Patent ID: 7693878

Claim:
An apparatus for automatically managing data in a hierarchical data storage system, the apparatus comprising: a storage device storing executable code; a processor executing the executable code, the executable code comprising a table of contents creation module generating a table of contents in a storage server database, the table of contents containing a plurality of entries and comprising a table of contents identifier, each entry comprising information describing characteristics of a data object within an image stored in a storage hierarchy, the image configured as a single object to a storage management system and the information comprising a data object name, a client path, a data object size, a data object location, permission rights, and a data object version, wherein pluralities of data objects are stored to a plurality of images, each image having an image descriptor comprising a name, a client identifier, the table of contents identifier, a storage pool of the image, a storage volume of the image, a location of the image, and a size of the image; a TOC set merge module generating a TOC set comprising a TOC set descriptor and a plurality of tables of contents, the TOC set descriptor comprising a handle field that identifies the TOC set, a time stamp field that identifies a time stamp associated with the most recent access of the TOC, a table of contents identification list, a table of contents count field that identifies a total number of table of contents accessed, and a table of contents entry count field that identifies a total number of table of content entries that have been accessed and merged into the TOC set; and a policy management module dynamically managing a storage location of each table of contents, moving the table of contents from a first storage media location to a second storage media location within the storage hierarchy, within a storage server database, and between the storage hierarchy and the database according to a policy that considers when the table of contents was most recently accessed.