System and method for managing stored data

• US 20040250033A1
• Filed: 10/07/2003
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/07/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: May, Andreas, Ngo, David, Prahlad, Anand, Lunde, Norman R., Kumar, Avinash, Zhou, Lixin
• Granted Patent: US 7,568,080 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• 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 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• 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: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

A system and method of managing stored data in a storage management system. The storage management system includes a storage manager, a media agent connected to the storage manager, and a primary volume connected to the media agent. A plurality of snapshots are taken of the primary volume. The snapshots are indexed by associating respective information with the snapshot. The indexed snapshots are copied to a recovery volume. In this way, browsing features are enabled for the user. The user may view the snapshots in a hierarchical format, and may even view snapshot data in association with the corresponding application. The resultant recovery volume may be used to replace a primary volume.

Claims

1. A method of managing stored data in a storage management system, the storage management system including a storage manager, a media agent connected to the storage manager, and a primary volume connected to the media agent, the method comprising:

taking a snapshot of the primary volume;

indexing the snapshot by associating respective information with the snapshot;

copying the indexed snapshot to a secondary volume; and

repeating the taking, indexing, and copying steps for a plurality of snapshots.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising displaying the snapshots to a user.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the displaying further includes displaying at least one of a respective date of creation of each snapshot, a respective persistence of each snapshot, and a respective location of each shapshot.

4. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the displaying includes displaying the snapshots to the user in a hierarchical format.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising associating each respective snapshot with a corresponding application.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising displaying to a user a respective one of the snapshots in a screen corresponding to the respective application.

7. The method as recited in claim 4, further comprising:

enabling the user to select a least one of the snapshots for restoration; and

restoring the at least one snapshot selected by the user.

8. The method as recited in claim 2, further comprising enabling the user to delete a select one of the snapshots.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising deleting a snapshot after a defined period of time.

10. A computer readable medium including computer executable code for managing stored data in a storage management system, the storage management system including a storage manager, a media agent connected to the storage manager, and a primary volume connected to the media agent, the code enabling the steps of:

taking a snapshot of the primary volume;

indexing the snapshot by associating respective information with the snapshot;

copying the indexed snapshot to a secondary volume; and

repeating the taking, indexing, and copying steps for a plurality of snapshots.

11. A method for replacing data in a primary volume stored at a first device associated with a first logical unit number with data in a recovery volume stored at a second device associated with a second logical unit number, the recovery volume including a plurality of snapshots of the primary volume, the method comprising:

updating a memory to indicate that the primary volume is no longer associated with the first logical unit number;

updating the memory to indicate that the recovery volume is no longer associated with the second logical unit number; and

updating the memory to indicate that the recovery volume is associated with the first logical unit number.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein metadata associated with primary volume is maintained in association with the first logical unit number.

13. The method as recited in claim 11, where input and output to both the recovery and primary volumes is suspended during the updating steps.

14. A method for periodically copying changing data on a primary volume, the method comprising:

capturing a first snapshot of data in a primary volume, the first snapshot being a block level copy of the data in the primary volume;

storing the first snapshot;

monitoring for a change in any one of the blocks stored in the first snapshot;

storing a copy of a particular block when the monitoring determines that there was a change in the particular block from the first snapshot.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, further comprising:

producing a copy of the primary volume using the first snapshot and any copies of blocks that changed after the first snapshot, after at least one block has changed since the first snapshot.

16. A copy of a primary volume produced by the steps of:

capturing a first snapshot of data in a primary volume, the first snapshot being a block level copy of the data in the primary volume;

storing the first snapshot;

monitoring for a change in any one of the blocks stored in the first snapshot;

storing a copy of a particular block when the monitoring determines that there was a change in the particular block from the first snapshot; and

producing a copy of the primary volume using the first snapshot and any copies of blocks that changed after the first snapshot, after at least one block has changed since the first snapshot.

17. A method of managing stored data in a storage management system, the storage management system including a storage manager, a media agent connected to the storage manager, and a primary volume connected to the media agent, the method comprising:

taking a snapshot of the primary volume;

identifying characteristics associated with the snapshot; and

storing the characteristics in an index.