SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR STORAGE MODELING AND COSTING

• US 20100293112A1
• Filed: 07/27/2010
• Published: 11/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Bunte, Alan G., Schwartz, Jeremy, May, Andreas, Prahlad, Anand, Lunde, Norman R., Kavuri, Srinivas, Madeira, Andre Duque
• Granted Patent: US 8,306,926 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/185 Hierarchical storage management [HSM] systems, e.g. file migration or policies thereof details of archiving G06F16/11
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0631 by allocating resources to storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0644 Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0653 Monitoring storage devices or systems
• 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 3/0683 : Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 : Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0686 : Libraries, e.g. tape libraries, jukebox
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 : Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 : Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 : Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 : Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 : Archiving or backup

Abstract

The present invention provides systems and methods for data storage. A hierarchical storage management architecture is presented to facilitate data management. The disclosed system provides methods for evaluating the state of stored data relative to enterprise needs by using weighted parameters that may be user defined. Also disclosed are systems and methods evaluating costing and risk management associated with stored data.

Claims

1. A method, performed by at least one computing device having a processor and memory, for calculating data availability in a computer network, the method comprising:

identifying, by the computing system, multiple data storage elements in the network,

wherein the multiple data storage elements include primary data storage elements and secondary data storage elements, and

wherein the primary data storage elements include disk-based data storage media, and wherein the secondary data storage elements include tape-based data storage media;

accessing, by the computing system, storage availability data associated with the multiple data storage elements; and

calculating, by the computing system, a storage availability level for the multiple data storage elements based on the associated storage availability data,

wherein the storage availability level indicates a rate at which data can be written to the primary and secondary storage elements or a rate at which data can be retrieved from the primary and secondary data storage elements.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the identifying includes identifying storage element within a data storage system having a cell hierarchy, wherein the hierarchy includes multiple storage operation cells organized in two or more hierarchical relationships with one cell subordinate to another cell, wherein the multiple data storage elements are associated with one or more storage operation cells of the storage operation cell hierarchy, and wherein a storage operation cell includes:

a data agent component for accessing data of one or more computing devices in the network;

a media agent component for communicating with at least one data storage element; and

a storage manager component for managing the data agent component and the media agent component.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining storage cost data associated with at least some of the primary data storage elements, and wherein the storage cost indicates a cost of using a quantity of storage space of the one or more primary storage resources for a unit of time, and wherein the calculated storage cost is a financial value.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining primary storage usage data associated with usage of the primary data storage elements and determining secondary storage usage data associated with usage of the secondary data storage elements;

determining changes in the primary and secondary usage data based on changes due to movement of data from one of the primary storage elements to one of the secondary storage elements;

recalculating storage cost based on the changed primary storage usage data and the changed secondary storage usage data; and

apportioning recalculated storage cost amongst the multiple entities.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating, by the at least one computing device, a predicted storage cost for at least one of the primary storage elements and/or at least one of the secondary storage elements based on the rate at which data is be written to the primary and secondary storage elements.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating, to different entities, future primary and secondary data storage elements to be added to the computer network based on the calculated storage availability level.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a graphical user interface for displaying the calculated storage availability level.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically and dynamically obtaining information identifying the primary and secondary data storage elements.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program code which when executed on a computer, causes the computer to perform a method for calculating data availability in connection with a storage operation cell, the method comprising:

identifying a plurality of storage elements;

associating storage availability data with the identified storage elements; and

calculating a storage availability level for at least one of the identified storage elements based on the associated storage availability data,

wherein the storage availability level indicates a rate at which data can be retrieved from at least one of the identified storage elements.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the availability level is measured in a unit of data per second or unit of data per hour.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprising generating a storage metric associated with the calculated storage availability level.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the storage availability level calculation is further based on a location of the data storage in a network.

13. A method performed by a computing system having a processor and memory for detecting risks to data storage resources in a network, the method comprising:

determining, by the computing system, whether any of multiple pre-defined risk criteria are satisfied based on a status of a first data storage resource and a type of the first data storage resource

wherein the multiple pre-defined risk criteria are associated with multiple data storage resources, wherein the multiple data storage resources include at least one primary data storage resource and at least one secondary data storage resource;

wherein the at least one primary data storage resource includes disk-based data storage media, and wherein the at least one secondary data storage resources includes tape-based data storage media;

wherein the first data storage resource is a first physical data storage resource selected from the multiple data storage resources, wherein the status and type data are associated with the first data storage resource, and wherein the status and type data includes;

a status of the first data storage resource; and

a type of the first data storage resource that indicates whether the first data storage resource stores primary copies of data or secondary copies of data; and

,

upon determining that at least one of the pre-defined risk criteria is satisfied, automatically performing or causing to be performed a data storage operation on the data stored by first data storage resource to mitigate risk of loss of data stored by the first data storage resource.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising advising a user of the satisfaction of one of the risk criteria and indicating a suggested storage operation for reducing risk.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the automatically performing or causing to be performed includes accessing data or instructions associated with at least one storage policy that defines one or more storage-related risks, risk criteria, or other use tolerances with respect to storage of electronic data, including a percentage of free storage space or a frequency at which snapshots of the data on the data storage resource should be taken.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the automatically performing or causing to be performed includes accessing data or instructions associated with at least one storage policy that defines a time period after which data on the primary data storage resource should be migrated to the secondary data storage resource, and the pre-defined risk criteria indicate that the time period has elapsed but the data migration has not occurred.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising analyzing application configuration data to determine whether a risk is present in the particular physical data storage resource, and wherein a storage policy defines a weight relating to data stored on a particular physical data storage resource, wherein the weight corresponds to a priority value of the stored data.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving data associated with a condition of a second storage operation cell comprising a second physical data storage resource, the data including at least one identifier of the second data storage resource;

normalizing the identifier of the second physical storage resource with respect to one or more identifiers used by other storage resources to identify the second physical storage resource to generate a normalized identifier; and

displaying the data relating to the particular physical data storage resource and the data associated with the condition of the other storage resources, the displayed data including at least the normalized identifier.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising gathering at least four of the following data:

an availability level of data stored on one or more physical storage resources;

a retention period of data stored on one or more physical storage resources;

a number of copies of data stored on one or more physical storage resource;

a disaster recovery level of data stored on one or more physical storage resources;

a load of one or more physical storage resources; and

a load of the network.

20. The method of claim 13 wherein the determining includes identifying storage resources within a data storage system having a cell hierarchy, wherein the hierarchy includes multiple storage operation cells organized in two or more hierarchical relationships with one cell subordinate to another cell, wherein the multiple data storage resources are associated with one or more storage operation cells of the storage operation cell hierarchy, and wherein a storage operation cell includes:

a data agent component for accessing data of one or more computing devices in the network;

a media agent component for communicating with at least one storage resource; and

a storage manager component for managing the data agent component and the media agent component.