TRANSACTIONAL FAILOVER OF DATA SETS

• US 20100064168A1
• Filed: 09/11/2008
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Kohr, Dave JR., Smoot, Peter L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,775,394 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2025 using centralised failover control functionality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2028 eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers

Abstract

A network storage server implements a method to perform transactional failover of data sets. Multiple storage objects are organized into primary and secondary data sets, and a disaster recovery policy is configured for failing-over a primary data set to a secondary data set. A failover operation is defined for the disaster recovery policy. The failover operation includes multiple failover actions. During a failover situation, the failover operation is invoked to fail-over the primary data set. The failover operation is transactionally processed to ensure that all failover actions of the failover operation are performed in a single transaction.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a signal to fail-over a primary data set of a network storage subsystem; and

performing a predefined operation to fail-over the primary data set to a secondary data set of the network storage subsystem, wherein the predefined operation causes a plurality of failover actions to be performed as a single transaction.

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

aborting the predefined operation upon detecting an error from one of the plurality of failover actions.

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

disallowing a plurality of instances of the predefined operation from being performed upon initiation of the predefined operation.

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

preventing a plurality of instances of the predefined operation from being concurrently performed.

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

processing the plurality of failover actions in a predetermined order.

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

providing a failback operation upon a successful completion of the failover operation.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the secondary data set has a data replication relationship with the primary data set.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein one of the plurality of failover actions breaks the data replication relationship.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the method is embodied in a machine-readable medium as a set of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform the method.

10. A method comprising:

receiving a disaster recovery (DR) configuration, wherein the DR configuration includes a primary data set and a secondary data set, the primary data set having a data replication relationship with the secondary data set;

receiving a configuration to create a failover operation, wherein the failover operation contains a plurality of failover actions; and

enabling the failover operation to be performed on the primary data set.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

transactionally processing the failover operation to fail-over the primary data set to the secondary data set, wherein the plurality of failover actions are performed in a single transaction.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

aborting the failover operation upon detecting an error from one of the plurality of failover actions.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, further comprising:

disallowing a plurality of instances of the failover operation from being performed upon initiation of the failover operation.

14. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

preventing a plurality of instances of the failover operation from being concurrently performed.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

test-executing the failover operation without failing over the primary data set to the secondary data set.

16. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein one of the plurality of failover actions breaks the data replication relationship.

17. A method, comprising:

initiating a failover operation to failover a primary data set to a secondary data set, wherein the failover operation includes a plurality of predefined failover actions, and the primary data set has a data replication relationship with the secondary data set;

obtaining a lock for the failover operation, to prevent another instance of the failover operation from being invoked;

processing the plurality of failover actions in a single transaction; and

disallowing the failover operation from being performed on the primary data set upon the initiation of the failover operation.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

aborting the failover operation upon detecting an error from one of the plurality of failover actions.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, further comprising:

preventing a plurality of instances of the failover operation from being concurrently performed.

20. A system, comprising:

a processor;

a network interface through which to communicate with a primary network storage subsystem and a secondary network storage subsystem; and

a memory coupled with the processor, the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the network storage server to perform a process comprising;

receiving a disaster recovery (DR) configuration, wherein the DR configuration includes a primary network storage subsystem and a secondary network storage subsystem, the primary network storage subsystem having a data replication relationship with the secondary network storage subsystem;

receiving a configuration to create a failover operation, wherein the failover operation contains a plurality of failover actions; and

enabling the failover operation to be performed on the primary network storage subsystem.

21. The system as recited in claim 20, wherein the process further comprising:

transactionally processing the failover operation to failover the primary network storage subsystem to the secondary network storage subsystem, wherein the plurality of failover actions are performed in a single transaction.

22. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the process further comprising:

aborting the failover operation upon detecting an error from one of the plurality of failover actions.

23. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the process further comprising:

disallowing a plurality of instances of the failover operation from being performed upon initiation of the failover operation.

24. The system as recited in claim 20, wherein the process further comprising:

preventing a plurality of instances of the failover operation from being concurrently performed.