Method, system, and apparatus for providing alert synthesis in a data protection system

• US 8,549,355 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2008
• Issued: 10/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Berkowitz, Brian T., Anand, Karandeep Singh, Thangarathnam, Manikandan, Kulkarni, Purushottam M., Harikrishnan, Seetharaman, Srinivasan, Sundararajan, Lashkari, Yezdi Z., Ingen, Catherine van, Shelton, William T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US12/346,682
• Publication Number:
  US 20090113241A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,736 Days
• Field of Search: 714/2, 714/3, 714/4.11, 714/4.12, 714/4.2, 714/4.21, 714/4.3, 714/4.4, 714/6.11, 714/6.12, 714/6.13, 714/6.3, 714/6.31, 714/6.32, 714 15- 18, 714/20, 714/21, 714 25- 27, 714/37, 714/38.1, 714/39, 714/41, 714 48- 50, 714/42, 714/43
• US Class Current: 714/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0715 in a system implementing multitasking multitasking per se G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0781 Error filtering or prioritizing based on a policy defined by the user or on a policy defined by a hardware/software module, e.g. according to a severity level
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1466 to make the backup process non-disruptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

A method for diagnosing problems with protection of a data source and recovery of the same. The method includes diagnosing a copy of data located at the storage location and diagnosing a temporal version of the copy of data. Based on the diagnosis it is determined whether an error or a warning was detected. If either were detected a response is provided with a suggested solution.

Claims

1. A method for diagnosing data at a storage location, comprising:

diagnosing a copy of data located at the storage location;

diagnosing a temporal version of the copy of data;

determining if an error was detected;

if in response to detecting an error, reporting the error and providing a suggested solution;

determining if a warning was detected; and

if in response to detecting a warning, reporting the warning and providing a suggested solution

wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining a percentage of temporal versions that are missing over a total period of time.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining if the copy is valid.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining if a copy job is currently running.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining if a last copy job completed successfully.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a copy of data includes, diagnosing replication failures for the copy of data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, computing a number of failed copy jobs.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a copy includes, determining whether a threshold has been reached.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if the copy is valid.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if the last temporal version completed successfully.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if a temporal version was taken.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining if the oldest intended temporal version is available.

12. A method for diagnosing data at a storage location, comprising:

diagnosing a copy of data located at the storage location;

diagnosing a temporal version of the copy of data;

determining if an error was detected;

if in response to detecting an error, reporting the error and providing a suggested solution;

determining if a warning was detected; and

if in response to detecting a warning, reporting the warning and providing a suggested solution

wherein diagnosing a temporal version includes, determining a percentage of temporal versions that are missing over a predetermined period of time.

13. A method for diagnosing a copy of data, comprising:

determining if the copy is invalid;

in response to determining that the copy is invalid, determining if a validation job is currently running;

determining if a validation job failed; and

reporting an appropriate response; and

further comprising;

determining if there is sufficient space for the copy; and

in response to a determination that there is not sufficient space for the copy, providing an error report and a suggested solution.

14. A method for diagnosing a copy of data, comprising:

determining if the copy is invalid;

in response to determining that the copy is invalid, determining if a validation job is currently running;

determining if a validation job failed; and

reporting an appropriate response; and

further comprising;

determining if the target is not reachable; and

in response to a determination that the target is not reachable, reporting an error and providing a suggested solution.

15. A method for diagnosing a copy of data, comprising:

determining if the copy is invalid;

in response to determining that the copy is invalid, determining if a validation job is currently running;

determining if a validation job failed; and

reporting an appropriate response; and

further comprising;

determining if the copy depends on monitoring;

in response to determining that the copy depends on monitoring, determining if there is an interruption in the monitoring; and

in response to a determination that there is an interruption in the monitoring, reporting an error and providing a suggested solution.

16. A method for diagnosing a copy of data, comprising:

determining if the copy is invalid;

in response to determining that the copy is invalid, determining if a validation job is currently running;

determining if a validation job failed; and

reporting an appropriate response; and

further comprising;

determining if a copy job is running; and

in response to a determination that a copy job is running, providing a last state of a data source and indicating that a job is running.

17. A method for diagnosing a copy of data, comprising:

determining if the copy is invalid;

in response to determining that the copy is invalid, determining if a validation iob is currently running;

determining if a validation job failed; and

reporting an appropriate response; and

further comprising;

determining if a last replication succeeded; and

in response to a determination that a last replication succeeded, determining if a threshold value had been reached.

18. In a data protection system having a production location, a storage location, and a communication path for transmitting data between the production location and the storage location, a method for diagnosing a temporal version, the method comprising:

determining if an oldest intended temporal version is available;

in response to determining that the oldest intended temporal version is available, computing a missing number of temporal versions over a predetermined period of time; and

reporting a response dependent upon a percentage of missing temporal versions over the predetermined period of time.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

computing a number of temporal versions missing over a total period of time; and

reporting a response dependent upon the number of temporal versions missing over the total period of time.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the response is a warning.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the response is an error.

22. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether a previous temporal version succeeded.

23. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

determining if a temporal version was taken.

24. In a data protection system having a production location, a storage location, and a communication path for transmitting data between the production location and the storage location, a method for diagnosing a recovery of data from the storage location to the production location, the method comprising:

determining if a recovery job failed;

in response to determining that a recovery job failed. obtaining a reason for the failure;

reporting an error identifying the failure; and

providing a recommendation to resolve the failure

wherein the failure is that a production location was inaccessible.

25. In a data protection system having a production location, a storage location, and a communication path for transmitting data between the production location and the storage location, a method for diagnosing a recovery of data from the storage location to the production location, the method comprising:

determining if a recovery job failed;

in response to determining that a recovery job failed, obtaining a reason for the failure;

reporting an error identifying the failure; and

providing a recommendation to resolve the failure

wherein the failure is that a target location is inaccessible.

26. In a data protection system having a production location, a storage location, and a communication path for transmitting data between the production location and the storage location, a method for diagnosing a recovery of data from the storage location to the production location, the method comprising:

determining if a recovery job failed;

in response to determining that a recovery iob failed, obtaining a reason for the failure;

reporting an error identifying the failure; and

providing a recommendation to resolve the failure

wherein the failure is that a disk is full.

27. In a data protection system having a production location, a storage location, and a communication path for transmitting data between the production location and the storage location, a method for diagnosing a recovery of data from the storage location to the production location, the method comprising:

determining if a recovery job failed;

in response to determinina that a recovery job failed, obtaining a reason for the failure;

reporting an error identifying the failure; and

providing a recommendation to resolve the failure; and

further comprising;

determining if a recovery job is in progress;

in response to determining that a recovery job is in progress, determining if a warning has been reported; and

providing a response dependent upon whether a warning has been reported.