System and method of managing data protection resources

• US 8,863,224 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2008
• Issued: 10/14/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Continuity Software Ltd. (Continuity Software, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Continuity Software Ltd. (Continuity Software, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hecht, Gil, Pinhas, Doron, Gordon, Doron
• Primary Examiner(s): Rahman, Mohammad L
• Application Number:
  US12/125,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20080282321A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,336 Days
• Field of Search: 713/161, 726/1
• US Class Current: 726/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/604 Tools and structures for managing or administering access control systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect

Abstract

Herewith disclosed a method and system for computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources. The computerized management comprises obtaining data related to at least part of the DP resources among said plurality of DP resources, wherein at least part of data is obtained by automated collecting; accommodating the obtained data in a data repository thus giving rise to accommodated data; processing the accommodated data, said processing resulting in at least one of the following: a) identifying one or more data protection (DP) schemes characterizing DP resources and/or relationship thereof; and b) identifying one or more data protection (DP) gaps.

Claims

1. A method of computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources by a processor coupled to a non-transitory computer readable memory, the method comprising:

a) obtaining data related to at least part of the DP resources among said plurality of DP resources, wherein at least part of data is obtained by automated collecting and/or automated processing of the collected data;

b) accommodating the obtained data in the memory thus giving rise to accommodated data;

c) processing the accommodated data by the processor, said processing resulting in identifying at least one data protection (DP) scheme characterizing a combination of DP resources and a relationship thereof, wherein said relationship is characterized, at least, by a data protection technique implemented with regard to, at least said combination of DP resources; and

d) identifying at least one data protection (DP) gap with regard to at least one group of DP resources in said identified DP scheme by the processor, wherein said group of DP resources is other than a layout path characterized by a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources, and wherein said DP gap is characterized by a gap profile specified as a combination of said group of DP resources and a condition indicative of one or more predefined DP violations in said group of DP resources.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying one or more DP gaps with regard to said at least one identified DP scheme comprises running at least one rule being characterized by a scope of the rule, an identification condition and an action to be drawn from the rule when the condition is satisfied, wherein the scope of the rule is characterized by said identified DP scheme, and wherein said DP scheme comprises relationship of DP resources other than characterizing a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources .

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the processing further comprises running at least one rule for identifying at least one dependency between at least two DP resources among the plurality of DP resources, thereby enabling identifying at least one DP scheme and wherein the condition in the gap profile is related to the identified dependency.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising automated generation of a topology map presenting a layout of at least part of the DP resources.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising generation of one or more reports related to identified one or more DP schemes and/or one or more DP gaps.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said one or more predefined DP violations in the identified DP scheme are other than violations related to a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources and are selected from the group comprising:

inappropriate hardware configuration of at least part of depending DP resources in said group of DP resources;

inappropriate software configuration of at least part depending DP resources in said group of DP resources;

data tampering;

violation of best practice defining constraints on a configuration of at least one DP resource based on the configuration of at least one depending DP resource;

extended recovery time due to inappropriate configuration of at least one DP resource in said group of DP resources;

inappropriate configuration of at least one first DP resource causing wrong sequence of events affecting at least one second DP resource in the said group of DP resources, wherein the first and the second resources are not connected by a layout path;

inappropriate configuration of virtual host environment, said configuration other than layout path configuration; and

inappropriate configuration of cluster environment, said configuration other than layout path configuration.

7. A computerized method of processing data related to DP resources by a processor coupled to a non-transitory computer readable memory, said processing comprising:

a) running by the processor at least one rule so as to identify at least one data protection (DP) scheme characterizing a combination of DP resources and a relationship thereof, wherein said relationship is characterized, at least, by a data protection technique implemented with regard to, at least, said combination of DP resources; and

b) running by the processor at least one rule so as to identify at least one DP gaps with regard to at least one group of DP resources in said at least one identified DP scheme, wherein said group of DP resources is other than a layout path characterized by a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources, wherein said DP gap is characterized by a gap profile specified as a combination of said group of DP resources and a condition indicative of one or more predefined DP violations in said group of DP resources.

