Patent ID: 8055623

Claim:
An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium including code executed to communicate with a client node over a network and a backup storage and to perform operations, the operations comprising: receiving a query for information on files from a file system for the client node; determining metadata for files in the backup storage for the client node stored external to backup sets; processing at least one backup set in the backup storage for the client node to determine metadata for files included in at least one backup set; merging the determined metadata for files in the backup storage and for files included in at least one backup set to form merged metadata; executing the query against the merged metadata to determine files whose metadata satisfies the query; returning results including information from the merged metadata on the determined files; generating a token identifying the merged metadata; and receiving a subsequent query with the token from the client node, wherein the token is used to execute the subsequent query against the merged metadata identified by the token.