Enterprise server version migration through identity preservation

• US 20070150526A1
• Filed: 08/07/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Mimosa Systems Incorporated (Iron Mountain Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ravi, T.M., D'Souza, Roy
• Granted Patent: US 8,275,749 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/252 between a Database Management System and a front-end application

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for service availability that provides automated recovery of server service in a timely and application intelligent manner, maintaining application consistency and integrity, while preserving server identity. The systems and methods, referred to herein as a Service Preservation System (SPS), manage complete recovery of server data and preserve continuity of server service, reestablishing user access to server(s) after an event or disaster in which in which primary or other server(s) fail. The failures, disasters, and losses referred to herein can be at many levels and include, but are not limited to, accidental deletion of an item, loss of an entire mailbox, loss of an entire disk drive, loss of an entire server, and/or loss of an entire server site.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more near-line servers coupled to one or more live servers that include data that provides services to a plurality of clients; and

an engine coupled to the near-line servers and configured to continuously shadow the live servers by generating and maintaining a replica of the data, wherein the engine is configured to automatically transfer the replica of the data to one or more standby servers in response to an event of the one or more standby servers, wherein the event comprises one or more of a migration event and a drill event.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the migration event includes migration from a first version of at least one application hosted by the live servers to a second version of the application.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the drill event comprises:

activating the standby servers hosting the replica of the data; and

evaluating operation of the activated standby servers.

4. The system of claim 3, further comprising returning the activated standby servers to a standby state.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the engine is configured to provide the services to the clients using the activated standby servers, wherein the activated standby servers are hosting the replica of the data.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the engine is configured to preserve continuity of the services by automatically re-establishing access to the services by the clients with the activated standby servers.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein providing the services to the clients with the activated standby servers comprises one or more of restarting services corresponding to the data on the standby server, rebinding mailboxes in a directory service to the standby server, and re-homing the clients.

8. The system of claim 5, wherein the engine is configured to also provide the services to the clients using the one or more live servers.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the live servers and the standby servers is identified and addressed independently.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one network coupled to the one or more near-line servers and one or more live servers, wherein the at least one network includes one or more of a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), and storage area network (SAN).

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the engine is configured to shadow by generating and maintaining the replica of the data in near real-time on the one or more near-line servers, wherein the shadowing maintains complete integrity and consistency of the data.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one near-line server includes a first near-line server co-located with the live servers at a first site and a second near-line server located at a second site.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the replica of the data is stored on the first near-line server during the shadowing, wherein the replica of the data is replicated from the first near-line server to the second near-line server.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the replica of the data is propagated to the standby server from one or more of the first near-line server and the second near-line server.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one near-line server includes a first near-line server co-located with the live servers at a first site and a second near-line server co-located with the standby servers at a second site.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the replica of the data is stored on the first near-line server during the shadowing, wherein the replica of the data is replicated from the first near-line server to the second near-line server.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the replica of the data is copied to the standby server from one or more of the first near-line server and the second near-line server.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the data includes one or more of application data, databases, storage groups, mailbox data, and server data.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more live servers include one or more of local servers, remote servers, database servers, messaging servers, electronic mail servers, instant messaging servers, Exchange Servers, voice-over Internet Protocol servers, collaboration servers, portals, customer relationship management (CRM) servers, enterprise resource planning (ERP) servers, business-to-business servers, and content management servers.

20. A system comprising:

one or more near-line servers coupled to one or more live servers that include data that provides services to a plurality of clients; and

an engine coupled to the near-line servers and configured to continuously shadow the live servers by generating and maintaining a replica of the data, wherein the engine is configured to automatically transfer the replica of the data to one or more standby servers in response to an event of the one or more standby servers, wherein the event comprises a migration event that includes migration from a first version of at least one application hosted by the live servers to a second version of the application.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the engine is configured to provide the services to the clients using the activated standby servers, wherein the activated standby servers are hosting the replica of the data.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the engine is configured to preserve continuity of the services by automatically re-establishing access to the services by the clients with the activated standby servers.

23. The system of claim 21, wherein providing the services to the clients with the activated standby servers comprises one or more of restarting services corresponding to the data on the standby server, rebinding mailboxes in a directory service to the standby server, and re-homing the clients.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the engine is configured to also provide the services to the clients using the one or more live servers.

25. The system of claim 20, wherein each of the live servers and the standby servers is identified and addressed independently.

26. The system of claim 20, wherein the engine is configured to shadow by generating and maintaining the replica of the data in near real-time on the one or more near-line servers, wherein the shadowing maintains complete integrity and consistency of the data.

27. The system of claim 20, wherein the one or more live servers include one or more of local servers, remote servers, database servers, messaging servers, electronic mail servers, instant messaging servers, Exchange Servers, voice-over Internet Protocol servers, collaboration servers, portals, customer relationship management (CRM) servers, enterprise resource planning (ERP) servers, business-to-business servers, and content management servers.