Systems and methods of unified reconstruction in storage systems

Abstract

Systems and methods for reconstructing unified data in an electronic storage network are provided which may include the identification and use of metadata stored centrally within the system. The metadata may be generated by a group of storage operation cells during storage operations within the network. The unified metadata is used to reconstruct data throughout the storage operation cells that may be missing, deleted or corrupt.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for maintaining metadata in an electronic storage network comprising:
 primary data stored on at least a first storage device;   at least a first and second media agents that create at least secondary copies of first and second portions of the primary data on at least a second storage device, the first media agent creates a first set of metadata that is stored in a first metadata storage device, and the second media agent creates a second set of metadata that is stored in a second metadata storage device;   a centralized metadata storage device that stores at least a copy of the first set of metadata and a copy of the second set of metadata, wherein the centralized metadata storage device is different than the first and second metadata storage devices; and   at least one storage management component that:
 determines whether a portion of the first set of metadata on the first metadata storage device is missing by identifying at least one of a sequence number and a file reference number that has no corresponding metadata on the first metadata storage device; 
 reconstructs a missing of the portion of the first set of metadata on the first metadata storage device using the copy of the first set of metadata stored on the centralized metadata storage device.