System to capture, transmit and persist backup and recovery meta data

• US 7,558,927 B2
• Filed: 05/06/2004
• Issued: 07/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Aptare, Inc. (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Clark, Richard J., Chandrasekaran, Satish K., Collins, Joshua D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough; Hyung S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Namazi; Mehdi
• Application Number:
  US10/555,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20070198789A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,888 Days
• Field of Search: 711/162, 707/204, 707/3, 707/10, 707/202, 707/206
• 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 11/1458 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A system to capture, transmit and persist backup and recovery meta data over a network (16). An agent (48) captures the meta data at a computerized backup management system (22). The agent transmits the meta data from the backup management system to a storage console portal system (30). And the computerized console portal system includes a database (54) to store the meta data, thereby capturing, transmitting and persisting the meta data.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented system to capture and transmit backup and recovery meta data over a network, comprising:

a computing device including an agent executing thereon to capture the meta data generated by a computerized backup management system, the captured meta data including file by file meta data, regarding each file backed up by the computerized backup management system;

said executing agent to cause the computing device to transmit the meta data to a storage console portal computing system having a database, the storage console portal computing system connected to the computerized backup management system by a network, the storage console portal computing system configured to persist the meta data, including the file by file meta data in the database of the storage console portal computing system, without being requested or polled from the storage console portal computing system to transmit the meta data to the storage console portal computing system,

wherein said agent initiates communication with said storage console portal computing system to transmit the meta data, including the file by file meta data;

wherein the captured meta data further includes meta data, regarding backup events of the computerized backup management system, that is not file by file meta data; and

wherein the captured meta data that is not file by file meta data includes at least one of the group consisting of, for a particular backup event, an indication of a backup identification of the particular backup event, an indication of a date and time at which the particular backup event started, an indication of a date and time at which the particular backup event ended, an indication of a count of the number of files that were backed up in the particular backup event, an indication of a count of the number of bytes that were backed up in the particular backup event, an indication of a status for the particular backup event, and an indication of a server identification of a client server on which the files backed up in the particular backup event are stored.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said agent includes a backup event sub-agent to determine when a backup process completes and to collect the meta data, including the file by file meta data, relating to said backup process.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said backup event sub-agent operates responsive to either monitoring with a daemon process a log file written to by said backup process or triggering to run by said backup process upon completion of a backup event.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein said agent includes an interface to said backup software to permit a single said event sub-agent to work with different said backup processes.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein said agent includes a restore event sub-agent to determine when a restore process completes and to collect the meta data, including the file by file meta data, relating to said completed restore process.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said restore event sub-agent operates responsive to either triggering to run by said restore process upon completion of a restore event or monitoring with a daemon process a log file written to by said restore process.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication includes an HTTP or HTTPS session.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said agent periodically polls said storage console portal computing system for an instruction requesting how to interact with the computerized backup management system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein said instructing requesting how to interact with the computerized backup management system is an instruction requesting what contents are to included in the meta data, including the file by file meta data.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said instructing requesting how to interact with the computerized backup management system is an instruction requesting the computerized backup management system to perform a restore operation.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said agent is embodied a script-based software language, to facilitate porting of said agent to different operating systems and hardware systems employed by said computerized backup management system.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein said script-based software language is Java™

programming language.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said agent uses at least one of the Java cryptography extension (JCE) and the Java authentication and authorization service (JAAS) to implement at least one of security, authentication, and encryption.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein said agent includes a cron sub-agent to perform at least one of:

collecting policy data from said computerized backup management system and including said policy data with the meta data;

collecting at least one of backup and restore statistics from said computerized backup management system and including said statistics with the meta data; and

updating the agent.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said agent selects preset portions of a greater body of data than available from said backup management system to be the meta data.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said agent polls said storage console portal computing system for an instruction requesting what said preset portions are.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein said agent converts the meta data into serialized, compressed, Java objects and transmits the meta data to said storage console portal computing system as the serialized, compressed, Java objects.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein:

said agent monitors for an acknowledgment message from said storage console portal computing system after transmitting the meta data; and

failing receipt of said acknowledgment message, said agent re-transmits the meta data to said storage console portal computing system.

