METHODS AND SYSTEMS TO IDENTIFY AND USE EVENT PATTERNS OF APPLICATION WORKFLOWS FOR DATA MANAGEMENT

• US 20160019206A1
• Filed: 07/15/2014
• Published: 01/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Ikeda, Hirokazu, Mysur, Kaushik Triyambaka
• Granted Patent: US 9,892,121 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/11 File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots file system backup G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

An application-aware, automated and proactive approach to event-based data analysis and management of data is disclosed. Events are operations directed at stored file content as specified by applications. The tracking of the events allows for the file types of the file content associated with the events to be determined for individual applications as event patterns which are managed as templates. For a set of events that match one of the templates, the appropriate timing to perform data management can be determined according to the event pattern and file types thereof as specified by the template. Further, plural templates can be correlated to define a workflow of plural applications by the event patterns thereof. Workflows are used to predict whether all applications have completed accessing the files associated therewith. Data management can then be executed on the files of the completed workflow.

Claims

1. A data management system which communicates with one or more applications and stores files accessed by the applications, the server comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts including;

monitoring a plurality of events from the one or more applications;

analyzing the events according to the one or more applications and the files associated with the events;

generating an application template from the events; and

analyzing the application template according to a file type of one or more of the files.

2. The data management system according to claim 1, wherein:

the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts further including;

determining whether the generated application template matches with a previously generated application template; and

when the generated application template matches the previously generated application template, determining at least one data management action for each file associated with the generated application template.

3. The data management system according to claim 2, wherein:

the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts further including;

executing the at least one data management action for each file associated with the generated application template.

4. The data management system according to claim 3, wherein:

for each file, the at least one data management action includes at least one of migrating data of the respective file, archiving the data of the respective file, and deleting the data of the respective file.

5. The data management system according to claim 4, wherein:

for each file, the at least one data management action includes a timing for execution thereof.

6. The data management system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a storage volume containing metadata of the files, and wherein the server is connected to a storage area network which stores data of each of the files.

7. The data management system according to claim 6, further comprising:

a storage volume containing metadata of the files; and

a storage device containing the data of the files.

8. The data management system according to claim 2, wherein:

the memory stores the plurality of events in a global event history table for a predetermined period of time, stores the plurality of events for each application and for each file in an application event history table, stores the file type of the one or more of the files and event details in sequence in the generated application template, stores the file type and an identifier of the one or more applications in a file type application access table, stores the file type and the at least one data management action in a data management table, and stores, when the generated application template matches the previously generated application template, each file associated with the generated application template and the at least one data management action in correspondence with a time of execution in a pending data management table.

17. The data management system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a metadata server including a storage volume containing metadata of the files; and

one or more data servers connected to the metadata server, each of the data servers including a data volume storing data of one or more of the files,

wherein the metadata server and the one or more data servers are connected over a network, and

wherein the events from the one or more applications are received by the metadata server over the network.

18. The data management system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a metadata server including a storage volume containing metadata of the files; and

one or more data servers connected to the metadata server, each of the data servers including a data volume storing data of one or more of the files,

wherein the events from the one or more applications are received by the metadata server over a first network, and

wherein the metadata server and the one or more data servers are connected over a network.

9. A data management system which communicates with one or more applications and stores files accessed by the applications, the server comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts including;

monitoring a plurality of events from the one or more applications;

analyzing the events according to the one or more applications and the files associated with the events;

generating a set of application templates from the events;

correlating file types of one or more of the files with applications from the set of application templates; and

generating a workflow from the set of application templates according to the correlation of the file types thereof.

10. The data management system according to claim 9, wherein:

the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts further including;

generating a new application template from the events;

determining whether the new application template matches with the set of generated application templates; and

when the new application template matches with the set of generated application templates;

creating a workflow file set, for each file associated with the new application template,

determining whether the workflow file set matches with the workflow from the set of application templates, and

when the workflow file set matches with the workflow from the set of application templates;

verifying that all applications of the workflow file set have completed, and

determining at least one data management action for each file associated with the workflow file set.

11. The data management system according to claim 10, wherein:

the memory stores instructions that when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform acts further including;

executing the at least one data management action for each file associated with the workflow file set.

12. The data management system according to claim 11, wherein:

for each file, the at least one data management action includes at least one of migrating data of the respective file, archiving the data of the respective file, and deleting the data of the respective file.

13. The data management system according to claim 12, wherein:

for each file, the at least one data management action includes a timing for execution thereof.

14. The data management system according to claim 9, further comprising:

a storage volume containing metadata of the files, and

wherein the server is connected to a storage area network which stores data of the files.

15. The data management system according to claim 9, further comprising:

a storage volume containing metadata of the files; and

a storage device containing data of the files.

16. The data management system according to claim 10, wherein:

when the new application template does not match with the set of generated application templates;

determining that the files of the new application template are associated with a new workflow.

19. The server according to claim 9, further comprising:

a metadata server including a storage volume containing metadata of the files; and

one or more data servers connected to the metadata server, each of the data servers including a data volume storing data of one or more of the files,

wherein the metadata server and the one or more data servers are connected over a network, and

wherein the events from the one or more applications are received by the metadata server over the network.

20. The server according to claim 9, further comprising:

a metadata server including a storage volume containing metadata of the files; and

one or more data servers connected to the metadata server, each of the data servers including a data volume storing data of one or more of the files,

wherein the events from the one or more applications are received by the metadata server over a first network, and

wherein the metadata server and the one or more data servers are connected over a network.