DATA SYNCHRONIZATION IN A STORAGE NETWORK

• US 20140195482A1
• Filed: 12/20/2013
• Published: 07/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/08/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Lyve Minds, Inc. (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Original Assignee: Lyve Minds, Inc. (Seagate Technology Holdings Plc)
• Inventors: Kaiser, Christian M., Pitt, Julie A., Pasetto, Rick, Sewerynek, Stephen
• Application Number:
  US14/137,691
• Publication Number:
  US 20140195482A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/620
• 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 12/023 Free address space management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0613 in relation to throughput
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A method of synchronizing data may include receiving, by a first storage agent, a recent second-agent synchronization point. The recent second-agent synchronization point may be associated with a recent second-agent synchronization time of a second-agent synchronization between a second storage agent and a third storage agent. The method may further include determining, based on the recent second-agent synchronization point, a first-agent baseline synchronization point. The first-agent baseline synchronization point may be associated with a first-agent baseline synchronization time of a first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent that occurred before the second-agent synchronization time. Additionally, the method may include establishing a first-agent baseline of synchronization of data between the first storage agent and the second storage agent based on the first-agent baseline synchronization point.

Claims

1. A method of synchronizing data, the method comprising:

receiving, by a first storage agent, a recent second-agent synchronization point associated with a recent second-agent synchronization time of a second-agent synchronization between a second storage agent and a third storage agent;

determining, based on the recent second-agent synchronization point, a first-agent baseline synchronization point associated with a first-agent baseline synchronization time of a first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent that occurred before the second-agent synchronization time; and

establishing a first-agent baseline of synchronization of data between the first storage agent and the second storage agent based on the first-agent baseline synchronization point.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining data that was updated by the first storage agent after the first-agent baseline synchronization time based on the first-agent baseline.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising communicating, to the second storage agent, the data that was updated by the first storage agent after the first-agent baseline synchronization time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the recent second-agent synchronization point is associated with a most recent second-agent synchronization between the second storage agent and the third storage agent.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first-agent baseline synchronization point is associated with a latest first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent that occurred before the recent second-agent synchronization time.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, by the first storage agent to the second storage agent, a recent first-agent synchronization point associated with a recent first-agent synchronization time of a recent first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent;

receiving, by the first storage agent from the second storage agent, data that was updated by the second storage agent after the recent first-agent synchronization time as determined based on a second-agent baseline related to a second-agent baseline synchronization point associated with a second-agent baseline synchronization time of the second storage agent with the third storage agent that occurred before the recent first-agent synchronization time; and

reconciling the data received from the second storage agent with corresponding data stored on the first storage agent.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reconciling comprises:

determining whether the received data is older than the corresponding data stored on the first storage agent;

when the received data is older than the corresponding data, ignoring the received data; and

when the received data is newer than the corresponding data, replacing the corresponding data with the received data.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the recent second-agent synchronization point includes one or more of:

version numbers of the second storage agents and the third storage agent, identifiers of the second storage agent and the third storage agent, and locally-assigned version numbers of the data involved in the second-agent synchronization between the second storage agent and the third storage agent.

9. A method of synchronizing data, the method comprising:

transmitting, by a first storage agent to a second storage agent, a recent first-agent synchronization point associated with a recent first-agent synchronization time of a first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent with a third storage agent;

receiving, by the first storage agent from the second storage agent, data that was updated by the second storage agent as determined based on a second-agent baseline that is established based on a second-agent baseline synchronization point associated with a second-agent baseline synchronization time of a second-agent baseline synchronization of the second storage agent with the third storage agent that occurred before the recent first-agent synchronization time; and

reconciling the data received from the second storage agent with corresponding data stored on the first storage agent.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the recent first-agent synchronization point is associated with a most recent first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the second-agent baseline synchronization point is associated with a latest second-agent synchronization between the second storage agent and the third storage agent that occurred before the first-agent synchronization time.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the reconciling comprises:

determining whether the received data is older than the corresponding data stored on the first storage agent;

when the received data is older than the corresponding data, ignoring the received data; and

when the received data is newer than the corresponding data, replacing the corresponding data with the received data.

13. A computer-readable storage medium including instructions that cause a system to perform operations to allocate data to a storage agent of a storage network, the operations comprising:

receiving, by a first storage agent, a recent second-agent synchronization point associated with a recent second-agent synchronization time of a second-agent synchronization between a second storage agent and a third storage agent;

determining, based on the recent second-agent synchronization point, a first-agent baseline synchronization point associated with a first-agent baseline synchronization time of a first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent that occurred before the second-agent synchronization time; and

establishing a first-agent baseline of synchronization of data between the first storage agent and the second storage agent based on the first-agent baseline synchronization point.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise determining data that was updated by the first storage agent after the first-agent baseline synchronization time based on the first-agent baseline.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise communicating, to the second storage agent, the data that was updated by the first storage agent after the first-agent baseline synchronization time.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the recent second-agent synchronization point is associated with a most recent second-agent synchronization between the second storage agent and the third storage agent.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the first-agent baseline synchronization point is associated with a latest first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent that occurred before the recent second-agent synchronization time.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprise:

transmitting, by the first storage agent to the second storage agent, a recent first-agent synchronization point associated with a recent first-agent synchronization time of a recent first-agent synchronization between the first storage agent and the third storage agent;

receiving, by the first storage agent from the second storage agent, data that was updated by the second storage agent after the recent first-agent synchronization time as determined based on a second-agent baseline related to a second-agent baseline synchronization point associated with a second-agent baseline synchronization time of the second storage agent with the third storage agent that occurred before the recent first-agent synchronization time; and

reconciling the data received from the second storage agent with corresponding data stored on the first storage agent.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the reconciling comprises:

determining whether the received data is older than the corresponding data stored on the first storage agent;

when the received data is older than the corresponding data, ignoring the received data; and

when the received data is newer than the corresponding data, replacing the corresponding data with the received data.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the recent second-agent synchronization point includes one or more of:

version numbers of the second storage agents and the third storage agent, identifiers of the second storage agent and the third storage agent, and locally-assigned version numbers of the data involved in the second-agent synchronization between the second storage agent and the third storage agent.