Differential health checking of an information management system

• US 10,437,801 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2018
• Issued: 10/08/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kripalani, Sanjay Harakhchand, Gokhale, Parag
• Primary Examiner(s): Meky, Moustafa M
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kassa, Elizabeth
• Application Number:
  US15/897,017
• Publication Number:
  US 20180173734A1
• Time in Patent Office: 601 Days
• Field of Search: 709224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/32 with visual or acoustical indication of the functioning of the machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3485 for I/O devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/215 Improving data quality; Data cleansing, e.g. de-duplication, removing invalid entries or correcting typographical errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/88 Monitoring involving counting
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/10 Active monitoring, e.g. heartbeat, ping or trace-route
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Differential health-check systems and accompanying methods provide health-checking and reporting of one or more information management systems in reference to a first time period before and a second time period after a triggering event. A triggering event may be an upgrade of at least part of the information management system, or a restore operation completed in the information management system for example following a disaster, or any number of other events, etc. The health-checking and reporting may comprise a comparison of one or more performance metrics of one or more components and/or operations of the information management system during the first and second time periods.

Claims

1. An information management system comprising:

a first storage component that participates in a first plurality of storage operations before a change in configuration of the first storage component, and also participates in a second plurality of storage operations after the change in configuration of the first storage component;

a storage manager that controls the first plurality of storage operations and the second plurality of storage operations;

a first computing device that comprises one or more processors and computer memory, wherein the computing device hosts a differential health-check module;

wherein the first computing device is configured to use the differential health-check module to;

evaluate a first value of a first performance metric that measures at least one characteristic of the first plurality of storage operations in which the first storage component participated before its change in configuration,

evaluate a second value of the first performance metric that measures the at least one characteristic of the second plurality of storage operations in which the first storage component participated after its change in configuration, and

based on the first value of the first performance metric and the second value of the first performance metric,

detect a change in performance of the first storage component after its change in configuration as compared to before its change in configuration.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the first storage component is a data agent that arranges primary data into one or more secondary copy formats different from a primary data format and transmits the arranged data to a media agent that creates one or more secondary copies based on the arranged data received from the data agent and stores the one or more secondary copies to an associated secondary storage device, and

wherein the data agent is hosted by a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the first storage component is a media agent that creates one or more secondary copies based on data received from a data agent and stores the one or more secondary copies to an associated secondary storage device,

wherein the media agent is hosted by a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, and

wherein the data agent is hosted by a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the first storage component is a media agent that creates one or more secondary copies and stores the one or more secondary copies to an associated secondary storage device, and

wherein the media agent is hosted by a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the first storage component is the storage manager.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the first storage component is a data storage device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the change in configuration of the first storage component triggers a request for the differential health-check module to report on a performance of the first storage component after the change in configuration as compared to before the change in configuration.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first plurality of storage operations and the second plurality of storage operations are determined by the differential health-check module based on a timeframe received with a request to report on a performance of the first storage component after the change in configuration as compared to before the change in configuration.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the first performance metric measures for the first storage component one or more of:

how many storage operation jobs were completed, how many of the completed storage operation jobs had errors, average data throughput for the completed storage operation jobs, average duration of the completed storage operation jobs, average number of attempts to complete a storage operation job, how much data was transferred in a storage operation, how much disk space was consumed by a storage operation, and how much free disk space remains after a storage operation.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the first value and the second value of the first performance metric are based on data extracted by the storage manager from one or more respective media agent components of the information management system,

wherein the respective media agent participated in at least one of the first plurality of storage operations and the second plurality of storage operations.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the differential health-check module is further configured to query the storage manager for information about the first plurality of storage operations and the second plurality of storage operations.

12. A computer-readable medium, excluding transitory propagating signals, storing instructions that, when executed by a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, cause the computing device to perform operations within an information management system, the operations comprising:

evaluating a first value of a first performance metric that measures at least one characteristic of a first plurality of storage operations in which a first storage component participated before a change in configuration of the first storage component;

evaluating a second value of the first performance metric that measures the at least one characteristic of a second plurality of storage operations in which the first storage component participated after its change in configuration; and

based on the first value of the first performance metric and the second value of the first performance metric,

detecting a change in performance of the first storage component after its change in configuration as compared to before its change in configuration;

wherein a storage manager controls the first plurality of storage operations and the second plurality of storage operations in the information management system, wherein the storage manager executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory; and

wherein the first storage component comprises at least one of;

(a) a data agent that arranges primary data into one or more secondary copy formats different from a primary data format and transmits the arranged data to a media agent, wherein the data agent executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory,

(b) the media agent that creates one or more secondary copies based on the arranged data received from the data agent and stores the one or more secondary copies to an associated secondary storage device, wherein the media agent executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory,

(c) the storage manager, and

(d) a data storage device associated with at least one of the data agent and the media agent.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the change in configuration of the first storage component triggers a request for a report on whether the change in configuration of the first storage component resulted in a change in performance of the first storage component as compared to before the change in configuration.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the evaluating and the detecting operations are triggered by the change in configuration of the first storage component.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the evaluating and the detecting operations are triggered by the storage manager detecting the change in configuration of the first storage component.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the first performance metric measures for the first storage component one or more of:

how many storage operation jobs were completed, how many of the completed storage operation jobs had errors, average data throughput for the completed storage operation jobs, average duration of the completed storage operation jobs, average number of attempts to complete a storage operation job, how much data was transferred in a storage operation, how much disk space was consumed by a storage operation, and how much free disk space remains after a storage operation.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the first value and the second value of the first performance metric are based on data extracted by the storage manager from the media agent, which participated in at least one of the first plurality of storage operations and the second plurality of storage operations.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the operations further comprise:

querying the storage manager for information about the first plurality of storage operations and the second plurality of storage operations.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the data storage device associated with the data agent stores primary data.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the data storage device associated with the media agent stores secondary data, including one or more secondary copies.