Data management systems, articles of manufacture, and data storage methods

• US 20050132257A1
• Filed: 11/26/2003
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Gold, Stephen, Burose, Harald, Schikora, Sebastien
• Granted Patent: US 7,818,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3433 for load management allocation of a server based on load conditions G06F9/505; load rebalancing G06F9/5083; redistributing the load in a network by a load balancer H04L67/1029
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0623 in relation to content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Data management systems, articles of manufacture, and data storage methods are described. According to one aspect, a data management system provides a data storage system configured to store data of a plurality of client protected computer systems, wherein the data storage system comprises a plurality of storage devices individually having a respective capacity, and a quantity of the data of the protected computer systems to be stored exceeds capacities of individual ones of the storage devices and storage control circuitry coupled with the data storage system and configured to assign individual ones of the individual storage devices to store data for respective ones of the protected computer systems.

Claims

1. A data management system comprising:

a data storage system configured to store data of a plurality of client protected computer systems, wherein the data storage system comprises a plurality of storage devices individually having a respective capacity, and a quantity of the data of the protected computer systems to be stored exceeds capacities of individual ones of the storage devices; and

storage control circuitry coupled with the data storage system and configured to assign individual ones of the individual storage devices to store data for respective ones of the protected computer systems.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage control circuitry is configured to receive a request to add a new protected computer system and to assign one of the storage devices to implement data storage operations with respect to the new protected computer system.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the storage control circuitry is configured to monitor a status of at least one of the storage devices and to assign the one storage device for the new protected computer responsive to the monitoring.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring a processing capacity of an archive agent of the at least one storage device.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring a storage capacity of the at least one storage device.

6. The system of claim 3 wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring a status of a plurality of the storage devices, and the assigning comprises assigning the storage device having a greatest available capacity.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein entireties of the data for the protected computer systems are stored using respective assigned ones of the storage devices.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the entireties of the data comprise an entirety of baseline data and associated delta data for the respective protected computer systems.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage control circuitry is configured to assign a plurality of the storage devices to store an entirety of the data for one of the protected computer systems.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage control circuitry comprises a tracking database configured to store associations of the storage devices with respective ones of the protected computer systems.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage devices comprise disk storage devices.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein at least one of the storage devices is configured to store data for a plurality of the protected computer systems.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage devices individually comprise an archive agent and a storage space.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the storage control circuitry comprises a master cell manager and at least one slave cell manager, and wherein the master cell manager is configured to assign one of the protected computer systems to one of the storage devices associated with the at least one slave cell manager.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein one of the storage devices is configured to transfer data for one of the protected computer systems to an other of the storage devices.

16. A data management system comprising:

plural means for storing electronic data, wherein individual ones of the plural means for storing comprise a respective data storage capacity;

means for communicating data intermediate the plural storage means and a plurality of client protected computer systems, wherein a quantity of data of the client protected computer systems exceeds individual data storage capacities of individual ones of the means for storing; and

means for assigning individual ones of the means for storing to store data for respective ones of the client protected computer systems.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the plural means for storing individually comprise means for storing an entirety of the data for a respective one of the client protected computer systems.

18. The system of claim 16 wherein plural ones of the means for storing comprise means for storing an entirety of the data for a respective one of the client protected computer systems.

19. The system of claim 16 further comprising tracking means for storing information regarding associations of individual ones of the plural means for storing with respective ones of the client protected computer systems.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the plural means for storing individually comprise archive means and physical storage means.

21. An article of manufacture comprising:

a processor-usable medium comprising processor-usable code configured to cause processing circuitry of storage control circuitry to;

access information regarding a plurality of storage devices;

access information regarding a plurality of client protected computer systems;

associate individual ones of the protected computer systems with respective ones of the storage devices;

receive a request to add a new protected computer system;

monitor capacities of the storage devices; and

assign the new protected computer to one of the storage devices responsive to the monitoring.

22. The article of claim 21 wherein the processor-usable code is configured to cause the processing circuitry to associate responsive to user input.

23. The article of claim 21 wherein the processor-usable code is configured to cause the processing circuitry to associate responsive to the monitoring.

24. A data storage method comprising:

providing a plurality of storage devices configured to store data for a plurality of client protected computer systems, wherein the storage devices individually comprise processing circuitry and a storage space;

monitoring capacities of individual ones of the storage devices;

associating one of the protected computer systems with one of the storage devices responsive to the monitoring; and

implementing storage operations of the data for the associated one of the protected computer systems using the associated one of the storage devices in accordance with the associating.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein a quantity of data of the protected computer systems to be stored exceeds individual capacities of individual ones of the storage devices.

26. The method of claim 24 further comprising maintaining a record of the association of the one storage device and the one client protected computer system.

27. The method of claim 24 wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring storage capacities of the storage devices.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring processing capacities of the storage devices.

29. The method of claim 24 wherein the monitoring and assigning comprise monitoring and assigning using storage control circuitry.

30. The method of claim 29 further comprising providing the storage control circuitry comprising a distributed control system.

31. The method of claim 24 wherein the associating comprises associating the one protected computer system with the one storage device having a greatest available capacity.

32. The method of claim 24 further comprising transferring at least a portion of the data of the one protected computer system from the one storage device to an other storage device.

33. A data storage method comprising:

a plurality of storage devices configured to store data for a plurality of client protected computer systems, the storage devices individually comprising processing circuitry;

storing the data using the storage devices;

monitoring capacities of the storage devices using storage control circuitry;

providing a new storage device configured to store data for at least one of the protected computer systems; and

coupling processing circuitry of the new storage device with the storage control circuitry.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising monitoring capacity of the new storage device using the storage control circuitry after the coupling.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring processing capacities of the storage devices.

36. The method of claim 33 wherein the monitoring comprises monitoring storage capacities of the storage devices.