19. A method of operating an agent to capture and transmit backup and recovery meta data over a network, comprising:

capturing the meta data generated by a computerized backup management system, the captured meta data including file by file meta data, regarding each file backed by the computerized backup management system;

transmitting the meta data, via a network, to a storage console portal system having a database, to persist the meta data in the database, including the file by file meta data, without being requested or polled from the storage console portal system to transmit the meta data to the storage console portal system,

wherein said agent initiates communication with said storage console portal system to transmit the meta data, including the file by file meta data;

wherein the captured meta data further includes meta data, regarding backup events of the computerized backup management system, that is not file by file meta data; and

wherein the captured meta data that is not file by file meta data includes at least one of the group consisting of, for a particular backup event, an indication of a backup identification of the particular backup event, an indication of a date and time at which the particular backup event started, an indication of a date and time at which the particular backup event ended, an indication of a count of the number of files that were backed up in the particular backup event, an indication of a count of the number of bytes that were backed up in the particular backup event, an indication of a status for the particular backup event, and an indication of a server identification of a client server on which the files backed up in the particular backup event are stored.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein said agent includes a backup event sub-agent, and the method further comprises the backup subagent determining when a backup process completes and collecting the meta data, including the file by file meta data, relating to said backup process.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein said backup event sub-agent operates responsive to either monitoring with a daemon process a log file written to by said backup process or triggering to run by said backup process upon completion of a backup event.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein said agent includes an interface to said backup software to permit a single said event sub-agent to work with different said backup processes.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein said agent includes a restore event sub-agent, and the sub-agent determines when a restore process completes and collects the meta data, including the file by file meta data, relating to said completed restore process.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said restore event sub-agent operates responsive to either triggering to run by said restore process upon completion of a restore event or monitoring with a daemon process a log file written to by said restore process.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein said communication includes an HTTP or HTTPS session.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein said agent periodically polls said storage console portal for an instruction requesting how to interact with the computerized backup management system.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said instruction requesting how to interact with the computerized backup management system is an instruction requesting what contents are to included in the meta data, including the file by file meta data.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein said instruction requesting how to interact with the computerized backup management system is an instruction requesting the computerized backup management system to perform a restore operation.

29. The method of claim 19, wherein said agent is embodied a script-based software language, to facilitate porting of said agent to different operating systems and hardware systems employed by said computerized backup management system.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said script-based software language is Java™

programming language.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein said agent uses at least one of the Java cryptography extension (JCE) and the Java authentication and authorization service (JAAS) to implement at least one of security, authentication, and encryption.

32. The method of claim 19, wherein said agent includes a cron sub-agent that performs at least one of:

collecting policy data from said computerized backup management system and including said policy data with the meta data;

collecting at least one of backup and restore statistics from said computerized backup management system and including said statistics with the meta data; and

updating the agent.

33. The method of claim 19, wherein said agent selects preset portions of a greater body of data than available from said backup management system to be the meta data.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein said agent polls said storage console portal system for an instruction requesting what said preset portions are.

35. The method of claim 19, wherein said agent converts the meta data into and transmits the meta data to said storage console portal system as serialized, compressed, Java objects.

36. The method of claim 19, wherein:

said agent monitors for an acknowledgment message from said storage console portal system after transmitting the meta data; and

failing receipt of said acknowledgment message, said agent re-transmits the meta data to said storage console portal system.

37. A computer-implemented system to capture and transmit backup and recovery meta data over a network, comprising:

a computing device including an agent executing thereon to capture the meta data generated by a computerized backup management system;

said executing agent to cause the computing device to transmit the meta data to a storage console portal computing system having a database, to persist the meta data, without being requested or polled from the storage console portal computing system to transmit the meta data,

wherein said agent initiates communication with said storage console portal computing system to transmit the meta data, including the file by file meta data;

wherein the captured meta data further includes meta data, regarding backup events of the computerized backup management system, that is not file by file meta data; and

wherein the captured meta data that is not file by file meta data includes at least one of the group consisting of, for a particular backup event, an indication of a backup identification of the particular backup event, an indication of a date and time at which the particular backup event started, an indication of a date and time at which the particular backup event ended, an indication of a count of the number of files that were backed up in the particular backup event, an indication of a count of the number of bytes that were backed up in the particular backup event, an indication of a status for the particular backup event, and an indication of a server identification of a client server on which the files backed up in the particular backup event are stored.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein said agent is embodied a script-based software language, to facilitate porting of said agent to different operating systems and hardware systems employed by said computerized backup management system.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein said script-based software language is Java™

programming language.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein said agent uses at least one of the Java cryptography extension (JCE) and the Java authentication and authorization service (JAAS) to implement at least one of security, authentication, and encryption.