METHOD, SYSTEM, AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ALERT SYNTHESIS IN A DATA PROTECTION SYSTEM

• US 20090113241A1
• Filed: 12/30/2008
• Published: 04/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: van Ingen, Catharine, Harikrishnan, Seetharaman, Thangarathnam, Manikandan, Shelton, William T. JR., Lashkari, Yezdi Z., Kulkarni, Purushottam M., Anand, Karandeep Singh, Berkowitz, Brian T., Srinivasan, Sundararajan
• Granted Patent: US 8,549,355 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1466 to make the backup process non-disruptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

A method for diagnosing problems with protection of a data source and recovery of the same. The method includes diagnosing a copy of data located at the storage location and diagnosing a temporal version of the copy of data. Based on the diagnosis it is determined whether an error or a warning was detected. If either were detected a response is provided with a suggested solution.

Claims

1. A method for informing a user of the state of a data protection system, comprising:

monitoring activities of the data protection system;

determining if there are any potential problems with the data protection system;

if it is determined that there are no potential problems with the data protection system, providing a user an informational report regarding the state of the data protection system;

if it is determined that there are potential problems with the data protection system, determining the severity of the potential problem;

classifying the potential problem based on the severity of the problem; and

providing the user with a report corresponding to the classification of the potential problem.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the potential problem is classified as an error if the severity of the problem requires user interaction to proceed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the report informs the user of the potential problem and provides the user with a suggested solution to the potential problem.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the potential problem is classified as a warning if the severity of the problem does not require user interaction to proceed.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the report informs the user of the potential problem and provides the user with a suggested solution to the potential problem or informs the user that no action is currently needed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the informational report informs the user that the data protection system is operating as expected.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the potential problem for a change; and

in response to a change, changing the severity of the problem based on the change.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is generated based on a calculation of a number of failures over a period of time.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the report is generated based on a calculation of a number of failures across a plurality of locations of the data protection system.

10. A method for diagnosing data at a storage location, comprising:

diagnosing a copy of data located at the storage location;

diagnosing a temporal version of the copy of data;

determining if an error was detected;

if in response to detecting an error, reporting the error and providing a suggested solution;

determining if a warning was detected; and

if in response to detecting a warning, reporting the warning and providing a suggested solution.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining if the copy is valid.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining if a copy job is currently running.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining if a last copy job completed successfully.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a copy of data includes, diagnosing replication failures for the copy of data.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, computing a number of failed copy jobs.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining whether a threshold has been reached.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if the copy is valid.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if the last temporal version completed successfully.

19. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if a temporal version was taken.

20. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if the oldest intended temporal version is available.

21. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining a percentage of temporal versions that are missing over a predetermined period of time.

22. The method of claim 10, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining a percentage of temporal versions that are missing over a total period of time.

23. A method for diagnosing a copy of data, comprising:

determining if the copy is invalid;

in response to determining that the copy is invalid, determining if a validation job is currently running;

determining if a validation job failed; and

reporting an appropriate response.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the appropriate response is a warning, if it is determined that a validation job is running.

25. The method of claim 23, wherein the appropriate response is an error, if it is determined that a validation job failed.

26. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

determining if there is sufficient space for the copy; and

in response to a determination that there is not sufficient space for the copy, providing an error report and a suggested solution.

27. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

determining if the target is not reachable; and

in response to a determination that the target is not reachable, reporting an error and providing a suggested solution.

28. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

determining if the copy depends on monitoring;

in response to determining that the copy depends on monitoring, determining if there is an interruption in the monitoring; and

in response to a determination that there is an interruption in the monitoring, reporting an error and providing a suggested solution.

29. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

determining if a copy job is running; and

in response to a determination that a copy job is running, providing a last state of a data source and indicating that a job is running.

30. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

determining if a last replication succeeded; and

in response to a determination that a last replication succeeded, determining if a threshold value had been reached.

31. In a data protection system having a production location, a storage location, and a communication path for transmitting data between the production location and the storage location, a method for diagnosing a temporal version, the method comprising:

determining if an oldest intended temporal version is available;

in response to determining that the oldest intended temporal version is available, computing a missing number of temporal versions over a predetermined period of time; and

reporting a response dependent upon a percentage of missing temporal versions over the predetermined period of time.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

computing a number of temporal versions missing over a total period of time; and

reporting a response dependent upon the number of temporal versions missing over the total period of time.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein the response is a warning.

34. The method of claim 31, wherein the response is an error.

35. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

determining whether a previous temporal version succeeded.

36. The method of claim 31, further comprising:

determining if a temporal version was taken.

37. In a data protection system having a production location, a storage location, and a communication path for transmitting data between the production location and the storage location, a method for diagnosing a recovery of data from the storage location to the production location, the method comprising:

determining if a recovery job failed;

in response to determining that a recovery job failed, obtaining a reason for the failure;

reporting an error identifying the failure; and

providing a recommendation to resolve the failure.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the failure is that a production location was inaccessible.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the failure is that a target location is inaccessible.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the failure is that a disk is full.

41. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

determining if a recovery job is in progress.

42. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

in response to determining that a recovery job is in progress, determining if a warning has been reported; and

providing a response dependent upon whether a waning has been reported.