Patent Document

FIELD 
     The present invention relates generally to data systems and specifically to systems and methods of displaying components associated with globally unique identifiers in data systems. 
     BACKGROUND 
     A globally unique identifier (GUID) is a unique reference number that may be used as an identifier in computing. The value of a GUID is presented as a 32-character hexadecimal string, such as {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}, and is usually stored as a 128-bit integer. It may be used to distinguish hardware, software, networking, or a user, among others. For example, Microsoft Windows® uses GUIDs internally to identify the classes and interfaces of objects. Without having to know details such as the name or location of a specific class or object, scripts containing GUIDs may be used to activate the class or object. However, the drawback of using only GUID in a system is that merely displaying a 32-character hexadecimal string, such as the GUID example shown above, is not intuitive to average users. Users may not easily comprehend the hexadecimal string to extract information such as the name or the label of a component associated with a GUID. 
     There is a need, therefore, for an improved method or system to display GUID more intuitively. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals designate like structural elements, and in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram of a data storage system in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram illustrating an exemplary server farm used in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a pictorial diagram of an exemplary interface that illustrates the difficulty of displaying components identified by GUID&#39;s. 
         FIG. 4  is a table that illustrates a data structure containing an association of GUID with display name, in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 5  is a diagram of the interaction between a backup application and a server farm, in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 6  is a pictorial diagram of an exemplary interface that displays components identified by GUID&#39;s, in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 7A  is a flowchart of a method for traversing components associated with a root component, in accordance with some embodiments. 
         FIG. 7B  is a flowchart of a method for recursively traversing components, in accordance with some embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     A detailed description of one or more embodiments of the invention is provided below along with accompanying figures that illustrate the principles of the invention. While the invention is described in conjunction with such embodiment(s), it should be understood that the invention is not limited to any one embodiment. On the contrary, the scope of the invention is limited only by the claims and the invention encompasses numerous alternatives, modifications, and equivalents. For the purpose of example, numerous specific details are set forth in the following description in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. These details are provided for the purpose of example, and the present invention may be practiced according to the claims without some or all of these specific details. For the purpose of clarity, technical material that is known in the technical fields related to the invention has not been described in detail so that the present invention is not unnecessarily obscured. 
     It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a process, an apparatus, a system, a device, a method, or a computer-readable medium such as a computer-readable storage medium containing computer-readable instructions or computer program code, or as a computer program product, comprising a computer-usable medium having a computer-readable program code embodied therein. In the context of this disclosure, a computer-usable medium or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain or store the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus or device. For example, the computer-readable storage medium or computer-usable medium may be, but is not limited to, a random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), or a persistent store, such as a mass storage device, hard drives, CDROM, DVDROM, tape, erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), or any magnetic, electromagnetic, infrared, optical, or electrical means or system, apparatus or device for storing information. Alternatively or additionally, the computer-readable storage medium or computer-usable medium may be any combination of these devices or even paper or another suitable medium upon which the program code is printed, as the program code can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. Applications, software programs or computer-readable instructions may be referred to as components or modules. Applications may be hardwired or hard coded in hardware or take the form of software executing on a general purpose computer or be hardwired or hard coded in hardware such that when the software is loaded into and/or executed by the computer, the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. Applications may also be downloaded, in whole or in part, through the use of a software development kit or toolkit that enables the creation and implementation of the present invention. In this specification, these implementations, or any other form that the invention may take, may be referred to as techniques. In general, the order of the steps of disclosed processes may be altered within the scope of the invention. 
     An embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to a data system configured to store files, but it should be understood that the principles of the invention are not limited to data systems. Rather, they are applicable to any system capable of storing and handling various types of objects, in analog, digital, or other form. Although terms such as document, file, object, etc. may be used by way of example, the principles of the invention are not limited to any particular form of representing and storing data or other information; rather, they are equally applicable to any object capable of representing information. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary system for implementing the present invention, in accordance with some embodiments. Data Storage System  100  includes Server  110 , Backup Application  130 , Clients  160 , and Storage Device  150  connected by Network  140 . Clients  160  may be laptops, desktops, or virtual machines. In some embodiments, Server  110  may represent a web and/or application server processing requests from Clients  160 . Generally, Server  110  may provide data to Clients  160  upon request. Server  110  may also provide services such as performing searches of content and/or providing analytical tools etc. 
