STORAGE TAPE ANALYTICS USER INTEFACE

• US 20130086022A1
• Filed: 09/26/2012
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Oracle International Corporation (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Black, John Mitchell III, Abramowitz, Michael Paul, Ho, Duc T., Holdman, Jon Mark, Leach, Judith Gaye, Wharton, Cathleen Susan
• Granted Patent: US 8,849,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/002 Programmed access in sequence to a plurality of record carriers or indexed parts, e.g. tracks, thereof, e.g. for editing; transfer of record carriers from magazine G11B15/68, G11B17/10; G11B17/22
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

A method of accessing tape storage analytics data gathered from tape libraries. The method includes generating a user interface on a client device via a web browser. The user interface includes a first screen displaying graphics or an analysis table generated based on the tape storage analytics data. The method includes receiving user input selecting a portion of the displayed graphics or an item within a cell of the analysis table and, then, modifying the user interface to display a second screen, which presents a subset of the tape storage analytics data corresponding to the selected portion and to operation of at least one of one or more tape libraries, one or more tape drives, and one or more tape media within the tape libraries. The receiving and modifying steps may be repeated to navigate between data corresponding to a tape library, a tape drive, and media.

Claims

1. A data storage system for monitoring a tape infrastructure, comprising:

a tape library comprising a plurality of tape drives and a plurality of tape media for use in the tape drives;

a server communicatively linked to the tape library;

a tape analytics database stored in a data storage device;

on the server, a storage tape analytics application extracting data sets from the tape library corresponding to operations of the tape library including use of the tape drives and the tape media during data storage in the tape library, the storage tape analytics application storing the extracted data sets in the tape analytics database; and

a user interface module providing a user interface for viewing data in the tape analytics database, wherein the user interface is operable to access operations data for the tape library and for the drives and the tape media in the tape library.

2. The data storage system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is generated based on user input defining a subset of the data in the tape analytics database presented on a screen of the user interface and wherein the subset of the data includes historical data for the tape library, whereby health of each of the automated tape libraries is viewable over a user-selected time period.

3. The data storage system of claim 2, wherein the user interface module is operable to synchronize two or more graphs displayed in the user interface using the user-selected time period.

4. The data storage system of claim 2, wherein the user interface module responds to user input provided via the user interface to include or exclude portions of the data extracted by the storage tape analytics application corresponding to drives or media removed from the tape library.

5. The data storage system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is served to a client device over a communications network via a web browser.

6. The data storage system of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises a dashboard view including graphical representations generated from the extracted data sets corresponding to health status of the tape library, the tape drives, and the tape media.

7. The data storage system of claim 6, wherein the user interface module responds to placement of a cursor proximate to an element of the graphical representations by modifying the dashboard view to show portions of the dashboard view corresponding to the graphical representation element.

8. The data storage system of claim 6, wherein the user interface module responds to a user selection of an element of the graphical representations or of a tab on dashboard menu to link to a new view presenting a filtered subset of the extracted data sets corresponding to the element or the tab.

9. The data storage system of claim 1, wherein the extracted data sets include data about robotic actions to:

mount media into the tape drives;

dismount media from the tape drives; and

move media inside, into, or out of the automated tape libraries, the extracted data sets further including data about activity of the tape drives while the tape media is mounted.

10. A method of accessing tape storage analytics data gathered from a plurality of real or virtual tape libraries, the method comprising:

with user interface module running on a server, generating a user interface for presentation on a client device, the user interface including a first screen displaying graphics or an analysis table generated by the user interface module based on the tape storage analytics data;

receiving user input selecting a portion of the displayed graphics or an item within a cell of the analysis table; and

with the user interface module, modifying the user interface to display a second screen presenting a subset of the tape storage analytics data corresponding the selected portion and to operation of at least one of one or more tape libraries, one or more tape drives, and one or more tape media within the plurality of real or virtual tape libraries.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the receiving and modifying steps are repeated to navigate between data corresponding to a tape library, data corresponding to a tape drive, and data corresponding to a tape media.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the first screen displays data on an exchange in a tape library including a tape drive identifier and a media identifier and wherein the user input includes selecting one of the tape driver identifier and the media identifier, whereby a user queries the user interface for components involved in the exchange.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the receiving and modifying steps are repeated to navigate through a set of historical data corresponding to use of a tape drive or a piece of media.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the modifying of the user interface comprises applying a filter to the tape storage analytics data, the filter being defined by a template stored in memory accessible by the user interface module.

15. The method of claim 14, further including receiving user input via the user interface and, in response, modifying the template to generate a user-defined filter for the tape storage analytics data.

16. The method of claim 10, further including receiving user input via the user interface selecting a column or a row in the analysis table and defining a position within the analysis table and the method further including modifying the analysis table to change the selected column into a new row at the position or to change the selected row into a new column at the position.

17. The method of claim 10, further receiving user input defining a period of time and, in response, modifying the user interface of the first screen to display the graphics or the analysis table based on a subset of the tape storage analytics data collected during the user-defined time period.

18. The method of claim 10, wherein the analysis table includes a count for individual drives and for individual pieces of media and wherein the method further includes, based on user input selecting one of the counts, modifying the user interface displaying a screen presenting a subset of the tape storage analytics data corresponding to the selected one of the counts.

19. A data storage system for monitoring and analysis of a tape infrastructure, comprising:

a tape library comprising a plurality of tape drives and a plurality of tape media for use in the tape drives; and

a storage tape analytics application running on a computer extracting information sets from monitoring data collected from the tape library,

wherein the storage tape analytics application generates a user interface, including graphics providing health indicators for components of the tape library and analysis tables including operating data for individual tape drives or tape media, generated based on the extracted information sets and wherein the user interface is generated based on user input defining a historical time period for operation of the tape library, whereby operational health information of the tape library is viewable over a user-defined time period.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the user interface is operable to respond to user input to navigate between differing screens providing operational data corresponding to the tape library, to the tape drives, and to the tape media.