System and method for dynamically sharing storage volumes in a computer network

• US 20050033756A1
• Filed: 04/05/2004
• Published: 02/10/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kumar, Manoj, Gokhale, Parag, Ngo, David, Prahlad, Anand, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Devassy, Varghese
• Application Number:
  US10/819,101
• Publication Number:
  US 20050033756A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

A computerized method for dynamically sharing a magnetic media volume in a network, the method comprising removing, in response to a volume sharing request, an association between a first media management component and the magnetic media volume, and associating, according to a set of selection logic, a second media management component with the magnetic media volume.

Claims

1. A computerized method for dynamically sharing a magnetic media volume in a network, the method comprising:

removing, in response to a volume sharing request, an association between a first media management component and the magnetic media volume; and

associating, according to a set of selection logic, a second media management component with the magnetic media volume.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein removing in response to a volume sharing request comprises removing in response to a user preference.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein removing in response to a volume sharing request comprises removing according to a storage policy.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein removing in response to a volume sharing request comprises removing in response to a request initiated by a storage manager component.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein removing in response to a volume sharing request comprises removing in response to a request initiated by a client component.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein removing an association between a first media management component and the magnetic media volume comprises removing an association between a media agent and the magnetic media volume.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein removing an association between a first media management component and the magnetic media volume comprises removing an index entry association between the first media management component and the magnetic media volume.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein associating according to a set of selection logic comprises associating according to a user preference.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein associating according to a set of selection logic comprises associating according to a storage policy.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein associating according to a set of selection logic comprises associating according to a request initiated by a storage manager component.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein associating a second media management component and the magnetic media volume comprises associating a media agent and the magnetic media volume.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein associating a second media management component and the magnetic media volume comprises creating an index entry association between the second media management component and the magnetic media volume.

13. A system for dynamically sharing a magnetic media volume in a network, the system comprising:

a first media management component communicatively coupled to a magnetic media volume and a storage manager component; and

a second media management component communicatively coupled to the magnetic media volume and the storage manager component;

wherein the storage manager component is programmed to;

remove, in response to a volume sharing request, an association between the first media management component and the magnetic media volume; and

associate, according to a set of selection logic, the second media management component with the magnetic media volume.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the storage manager component is programmed to remove in response to a user preference.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the storage manager component is programmed to remove according to a storage policy.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the storage manager component is programmed to remove in response to a request initiated by a client component.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the first media management component comprises a media agent.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the association between the first media management component and the magnetic media volume comprises an index entry.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the set of selection logic comprises a user preference.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the set of selection logic comprises a storage policy.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the second media management a media agent.

22. The system of claim 13, wherein the association between the second media management component and the magnetic media volume comprises an index entry.

23. A computerized method for dynamically sharing a magnetic media volume in a network, the method comprising:

directing, in response to a volume sharing request, a first media management component controlling a magnetic media volume to go into a deactivated state with respect to the magnetic media volume;

directing, according to a set of selection logic, a second media management component to go into an activated state with respect to the magnetic media volume; and

mounting the magnetic media volume to the second media management component.