SNAPSHOT STORAGE AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM WITH INDEXING AND USER INTERFACE

• US 20110131187A1
• Filed: 01/18/2011
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kumar, Avinash, May, Andreas, Ngo, David, Prahlad, Anand, Lunde, Norman R., Zhou, Lixin
• Granted Patent: US 8,140,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/674
• 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 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

A system and method of managing stored data in a storage management system. The storage management system includes a storage manager, a media agent connected to the storage manager, and a primary volume connected to the media agent. A plurality of snapshots are taken of the primary volume. The snapshots are indexed by associating respective information with the snapshot. The indexed snapshots are copied to a recovery volume. In this way, browsing features are enabled for the user. The user may view the snapshots in a hierarchical format, and may even view snapshot data in association with the corresponding application. The resultant recovery volume may be used to replace a primary volume.

Claims

1. A method for replacing data in a primary volume stored at a first device identified by a first logical unit number with data in a recovery volume stored at a second device identified by a second logical unit number, the method comprising:

updating a memory to indicate that the primary volume is no longer identified by the first logical unit number;

updating the memory to indicate that the recovery volume is no longer identified by the second logical unit number; and

updating the memory to indicate that the recovery volume is identified by the first logical unit number,

wherein the recovery volume comprises multiple snapshots of the primary volume.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein metadata associated with primary volume is maintained in association with the first logical unit number.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, where input and output to both the recovery and primary volumes is suspended during the updating steps.

4. A method of managing stored data in a storage management system, the storage management system including a storage manager, a media agent connected to the storage manager, and a primary volume connected to the media agent, the method comprising:

taking a first snapshot of the primary volume in accordance with a predefined policy, the policy comprising one or more parameters for creating a corresponding quick recovery volume;

indexing the first snapshot by associating respective information with the snapshot;

taking a second snapshot, in accordance with the predefined policy;

displaying a user interface comprising levels of available snapshots and quick recovery volumes;

receiving from a user a selection of a displayed level; and

recovering portions of data at the selected level and any level below the selected level.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the displayed user interface comprises multiple hierarchical levels of available snapshots and quick recovery volumes.