System and method for performing auxiliary storage operations

• US 7,962,714 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2008
• Issued: 06/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Gokhale, Parag, Vijayan Retnamma, Manoj Kumar, Prahlad, Anand, Amarendran, Arun Prasad, Lu, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Doan; Duc T
• Application Number:
  US12/340,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20090187711A1
• Time in Patent Office: 907 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/165
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

Systems and methods for protecting data in a tiered storage system are provided. The storage system comprises a management server, a media management component connected to the management server, a plurality of storage media connected to the media management component, and a data source connected to the media management component. Source data is copied from a source to a buffer to produce intermediate data. The intermediate data is copied to both a first and second medium to produce a primary and auxiliary copy, respectively. An auxiliary copy may be made from another auxiliary copy. An auxiliary copy may also be made from a primary copy right before the primary copy is pruned.

Claims

1. A method which, when executed on a computer, stores data in a tiered storage system, the method comprising:

accessing a storage policy associated with a tiered data storage system, wherein the storage policy defines a timing storage policy for copying source data from a data source to at least two storage media destinations in the tiered data storage system;

dividing the source data into a plurality of portions, and assigning each of the plurality of portions a header by one or more media management components, wherein the header comprises the time information based on the timing storage policy, wherein the one or more media management components access and read the information to determine a time to perform one or more storage operations, and wherein the header further indicates at least a first storage media destination of a first type for a first auxiliary copy, and wherein the header further indicates a second storage media destination of a second type for a second auxiliary copy, wherein the second type is different than the first type;

copying with the one or more media management components the plurality of portions, according to the time information in said headers, to the first storage media destination to produce the first auxiliary copy of the source data at the first storage media destination according to the first type; and

copying with the one or more media management components the plurality of portions according to the time information in said headers from the first auxiliary copy to the second storage media destination to produce the second auxiliary copy of the source data at the second storage media destination according to the second type.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising monitoring the copying of the plurality of portions to the first storage media destination.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising monitoring the copying of the plurality of portions to the second storage media destination.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

determining that an interruption occurred in the production of the first auxiliary copy or the secondary auxiliary copy;

completing the production of the uninterrupted copy; and

thereafter, when the interruption is resolved, completing the interrupted production of the first auxiliary copy or the second auxiliary copy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein copying the plurality of portions to the first and second storage media destinations comprises formatting the plurality of portions in a first format based on a media type of the first storage media destination and formatting the plurality of portions in a second format based on the a media type of the second storage media destination.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said copying the source data further comprises performing compression on the source data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said copying the source data further comprises performing encryption on the source data.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining when the first auxiliary copy is about to be deleted; and

performing a copy of the first auxiliary copy to a third storage media destination.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information in the header is further associated with a time to produce the second auxiliary copy.

10. A computer storage system comprising:

a storage manager component executing in one or more computer processors to access a storage policy associated with a tiered data storage system, wherein the storage policy defines a timing storage policy for copying source data from a data source to at least two storage media destinations in the tiered data storage system;

a plurality of headers associated with a plurality of portions of the source data, wherein each header comprises a time information associated with the timing storage policy about a time to perform one or more storage operations and the time information is assigned by one or more media management components, and wherein each header further comprises at least a first storage media destination of a first type for a first auxiliary copy, and wherein each header further comprises a second storage media destination of a second type for a second auxiliary copy, wherein the second type is different than the first type;

the one or more media management components executing in one or more computer processors that access and read the time information in the headers to determine the time to perform one or more storage operations, and wherein one or more of the media management components directs copying of the plurality of portions, according to said plurality of headers, to the first storage media destination to produce a first auxiliary copy of the source data; and

a transfer stream configured to stream one or more portions of the first auxiliary copy, according to said headers, to the second storage media destination to produce a second auxiliary copy of the source data.

11. The system of claim 10, comprising a monitoring module executing in one or more processors adapted to monitor the copying of the plurality of portions to the first storage media destination.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the monitoring module is further adapted to monitor the copying of the portions of the first auxiliary copy to the second storage media destination.

13. The system of claim 11, comprising one or more computer processors configured to determine that an interruption occurred in the copying of the auxiliary copy or the second auxiliary copy, to complete the copying of the uninterrupted copy, and thereafter, when the interruption is resolved, to complete the interrupted copying of the first auxiliary copy or the second auxiliary copy.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the media management component is further configured to format the plurality of portions in a first format based on a media type of the first storage media destination and format the plurality of portions in a second format based on the a media type of the second storage media destination.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the media management component is further adapted to determine when the first auxiliary copy is about to be deleted, and perform a copy of the first auxiliary coy to a third storage media destination.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the information in the header is further associated with a time to produce the second auxiliary copy.