     Though  FIG. 1  illustrates only one Server  110 , the exemplary environment may include a set of servers. These servers may be presented to Clients  160  as a single server or a “virtual” server when processing requests from Clients  160 . In accordance with some embodiments, Server  110  may also execute Backup Application  130  to store backup data on Storage Device  150  and transfer backup data to Data Storage System  100  when necessary. In other embodiments, Backup Application  130  may reside and operate or to be operated outside Server  110 . Backup Application  130  may even reside and operate or to be operated outside Data Storage System  100 . 
     Network  140  provides connectivity among Server  100 , Clients  160 , Backup Application  130 , and Storage Device  150 . Network  140  may be implemented using protocols such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and/or Internet Protocol (IP), well known in the relevant arts. Network  140  may also be implemented to provide support for various storage architectures such as storage area network (SAN), Network-attached Storage (NAS), Direct-attached Storage (DAS), etc. In some embodiments, Network  140  may be a dedicated communication link, one or more networks, a local area network, a wide area network, a storage area network, the Internet, a wired network, and/or wireless network, among others. 
     Storage Device  150  may represent a non-volatile storage system to store backup data generated within Data Storage System  100 . Though  FIG. 1  depicts only one Storage Device  150 , Data Storage System  100  may include multiple storage devices. Storage Device  150  in turn may include one or more disks, each containing a different portion of data stored on Backup Storage. The storage space in Storage Device  150  may also be apportioned pursuant to a file system, or may be logical or virtual (i.e. not corresponding to underlying physical storage) or may be subdivided into a plurality of volumes or logical devices. The logical devices may or may not correspond to the physical storage space of the disks. Thus, for example, a physical storage device may contain a plurality of logical devices or, alternatively, a single logical device could span across multiple physical devices. Server  110  and Clients  160  may be configured to access any combination of logical devices independent of the actual correspondence between the logical devices and the physical devices. Storage Device  150  may be provided as a stand-alone device coupled relatively directly to Server  110  and/or Clients  160  or, alternatively, Storage Device  150  may be part of a storage area network (SAN) that includes a plurality of other storage devices as well as routers, network connections, etc. The system described herein may be implemented using software, hardware, and/or a combination of software and hardware where software may be stored in an appropriate storage medium and executed by one or more processors. 
     In some embodiments, Server  110  may further include one or more Components  120 . Each Component  120  may be responsible for performing one or more server tasks. It should be noted that different Components  120  of Server  110  may be deployed and executed on different systems to facilitate the performance of tasks. Components  120  may be logically embodied in hardware or firmware, or a collection of instructions such as software instruction, written in instructions or one or more programming languages. Some Components  120  may be associated with data stores  122 . Components  120  may be the logical representation of data stores  122 . Data stores  122  may be backed up through running Backup Application  130  and the backup data may be stored on Storage Device  150  for later recovery. 
     Although  FIG. 1  illustrates only one level of Components  120 , each Component  120  may further include multiple levels of subcomponents. For example, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, as shown in  FIG. 2 , Server  110  may be a set of servers denoted as Server Farm  210 . Server Farm  210  as a root component may include one or more subcomponents, such as Web Component  220  . . . Other Component  230 . Web Component  220  may further include one or more subcomponents such as Site Collection  1   240  . . . Site Collection N  240 . Site Collection  1   240  may further include Site  1   250  . . . Site N  250 . Similarly, Site Collection N  240  may further include Site  1   260  . . . Site N  260 . 
     During a backup and/or recovery, based on some criteria, one or more components illustrated in  FIG. 2  may be identified as qualifying components. Among qualifying components, a user may identify one or more components for backup and/or recovery. The data stores associated with the identified components may be backed up and the backup data may be stored on Storage Device  270  for later recovery. For example, as illustrated in  FIG. 2 , components Site  1   250  and Other Component  230  may be identified by a user for backup and/or recovery. The data store associated with Site  1   250  may be stored on Storage Device  270  as Site  1   252  for later recovery. Similarly, the data store associated with Other Component  230  may be stored on Storage Device  270  as Other Component  232  for later recovery. In some embodiments, the entire Server Farm  210  may be identified as a qualifying component for backup and/or recovery. During Server Farm  210  backup, the data store associated with Server Farm  210  and the data stores associated with qualifying subcomponents of Server Farm  210  may be stored on Storage Device  270  for later recovery. 
     Traditional backup application may display GUID&#39;s to represent various components, as illustrated in  FIG. 3 .  FIG. 3  illustrates a portion of a backup system user interface and demonstrates the complexity of locating a component for backup. In  FIG. 3 , GUID&#39;s may be presented as 32-character hexadecimal strings. It is difficult to extract information such as the types and/or the names of the corresponding components within Farm  310 . A user may have to extract the information manually or by using some tools before identifying a component and selecting the component for backup and/or recovery. Instead of displaying GUID, displaying the name and type of each component may be more intuitive to users, therefore may improve the efficiency in a backup operation. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary data structure to facilitate the displaying of a component. In some embodiments, Data Structure  400  may include a component&#39;s identifier GUID  410 , Display Name  420 , Type  430 , a pointer to Parent  440 , and Other fields  450 . Information for a component, such as the component&#39;s GUID, display name, and type may be stored in Data Structure  400 . 
     To obtain the information stored in Data Structure  400 , in some embodiments, the root component GUID may be obtained from an application such as a backup application. If the root component is a qualifying component, for each component associated with the root component, the GUID associated with the component may be obtained from querying a server. When querying the server, the root component GUID may be sent to the server in order to obtain all components associated with the root component. After obtaining the components, some criteria may be applied to identify only qualifying components. For each qualifying component, a GUID may be stored as GUID  410  in Data Structure  400 . Similarly, the display name and the type associated with the qualifying component may be obtained from querying the server and stored as Display Name  420  and Type  430  respectively. A pointer pointing to the root component may be stored in Parent  440 . In some embodiments, the procedure of obtaining components and subcomponents may be conducted recursively until all qualifying components associated with root component have been processed. Alternative algorithms including non-recursive and non-traditional algorithms may also be used by those of ordinary skill in the art to process components associated with the root component. Once the process ends, following the pointer stored in Parent  440 , the path of the recursive traversal may be recorded, starting from the root component to a subcomponent, then to the next level subcomponent, and ending when the subcomponent has no more subcomponents. 
     For example, Site  1   250  in  FIG. 2  may be stored in the exemplary Data Structure  400 . Site  1   250  GUID as the identifier may be stored in GUID  410  field. The value of Display Name  420  for Site  1   250  may be stored as Site  1 . The value of Type  430  for Site  1   250  may be stored as Site. A pointer pointing Site Collection  1   240  may be stored in Parent  440  field. Following the pointer, the path of the traversal starting from Server Farm  210 , to Web Component  220 , then to Site Collection  1   240 , and ending at Site  1   250  may be recorded. Having displayable information stored in Data Structure  400  for each qualifying component, components associated with a root component may be mapped. And using the displayable information stored in Data Structure  400  may display components more intuitively to users. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating the interaction of a backup application and a server farm, in accordance with some embodiments. In step  530 , Server Farm  520  GUID may be obtained from Backup Application  510 . In some embodiments, Server Farm  520  may be identified as a root component and Server Farm  520  GUID may be obtained from Backup Application  510 . In other embodiments, a component associated with Server Farm  520  may be identified as a root component, and the component&#39;s GUID may be obtained from Backup Application  510 . Upon obtaining the root component GUID, Backup Application  510  may then use root component GUID to query Server Farm  520  in step  532  for components associated with the root component. In response, in step  534 , Server Farm  520  may return information related to the components associated with the root components. The components information obtained from Server Farm  520  may be parsed and stored in a structure as illustrated in  FIG. 4 . Also in step  534 , in some embodiments, criteria may be applied to obtain only certain qualifying components associated with Sever Farm  520  for backup and/or recovery. For example, criteria may be applied to obtain only components within Server Farm  520  that are associated with certain types of data stores so that such data stores may be backed up and/or recovered. 
     Having received components information from Server Farm  520 , in step  536 , Backup Application  510  may use the information stored in the structure as illustrated in  FIG. 4  and display components more intuitively to users. Viewing information such as the display name and the type of a component, in step  538 , users may select one or more items from the stored structure for backup and/or recovery. Backup Application  510  may then send a backup and/or recovery request to Server Farm  520  in step  540 . In some embodiments, the request sent by Backup Application  510  may include a list of items including GUID&#39;s corresponding to various components selected by users. In response to the request, in step  542 , Server Farm  520  may return a list of components corresponding to the list of items selected. The list of components may include the information related to the data stores associated with the list of components. In step  544 , using the information related to the data stores received from Server Farm  520 , Backup Application  510  may locate the data stores and perform backup and/or recovery of the data stores. 
