Method, apparatus and system to automate detection of anomalies for storage and replication within a high availability disaster recovery environment

• US 8,135,981 B1
• Filed: 06/30/2008
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Gawali, Ashish L., Rajaa, Subash
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): PATEL, KAMINI B
• Application Number:
  US12/165,345
• Time in Patent Office: 1,352 Days
• Field of Search: 714/47
• US Class Current: 714/5.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0727 in a storage system, e.g. in a DASD or network based storage system drivers for digital recording or reproducing units G06F3/06; circuits for error detection or correction within digital recording or reproducing units G11B20/18; 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], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0751 Error or fault detection not based on redundancy power supply failures G06F1/30; network fault management H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1612 where the redundant component is persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2023 Failover techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2048 where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups

Abstract

A method, apparatus and system for improving failover within a high-availability computer system are provided. The method includes obtaining one or more parameters associated with at least one resource of any of the first cluster, second cluster and high-availability computer system. The method also includes detecting, as a function of the parameters, one or more anomalies of any of the first cluster, second cluster and high-availability computer system, wherein the at least one anomaly is a type that impacts the failover. These anomalies may include anomalies within the first and/or second clusters (“intra-cluster anomalies”) and/or anomalies among the first and second clusters (“inter-cluster anomalies”). The method further includes generating an alert in response to detecting one or more of the anomalies.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining a plurality of parameters associated with each of a first storage resource of a first cluster and a second storage resource of a second cluster, wherein

the first cluster is operable to provide computing services to one or more client systems,

the computing services comprise an application that is hosted by the first cluster,

the application hosted by the first cluster uses data that is stored by the first cluster,

the second cluster comprises replicated data that is replicated from the data on the first cluster,

the second cluster is operable to provide the computing services to the client system(s) responsive to a failover from the first cluster,

the first storage resource of the first cluster stores the data used by the application, and

the second storage resource of the second cluster stores the replicated data that is operable to be used by the application when hosted by the second cluster,

the plurality of parameters associated with the first and second storage resources comprise first and second logical unit numbers, respectively;

detecting, as a function of the plurality of parameters, at least one anomaly of the first cluster or the second cluster wherein

the detecting is performed after the data is replicated to the second cluster as the replicated data,

the at least one anomaly indicates a mismatch between the first storage resource associated with the first logical unit number and the second storage resource associated with the second logical unit numbers; and

generating an alert in response to detecting the at least one anomaly.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the plurality of parameters to determine at least one dependency among at least one storage resource of any of the first cluster or the second cluster.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the detecting at least one anomaly comprises:

comparing the plurality of parameters as a function of the at least one dependency to detect the mismatch of the at least one storage resource of any of the first cluster or the second cluster.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of parameters associated with the first and second storage resources comprise:

any of file system, disk group resource, or replication resource parameters.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein

the plurality of parameters define configuration requirements for at least one storage resource for performing a failover,

and wherein the mismatch is determined using the configuration requirements.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein

the plurality of parameters are further associated with a third storage resource of the first cluster,

the third storage resource comprises the at least one object that refers to a portion of the data, and

the at least one object is stored using the first storage resource,

further comprising:

detecting, as a function of the plurality of parameters, at least another anomaly of the first storage resource and the third storage resource.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein

the at least another anomaly indicates a mismatch between the first storage resource associated with the first logical number and the third storage resource associated with the at least one object.

8. An apparatus comprising:

a parameter definition module comprising a plurality of parameters associated with each of a first storage resource of a first cluster and a second storage resource of the first cluster, wherein

the first cluster is operable to provide computing services to one or more client systems,

the computing services comprise an application that is hosted by the first cluster,

the application hosted by the first cluster uses data that is stored by the first cluster,

the second storage resource comprises replicated data that is replicated from data on the first storage resource on the first cluster,

the first cluster is operable to use the second storage resource when providing the computing services to the client system(s) responsive to a failover,

the first storage resource stores the data used by the application, and

the second storage resource stores the replicated data that is operable to be used by the application,

the plurality of parameters associated with the first and second storage resources comprise first and second logical unit numbers, respectively;

an anomaly detection module adapted to detect, as a function of the plurality of parameters, at least one anomaly of the first cluster or the second cluster, wherein

the anomaly detection module is adapted to detect the at least one anomaly after the data is replicated to the second cluster as the replicated data, and

the at least one anomaly indicates a mismatch between the first storage resource associated with the first logical unit number and the second storage resource associated with the second logical unit numbers; and

an alert generator adapted to generate an alert in response to the detection of the at least one anomaly.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a dependency map comprising;

at least one dependency among at least one storage resource of any of the first cluster or the second cluster, wherein

the at least one dependency is formed as a function of the plurality of parameters.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

a dependency map generator for mapping the at least one dependency.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the anomaly detection module is further adapted to detect a mismatch of the at least one storage resource of any of the first cluster or the second cluster by comparing the plurality of parameters as a function of the at least one dependency.

12. A system comprising:

a first cluster having a first storage resource used by an application, wherein

the first cluster is operable to provide computing services to one or more client systems,

the computing services comprise the application that is hosted by the first cluster, and

the application hosted by the first cluster uses data that is stored by the first cluster using the first storage resource;

a second cluster having a second storage resource operable to be used by a replication of the application, wherein

the data is replicated from the first cluster to the second cluster as replicated data,

the second storage resource is operable to store the replicated data operable to be used by the replicated application, and

the second cluster is operable to provide the computing services to the client system(s) responsive to a failover from the first cluster;

a parameter definition module comprising parameters associated with the first and second storage resources comprising;

(i) a first logical unit number (LUN) associated with the first storage resource, and

(ii) a second LUN associated with the second storage resource;

an anomaly detection module adapted to detect, as a function of any of the parameters, at least one anomaly, wherein

the anomaly detection module is adapted to detect the at least one anomaly after the data is replicated to the second cluster as the replicated data, and

the at least one anomaly indicates a mismatch between the first storage resource associated with the first LUN and the second storage resource associated with the second LUN; and

an alert generator adapted to generate an alert responsive to the detection of at least one anomaly.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a dependency map comprising;

at least one dependency among the first and second storage resources, wherein the at least one dependency is formed as a function of the parameters.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

a dependency map generator for mapping the at least one dependency.