8. A system for computerized managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources, the system comprising:

)

a non-transitory computer readable memory adapted to accommodate data related to at least part of the DP resources among said plurality of DP resources, wherein at least part of data is obtained by automated collecting and/or automated processing of the collected data, thus giving rise to accommodated data;

a processor operatively coupled to the memory and adapted to process the accommodated data, said processing resulting in identifying at least one data protection (DP) scheme characterizing a combination of DP resources and/ relationship thereof, wherein said relationship is characterized, at least, by a data protection technique implemented with regard to, at least said combination of DP resources; and

wherein the processor is further configured to identify at least one data protection (DP) gap with regard to at least one group of DP resources in said identified DP scheme, wherein said group of DP resources is other than a layout path characterized by a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources; and

wherein said DP gap is characterized by a gap profile specified as a combination of said group of DP resources and a condition indicative of one or more predefined DP violations in said group of DP resources.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor is further adapted to run at least one rule to be run for identifying said at least one DP gap with regard to said at least one identified DP scheme, said rule being characterized by a scope of the rule, an identification condition and an action and/or conclusion to be drawn from the rule when the condition is satisfied, wherein the scope of the rule is characterized by said identified DP scheme, and wherein said DP scheme comprises relationship of DP resources other than characterizing a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor is further adapted to group at least part of DP resources and relationship thereof characterized by the DP scheme in one or more groups in accordance with certain rules, said rules other than related to a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources, wherein conditions specified in the gap profile are configured to be applied to said groups and/or combination thereof.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor is further adapted to process the accommodated data for identifying at least one dependency between at least two DP resources among the plurality of DP resources, thereby enabling identifying at least one DP scheme.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the processor is further adapted to generate a topology map presenting a layout of at least part of the DP resources.

13. The system of claim 8 further comprising a report generator configured for generating one or more reports related to identified DP scheme and/or DP gap.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein said one or more predefined DP violations in the identified DP scheme are other than violations related to a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources and are selected from the group comprising:

incomplete data between DP resource and respective target DP resource;

inappropriate hardware configuration of at least part of depending DP resources in said group of DP resources;

inappropriate software configuration of at least part of DP resources in said group of DP resources;

a problem of data accessibility and/or data path

data tampering;

general violation of best practice defining constraints on a configuration of at least one DP resource based on the configuration of at least one depending DP resource;

wasting of DP resources;

extended recovery time due to inappropriate configuration of at least one DP resource in said group of DP resources;

SLA breaches;

inappropriate configuration of at least one first DP resource causing wrong sequence of events affecting at least one second DP resource in said group of DP resources, wherein the first and the second resources are not connected by a layout path;

inappropriate configuration of virtual host environment, said configuration other than layout path configuration;

inappropriate configuration of cluster environment, said configuration other than layout path configuration.

15. A computer adapted for processing data related to DP resources, said computer comprising a processor operatively coupled to a memory accommodating a plurality of rules, wherein the processor is configured:

to run at least one rule from said plurality of rules so as to identify at least one data protection (DP) scheme characterizing a combination of DP resources and relationship thereof, wherein said relationship is characterized, at least, by a data protection technique implemented with regard to, at least said combination of DP resources; and

to run at least one rule from said plurality of rules so as to identify at least one DP gap with regard to said identified at least one DP scheme, wherein said at least one DP gap is characterized by a gap profile specified as a combination of said at least one identified DP scheme, and a condition indicative of one or more predefined DP violations in said DP scheme, said one or more predefined DP violations other than violations related to a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources.

16. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer readable program code for a computer managing a plurality of data protection (DP) resources, the computer program product comprising:

i) computer readable program code for causing the computer to identify at least one data protection (DP) scheme characterizing a combination of DP resources and relationships thereof, wherein said relationship is characterized, at least, by a data protection technique implemented with regard to, at least said combination of DP resources; and

ii) computer readable program code for causing the computer to identify at least one data protection (DP) gap with regard to at least one group of DP resources in said identified data protection scheme, wherein said group of DP resources is other than a layout path characterized by a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources;

wherein said DP gap is characterized by a gap profile specified as a combination of said at least one group of DP resources, and a condition indicative of one or more predefined DP violations in said group of DP resources.

17. A computerized method of providing a service related to identifying one or more data protection (DP) gaps among a plurality of data protection (DP) resources by a hardware processor, the method comprising:

a) running by the processor, at least one rule so as to identify at least one data protection (DP) scheme characterizing a combination of DP resources and a relationship thereof, wherein said relationship is characterized, at least, by data protection technique implemented with regard to, at least said combination of DP resources; and

b) running by the processor, at least one rule so as to identify at least one DP gap, wherein said at least one DP gap is characterized by a gap profile specified as a combination of said at least one identified DP scheme, and a condition indicative of one or more predefined DP violations in said DP scheme, said one or more predefined DP violations other than violations related to a sequence of storage replication techniques used between a source and a target data accommodating resources.