Combined stream auxiliary copy system and method

• US 20040225834A1
• Filed: 09/16/2003
• Published: 11/11/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Gokhale, Parag, Lu, Jun
• Granted Patent: US 8,370,542 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0686 Libraries, e.g. tape libraries, jukebox
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10 Digital recording or reproducing

Abstract

A system and method for transferring data in a library storage system. The library storage system comprises a management server including a storage policy. A media agent is connected to the management server. A plurality of storage media and a data source are connected to the media agent. The data source is divided into at least a first and a second portion of data. The portions of data are transferred from the data source to a first and second primary storage medium using a first and a second data stream respectively. The media agent then causes the first and second portion of data to be transferred from the first and second storage medium to a third auxiliary storage medium using a third combined data stream. Auxiliary copying is performed in chunks and multiple streams are copied in parallel.

Claims

1. A method for transferring data in a storage system, the storage system comprising a management server, a media agent connected to the management server, a plurality of storage media connected to the media agent, and a data source connected to the media agent, the method comprising:

dividing the data source into at least a first and a second portion of data;

transferring the first and second portion of data from the data source to a first and second storage medium using a first and a second data stream respectively;

transferring the first and second portion of data from the first and second storage medium to a third storage medium using a third combined data stream.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transfer from the first and second storage medium to the third storage medium is performed in chunks.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising

transferring the first and second portion of data from the first and second storage medium to the third and a fourth storage medium using the third combined data stream and a fourth data stream respectively;

and

wherein the transfer using the third and fourth data stream is performed based on the type of data of the data source.

4. The method as recited in claim 3, whether the transfer using the third and fourth data stream is performed substantially in parallel.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transfer using the third data stream is performed based on a client identification of the first and second portion of data.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the transfer using the third data stream is performed based on respective stream numbers of the first and second streams.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising transferring the first and second portion of data from third storage medium to a fourth storage medium based on respective times when the first and second portions of data were created.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising transferring the first and second portion of data from third storage medium to a fourth storage medium based on respective offsets of the first and second portion of data stored on the third storage medium.

9. A system for transferring data, the system comprising:

a data source;

a media agent connected to the data source;

a management server connected to the media agent;

at least a first, second, and third storage medium connected to the media agent;

wherein

the data source is divided into at least a first and a second portion of data;

the media agent transfers the first and the second portion of data from the data source to the first and second storage medium using a first and second data stream respectively; and

the media agent transfers the first and second portion of data from the first and second storage medium to the third medium using a third combined data stream.

10. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the transfer from the first and second storage medium to the third storage medium is performed in chunks.

11. A recording medium in a storage system with data stored thereon, the storage system comprising a management server, a media agent connected to the management server, a plurality of storage media connected to the media agent, and a data source connected to the media agent, the data produced by:

splitting data source into at least a first and a second portion;

transferring the first portion to a first storage medium using a first stream;

transferring the second portion to a second storage medium using a second stream; and

transferring the first and second portion of data from the first and second storage medium to a third storage medium using a third combined data stream.

12. A method for transferring data in a storage system, the storage system comprising a management server including a storage policy, a media agent connected to the management server, a plurality of storage media connected to the media agent, and a data source connected to the media agent, the method comprising:

dividing the data source into at least a first and a second portion of data;

transferring the first and second portion of data from the data source to a first number of pieces of storage media;

transferring the first and second portion of data from the first number of pieces of storage media to a second number of pieces of storage media, the second number being less than the first number.