protection application or media servers, as described herein. Computer  200  may further include one or more user interfaces  270  for receiving user input or displaying output to users, such as a keyboard, mouse or other pointing device and a monitor or other visual display device. Various embodiments may include fewer or additional components not illustrated in  FIG. 2  (e.g., video cards, audio cards, additional network interfaces, peripheral devices, a network interface such as an ATM interface, an Ethernet interface, a Frame Relay interface, etc.). 
     The one or more processors  250 , storage device(s)  240 , network interface  260 , user interface  270  and system memories  210  may be coupled to system interconnect  230 . One or more of the system memories  210  may contain program instructions  220 . Program instructions  220  may be encoded in platform native binary, any interpreted language such as Java™ byte-code, or in any other language such as C/C++, Java™, etc or in any combination thereof. 
     Program instructions  220  may include program instructions executable to implement one or more data protection applications  222  described herein. According to the illustrated embodiment, memory  210  may also comprise program instructions executable to implement one or more operating systems  224 , such as Windows™ and/or Linux. 
     The data protection applications, as described herein, may be provided as an article of manufacture that may include a tangible computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions, which, if executed, may cause a computer system or computing device to perform various methods in different embodiments. A tangible computer-readable storage medium may include any mechanism for storing information in a form (e.g., software, processing application) readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). The machine-readable storage medium may include, but is not limited to, various tangible media, including magnetic storage media (e.g., floppy diskette); optical storage media (e.g., CD-ROM); magneto-optical storage media; read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); erasable programmable memory (e.g., EPROM and EEPROM); flash memory; electrical, or other types of tangible media suitable for storing program instructions. In addition, program instructions may be communicated using intangible computer-readable media, including optical, acoustical, or other form of propagated signal (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.) 
       FIG. 3  is block diagram  300  illustrating the operation of one embodiment of a data protection application  135 . Data protection application  135  is shown coupled to resources  112  and to storage  310 . Storage  310  may include one or more of any of a variety of storage devices such as tape  312 , disk  314 , and solid-state disk  316 , etc. that are representative of backup media  155  as shown in  FIG. 1 . Application  135  may include one or more configurations  320  according to which data protection operations may be performed. Each configuration  320  may include one or more policies, such as policies  321  and  322 , as shown. Each policy may include a list of resources to which the policy applies. For example, policy  321  lists resources  112 A and  112 D, whereas policy  322  lists resource  112 G. For each listed resource, a policy may include an associated priority, such as priorities  335  and  345  that are associated with resources  112 A and  112 D, respectively, or priority  355  that is associated with resource  112 G. In addition, each policy may include a list of tasks, such as task  361 - 363  of policy  321  or tasks  364 - 366  of policy  322 . 
     During operation, data protection application  135  may transmit and receive data corresponding to resources  112  from one or more hosts computer systems and convey or retrieve backup datasets including data corresponding to resources  112  to or from storage  310 . In one embodiment, backup datasets may be created and stored in response to a user command in an ad hoc manner and/or as scheduled by the priorities and tasks specified in one or more policies. For instance, a priority may specify that a particular data protection task protecting a particular resource should be performed at a high frequency, such as daily or alternatively at a low frequency, such as weekly. A particular task may specify a method of data protection, such as a full or incremental backup, replication, etc, should be performed on a particular schedule, such as on Friday at 1:00 AM. Priorities may have values of very high, high, medium, low, and very low, or any similar range of values. Task methods may include full backup, incremental backup, replication, snapshot, restore, etc. Task methods may be performed at times and intervals specified in the task, such as daily at a particular time, weekly on a particular day, etc. Data protection policies and their tasks may include more detailed information as described below. 
     Listing 1. illustrates one embodiment of a set of data protection policies for protecting two servers.
