Patent ID: 7716187

Claim:
A method in a client-server computer network for reorganizing storage and accessing the reorganized storage such that clients in the network may access stored data, after the data has been moved to a new location, by using the original path name of the original location of the data, the method comprising: relocating a legacy share from a legacy server to a new server; copying contents of the legacy share to the new server, the contents comprising all data of the legacy share stored upon the legacy server; copying permissions of the legacy share to the new server; creating an alias for the legacy server name such that the unchanged legacy server name resolves to a network address of a consolidation server; creating a legacy server root associated with the legacy server name on the consolidation server; creating a link on the legacy server root corresponding to the legacy share on the new server; resolving the legacy server name that is aliased to the consolidation server; receiving at the consolidation server a request from a client for the legacy share, the request specifying the original, unchanged legacy share path name; logging information about the request, the information comprising a name of the legacy share and a name of a client making the request; tracking active usage of the legacy share through the logged information; based upon the logged information and the tracked active usage, determining when the legacy share should be retired based upon infrequent usage; the consolidation server rewriting the legacy share path name, wherein rewriting the legacy share path comprises of invoking a path rewriter to rewrite the legacy share path, by prepending the legacy share path with the consolidation server name; the consolidation server traversing the rewritten legacy share path name and resolving links within the rewritten legacy share path name, wherein resolving any links in the rewritten legacy share path comprises invoking a path redirector to resolve any links in the rewritten legacy share path; and the consolidation server responding to the client request with the share path name of the storage location of the relocated legacy share.