Customized deployment in information management systems

• US 9,641,388 B2
• Filed: 08/26/2014
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kripalani, Sanjay Harakhchand, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv
• Primary Examiner(s): Serrao, Ranodhi
• Assistant Examiner(s): FIORILLO, JAMES N
• Application Number:
  US14/469,370
• Publication Number:
  US 20160036667A1
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/00 Arrangements for program control, e.g. control units program control for peripheral devices G06F13/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5061 Partitioning or combining of resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/024 using relational databases for representation of network management data, e.g. managing via structured query language [SQL]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/082 the condition being updates or upgrades of network functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0883 Semiautomatic configuration, e.g. proposals from system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416

Abstract

According to certain aspects, an information management system may be configured to: receive system information relating to one or more data storage requirements associated with a first user; access an electronic database containing deployment configuration rules usable in determining information management cell configurations; generate a recommended deployment configuration for an information management cell associated with the first user based at least in part on the system information and the deployment configuration rules; receive computing infrastructure information relating to computer hardware components within the information management cell that are available for use in implementing the recommended deployment configuration; and generate an installation script for the information management cell based at least in part on the recommended deployment configuration and the computing infrastructure information.

Claims

1. An information management system comprising:

a computing system comprising one or more computing devices including computer hardware, the computing system configured to;

associate one or more of a plurality of information management cells with one or more users of the computing system;

determine that an information management cell associated with a first user is un-deployed and is to be implemented as a customized deployment;

provide a series of questions to the first user relating to one or more data storage requirements of the information management cell to be implemented on behalf of the first user;

determine system information indicative of the one or more data storage requirements of the information management cell to be implemented on behalf of the first user, wherein the system information comprises one or more of;

a number of client computing devices, a number of servers, an amount of storage capacity, and software associated with the information management cell;

access an electronic database containing deployment configuration rules usable to generate recommendations for deployment configurations based on the one or more data storage requirements of the information management cell, wherein the deployment configuration rules comprise one or more of;

an algorithm for generating a recommended deployment configuration and a guideline for generating a recommended deployment configuration;

generate a recommended deployment configuration for the information management cell to be implemented on behalf of the first user based at least in part on the system information and the deployment configuration rules, wherein the recommended deployment configuration specifies one or more of;

a number of client computing devices, a number of storage managers, a number of secondary storage computing devices, a number of media agents, and a number of storage devices;

provide the recommended deployment configuration to the first user for approval or adjustment;

receive computing infrastructure information relating to computer hardware components within the information management cell that are available for use in implementing the recommended deployment configuration, wherein the computing infrastructure information identifies one or more computing devices by at least one of name or IP address within the information management cell that are specified in the recommended deployment configuration; and

generate an installation script for the information management cell based at least in part on the recommended deployment configuration and the computing infrastructure information, wherein execution of the installation script causes automated installation of data storage software components on the one or more computing devices within the information management cell identified by the computing infrastructure information.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing system is further configured to create one or more schedules relating to storage operations of the information management cell.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more schedules are created based on best practices of an industry associated with the first user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the recommended deployment configuration further comprises one or more of:

a number of computing devices, a number of instances of software components to be installed on a computing device, a type of instance of software component to be installed on a computing device, one or more groups of computing devices, one or more groups of client computing devices, a type of central processing unit (CPU) associated with a computing device, a type of memory associated with a computing device, a type of storage associated with a computing device, and a type of network connection between one or more computing devices.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing infrastructure information indicates whether to enable functionality relating to one or more of:

redundancy, deduplication, parallel restore, and disaster recovery.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing system is further configured to estimate a cost associated with deploying an information management cell that meets the one or more data storage requirements in the system information.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing system is further configured to electronically output the installation script for communication over a network.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a second computing system configured to execute the installation script to cause the automated installation of the data storage software components on the one or more computing devices within the information management cell identified by the computing infrastructure information.

9. A method for information management cell deployment, the method comprising:

associating one or more of a plurality of information management cells with one or more users of a computing system comprising one or more computing devices;

determining that an information management cell associated with a first user is un-deployed and is to be implemented as a customized deployment;

electronically providing a series of questions to the first user relating to one or more data storage requirements of the information management cell to be implemented on behalf of the first user;

determining system information indicative of the one or more data storage requirements of the information management cell to be implemented on behalf of the first user, wherein the system information comprises one or more of;

a number of client computing devices, a number of servers, an amount of storage capacity, and software associated with the information management cell;

electronically accessing an electronic database comprising deployment configuration rules usable to generate recommendations for deployment configurations based on the one or more data storage requirements of the information management cell, wherein the deployment configuration rules comprise one or more of;

an algorithm for generating a recommended deployment configuration and a guideline for generating a recommended deployment configuration;

using the one or more computing devices of the computing system, generating a recommended deployment configuration for the information management cell to be implemented on behalf of the first user based at least in part on the system information and the deployment configuration rules, wherein the recommended deployment configuration specifies one or more of;

a number of client computing devices, a number of storage managers, a number of secondary storage computing devices, a number of media agents, and a number of storage devices;

providing the recommended deployment configuration to the first user for approval or adjustment;

receiving computing infrastructure information relating to computer hardware components within the information management cell that are available for use in implementing the recommended deployment configuration, wherein the computing infrastructure information identifies one or more computing devices by at least one of name or IP address within the information management cell that are specified in the recommended deployment configuration; and

using the one or more computing devices of the computing system, generating an installation script for the information management cell based at least in part on the recommended deployment configuration and the computing infrastructure information, wherein execution of the installation script causes automated installation of data storage software components on the one or more computing devices identified by the computing infrastructure information.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising creating one or more schedules relating to storage operations of the information management cell.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more schedules are created based on best practices of an industry associated with the first user.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the recommended deployment configuration further comprises one or more of:

a number of computing devices, a number of instances of software components to be installed on a computing device, a type of instance of software component to be installed on a computing device, one or more groups of computing devices, one or more groups of client computing devices, a type of central processing unit (CPU) associated with a computing device, a type of memory associated with a computing device, a type of storage associated with a computing device, and a type of network connection between one or more computing devices.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the computing infrastructure information indicates whether to enable functionality relating to one or more of:

redundancy, deduplication, parallel restore, and disaster recovery.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising estimating a cost associated with deploying an information management cell that meets the one or more data storage requirements in the system information.

15. The method of claim 9, further comprising electronically outputting the installation script for communication over a network.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising, using one or more computing devices comprising computing hardware, executing the installation script to cause the automated installation of the data storage software components on the one or more computing devices within the information management cell identified by the computing infrastructure information.