         Listing 1. Sample Policy and Protected Resource
           Policy X: Server A (C:[M], D:[M], SQL Database[H]) and Server B (C:[M], D:[M], E:[M])
               Task A—Weekly (Friday at 1:00 AM) Full Backup to disk storage using media set with 1 month retention   Task B—Daily (8:00 PM) Incremental to disk storage using media set with 1 week retention   Task C—Duplicate (2:00 PM Friday) backup generated from task A to online tape library using media set with 1 year retention   
               Policy Y: Server B (Exchange Database [VH] [GRT])
               Task A—Weekly (Friday at 1:00 AM) Full Backup to disk storage using media set with 1 month retention   Task B—Daily (1:00 AM) Incremental to disk storage using media set with 1 week retention   Task C—Duplicate (10:00 AM Friday) backup generated from task A to online tape library using media set with 1 year retention   Task D—Duplicate (4:00 PM Friday) backup generated from task C to online tape library using media set with 7 year retention and associated with offsite vault rule   
               
               

     As listed above, policy X applies to servers A and B. Within server A, policy X applies a medium priority [M] to volumes C: and D: and a high priority [H] to a SQL database. Within server B, policy X applies a medium priority [M] to volumes C:, D:, and E:. Policy X schedules protection methods for these resources via tasks A, B, and C. Task A is scheduled to perform a full backup to disk storage using a media set with 1 month retention, weekly on Friday at 1:00 AM. Task B is scheduled to perform an incremental backup to disk storage using a media set with 1 week retention, every day at 8:00 PM. Task C is scheduled to duplicate the backup generated from task A to an online tape library using a media set with 1-year retention at 2:00 PM every Friday. Policy Y: applies to an Exchange database within Server B with a priority of very high [VH] and further specifies a recovery technology known as granular recovery technology [GRT]. Tasks A-D of policy Y may be interpreted in a similar manner as tasks A-C of policy X. 
     It is noted that the data protection policies and tasks illustrated above are specific to a single data protection application. The syntax and format in which these policies and tasks are expressed form an application-specific schema. However, different data protection applications may have different policy and task capabilities and be expressed in different application-specific schema. To accommodate these differences, a data protection requirements specification (DPRS) may be used to generalize the information contained in a data protection application&#39;s configuration and express the abstract requirements that result in a common schema that may differ from any particular application-specific schema and is not specific to any particular data protection application.  FIG. 4  illustrates one embodiment of a system  400  that uses a data protection requirements specification. In the illustrated embodiment, system  400  includes configurations  410  and  430 , a Data Protection Requirements Specification (DPRS)  420 , an export service  440 , a policy generator  450 , user requirements  460 , a user interface  470 , and a requirements definition process  480 . In various embodiments, configurations  410  and  430  may be two different instances of configurations of a single data protection application, or more generally, instances of two different data protection applications. DPRS  420  may be used in a variety of scenarios. For example, suppose configuration  410  is an existing configuration of a particular data protection application and a user desires an abstract representation of the configuration. The user may trigger export service  440  to interpret configuration  410  and convert the interpretation into a standard schema defined for the specification of data protection requirements. The interpretation may then be expressed as DPRS  420 . One example of a DPRS schema written in extended markup language (XML) is presented in Listing 2. 
     Listing 2. DPRS in XML format.
     &lt;?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“utf-8” ?&gt;
       &lt;DataProtectionRequirementSpecification ID=“GUID#1” mlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance””&gt;
           &lt;DataClassification&gt;
               &lt;DataClass&gt;
                   &lt;Class&gt;Exchange&lt;/Class&gt;   &lt;DataLifeCyclePlanID&gt;GUID#2&lt;/DataLifeCyclePlanID&gt;   &lt;ProtectionFrequencyLevel&gt;8&lt;/ProtectionFrequencyLevel&gt;   &lt;ExecutionWindow&gt;3&lt;/ExecutionWindow&gt;   &lt;ImportanceLevel&gt;Platinum&lt;/ImportanceLevel&gt;   &lt;AdditionalSpecs&gt;    &lt;ApplicationGRT&gt;Requirement&lt;/ApplicationGRT&gt;   &lt;/AdditionalSpecs&gt;   
