Network redirector systems and methods for performing data replication

• US 20070186068A1
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Agrawal, Vijay
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,709 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2074 Asynchronous techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24554 Unary operations; Data partitioning operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

Performing data management operations on replicated data in a computer network. Log entries are generated for data management operations of an application executing on a source system. Consistency point entries are used to indicate a time of a known good, or recoverable, state of the application. A destination system is configured to process a copy of the log and consistency point entries to replicate data in a replication volume, the replicated data being a copy of the application data on the source system. When the replicated data represents a known good state of the application, as determined by the consistency point entries, the destination system(s) may perform a storage operation (e.g., snapshot, backup) to copy the replicated data and to logically associate the copied data with a time information (e.g., time stamp) indicative of the source system time when the application was in the known good state.

Claims

1. A method for handling data to be copied in a computer network, the method comprising:

monitoring operations associated with a single application executing on a source system;

identifying from the operations a plurality of data modification operations operative to write data to a first storage device;

buffering a copy of each of the plurality of data modification operations;

forwarding the copies of the plurality of data modification operations to a destination system to be copied to a second storage device without first writing the copies of the plurality of data modification operations to the first storage device; and

forwarding the plurality of data modification operations to a file system associated with the first storage device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said buffering comprises caching the copies of the plurality of data modification operations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said buffering comprises storing the copies of the plurality of data modification operations in a random access memory (RAM).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data modification operations comprise data write operations and file attribute modification operations.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said identifying is performed by a file system filter driver.

6. A system for selecting application data to be copied in a computer network, the system comprising:

at least one computer application configured to generate operations associated with data on a first storage device;

a filter module disposed between the at least one computer application and the first storage device, the filter module configured to identify from the operations a plurality of data modification operations;

a buffer; and

a network redirector component in communication with the filter module and configured to temporarily store a copy of the data modification operations in the buffer while allowing the data modification operations to pass through to the first storage device, the network redirector component being further configured to transmit the copies of the plurality of data modification operations to a destination system, to be copied to a second storage device, without first writing the copies of the plurality of data modification operations to the first storage device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the network redirector component operates in a kernel mode on a source system.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the network redirector component comprises a file system driver.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the network redirector component comprises an operating system driver.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein the buffer comprises a cache memory.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the buffer comprises a random access memory.

12. The system of claim 6, wherein the buffer comprises a memory-mapped file.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the filter module is configured to provide the copies of the data modification operations directly to the memory-mapped file.

14. The system of claim 6, wherein the filter module comprises an application-specific filter driver.

15. A system for acquiring data for replication on a network storage device, the system comprising:

means for generating operations associated with data on a first storage device;

means for identifying from the operations a plurality of data modification operations, said means for identifying being disposed between said means for generating and the first storage device; and

means for temporarily storing a copy of the data modification operations while allowing the data modification operations to pass through to the first storage device, said means for storing being further configured to transmit the copies of the plurality of data modification operations to a destination system, to be replicated to a second storage device, without writing the copies of the plurality of data modification operations to the first storage device.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising means for replicating the data modification operations to the second storage device.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein said means for storing operates in a kernel mode on a source system.