WORK FLOW MANAGEMENT FOR AN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20150244775A1
• Filed: 05/09/2014
• Published: 08/27/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Vibhor, Anand, Mehta, Bhavyan Bharatkumar, Karandikar, Amey Vijaykumar
• Granted Patent: US 10,169,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0709 in a distributed system consisting of a plurality of standalone computer nodes, e.g. clusters, client-server systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0772 Means for error signaling, e.g. using interrupts, exception flags, dedicated error registers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0784 Routing of error reports, e.g. with a specific transmission path or data flow
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for managing information management operations. The system may be configured to employ a work flow queue to reduce network traffic and manage server processing resources. The system may also be configured to forecast or estimate information management operations based on estimations of throughput between computing devices scheduled to execute one or more jobs. The system may also be configured to escalate or automatically reassign notification of system alerts based on the availability of system alert recipients. Various other embodiments are also disclosed herein.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for distributing tasks, in an information management system, to a client computing device using first and second work queues managed by a server computing device, the method comprising:

scheduling information management policy tasks for the client computing device with the server computing device,

wherein scheduling the information management policy tasks includes populating the first queue with the information management policy tasks, based on an information management policy, to be performed by the client computing device using one or more information management system processes or operations,

wherein the information management policy defines a data storage policy related to creating secondary copies of data on secondary storage devices from primary copies of data stored on primary storage devices,

wherein the secondary storage devices are located remotely from the primary storage devices;

transmitting the information management policy tasks for the client computing device from the server computing device, to the client computing device, in accordance with the first work queue;

scheduling information management system tasks for the client computing device with the server computing device,

wherein scheduling the information management system includes populating the second queue with the information management system tasks,

wherein the information management system tasks are tasks to be performed by the client computing device that are not defined by the information management policy and that are not executed by the information management processes or operations; and

transmitting the information management system tasks to the client computing device, from the server computing device, based on the availability of the client computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the availability of the client computing device is determined by the server computing device in response to receiving messages from the client computing device when the client computing device transitions from an offline status to an online status.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein scheduling the information management system tasks includes prioritizing the information management system tasks relative to the information management policy tasks, wherein the availability of the client computing device is based on a priority of tasks being executed by the client computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising restricting the client computing device from querying the server computing device to receive information management system tasks scheduled by the second work queue.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the server computing device determines that the client computing device is available if the status of the client computing device is online and idle, or if the status of the client computing device is busy due to processing one of the information management policy tasks that has a lower priority than one of the information management system tasks.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising periodically transmitting progress notifications related to the completion of the information management policy tasks and the information management system tasks from the client computing device to the server computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the server computing device is a storage manager configured to schedule and manage information management policy tasks and information management system tasks for multiple client computing devices in the information management system, wherein the client computing device is one of the multiple client computing devices.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining parameters of an information management system operation failure,

wherein determining the parameters includes receiving;

a type of information management system operation to be performed between a first computing device and a second computing device,

a schedule time window for completion of the information management system operation, and

a throughput estimation technique;

estimating throughput between the first computing device and the second computing device,

wherein throughput is a rate of transferring data per unit time between a storage device for the first computing device and a storage device for the second computing device,

determining whether an information management system operation is completable within the schedule time window, including;

estimating a size of data to be transferred between the first computing device and the second computing device to execute the received type of information management system operation,

estimating a duration for the type of information management system operation based on the estimated size of data to be transferred and based on the estimated throughput between the first computing device and the second computing device, and

comparing a duration of the schedule time window with the estimated duration for the type of information management system operation; and

providing an alert of failure if the estimated duration for the type of information management system operation is greater than the duration of the schedule time window.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication of an information management system failure,

wherein the information management system failure includes at least one of;

a computing device unexpectedly going offline,

a storage device failure,

processing resources for the computing device falling below a first threshold,

network bandwidth falling below a second threshold,

an estimated duration for an information management system operation exceeding a third threshold, and

a user-defined disruption within the information management system; and

repeatedly transmitting, until the information management system alert is acknowledged, an information management system alert to a point of contact, by;

determining whether the point of contact is available to address the information management system alert; and

if the point of contact is available, transmitting the information management system alert to the point of contact; and

if the point of contact does not acknowledge the information management system alert within a predetermined period of time, changing the point of contact for receiving the information management system alert to another person on one or more lists or hierarchies of points of contact;

otherwise, if the point of contact is unavailable, changing the point of contact for receiving the information management system alert to another person on one or more lists or hierarchies of points of contact.