                   &lt;/DataClass&gt;
                   &lt;DataClass&gt;    &lt;Class&gt;FileFolder&lt;/Class&gt;    &lt;DataLifeCyclePlanID&gt;GUID#1&lt;/DataLifeCyclePlanID&gt;    &lt;ProtectionFrequencyLevel&gt;8&lt;/ProtectionFrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;ExecutionWindow&gt;3&lt;/ExecutionWindow&gt;    &lt;ImportanceLevel&gt;Silver&lt;/ImportanceLevel&gt;   
                   &lt;/DataClass&gt;
                   &lt;DataClass&gt;    &lt;Class&gt;SQL&lt;/Class&gt;    &lt;DataLifeCyclePlanID&gt;GUID#1&lt;/DataLifeCyclePlanID&gt;    &lt;ProtectionFrequencyLevel&gt;8&lt;/ProtectionFrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;ExecutionWindow&gt;3&lt;/ExecutionWindow&gt;    &lt;ImportanceLevel&gt;Gold&lt;/ImportanceLevel&gt;   
                   &lt;/DataClass&gt;   
               &lt;/DataClassification&gt;
               &lt;DataLifeCycleStrategy&gt;
                   &lt;DataLifeCyclePlan ID=“GUID#1” Name=“LifeCycleA”&gt;    &lt;ProtectionPoint ID=“GUID#A” SourceID=“GUID#A”&gt;    &lt;FrequencyLevel&gt;8&lt;/FrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;true&lt;/MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;    &lt;MediaOnline&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnline&gt;    &lt;MediaOnSite&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnSite&gt;    &lt;RandomAccessbility&gt;true&lt;/RandomAccessbility&gt;    &lt;/AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;DataRetentionLevel&gt;2&lt;/DataRetentionLevel&gt;   &lt;/ProtectionPoint&gt;    &lt;ProtectionPoint ID=“GUID#B” SourceID=“GUID#B”&gt;    &lt;FrequencyLevel&gt;10&lt;/FrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;true&lt;/MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;    &lt;MediaOnline&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnline&gt;    &lt;MediaOnSite&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnSite&gt;    &lt;RandomAccessbility&gt;true&lt;/RandomAccessbility&gt;    &lt;/AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;DataRetentionLevel&gt;4&lt;/DataRetentionLevel&gt;   &lt;/ProtectionPoint&gt;    &lt;ProtectionPoint ID=“GUID#C” SourceID=“GUID#B”&gt;    &lt;FrequencyLevel&gt;10&lt;/FrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;false&lt;/MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;    &lt;MediaOnline&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnline&gt;    &lt;MediaOnSite&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnSite&gt;    &lt;RandomAccessbility&gt;false&lt;/RandomAccessbility&gt;    &lt;/AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;DataRetentionLevel&gt;6&lt;/DataRetentionLevel&gt;    &lt;AdditionalProtectionPointSpecs&gt;    &lt;Schedule&gt;    &lt;Restriction&gt;Hint&lt;/Restriction&gt;    &lt;ExecutionWindow&gt;2&lt;/ExecutionWindow&gt;    &lt;RecurrencePattern&gt;    &lt;RecurrenceByWeek&gt;Friday&lt;/RecurrenceByWeek&gt;    &lt;/RecurrencePattern&gt;    &lt;/Schedule&gt;    &lt;/AdditionalProtectionPointSpecs&gt;    &lt;/ProtectionPoint&gt;    &lt;/DataLifeCyclePlan&gt;    &lt;DataLifeCyclePlan ID=“GUID#2” Name=“LifeCycleB”&gt;    &lt;ProtectionPoint ID=“GUID#D” SourceID=“GUID#D”&gt;    &lt;FrequencyLevel&gt;8&lt;/FrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;true&lt;/MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;    &lt;MediaOnline&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnline&gt;    &lt;MediaOnSite&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnSite&gt;    &lt;RandomAccessbility&gt;true&lt;/RandomAccessbility&gt;    &lt;/AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;DataRetentionLevel&gt;2&lt;/DataRetentionLevel&gt;   &lt;/ProtectionPoint&gt;    &lt;ProtectionPoint ID=“GUID#E” SourceID=“GUID#E”&gt;    &lt;FrequencyLevel&gt;10&lt;/FrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;true&lt;/MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;    &lt;MediaOnline&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnline&gt;    &lt;MediaOnSite&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnSite&gt;    &lt;RandomAccessbility&gt;true&lt;/RandomAccessbility&gt;    &lt;/AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;DataRetentionLevel&gt;4&lt;/DataRetentionLevel&gt;   &lt;/ProtectionPoint&gt;    &lt;ProtectionPoint ID=“GUID#F” SourceID=“GUID#E”&gt;    &lt;FrequencyLevel&gt;10&lt;/FrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;false&lt;/MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;    &lt;MediaOnline&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnline&gt;    &lt;MediaOnSite&gt;true&lt;/MediaOnSite&gt;    &lt;RandomAccessbility&gt;false&lt;/RandomAccessbility&gt;    &lt;/AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;DataRetentionLevel&gt;6&lt;/DataRetentionLevel&gt;    &lt;AdditionalProtectionPointSpecs&gt;    &lt;Schedule&gt;    &lt;Restriction&gt;Requirement&lt;/Restriction&gt;    &lt;ExecutionWindow&gt;2&lt;/ExecutionWindow&gt;    &lt;RecurrencePattern&gt;    &lt;RecurrenceByWeek&gt;Friday&lt;/RecurrenceByWeek&gt;    &lt;/RecurrencePattern&gt;    &lt;/Schedule&gt;    &lt;/AdditionalProtectionPointSpecs&gt;   &lt;/ProtectionPoint&gt;    &lt;ProtectionPoint ID=“GUID#G” SourceID=“GUID#E”&gt;    &lt;FrequencyLevel&gt;10&lt;/FrequencyLevel&gt;    &lt;AvailabilityLevel&gt;    &lt;MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;false&lt;/MediaImmediateAccessibility&gt;    &lt;MediaOnline&gt;false&lt;/MediaOnline&gt;    &lt;MediaOnSite&gt;false&lt;/MediaOnSite&gt;    &lt;RandomAccessbility&gt;false&lt;/RandomAccessbility&gt;   &lt;/AvailabilityLevel&gt;   &lt;DataRetentionLevel&gt;9&lt;/DataRetentionLevel&gt;    &lt;AdditionalProtectionPointSpecs&gt;    &lt;Schedule&gt;    &lt;Restriction&gt;Hint&lt;/Restriction&gt;    &lt;ExecutionWindow&gt;2&lt;/ExecutionWindow&gt;    &lt;RecurrencePattern&gt;    &lt;RecurrenceByWeek&gt;Friday&lt;/RecurrenceByWeek&gt;    &lt;/RecurrencePattern&gt;    &lt;/Schedule&gt;    &lt;/AdditionalProtectionPointSpecs&gt;   &lt;/ProtectionPoint&gt;   
                   &lt;/DataLifeCyclePlan&gt;   
               &lt;/DataLifeCycleStrategy&gt;   
           &lt;/DataProtectionRequirementSpecification&gt;   
       

     As shown in Listing 2, this particular DPRS specifies three data classifications: Exchange, FileFolder, and SQL, each of which has a number of attributes including a data life cycle plan ID, a protection frequency level, an execution window, an importance level, and one or more additional specifications. For example, the “Exchange” data class identifies in lines 6-13 of Listing 2 a corresponding data lifecycle plan ID of “GUID#2”, a protection frequency level of “8”, an execution window of “3”, an importance level of “Platinum”, and an additional specification that granular recovery technology is required to be used. 
     The DPRS of listing 2 also specifies a number of protection points within a data life cycle strategy, each of which specifies values for various parameters such as frequency level, availability level, and data retention level. For example, the frequency level specified in lines 32-41 of Listing 2 for the protection point whose ID is “GUID#A” is level “8”, the availability level includes immediate, random accessibility of online, onsite media, and the data retention level is level “2”. 
     Another protection point specification is the restriction specification, which indicates whether other specifications of a particular data protection point are required of, preferred of, or provided as a hint for a data protection application. Another protection point specification that applies to schedules is the execution window that specifies one or more recurrence patterns. Examples of each of these specifications may be seen in Listing 2. A process by which export service  440  may generate a DPRS is described below. 
     Suppose further that the user desires to create a configuration for a different data protection application, such as configuration  430 , using a DPRS that has been generated by export service  440  or acquired from a third party or form user input. In this scenario, the user may trigger policy generator  450  to translate DPRS  420  into specific policy provisions for configuration  430 , taking into account the capabilities of the data protection application to which configuration  430  corresponds. Policy generator  450  may guide the user in creating configuration  430  by translating specific elements in DPRS  420  into corresponding policy provisions in configuration  430  in cases where a direct translation is available and allowing the user to make selections in configuration  430  in cases where a direct translation is not available. In one embodiment, a vendor of the data protection application to which configuration  430  corresponds may create a policy generator  450  with specific translation capabilities for policy provisions of the data protection application for which there are known, pre-defined expressions in the schema used by the DPRS. 
