Service level mapping method

• US 20080077682A1
• Filed: 09/27/2006
• Published: 03/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Perrin, Stephen R., Bell, John Phillip, Rankov, Alex, Vukelja, Iva Blazina, Nair, Manoj
• Granted Patent: US 8,832,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/223
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/16 File or folder operations, e.g. details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/40 using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5003 Managing SLA; Interaction between SLA and QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation

Abstract

A method and system for assigning service level objectives to data objects stored within a computer system. The computer system includes an information management server for providing customized services to data objects residing in the computer system. One exemplary method identifies a data object, such as a file, folder, database, and the like, that has been categorized according to at least one property associated with the data object. The method also identifies service level objectives that are available within the computer system. Service level objectives may include any type of service area or service level that can be provided to a data object. The data object is then associated with one or more of the service level objectives for requesting that the services associated with the one or more service level objectives be provided to the data object.

Claims

1. In a computer system that includes an information management server for providing customized services to data objects residing in the computer system, a method for assigning service level objectives to the data objects, the method comprising:

identifying a data object that has been categorized according to at least one property associated with the data object;

identifying at least one service level objective for defining a service available within the computer system; and

mapping the data object to one or more of the service level objectives for requesting that the services associated with the one or more service level objectives be provided to the data object.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a priority level to each of the mappings, wherein a mapping having a higher priority level is retained in the event that it conflicts with a mapping having a lower priority level.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein:

identifying the data object that has been categorized according to at least one property associated with the data object further comprises identifying a category containing a plurality of data objects that have been categorized according to the at least one property associated with the plurality of data objects; and

mapping the data object with one or more of the service level objectives further comprises mapping the category with the one or more service level objectives for requesting that the services associated with the one or more service level objectives be provided to the plurality of data objects contained within the category.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying that the data object contained insufficient properties to be categorized;

identifying the storage location wherein the data object is located;

identifying which of the at least one service level objectives are associated with a substantial portion of other data objects located within the storage location; and

associating the data object with the service level objectives that are associated with the substantial portion of the other data objects located within the storage location.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a service package that is capable of providing at least one of the service level objectives associated with the data object; and

associating the identified service package with the data object.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the data object is associated with a lifecycle service level objective, the method further comprising:

identifying aging characteristics of the data object based on access patterns of the data object; and

associating the data object with the service level objective that is designated for providing services to data objects having the identified aging characteristics.

7. In a computer system that includes an information management server for providing customized services to data objects residing in the computer system, a method for assigning the data objects to service providers, the method comprising:

identifying a data object associated with at least one service level objective, each of the service level objectives defining a service requested by the data object;

identifying a service package that is capable of providing at least one of the service level objectives associated with the data object; and

associating the identified service package with the data object.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

providing the user, via a user interface, with a finite number of selectable service packages, each service package containing a plurality of service levels.

9. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

assigning a priority level to each of the one or more service level objectives that the data object is associated with; and

wherein identifying a service package that is capable of providing at least one of the service level objectives associated with the data object further comprises;

identifying a service package that is capable of providing the service level objectives having the highest priority levels.

10. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

assigning each of the service level objectives associated with the data object priority levels an adjustment policy for defining the adaptability of the service level objectives in the event that the service package is unable to provide all of the service level objectives associated with the data object, the adjustment policy being selected from;

a non-adjustable option, wherein the service level objective will not be changed;

a promotable option, wherein the service level objective can be changed to a higher service level objective; and

a demotable option, wherein the service level objective can be changed to a lower service level objective.

11. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein:

identifying a data object associated with at least one service level objective further comprises identifying a target service package containing a plurality of data objects that are associated with the at least one service level objective; and

associating the identified service package with the data object further comprises associating the identified service package with the identified target service package.

12. A method as recited in claim 7, further comprising:

flagging the data object in the event that no service package is capable of adequately providing the at least one service level objective associated with the data object.

13. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein the service package consists of at least one service level that is provided by at least one service provider.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein associating the identified service package with the data object further comprises associating the at least one service provider with the data object.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the service providers include at least one of file servers, retention servers, backup servers, databases, and applications.

16. A computer program product for use in a computer system that includes an information management server for providing customized services to data objects residing in the computer system, the computer program product used in implementing a method of assigning service level objectives to the data objects, the computer program product comprising one or more computer readable media having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the computing system to perform the following:

identify a data object that has been categorized according to at least one property associated with the data object;

identify at least one service level objective for defining a service available within the computer system; and

associate the data object with one or more of the service level objectives for requesting that the services associated with the one or more service level objectives be provided to the data object.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, the computer program product further including instructions configured to:

assign a priority level to each of the one or more service level objectives that the data object is associated with, wherein the service level objectives of a higher priority level are retained in the event that they conflict with the service level objective of a lower priority level.

18. The method as recited in claim 16, the computer program product further including instructions configured to:

identify a service provider that is capable of providing at least one of the service level objectives associated with the data object; and

associate the identified service provider with the data object.

19. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein the data object is associated with a lifecycle service level objective, the computer program product further including instructions configured to:

identify aging characteristics of the data object based on access patterns of the data object; and

associate the data object with the service level objective that is designated for providing services to data objects having the identified aging characteristics.