System and method to backup objects on an object storage platform

• US 9,122,647 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2012
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Dell Products LP (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Tian, Xiaoyang, Nandigam, Srikanth, Chen, Wendy
• Primary Examiner(s): Tseng, Cheng-Yuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dewan, Kamal K
• Application Number:
  US13/652,675
• Publication Number:
  US 20140108717A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,050 Days
• Field of Search: 711/108, 711/162, 711/203, 711/E12.001, 711/E12.025, 711/E12.026, 711/E12.066, 711/E12.103, 711/154, 707/999.103, 707/999.102
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/16 Protection against loss of memory contents contains no material, see G06F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/06 Digital input from, or digital output to, record carriers , e.g. RAID, emulated record carriers or networked record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

A method and system enable tape back-up of objects stored to an object storage platform and also enable efficient backup to a secondary storage device data objects. An offline-replica bit within a metadata of an object being stored is set to a first value, indicating that the stored object is available for secondary storage to a second storage device. In response to receiving a request for backup of one or more objects from the object storage platform: the storage controller: identifies which objects have an offline-replica bit value that is the first value; and provides only those objects requested that have their offline-replica bit value equal to the first value. An external backup tracking mechanism identifies which objects have been backed-up to the secondary storage, and only those objects that have not previously been backed up are backed up during a subsequent backup request.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a processor of a data processing system receiving a request to store a first set of data to an object storage platform that supports content addressable storage;

in response to the request, generating a query for selection of a parameter value indicating whether the first set of data is to be made accessible for secondary storage to a second storage device following an initial storage on the object storage platform;

in response to receiving a first value as a response to the query;

tagging the first set of data with a tag that indicates that secondary storage of the first set of data is approved, wherein tagging the first set of data to indicate that secondary storage of the first set of data is approved comprises setting an offline-replica bit within a metadata of the corresponding first object to a first value, which indicates that secondary storage of the first set of data is approved, wherein when the secondary storage is not approved for the first object, the offline-replica bit is automatically set to a second, default value; and

forwarding the first set of data to a storage controller of the object storage platform along with the tag to allow the storage controller to identify a corresponding first object created from the first set of data as being available for secondary storage, wherein the storage controller stores the first set of data as a corresponding first object within the object storage platform and the storage controller is configured to identify the first object as being available for secondary storage, based on a presence of the tag; and

in response to receiving a second value as a response to the query;

tagging the first set of data to indicate that secondary storage of the first set of data is not approved; and

forwarding the first set of data to the storage controller of the object storage platform, wherein the storage controller stores the first set of data as a corresponding first object within the object storage platform and the storage controller does not identify the first object as being available for secondary storage; and

in response to not receiving a response to the query within a pre-set timeout period, forwarding the first set of data to a storage controller of the object storage platform, wherein the storage controller stores the first set of data as a corresponding first object within the object storage platform and the storage controller does not identify the first object as being available for secondary storage, wherein all data provided to the storage controller that are not expressly tagged to indicate access for secondary storage are stored as objects with a default to not allow access for secondary storage.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to not receiving a response to the query within a pre-set timeout period, tagging the first set of data to indicate that secondary storage of the first set of data is not approved; and

wherein the storage controller stores the first set of data as a corresponding first object within the object storage platform and the storage controller does not identify the first object as being available for secondary storage.

3. An information handling system configured with the processor and program code that when executed by the processor completes the functions of claim 1.

4. A storage controller for an object storage platform, the storage controller comprising a processing unit and firmware that when executed by the processing unit completes the functions of claim 1.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the storage controller of the object storage platform receiving the first set of data for storage on the object storage platform;

generating a first object corresponding to the first set of data;

assigning a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) to the first object;

checking a value of an offline-replica bit within metadata received with the first set of data and which metadata is appended to the first object; and

in response to the offline-replica bit value being a first value, tagging the first object to identify the first object as being available for secondary storage to a second storage device; and

storing the first object within the object storage platform.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the value of the offline-replica bit within the metadata being a second value, storing the first object without a tag indicating that the first object is available for secondary storage.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to the metadata not containing an offline-replica bit value, storing the first object.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

in response to receiving a request for backup of one or more objects from the object storage platform;

identifying which of the one or more objects stored within the object storage platform have an offline-replica bit value that is the first value; and

providing in response to the request only those objects requested that have the first value as their offline-replica bit value.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising ignoring the request to backup any object without an offline replica bit within its metadata and any object whose offline-replica bit value is not the first value.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

a processor of an information handling system forwarding a first request to the controller of the object storage platform to back-up data objects that are stored on the object storage platform to a secondary storage device;

responsive to receipt of one or more objects from the object storage platform in response to the first request;

forwarding the one or more objects to the secondary storage device; and

updating a tracking mechanism that identifies which objects from the object storage device have been backed-up to the secondary storage; and

in response to generating a second request to back up objects from the object storage platform;

identifying which objects have been previously backed up; and

backing up to the secondary storage device only those objects that have not previously been backed up.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein updating a tracking mechanism comprises:

retrieving a Universally Unique Identifier (UUID) from each object returned by the first request; and

registering the UUID within a back-up mapping table.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifying which objects have been previously backed up comprises:

accessing a listing of UUIDs within the back-up mapping table identifying which objects have been previously backed up; and

screening out those objects that have been previously backed up from being backed up in response to the second request and subsequent requests to back up objects from the object storage platform.