     Listing 3 is a description of one embodiment of a policy generated from a DPRS. A process by which policy generator  450  may generate such a policy from a DPRS is described below. 
     Listing 3. Sample Policy and Protected Resource
         Policy I: All volumes (Server A and Server B)
           Task A—Weekly (Friday at 8:00 PM) synthetic full backup to disk storage unit and tape volume pool (using inline tape copy)   One month retention for disk copy   One year retention for tape copy   Task B—Daily (8:00 PM) Incremental to a disk storage unit with 1 week retention   
           Policy II: SQL (Server A)
           Task A—Weekly (Friday at 8:00 PM) full backup to disk storage unit and tape volume pool (using inline tape copy)   One month retention for disk copy   One year retention for tape copy   Task B—Daily (8:00 PM) Incremental to a disk storage unit with 1 week retention   
           Policy III: Exchange (Server B)
           Task A—Weekly (Friday at 8:00 PM) full backup to a disk storage unit, a online volume pool and a vault volume pool (using inline tape copy)   One month retention for the disk copy   One year retention for the online volume pool copy   Task B Create a backup vault profile for policy III sourcing from vault volume pool   Seven year retention for the vault volume pool copy   
               

     In a still further scenario, a user may create a new, abstract DPRS by entering user requirements  460  through user interface  470  and directing requirements definition process  480  to convert the input requirements into the standard schema defined for the specification of data protection requirements. Listing 4 is a description of one embodiment of a protection strategy expressed in terms that may be familiar to a user without expertise in data protection application configuration details. A process by which user inputs may be captured and used to generate a DPRS is described further below. 
     Listing 4. Two Data Lifecycle plans: 
     For Exchange
         Have a recovery point every day.   Keep daily recovery points for 1 week   Keep weekly recovery points for 1 year total   Maintain recovery points highly available for one month   Protect weekly recovery points for 7 years in separate site for legal compliance and/or DR protection       

     For SQL and File system:
         Have a recovery point every day.   Keep daily recovery points for 1 week   Keep weekly recovery points for 1 year total   Maintain recovery points highly available for one month       

     The following discussions will detail how these specifications may be generated from an existing data protection application configuration, from user inputs, or used to generate a new data protection application configuration.  FIG. 5  illustrates one embodiment of a process  500  that may be used to capture user inputs for generating a DPRS. Process  500  may begin with presentation of a list of resource to a user (block  510 ). In response to presentation of the list of resources, a resource selection may be received from the user (block  515 ). An importance selection list may then be presented to the user (block  520 ). In response to presentation of the importance selection list, an importance selection may be received from the user (block  525 ). An availability selection list may then be presented to the user (block  530 ). In response to presentation of the availability selection list, an availability selection may be received from the user (block  535 ). A protection frequency selection list may then be presented to the user (block  540 ). In response to presentation of the protection frequency selection list, a protection frequency selection may be received from the user (block  545 ). An execution window selection list may then be presented to the user (block  550 ). In response to presentation of the execution window selection list, an execution window selection may be received from the user (block  555 ). A retention selection list may then be presented to the user (block  560 ). In response to presentation of the retention selection list, a retention selection may be received from the user (block  565 ). If configuration for an addition resource is desired (decision block  570 ), process  500  may continue at block  510 . Otherwise, if all of the user&#39;s desired selections have been received, the user inputs may be converted to a DPRS format (block  580 ), completing the requirements capture process. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates one embodiment of a process  600  that may be used to export a data protection application configuration for generating a DPRS. Process  600  may begin with identification of a data protection policy within a data protection configuration (block  610 ). A resource that is associated with the identified policy may then be identified (block  612 ). The identified resource may be mapped to a data class that has previously been enumerated in a DPRS schema and a corresponding element may be added to the DPRS (block  614 ). Once the identified resource has been mapped to a data class, it may be associated with a life cycle plan that has been enumerated in a DPRS schema and a corresponding element may be added to the DPRS (block  616 ). Next, one or more scheduled data protection tasks that protect the identified resource may be identified in the data protection configuration (block  620 ). For each identified task, schedule attributes that correspond to a frequency level may be extracted from the task and mapped to a frequency level that has previously been enumerated in a DPRS schema and a