System and method for proxying network management protocol commands to enable cluster wide management of data backups

• US 20060248294A1
• Filed: 04/29/2005
• Published: 11/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/29/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: O'Keefe, Brian, Nedved, E. Rudolph
• Granted Patent: US 8,886,778 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/00 Network arrangements or protocols for supporting network services or applications user-to-user messaging H04L51/00; network arrangements, protocols or services for supporting real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/00
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/133 Protocols for remote procedure calls [RPC]

Abstract

A system and method enables cluster-wide management of backup operations issued by one or more backup managers to nodes of a cluster using a network management protocol, such as NDMP. An NDMP daemon executing on each node is extended to include a processing module and a backup module. The processing module interfaces with a backup manager to interpret the backup operation and, if necessary, forward (proxy) that operation to another NDMP daemon on another node of the cluster for processing in accordance with cluster'"'"'s unified namespace.

Claims

1. A method for processing a network data management command directed to a data container served by one or more nodes of a cluster, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving the network data management command directed to the data container at a first node of the cluster;

determining if the first node is configured to serve the data container;

if not, forwarding the command to a second node configured to serve the data container; and

processing the command directed to the data container at the second node.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the data container comprises a volume.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the data container comprises a file system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the network data management command is defined by a network data management protocol.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

forwarding a response from the second node to the first node; and

returning the response from the first node to a backup manager.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the first node comprises a protocol daemon.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the protocol daemon comprises a processing module adapted to process the command.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein the protocol daemon comprises a backup module adapted to forward the command to the second node serving the data container.

9. A system adapted to process a protocol command directed to a data container served by a cluster, the system comprising:

a backup manager adapted to send the protocol command to a first protocol daemon executing on a first computer of the cluster; and

the first protocol daemon adapted to determine if the data container is local to the first computer and further adapted to, in response to determining that the data container is not local, forward the protocol command to a second protocol daemon executing on a second computer of the cluster for processing.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the protocol comprises a network data management protocol.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the data container comprises a volume.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the data container comprises a file system.

13. The system of claim 9 wherein the protocol command comprises a network data management protocol command.

14. The system of claim 9 wherein the first protocol daemon further comprises a processing module adapted to determine whether the data container is local and further adapted to interface with the backup manager.

15. The system of claim 9 wherein the first protocol daemon further comprises a backup module adapted to forward the protocol command to the second protocol daemon for processing.

16. The system of claim 9 wherein the second protocol daemon further comprises a backup module adapted to receive the protocol command from the first protocol daemon and to process, in conjunction with a processing module of the second protocol daemon, the protocol command.

17. A computer readable medium for processing a network data management command directed to a data container served by one or more nodes of a cluster, the computer readable medium including program instructions for performing the steps of:

receiving the network data management command directed to the data container at a first node of the cluster;

determining if the first node is configured to serve the data container;

if not, forwarding the command to a second node configured to serve the data container; and

processing the command directed to the data container at the second node.

18. A system configured to process a network data management command directed to a data container served by one or more nodes of a cluster, the system comprising:

means for receiving the network data management command directed to the data container at a first node of the cluster;

means for determining if the node is configured to serve the data container;

if not, means for forwarding the command to a second node configured to serve the data container; and

means for processing the command directed to the data container at the second node.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the data container comprises a volume.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the data container comprises a file system.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the network data management command comprises a command defined by a network data management protocol.

22. The system of claim 18 further comprising:

means for forwarding a response from the second node to the first node; and

means for returning the response from the first node to a backup manager.