Patent ID: 7412433

Claim:
An automated process for managing data in a hierarchical data storage system, the process comprising: storing a plurality of data objects in an image in a storage hierarchy, the image configured as a single object to a storage management system, wherein pluralities of data objects are stored to a plurality of images, each image having an image descriptor comprising a name, a client identifier, a 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; generating a table of contents for each image, each table of contents containing a plurality of entries and comprising the table of contents identifier, each entry comprising information describing characteristics of one of the data objects within the image, 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; generating a table of contents set (TOC set) comprising 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 field that identifies data objects that have been accessed and merged in the TOC set, a table of contents count field that identifies a total number of table 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; dynamically managing a storage location of each table of contents; and copying a plurality of entries from at least one of the tables of contents in the storage hierarchy to a storage server database that is a database attendant to the storage management system.