Distributed indexing system for data storage
First Claim
1. A method of creating a distributed index of a secondary copy of primary data, the method comprising:
- copying primary data stored in one or more primary storage devices to one or more secondary storage devices to create a secondary copy of the primary data;
indexing a first portion of the secondary copy with a first index server, wherein indexing the first portion of the secondary copy creates a first index of the first portion;
indexing a second portion of the secondary copy with a second index server, wherein indexing the second portion of secondary copy creates a second index of the second portion;
copying the first index to the second index server so that the first index is available at both the first and second index servers;
receiving a request for the primary data;
determining that the secondary copy of the requested primary data exists in the one or more secondary storage devices; and
sending the request to at least one of the first and second index servers to retrieve a portion of the secondary copy that relates to the requested primary data;
identifying that the request is associated with the first index;
directing the request associated with the first index to the second index server when the first index server is not available.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A distributed indexing system spreads out the load on an index of stored data in a data storage system. Rather than maintain a single index, the distributed indexing system maintains an index in each media agent of a federated data storage system and a master index that points to the index in each media agent. In some embodiments, the distributed indexing system includes an index server (or group of servers) that handles indexing requests and forwards the requests to the appropriate distributed systems. Thus, the distributed indexing system, among other things, increases the availability and fault tolerance of a data storage index.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A method of creating a distributed index of a secondary copy of primary data, the method comprising:
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copying primary data stored in one or more primary storage devices to one or more secondary storage devices to create a secondary copy of the primary data; indexing a first portion of the secondary copy with a first index server, wherein indexing the first portion of the secondary copy creates a first index of the first portion; indexing a second portion of the secondary copy with a second index server, wherein indexing the second portion of secondary copy creates a second index of the second portion; copying the first index to the second index server so that the first index is available at both the first and second index servers; receiving a request for the primary data; determining that the secondary copy of the requested primary data exists in the one or more secondary storage devices; and sending the request to at least one of the first and second index servers to retrieve a portion of the secondary copy that relates to the requested primary data; identifying that the request is associated with the first index; directing the request associated with the first index to the second index server when the first index server is not available. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A system that creates a distributed index of a secondary copy of primary data, the system comprising:
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a storage manager comprising computer hardware, the storage manager copies primary data stored in one or more primary storage devices to one or more secondary storage devices to create a secondary copy of the primary data; a first index server comprising computer hardware having one or more computer processors, the first index server creates a first index by indexing a first portion of the secondary copy; a second index server comprising computer hardware having one or more computer processors, the second index server creates a second index by indexing index a second portion of the secondary copy; an index replication component comprising computer hardware, the index replication component directs the copying the first index associated with the first index server to the second index server so that the first index is available at both the first and second index servers; wherein the storage manager receives a request for the primary data and determines that a secondary copy of the requested primary data exists in the one or more secondary storage devices, wherein the storage manager sends the request to at least one of the first and second index servers to retrieve a portion of the secondary copy that relates to the requested primary data; and wherein the storage manager identifies that the request is associated with the first index and directs the request associated with the first index to the second server when the first server is not available. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification