Searching for objects

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Use the search feature to find objects on providers that are cataloged in IBM® Storage Defender Copy Data Management. Examples of objects are volumes, files, snapshots, qtrees, and virtual machines. You can tailor your search by applying filters.

There are two types of search, basic and advanced.

Basic search searches all text fields. Enter a character pattern including wildcards and inline search strings for more advanced searches. IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management searches the entire Inventory and returns all objects with a name that matches or contains the search entry.

Advanced search is similar to basic search, with an additional function. You can search and filter by object name, category, object type, and location. When searching for NetApp ONTAP files, you can also filter by last modified time, creation time, last accessed time, and file size.

Once you initiate the search and it completes, IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management returns all search results defined by your criteria. Click an object that appears in the Search results to open a tab with additional details about that object.

Before you begin:

To search for objects:

  1. Click the Search tab.
  2. Open a new Search pane. If this is the first search in your IBM Storage Defender Copy Data Management session, click the Search tab. If you have already done a Search, go into an existing Search pane and click New Search. From a new Search pane, you can perform a basic search or an advanced search.

To perform a basic search:

  1. In the Enter search term field, enter the character pattern to search on. Following are guidelines for entering Search terms:

    Enter a character string to find objects with a name that matches or contains the character string. You can also enter partial character strings. Character strings are case insensitive.

    Enter * to return all available objects.

    Apply wildcards as needed. Wildcard considerations are described later in this topic.

  2. Click Search Now. The list of objects that meet all the criteria displays.
  3. Click an object name. The properties of the object display in a new tab. The specific properties vary by type of object.
    To perform a basic search using inline search parameters:
    Using the following inline search strings, you can perform complex searches based on a file's location, size, and access, creation, or modified time from the basic search field.
    Search by object location:
    Limit your search to a specific cataloged location using the following examples:
    • type:file location:<HOSTNAME>*searches for all objects on the storage system associated with the entered host
    • type:file location:<HOSTNAME>* name:*.txt searches for .txt files on the storage system associated with the entered host
    Search by object size:
    Search for cataloged objects with a specific file size or file size range using the following examples:
    • size:100KB searches for all objects that are 100 KB in size
    • size:50KB-100MB searches for all objects between 50 KB and 100 MB in size
    • size:*-100MB searches for all objects that are less than 100 MB in size
    • size:100MB-* searches for all objects that are larger than 100 MB in size
    The following size unit strings are supported:
    • k, K, KB, Kb, kB, kb, KiB, kib, kilobyte, and kilobytes
    • m, M, MB, Mb, mB, mb, MiB, mib, megabyte, and megabytes
    • g, G, GB, Gb, gB, gb, GiB, gib, gigabyte, and gigabytes
    • t, T, TB, Tb, tB, tb, TiB, tib, terabyte, and terabytes
    • p, P, PB, Pb, pB, pb, PiB, pib, petabyte, and petabytes
    Search by object access, creation, and modified time:
    Search for cataloged objects that were last accessed, modified, or created at a specific time or time range using the following examples:
    • atime:2yearsago searches for all objects with an access time of two years ago from the time of the search. ctime searches against the object's creation time, and mtime searches against the object's modification time.
    • atime:2yearsago-lastyear searches for all objects with an access time between last year and two years ago. ctime searches against the object's creation time, and mtime searches against the object's modification time.
    • atime:past2weeks searches for all objects with an access time from the past two weeks. ctime searches against the object's creation time, and mtime searches against the object's modification time.
    The following time strings are supported:
    • years, yearsago, year, yearago
    • months, monthsago, month, monthago
    • weeks, weeksago, week, weekago
    • days, daysago, day, dayago
    • hours, hoursago, hour, hourago
    • minutes, minutesago, minute, minuteago
    Combining search strings:
    By combining the above search strings in the basic search field, you can limit your search to specific objects, locations, and size ranges.

    *.vmdk type:file location:<HOSTNAME>/vmtemplates/* catalog:netapp size:2MB-5MB

    In this example, search results include all resources that include ".vmdk," residing on a resource named <HOSTNAME>/vmtemplates and its subfolders within a NetApp ONTAP catalog, with a size greater than 2 MB but less than 5 MB.

To perform an advanced search:

  1. Click Advanced Search.
  2. On the Advanced Search dialog, enter filters:
    Search For
    The resource category includes Applications, IBM, NetApp ONTAP, Recovery, or VMware and their associated object types.
    Note: Results returned from a low-level NetApp ONTAP file search differ from other object search results. On the searched file's properties pane, you can review previous versions of your files, along with their Snapshot, SnapVault and SnapMirror replication status on the file's properties pane.

    For the VMware catalog, object types include Datacenter, Datastore, ESX Host, ESX LUN, Folder, Recovery Point, vApp, vDisk, VM, vSnapshot, and vSphere.

    Select All for all categories and object types.
    Name
    Object name or character pattern.
    Enter a character string to find objects with a name that matches or contains the character string. You can also enter partial character strings. Character strings are case insensitive.
    Enter * to return all available objects.
    Apply wildcards as needed. Wildcard considerations are described later in this topic.
    Location
    The place where the object resides. This is usually the host name or the host/volume. Wildcards can be used.
    Hide Duplicates
    Toggles the behavior of duplicate search results. The default option, No, displays duplicate search results in the search results pane. Select Yes to hide duplicate search results. View the object's properties to view duplicate versions of an object.
    In some cases, the name of a returned object on the search results pane may be the same as another object, however the resources where the objects reside is different. Review the file properties of the objects by selecting their names on the search results pane to view the differences between the returned entries.
    The following filters apply to advanced NetApp ONTAP File searches only. Select NetApp ONTAP > File in the Search For dialog to view the following filters:
    Last Modified Time, Creation Time, Last Accessed Time
    Filter a search by modification, creation, and accessed dates with the calendar tool. Select On or after and On or before to set a date range.
    File Size
    Filter a search by a file size range. Enter a file size and select bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes.
  3. Click Search. The list of objects that meet all the criteria displays.
  4. Click an object name. The properties of the object display in a new tab. The specific properties vary by type of object.
    Tip: Periodically closing tabs helps simplify navigation and browsing. To close multiple tabs, right-click a tab then select Close Tab, Close Other Tabs, or Close All Tabs.

Wildcard considerations:

A wildcard is a character that you can substitute for zero or more unspecified characters when searching text. Position wildcards at the beginning, middle, or end of a string, and combine them within a string.

  • Match a character string with an asterisk, which represents a variable string of zero or more characters:

    string* searches for terms like string, strings, or stringency

    str*ing searches for terms like string, straying, or straightening

    *string searches for terms like string or shoestring

  • Match a single character with a question mark:

    string? searches for terms like strings, stringy, or string1

    st??ring searches for terms like starring or steering

    ???string searches for terms like hamstring or bowstring

You can use multiple asterisk wildcards in a single text string, though this might considerably slow down a large search.

What to do next
  • You can download the search results as a CSV file format. See Downloading search results.
  • You can reorder and resize columns in the search results table.
  • You can learn more about an object or its attributes in the search results. See Viewing object details.