10. At least one non-transitory, computer-readable medium carrying instructions, which when executed by at least one data processor, distributes tasks, in an information management system, to a client computing device using first and second work queues managed by a server computing device, comprising:

scheduling information management policy tasks for the client computing device with the server computing device,

wherein scheduling the information management policy tasks includes populating the first queue with the information management policy tasks, based on an information management policy, to be performed by the client computing device using one or more information management system processes or operations,

wherein the information management policy defines a data storage policy related to creating secondary copies of data on secondary storage devices from primary copies of data stored on primary storage devices,

wherein the secondary storage devices are located remotely from the primary storage devices;

transmitting the information management policy tasks for the client computing device from the server computing device, to the client computing device, in accordance with the first work queue;

scheduling information management system tasks for the client computing device with the server computing device,

wherein scheduling the information management system includes populating the second queue with the information management system tasks,

wherein the information management system tasks are tasks to be performed by the client computing device that are not defined by the information management policy and that are not executed by the information management processes or operations; and

transmitting the information management system tasks to the client computing device, from the server computing device, based on the availability of the client computing device.

11. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the availability of the client computing device is determined by the server computing device in response to receiving messages from the client computing device when the client computing device transitions from an offline status to an online status.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein scheduling the information management system tasks includes prioritizing the information management system tasks relative to the information management policy tasks, wherein the availability of the client computing device is based on a priority of tasks being executed by the client computing device.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising restricting the client computing device from querying the server computing device to receive information management system tasks scheduled by the second work queue.

14. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the server computing device determines that the client computing device is available if the status of the client computing device is online and idle, or if the status of the client computing device is busy due to processing one of the information management policy tasks that has a lower priority than one of the information management system tasks.

15. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising periodically transmitting progress notifications related to the completion of the information management policy tasks and the information management system tasks from the client computing device to the server computing device.

16. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the server computing device is a storage manager configured to schedule and manage information management policy tasks and information management system tasks for multiple client computing devices in the information management system, wherein the client computing device is one of the multiple client computing devices.

17. A system for distributing tasks in an information management system, to a client computing device using first and second work queues managed by a server computing device, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

means for scheduling information management policy tasks for the client computing device with the server computing device,

wherein the means for scheduling the information management policy tasks includes means for populating the first queue with the information management policy tasks, based on an information management policy, to be performed by the client computing device using one or more information management system processes or operations,

wherein the information management policy defines a data storage policy related to creating secondary copies of data on secondary storage devices from primary copies of data stored on primary storage devices,

wherein the secondary storage devices are located remotely from the primary storage devices;

means for transmitting the information management policy tasks for the client computing device from the server computing device, to the client computing device, in accordance with the first work queue;

means for scheduling information management system tasks for the client computing device with the server computing device,

wherein the means for scheduling the information management system includes means for populating the second queue with the information management system tasks,

wherein the information management system tasks are tasks to be performed by the client computing device that are not defined by the information management policy and that are not executed by the information management processes or operations; and

means for transmitting the information management system tasks to the client computing device, from the server computing device, based on the availability of the client computing device.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the availability of the client computing device is determined by the server computing device in response to receiving messages from the client computing device when the client computing device transitions from an offline status to an online status.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for scheduling the information management system tasks includes means for prioritizing the information management system tasks relative to the information management policy tasks, wherein the availability of the client computing device is based on a priority of tasks being executed by the client computing device.