System and method for performing storage operations in a computer network

• US 7,484,054 B2
• Filed: 07/16/2007
• Issued: 01/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Gokhale, Parag, Ngo, David, Vijayan Retnamma, Manoj Kumar, Prahlad, Anand, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Devassy, Varghese
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore; Stephen C
• Application Number:
  US11/778,445
• Publication Number:
  US 20080016126A1
• Time in Patent Office: 561 Days
• Field of Search: 711/154, 711/4, 711/100, 711/111, 711/112, 711/118, 711/144, 711/156, 707/204
• US Class Current: 711/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• 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]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for performing storage operations on electronic data in a network. In response to the initiation of a storage operation and according to a first set of selection logic, a media management component is selected to manage the storage operation. In response to the initiation of a storage operation and according to a second set of selection logic, a network storage device to associate with the storage operation. The selected media management component and the selected network storage device perform the storage operation on the electronic data.

Claims

1. A method for performing a storage operation on data in a network, the method comprising:

receiving a request to perform a storage operation;

selecting one of a plurality of media agent modules to manage the storage operation, each of the plurality of media agent modules configured to communicate with a common plurality of network storage devices such that each of the plurality of media agent modules is configured to communicate with at least two same network storage devices, and wherein each of the plurality of media agent modules is configured to communicate with a common plurality of client devices such that each of the plurality of media agent modules is configured to communicate with at least two same client devices; and

performing the storage operation on data of at least one of the common plurality of client devices with the selected media agent module and at least one of the common plurality of network storage devices.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting one of the plurality of media agent modules comprises selecting according to a load of one or more of the plurality of media agent modules.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting one of the plurality of media agent modules comprises selecting according to a storage policy.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the storage policy provides selection logic for determining an alternate media agent module when a preferred one of the plurality of media agent modules is unavailable.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said selecting one of the plurality of media agent modules comprises selecting according to an availability of one or more of the common plurality of network storage devices.

6. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising receiving from a user the request to perform the storage operation.

7. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising selecting the at least one network storage device to associate with the storage operation.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said selecting one of the plurality of media agent modules and said selecting the at least one network storage device of the common plurality of network storage devices are both performed by a storage manager module.

9. A system for performing a storage operation on data in a computer network, the system comprising:

a plurality of network storage devices;

a plurality of media agent modules, each of which communicates with multiple same ones of plurality of network storage devices and multiple same ones of a plurality of client devices; and

a storage manager module that selects, in response to an initiation of a storage operation, at least one of the plurality of media agent modules to manage the storage operation and at least one of the plurality of network storage devices to associate with the storage operation.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of client devices comprises at least one data agent module configured to communicate data from the client device to at least one of the plurality of media agent modules.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein each data agent module is specific to a particular type of data.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the storage manager module comprises an index that associates each of the plurality of media agent modules with the multiple same ones of the plurality of network storage devices.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein each of the plurality of media agent modules comprises a second index that indicates the location of data on the associated multiple same ones of the plurality of network storage devices.

14. The system of claim 9, further comprising a tape library that includes at least a portion of the plurality of network storage devices.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the storage operation is initiated in response to a user-specified criteria.

16. A system for performing a storage operation on data in a computer network, the system comprising:

a plurality of storage devices;

means for performing a storage operation, each of said performing means communicating with multiple same ones of the plurality of storage devices and a same plurality of client devices; and

means for selecting, in response to a request to perform the storage operation and according to a first selection logic, one of said performing means to manage the storage operation, and for selecting according to a second selection logic at least one of said multiple same ones of the plurality of storage devices to associate with the storage operation.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising means for retrieving data from the plurality of client devices and communicating the data to said performing means.