Patent ID: 7769709

Claim:
A method for creating an archive protection plan for archiving a backup of data, comprising: obtaining a selection of namespace elements and a protection intent, the protection intent including an indication of an archive data protection kind and an archive data protection duration for the selected namespace elements, each namespace element providing a logical representation of a protectable object, each namespace element being used to locate at least one protectable object, each namespace element including one of the following: a distributed file system link, a server, a share, a volume, a folder, and an exchange storage group, wherein the protection intent is selected by a user from a plurality of protection intent templates having default properties, the protection intent template properties comprising commands expressed in verbs, each protection intent template providing a capability for the user to modify its default properties; mapping the namespace elements to the protectable objects; generating a protected group, the protected group comprising a logical grouping of namespace elements and associated protectable objects to which the data protection kind and the data protection duration apply; translating the selected protection intent into an archive scheme by turning the protection intent template properties into corresponding actions; allocating resources necessary for the protected group; creating a checkpoint indicating a completion of allocation of resources; and generating an archive protection plan representative of the archive scheme.