Secondary storage operation instruction tags in information management systems

• US 9,588,704 B2
• Filed: 08/10/2015
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Mutha, Manas Bhikchand, Bedadala, Pavan Kumar Reddy, Dhatrak, Vinit Dilip, Alonzo, Christopher A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore, Stephen
• Application Number:
  US14/822,595
• Publication Number:
  US 20160179416A1
• Time in Patent Office: 575 Days
• Field of Search: 711/162, 711/154, 711/156, 707/610, 707/633, 707/634, 707/637, 707/638, 707/639, 707/640, 707/649, 707/661, 707/673
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• 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 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD

Abstract

According to certain aspects, a system can include a client computing device configured to: in response to user interaction, store an identifier associated with a first tag in association with a first file; and in response to instructions to perform a secondary copy operation, forward the first file, a second file, and the identifier associated with the first tag. The system may also include a secondary storage controller computer(s) configured to: based on a review of the identifier associated with the first tag, identify the first file as having been tagged with the first tag; electronically obtain rules associated with the first tag; perform on the first file at least a first secondary storage operation specified by the rules associated with the first tag; and perform on the second file at least a second secondary storage operation, wherein the first and second secondary storage operations are different.

Claims

1. A system configured to apply granular secondary storage operation management, the system comprising:

one or more secondary storage controller computers including computer hardware configured to copy data from a primary storage subsystem to a secondary storage subsystem; and

a client computing device residing in the primary storage subsystem and comprising computer hardware, the client computing device configured to;

in response to user interaction with a graphical user interface to associate a first tag of one or more tags with a first file, store an identifier associated with the first tag in association with the first file; and

in response to receiving instructions to perform, according to a storage policy, a secondary copy operation on a data set in the primary storage subsystem including at least the first file and a second file, forward the first file, the second file, and the identifier associated with the first tag to the one or more secondary storage controller computers;

the one or more secondary storage controller computers further configured to;

based on a review of the identifier associated with the first tag, identify the first file as having been tagged with the first tag;

electronically obtain rules associated with the first tag and for processing files associated with the first tag;

perform on the first file at least a first secondary storage operation specified by the rules associated with the first tag; and

perform on the second file at least a second secondary storage operation specified by the storage policy,

wherein the first and second secondary storage operations are different.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more tags include a tag defined by a system administrator.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more tags include a tag defined by a user associated with the client computing device, and rules associated with the tag are stored in an index associated with one of the one or more secondary storage controller computers.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the client computing device stores the identifier associated with the first tag with metadata of the first file.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the first file is generated by an application executing on the client computing device and the graphical user interface is associated with the application, and the client computing device is further configured to:

provide access to the one or more tags in the graphical user interface of the application;

receive user selection of a tag from the graphical user interface, the user selection of the tag being associated with at least the first file; and

store an identifier associated with the tag in association with at least the first file.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein a data agent executing on the client computing devices provides the one or more tags to the application.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more secondary storage controller computers are configured to override the storage policy to perform on the first file the at least a first storage operation specified by the rules associated with the first tag.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the client computing device is further configured to:

create rules for applying the first tag to files residing in the primary storage subsystem;

execute the rules for applying the first tag at a specified time; and

store the identifier associated with the first tag in association with one or more files that meet the rules.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the one or more files that meet the rules include the first file.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the client computing device is configured to forward the first file and the first tag by extracting the first tag from metadata of the first file.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least a first secondary storage operation specified by the rules associated with the first tag includes one or more of:

a backup operation, an archiving operation, a migration operation, and a replication operation.

12. A method of applying granular secondary storage operation management, the method comprising:

using a computing device residing in a primary storage subsystem;

in response to user interaction with a graphical user interface to associate a first tag of one or more tags with a first file, storing an identifier associated with the first tag in association with the first file; and

in response to receiving instructions to perform, according to a storage policy, a secondary copy operation on a data set in the primary storage subsystem including at least the first file and a second file, forwarding the first file, the second file, and the identifier associated with the first tag to one or more secondary storage controller computers including computer hardware configured to copy data from the primary storage subsystem to a secondary storage subsystem; and

using the one or more secondary storage controller computers;

based on a review of the identifier associated with the first tag, identifying the first file as having been tagged with the first tag;

electronically obtaining rules associated with the first tag;

performing on the first file at least a first secondary storage operation specified by the rules associated with the first tag; and

performing on the second file at least a second secondary storage operation specified by the storage policy,

wherein the first and second secondary storage operations are different.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more tags include a tag defined by a system administrator.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more tags include a tag defined by a user associated with the computing device, and rules associated with the tag are stored in an index associated with one of the one or more secondary storage controller computers.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the computing device stores the identifier associated with the first tag with metadata of the first file.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein the first file is generated by an application executing on the computing device and the graphical user interface is associated with the application, and the method further comprises, using the computing device:

providing access to the one or more tags in the graphical user interface of the application;

receiving user selection of a tag from the graphical user interface, the user selection of the tag being associated with at least the first file; and

storing an identifier associated with the tag in association with at least the first file.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein a data agent executing on the computing devices provides the one or more tags to the application.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more secondary storage controller computers override the storage policy to perform on the first file the at least a first storage operation specified by the rules associated with the first tag.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising, using the computing device:

creating rules for applying the first tag to files residing in the primary storage subsystem;

executing the rules for applying the first tag at a specified time; and

storing the identifier associated with the first tag in association with one or more files that meet the rules.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising, using the computing device, forwarding the first file and the first tag by extracting the first tag from metadata of the first file.