Patent ID: 7730538

Claim:
At a production server in a computerized environment in which the production server is backed up by one or more backup servers, a method of managing virus and backup filtration processes through a common filter, comprising the acts of: accessing one or more file writes at a combined antivirus/replication filter, the combined antivirus/replication filter containing both virus scanning capabilities and data replication capabilities; utilizing the virus scanning capabilities of the combined antivirus/replication filter to scan the accessed one or more file writes in accordance with one or more virus definitions, including for each of the accessed one or more file writes: detecting whether or not the accessed file write appears to contain a virus based on the one or more virus definitions; taking one or more actions based on the whether or not the accessed file write appears to contain a virus; and tagging the file write with one or more virus indicators representing virus information related to the accessed file write, the one or more virus indicators indicating whether or not the accessed file write appears to contain a virus and indicating the one or more actions taken such that virus information related the file write can be transferred along with the file write; utilizing the data replication capabilities of the combined antivirus/replication filter to compare each of the accessed one or more file writes and corresponding virus indicator tags with one or more replica policies to determine which, if any, of the accessed one or more file writes is to be replicated; and utilizing the data replication capabilities of the combined antivirus/replication filter to replicate at least one of the accessed one or more file writes along with its corresponding virus indicator tags such that virus information related to the at least one file write is propagated along with the at least one file write at a backup server, replication of the virus information permitting modules that subsequently access the at least one file write to make decisions with respect to the at least one file write without having to perform additional virus scans on the at least one file write.