DYNAMIC TRIGGERING OF BLOCK-LEVEL BACKUPS BASED ON BLOCK CHANGE THRESHOLDS AND CORRESPONDING FILE IDENTITIES IN A DATA STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

• US 20170091047A1
• Filed: 09/20/2016
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: BANGALORE, Prashanth Nagabhushana, VULLUPALA, Shankar Reddy, BHAVANAM, Sravanthi, PAMARTHI, Vinay K., SINGIREESU, Balaji Teja
• Granted Patent: US 10,514,986 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/11 File system administration, e.g. details of archiving or snapshots file system backup G06F11/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/156 Query results presentation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency ensuring consistency in mirrored systems G06F11/2064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/835 Timestamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software

Abstract

A data storage management approach is disclosed that performs backup operations flexibly, based on a dynamic scheme of monitoring block changes occurring in production data. The illustrative system monitors block changes based on certain block-change thresholds and triggers block-level backups of the changed blocks when a threshold is passed. Block changes may be monitored in reference to particular files based on a reverse lookup mechanism. The illustrative system also collects and stores historical information on block changes, which may be used for reporting and predictive analysis.

Claims

1. A system for data storage management, the system comprising:

a storage manager comprising a computing device that includes one or more processors and non-transitory computer memory;

an index server in communication with the storage manager, wherein the index server comprises a computing device that includes one or more processors and non-transitory computer memory;

a client computing device in communication with the storage manager and the index server, wherein the client computing device includes one or more processors and non-transitory computer memory for executing an application, a first data agent that tracks the application, a file system, and a second data agent that tracks the file system;

a first data storage device in communication with the client computing device, wherein the first data storage device stores one or more data files accessible by the application,

wherein a first set of data blocks store the contents of the one or more data files;

wherein the first data agent is programmed to;

monitor write operations performed by the application to the first data storage device,

identify data blocks changing as a result of the write operations,

maintain a representation of changed data blocks in the first data storage device resulting from the write operations, and

periodically transmit a time-stamped version of the representation of changed data blocks, designated a point-in-time map, to the index server and re-initialize the representation of changed data blocks maintained by the first data agent; and

wherein the index server is programmed to;

receive a plurality of point-in-time maps,

keep count of changed data blocks over time based on the plurality of point-in-time maps,

determine that a threshold measure of data block changes has been passed by a second set of changed data blocks represented in the point-in-time maps, and

notify the storage manager of the threshold having been passed; and

wherein the storage manager is programmed to;

based on receiving notice from the index server that the threshold has been passed, initiate a block-level backup of the second set of changed data blocks.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the second set of changed data blocks is a subset of a third set of data blocks that store the contents of a first file accessible by the application;

and

wherein the block-level backup of the second set of changed data blocks does not back up the first file in its entirety.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the threshold applies to a first file accessible by the application;

wherein the second data agent that monitors the file system is programmed to;

transmit to the first data agent file-to-data-block relationship information about data files in the file system, at least one data file being accessible to the application,

wherein the file-to-data-block relationship information identifies the first set of data blocks that store the contents of the at least one data file in the file system that are accessible to the application, and

wherein the second set of changed data blocks is a subset of the first set of data blocks; and

wherein the index server is further programmed to;

index the file-to-data-block relationship information received from the data agent into a data-block-to-file mapping, and

further determine, based on the data-block-to-file mapping, that the second set of changed data blocks store contents of the first file; and

wherein the block-level backup of the second set of changed data blocks does not backup up the first file in its entirety.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein a first storage volume on the first data storage device stores the first set of data blocks that store the contents of the at least one data file in the file system that are accessible to the application;

and

wherein the block-level backup of the second set of changed data blocks does not back up the first storage volume in its entirety.

5. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a report server in communication with the storage manager and the index server, wherein the report server comprises one or more processors and non-transitory computer memory; and

wherein the report server is programmed to;

receive a first query about data block changes in the system,

access a database in the index server that comprises the plurality of point-in-time maps,

extract data from the database, and

formulate an answer to the query based on the data extracted from the database in the index server.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the first query identifies a second data file that comprises a fourth set of data blocks that store the contents of the second data file;

and

wherein based at least in part on one or more point-in-time maps and file-to-data-block relationship information extracted from the database, the report server is further programmed to determine changes that occurred within the fourth set of data blocks that store the contents of the second data file.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the first query identifies a fifth set of data blocks in the system;

and

wherein based at least in part on one or more point-in-time maps and a data-block-to-file mapping extracted from the database, the report server is further programmed to determine which one or more data files experienced changes that occurred within the fifth set of data blocks.

8. A system for data storage management, the system comprising:

a storage manager comprising a computing device that includes one or more processors and non-transitory computer memory;

an index server in communication with the storage manager, wherein the index server comprises a computing device that includes one or more processors and non-transitory computer memory;

a client computing device in communication with the storage manager and the index server, wherein the client computing device includes one or more processors and non-transitory computer memory for executing an application, a first data agent that tracks the application, a file system, and a second data agent that tracks the file system;

a first data storage device in communication with the client computing device, wherein the first data storage device stores one or more data files accessible by the application,

wherein a first set of data blocks store the contents of the one or more data files;

wherein the first data agent is programmed to;

monitor write operations performed by the application to the first data storage device,

identify data blocks changing as a result of the write operations,

maintain a representation of changed data blocks in the first data storage device resulting from the write operations,

periodically transmit a time-stamped version of the representation of changed data blocks, designated a point-in-time map, to the index server and re-initialize the representation of changed data blocks maintained by the first data agent, and

transmit a first query to the second data agent requesting file-to-data-block relationship information about data files in the file system, including at least one data file accessible to the application;

wherein the second data agent is programmed to;

obtain the file-to-data-block relationship information based on a scan of the file system, and

transmit the file-to-data-block relationship information to the first data agent in response to the first query;

wherein the index server is programmed to;

receive a plurality of the point-in-time maps,

determine that a threshold measure of changed data blocks has been passed by a second set of changed data blocks represented in the point-in-time maps, and

notify the storage manager of the threshold having been passed; and

wherein the storage manager is programmed to;

based on receiving notice from the index server that the threshold has been passed, initiate a block-level backup of the second set of changed data blocks.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the index server is programmed to receive the threshold measure of changed data blocks from the storage manager.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold applies to a specific data file in the file system.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold applies to a specific set of data files in the file system.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold applies to a data storage volume configured in the first data storage device.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold comprises a rate of change for changed data blocks being monitored.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold comprises a percentage of changed data blocks being monitored.

15. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold applies to a pre-defined period of time being monitored.

16. The system of claim 8 wherein the second set of data blocks store contents of only a specific data file among the one or more data files accessible to the tracked application;

and

thereby resulting in the block-level backup of the second set of data blocks being based on changes to the specific data file.

17. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold measures changed data blocks, over a pre-determined period of time, to a specific data file among the one or more data files accessible to the tracked application;

wherein the second set of data blocks store contents only of the specific data file; and

thereby resulting in the block-level backup of the second set of data blocks being based on changes to the specific data file.

18. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold measures a rate of change of data blocks changed by the tracked application;

and

thereby resulting in the block-level backup of the second set of data blocks being based on the rate of change of data blocks changed by the tracked application.

19. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold measures a rate of change of data blocks to a specific data file among the one or more data files accessible to the tracked application;

wherein the second set of data blocks store contents of only the specific data file; and

thereby resulting in the block-level backup of the second set of data blocks being based on the rate of change to the specific data file.

20. The system of claim 8 wherein the threshold measures changed data blocks in the file system;

and

thereby resulting in the block-level backup of the second set of data blocks being based on changes to the file system.