     In some embodiments, step  540  through step  544  may be performed through an intermediary. For example, in case Server Farm  520  is a SharePoint Farm, a product from Microsoft Corporation, Server Farm  520  may be backed up and/or restored by leveraging SharePoint VSS Writers, also a product from Microsoft Corporation. Using SharePoint VSS Writers as an intermediary is the Microsoft recommended approach and is widely used by many backup products. In step  540 , Backup Application  510  may request through SharePoint VSS Writers a list of items to be backed up and/or restored. The list of items may include GUID&#39;s corresponding to various components within Server Farm  520 . In response, in step  542 , Server Farm  520  may return information for locating the data stores associated with the components through an intermediary such as SharePoint VSS Writer. Using the information, in step  544 , Backup Application  510  may locate the data stores and back up and/or restore the data stores associated with selected components through an intermediary such as SharePoint VSS Writer. 
       FIG. 6  illustrates a portion of a backup system user interface using the present invention, in accordance with some embodiments. With the present invention, instead of displaying GUID associated with a component, the display name and the type of the component may be displayed. A user may obtain information associated with the component more intuitively, and make decisions of whether to back up and/or restore the component more efficiently. 
       FIG. 7A  illustrates one embodiment of a flowchart of a method for traversing components associated with a root component. In step  710 , information associated with a root component may be obtained. In some embodiments, the information such as GUID associated with the root component may be obtained from a backup application. In step  720 , one or more components associated with the root components may be obtained. The components information may be obtained by querying a server, such as Server  110  or Server Farm  210 . In step  730 , the components associated with the root components may be examined and only qualifying components based on certain criteria may be identified. In some embodiments, the criteria may be based on the type of the component. In step  740 , a structure as illustrated in  FIG. 4  may be used to store each qualifying component&#39;s GUID, display name, and type. In addition, in step  740 , a pointer to the component&#39;s parent, namely the root component, may also be stored in the structure. In step  750 , all qualifying components may be recursively queried to locate one or more subcomponents associated with each qualifying component. The recursive process may end when all qualifying components have been processed. In some embodiments, instead of the recursive process in step  750 , alternative algorithms including non-recursive and non-traditional algorithms may also be used by those of ordinary skill in the art. 
       FIG. 7B  further illustrates the recursive process of step  740 , in accordance with some embodiments. The recursive process may end when a determination in step  752  finds that all qualifying components associated with the root component have been processed. In step  754 , one or more subcomponents associated with a qualifying component may be obtained. The subcomponents information may be obtained by querying a server, such as Server  110  or Server Farm  210 . Such information may include each subcomponent&#39;s GUID, display name, and type. Among the subcomponents, criteria may be applied to identify qualifying subcomponents. In some embodiments, the criteria may be based on the type of a subcomponent. In step  758 , a structure as illustrated in  FIG. 4  may be used to store each qualifying subcomponent&#39;s GUID, display name, and type. In addition, in step  758 , a pointer to the subcomponent&#39;s parent, namely the qualifying component, may also be stored in the structure. In step  760 , the recursive process may continue to the next level to recursively traverse all qualifying subcomponents until all qualifying subcomponents have been processed. 
     For the sake of clarity, the processes and methods herein have been illustrated with a specific flow, but it should be understood that other sequences may be possible and that some may be performed in parallel, without departing from the spirit of the invention. Additionally, steps may be subdivided or combined. As disclosed herein, software written in accordance with the present invention may be stored in some form of computer-readable medium, such as memory or CD-ROM, or transmitted over a network, and executed by a processor. 
     All references cited herein are intended to be incorporated by reference. Although the present invention has been described above in terms of specific embodiments, it is anticipated that alterations and modifications to this invention will no doubt become apparent to those skilled in the art and may be practiced within the scope and equivalents of the appended claims. More than one computer may be used, such as by using multiple computers in a parallel or load-sharing arrangement or distributing tasks across multiple computers such that, as a whole, they perform the functions of the components identified herein; i.e. they take the place of a single computer. Various functions described above may be performed by a single process or groups of processes, on a single computer or distributed over several computers. Processes may invoke other processes to handle certain tasks. A single storage device may be used, or several may be used to take the place of a single storage device. The present embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein. It is therefore intended that the disclosure and following claims be interpreted as covering all such alterations and modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.

Technology Category: 3