FILTERED REFERENCE COPY OF SECONDARY STORAGE DATA IN A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20140181438A1
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Varadharajan, Prakash, Mutha, Manas Bhikchand, Dhatrak, Vinit Dilip, Bedadala, Pavan Kumar Reddy, Kapadia, Hetal
• Application Number:
  US13/791,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20140181438A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/122 using management policies backup systems G06F11/1446; file migration policies for HSM systems G06F16/185
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0643 Management of files
• 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]

Abstract

The data storage system according to certain aspects can filter secondary copies of data (e.g., backups, snapshots, archives, etc.) generated by multiple client computing devices into a single, filtered, global reference copy. A reference copy may be a filtered view or representation of secondary storage data in a data storage system. A reference copy may include a data structure that includes references to a subset of secondary storage data that meets certain filtering criteria. The filtering criteria may be specified by users according to user preference. Data included in a reference copy may be stored in native format (e.g., format of the application that generated the data) and be accessible through the application associated with the data.

Claims

1. A method of creating a filtered representation of secondary copy data in a networked data storage system, comprising:

copying data comprising a plurality of files generated by applications executing on one or more client computers from primary storage to secondary storage;

accessing filtering criteria for identifying a subset of the plurality of files residing in secondary storage;

with a first module executing on a first computer hardware device comprising one or more processors;

instructing a first media agent to identify files residing in secondary storage that meet the filtering criteria; and

instructing a second media agent to identify files residing in secondary storage that meet the filtering criteria, the first and second media agents executing on one or more second computer hardware devices comprising one or more processors;

receiving from the first media agent an indication as to files identified by the first media agent that reside in one or more secondary storage devices associated with the first media agent;

receiving from the second media agent an indication as to files identified by the second media agent that reside in one or more secondary storage devices associated with the second media agent; and

creating a filtered representation comprising a data structure that includes references to the files identified by the first media agent and the files identified by the second media agent, wherein the references correspond to the subset of the plurality of files residing in secondary storage that meet the filtering criteria.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more second computer hardware devices comprise a plurality of computing devices, and wherein the first media agent and the second media agent reside on different ones of the second computing devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more secondary storage devices associated with the first media agent are different than the one or more secondary storage devices associated with the second media agent.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first media agent and the second media agent identify at least some of the files residing in secondary storage that meet the filtering criteria by accessing an index associated with the respective media agent and corresponding to files residing in the one or more secondary storage devices associated with the respective media agent.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the index associated with the first media agent and the index associated with the second media agent are generated by the respective media agent and reside in storage local to the respective media agent.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the first media agent and the second media agent generate the index associated with the respective media agent based on the data copied during said copying.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtered representation is used to generate a listing of the identified subset of the plurality of files, and wherein the listing is viewable by a user via a graphical user interface.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the references comprise pointers to the corresponding files, and wherein the data structure does not include copies of the files themselves.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each file in the plurality of files is stored in a native format associated with the file.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating additional copies of at least some of the identified files in the subset of the plurality of files.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the additional copies are stored on one or more storage devices that are different from the secondary storage devices associated with the first media agent and the secondary storage devices associated with the second media agent.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtered representation includes metadata associated with the subset of the plurality of files, the metadata comprising, for at least some of the files in the subset, one or more of:

an indication as to a user associated with the files, a source computing device associated with the files, and a source software application associated with the files.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the filtered representation includes metadata associated with the subset of the plurality of files, the metadata comprising:

for at least some of the files in the subset, one or more of;

an indication as to a user associated with the files, a source computing device associated with the files, and a source software application associated with the files.

13. A method of restoring secondary copy data in a networked storage system using a filtered representation of the secondary copy data, comprising:

with a first module executing on a first computer hardware device, providing access to a filtered representation comprising a data structure that includes references to files identified by both a first media agent and a second media agent,

wherein the references correspond to a subset of a plurality of files residing in secondary storage that meet filtering criteria, and

wherein the first and second media agents comprise software modules executing on one or more second computer hardware devices;

receiving a request to restore a file in the filtered representation from secondary storage to primary storage; and

initiating a restore of the file from the secondary storage to primary storage.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the filtered representation is used to generate a listing of the identified subset of the plurality of files that is viewable by a user.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the references comprise pointers to the corresponding files, and wherein the data structure does not include copies of the files themselves.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein each file in the plurality of files is stored in a native format associated with the file.

18. A data storage system, comprising:

first computer hardware comprising one or more processors;

a reference copy module executing on the one or more processors of the first computer hardware and configured to;

access filtering criteria for identifying a subset of a plurality of files residing in secondary storage; and

instruct a first media agent to identify files of the subset of the plurality of files residing in secondary storage that meet the filtering criteria and that reside in one or more secondary storage devices associated with the first media agent;

instruct a second media agent to identify files of the subset of the plurality of files residing in secondary storage that meet the filtering criteria and that reside in one or more secondary storage devices associated with the second media agent;

wherein the first and second media agents execute on one or more processors of second computer hardware;

receive from the first media agent an indication as to files identified by the first media agent;

receive from the second media agent an indication as to files identified by the second media agent; and

create a filtered representation comprising a data structure that includes references to both the files identified by the first media agent and the files identified by the second media agent.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the one or more secondary storage devices associated with the first media agent are different than the one or more secondary storage devices associated with the second media agent.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the first media agent and the second media agent identify at least some of the files of the subset of the plurality of files residing in secondary storage that meet the filtering criteria by accessing an index associated with the respective media agent and corresponding to files residing in the one or more secondary storage devices associated with the respective media agent.

19. (canceled)