Patent attributes
An agent generates a multidimensional database including file object characteristics, also known as a datacube, on each of a plurality of hosts, and employs a common server for aggregating each of the smaller datacubes into a collective datacube, or multicube, representative of all of the smaller datacubes from each of the hosts. Each individual host, therefore, contributes only a portion of the larger multicube and therefore processes and stores only the multicube portion of the file objects it represents. Each of the smaller datacubes is a potentially inclusive form representative of the entire multicube, however occupies a much smaller space due to the sparsity of storing only a subset of file object entries. Each of the hosts transmits a respective datacube to an aggregation server (aggregator) operable to aggregate, or sum, each of the datacubes from the plurality of hosts into the aggregate multicube.
