Data storage resource allocation by employing dynamic methods and blacklisting resource request pools

• US 9,639,400 B2
• Filed: 02/02/2016
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Gokhale, Parag, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Karandikar, Amey Vijaykumar, Wang, Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): Rashid, Wissam
• Application Number:
  US15/013,515
• Publication Number:
  US 20160224384A1
• Time in Patent Office: 455 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/16 for access to memory bus G06F13/28 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/502 Proximity
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• 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 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory

Abstract

A resource allocation system begins with an ordered plan for matching requests to resources that is sorted by priority. The resource allocation system optimizes the plan by determining those requests in the plan that will fail if performed. The resource allocation system removes or defers the determined requests. In addition, when a request that is performed fails, the resource allocation system may remove requests that require similar resources from the plan. Moreover, when resources are released by a request, the resource allocation system may place the resources in a temporary holding area until the resource allocation returns to the top of the ordered plan so that lower priority requests that are lower in the plan do not take resources that are needed by waiting higher priority requests higher in the plan.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one data storage device coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions for implementing a process to assign data storage requests to data storage resources, wherein the process comprises;

creating a table of resources by grouping data storage resources in columns or rows of the table according to similar characteristics of the data storage resources;

assigning, when preferred resources are available, at least one resource from a row or column, respectively, of the table to a data allocation request;

assigning, when preferred data storage resources are not available, an alternate set of data storage resources to the data storage request;

determining whether at least one requested resource from a failed request comprise common or not common resources; and

adding the at least one resource from the failed request to a blacklist table when the failed request corresponded to a common resource, and not adding the at least one resource from the failed request to the blacklist table when the failed request corresponded to a not common resource.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the preferred resources are preferred based on geographic proximity of one or more data objects related to a data storage request and available data storage resources.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the preferred resources are preferred based on network proximity of one or more data objects related to a data storage request and available data storage resources.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein assigning the alternate set of resources includes evaluating one or more rules to determine an alternate data path for performing a data storage request, wherein at least one rule is an overflow rule that indicates an alternate data path to use for performing the data storage request when the preferred set of data storage resources is unavailable.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein assigning the alternate set of resources includes evaluating one or more rules to determine an alternate data path for performing a data storage request, wherein at least one rule is an overflow rule that distributes data storage requests across sets of data storage resources in an alternating fashion to evenly distribute the data storage requests.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the similar characteristics of the data storage resources comprise at least an access to a tape drive, an allocation of a stream for that tape drive, an available tape on which to store data, and a media agent computer to process and monitor the request.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the table includes a row or column of priorities associated with each of multiple data management operations in a list of data management operations, wherein the data management operations are to be performed along one dimension of the table in priority order.

8. At least one data-storage medium, excluding transitory signals, and carrying instructions, which when executed by at least one data processor, performs a method of dynamically assigning data storage requests to data storage resources, the method comprising:

creating a table of resources by grouping data storage resources in columns or rows of the table according to similar characteristics of the data storage resources;

assigning at least one resource from a row or column, respectively, of the table to a data allocation request when preferred resources are available and assigning an alternate set of data storage resources to the data storage request when the preferred data storage resources are not available;

determining whether at least one requested resource from a failed request comprise common or not common resources; and

adding the at least one resource from the failed request to a list of failed resources when the failed request corresponded to a common resource, and not adding the at least one resource from the failed request to the list when the failed request corresponded to a not common requested resource.

9. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8 wherein the preferred resources are preferred based on geographic proximity of one or more data objects related to a data storage request and available data storage resources, or based on network proximity of one or more data objects related to a data storage request and available data storage resources.

10. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8 wherein the assigning the alternate set of resources includes evaluating one or more rules to determine an alternate data path for performing a data storage request, wherein at least one rule is an overflow rule that indicates an alternate data path to use for performing the data storage request when the preferred set of data storage resources is unavailable.

11. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8 wherein the assigning the alternate set of resources includes evaluating one or more rules to determine an alternate data path for performing a data storage request, wherein at least one rule is an overflow rule that distributes data storage requests across sets of data storage resources in an alternating fashion to evenly distribute the data storage requests.

12. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8, wherein the similar characteristics of the data storage resources comprises at least an access to a tape drive, an allocation of a stream for that tape drive, an available tape on which to store data, and a media agent computer to process and monitor the request.

13. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8 wherein the table includes a row or column of priorities associated with each of multiple data management operations in a list of data management operations, wherein the data management operations are to be performed along one dimension of the table in priority order.

14. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8, further comprising:

temporarily storing a list of data storage resources released after a data storage request has completed;

looping back to a top of a queue of unfulfilled data storage requests to identify a data storage request in the queue having the highest priority; and

assigning one or more of the data storage resources in the list to the data storage request having the highest priority.

15. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8 wherein selectively adding includes adding physical data storage resources before adding logical data storage resources to the list.

16. The at least one data storage medium of claim 8, wherein common data storage resources include data storage resources shared by multiple data storage requests.

17. A computer-implemented method of performing data management operations on data objects located at different physical locations, the method comprising:

creating or modifying a data structure for allocating data management resources,

wherein the data structure for resource allocation allows for selection of one or more data management resources to perform each of multiple data management operations based at least in part on—

a determined location of the one or more data objects affected by a data management operation, and

a grouping of at least two data management resources based on a similarity of at least one determined characteristic;

performing the multiple data management operations based on the created data structure for resource allocation;

determining whether requested data storage resources from a failed request comprise common or not common data storage resources; and

adding one or more data storage resources of the failed request to a list of failed resources when the failed request failed because of one or more requested common data storage resources, and not adding one or more data storage resources of the failed request to the list when the failed request failed because of one or more not common requested data storage resources.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the at least one determined characteristic comprises a geographic criteria based on subsets of data identified by a user and related to office locations of a business organization.

19. The method of claim 17 wherein the data structure is a table, and further comprising grouping at least two data management resources based on similar data management resources within a column of the table.

20. The method of claim 17 wherein performing the multiple data management operations comprises performing in priority order operations along one dimension of the data structure.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

temporarily storing a list of data storage resources released after a data storage request has completed;

looping back to a top of a queue of unfulfilled data storage requests to identify a data storage request in the queue having the highest priority; and

assigning one or more of the data storage resources in the list to the data storage request having the highest priority.

22. The method of claim 17 wherein adding includes adding physical resources before adding logical resources to the list.