Patent ID: 7586839

Claim:
A method in processing system for identifying and managing backup data on a set of nodes in a network data processing system, the method comprising: scanning of each node in the set of nodes, the each node in the set of nodes being a peer node to another node in the set of nodes; generating an inventory of files on all the nodes in the set of nodes; creating a node map from the inventory of files, the node map including an identification of the each node in the set of nodes and each file located on the each node; building a file map from the node map, wherein the file map identifies a set of files and identifies the each node on which a file in the set of files is located; determining from the file map if there is a unique file located only on a single node that is not on a central server; responsive to determining from the file map that there is a unique file located only on a single node that is not on a central server: adding a storage location to the unique file entry in the file map; and copying the unique file to the storage location; and responsive to determining from the file map that there is a unique file located only on a single node that is on a central server, storing the unique file on a remote device such as backup storage server.