corresponding element may be added to the DPRS (block  630 ). In addition, for each identified task, schedule attributes that correspond to an execution window level may be extracted from the task and mapped to an execution window that has previously been enumerated in a DPRS schema and a corresponding element may be added to the DPRS (block  630 ). For each identified resource, a recovery policy may be identified in the data protection configuration (block  640 ). The identified recovery policy may be mapped to an availability level that has previously been enumerated in a DPRS schema and a corresponding element may be added to the DPRS (block  650 ). For each identified resource, a priority may be identified in the data protection configuration (block  660 ). The identified priority may be mapped to an importance level that has previously been enumerated in a DPRS schema and a corresponding element may be added to the DPRS (block  670 ). For each resource and corresponding scheduled data protection tasks, additional information may be identified in the data protection configuration that indicates and may be mapped to a previously been enumerated requirements level in a DPRS schema (such as required, preferred, or hint) and a corresponding element may be added to the DPRS (block  680 ). If the identified data protection policy applies to an additional resource (decision block  682 ), blocks  612 - 680  may be repeated for the additional resource. If the identified data protection policy does not apply to an additional resource (decision block  682 ) and if the data protection configuration includes an additional data protection policy (decision block  684 ), locks  610 - 682  may be repeated for the additional data protection policy. If the data protection configuration does not include an additional data protection policy (decision block  684 ), the newly created DPRS elements may be combined into a DPRS document (block  690 ), completing the export process. 
       FIG. 7  illustrates one embodiment of a process  700  that may be used to generate a data protection application configuration from an existing DPRS. Process  700  may begin with reception of an existing data protection requirements specification (DPRS) (block  710 ). The DRPS may be scanned for elements that indicate a source ID (block  720 ). Each identified source ID may be interpreted as corresponding to a resource to be protected. For each identified source ID (decision block  730 ), the DPRS may be scanned for elements that indicate availability requirements. One or more elements that indicate availability requirements may be used to define a storage requirement in a data protection policy for the resource to be protected (block  732 ). For example, elements in the DPRS that indicate an availability requirement of immediate and random accessibility via online and onsite media may be interpreted as requiring use of a local disk or solid-state media for storage of backup datasets. 
     Next, the DPRS may be scanned to identify an element indicating a frequency level of data protection operations. An element that indicates a frequency level requirement may be used to define a frequency level of execution of data protection tasks in a data protection policy for the resource to be protected (block  734 ). The DPRS may be scanned to identify an element indicating a retention level of backup datasets that correspond to the resource to be protected. An element that indicates a retention level requirement may be used to define a retention level in a data protection policy that corresponds to the resource to be protected (block  736 ). The DPRS may be scanned to identify elements indicating additional schedule information that corresponds to the resource to be protected. One or more elements that indicate additional schedule information may be used to determine whether other elements found in the DPRS are to be required, preferred, or used as a hint in defining a data protection policy that corresponds to the resource to be protected (block  738 ). If an additional source ID has been identified in the DPRS (decision block  740 ), blocks  730 - 738  may be repeated for the additional source ID. If no additional source IDs have been identified in the DPRS (decision block  740 ), for each group of resources that have similar requirements, a separate policy may be created (block  750 ). For each policy that is created, a task list may be created using the defined storage requirements, task frequency requirements, retention level, and additional schedule information (block  760 ), completing configuration process  700 . 
     It is noted that the foregoing flow charts are for purposes of discussion only. In alternative embodiments, the elements depicted in the flow chart may occur in a different order, or in some cases concurrently. Additionally, some of the flow chart elements may not be present in various embodiments, or may be combined with other elements. All such alternatives are contemplated. 
     It is further noted that the above-described embodiments may comprise software. In such an embodiment, the program instructions that implement the methods and/or mechanisms may be conveyed or stored on a computer readable medium. Numerous types of media which are configured to store program instructions are available and include hard disks, floppy disks, CD-ROM, DVD, flash memory, Programmable ROMs (PROM), random access memory (RAM), and various other forms of volatile or non-volatile storage. 
     The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as may be suited to the particular use contemplated.