SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR COMBINING DATA STREAMS IN A STORAGE OPERATION

• US 20080091894A1
• Filed: 12/11/2007
• Published: 04/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Amarendran, Arun, Retnamma, Manoj
• Granted Patent: US 7,861,050 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/161
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

Described herein are systems and methods for multiplexing pipelined data for backup operations. Various data streams are combined such as by multiplexing by a multiplexing module. The multiplexing module combines the data from the various data streams received by receiver module(s) into a single stream of chunks. The multiplexing module may combine data from multiple archive files into a single chunk. Additional modules perform other operations on the chunks of data to be transported such as encryption, compression, etc. The data chunks are transmitted via a transport channel to a receive pipeline that includes a second receiver module and other modules. The data chunks are then stored in a backup medium. The chunks are later retrieved and separated such as by demultiplexing for restoring to a client or for further storage as auxiliary copies of the separated data streams or archive files.

Claims

1. A method for performing a storage operation, the method comprising:

receiving a first data stream having first data, the first data being obtained by a first application-specific data agent;

receiving a second data stream having second data, the second data being obtained by a second application-specific data agent;

combining the first and second data streams into a single stream of one or more data chunks, including writing the first data from the first data stream and the second data from the second data stream into a first data chunk of the one or more data chunks; and

transmitting the one or more data chunks to a storage medium.

2. The method of claim 1, comprising inserting a plurality of tag headers into the first data chunk, each tag header describing data written in the first data chunk from a corresponding data stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data is obtained from a first archive file and the second data is obtained from a second archive file.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first archive file is associated with a first client computer and the second archive file is associated with a second client computer.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said combining the data streams further comprises writing data from a single archive file into more than one data chunk.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data and the second data comprise different types of data, and wherein each of the first and second data comprises at least one of the following types of data:

migration data, snapshot data, backup data and archive data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving the first data stream and receiving the second data stream comprise receiving the first and second data in the same buffer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first data stream comprises a backup stream.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the first data is obtained from a tape medium.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said combining the data streams comprises writing data into the first data chunk until the end of an archive file has been reached.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein combining the data streams comprises writing data into the first data chunk until the first data chunk reaches a predetermined size.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein combining the data streams comprises writing data into the first data chunk until a predetermined time has passed.

13. A system for performing a storage operation on a plurality of data streams, the system comprising:

a first agent module for obtaining first data, from a first application, for transmission in a first data stream;

a second agent module for obtaining second data, from a second application, for transmission in a second data stream, the second application being different than the first application;

one or more receivers for receiving the first data stream and the second data stream;

a multiplexer for combining the first and second data streams into a combined data stream; and

a data writer for writing data from the combined data stream portion of the combined first and second data streams into one data chunk, the data chunk having both first data from the first application and second data from the second application.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a storage medium for storing the one data chunk.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the first agent module and the data writer are part of the same local computing system such that the first data stream is not transmitted over an area network.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the first data stream is transmitted via a bus.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the first and second data streams are from the same client computer.

18. The system of claim 13, wherein the data writer module is further configured to encrypt the data of the one data chunk.

19. A system for combining data in a storage operation, the system comprising:

means for receiving a first data stream having first data, the first data being obtained by a first application-specific data agent;

means for receiving a second data stream having second data, the second data being obtained by a second application-specific data agent;

means for combining the first and second data streams into a single stream of one or more data chunks of an archive file, including writing the first data from the first data stream and the second data from the second data stream into a first data chunk of the one or more data chunks; and

means for outputting the one or more data chunks.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for transmitting the one or more data chunks to a storage medium.