Destination systems and methods for performing data replication

• US 7,617,253 B2
• Filed: 12/18/2006
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Ngo, David, Prahlad, Anand
• Primary Examiner(s): To; Baoquoc N
• Application Number:
  US11/640,824
• Publication Number:
  US 20070185937A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,058 Days
• Field of Search: 707/200, 707/202, 707/204
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/184 implemented as replicated file system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Performing data management operations on replicated data in a computer network. Log entries are generated for data management operations of an application executing on a source system. Consistency point entries are used to indicate a time of a known good, or recoverable, state of the application. A destination system is configured to process a copy of the log and consistency point entries to replicate data in a replication volume, the replicated data being a copy of the application data on the source system. When the replicated data represents a known good state of the application, as determined by the consistency point entries, the destination system(s) may perform a storage operation (e.g., snapshot, backup) to copy the replicated data and to logically associate the copied data with a time information (e.g., time stamp) indicative of the source system time when the application was in the known good state.

Claims

1. A method for copying data generated on a source system in a computer network, the method comprising:

processing, with one or more routines, at least one log file having a plurality of log entries indicative of operations generated by a computer application executing on a source system, the operations being directed to data on a source storage device;

copying at least portions of the log file to a destination storage device to create a second log file on the destination storage device;

replaying, with the one or more routines, the log entries in the second log file on the destination storage device to create replicated data on the destination storage device;

suspending said replaying on the destination storage device when the one or more routines encounters a consistency point marker in the second log file, the consistency point marker being indicative of a known good state of the computer application wherein the consistency point marker further comprises the time of the known good state of the computer application executing on the source system;

performing a storage operation on the replicated data on the destination storage device when the replicated data represents the known good state of the computer application; and

associating results of the storage operation on the replicated data on the destination storage device with the time of the known good state of the computer system executing on the source system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the operations comprise data modification operations and file attribute modification operations.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing the storage operation comprises performing a snapshot or a backup of the replicated data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the consistency point marker further comprises time information indicative of a source system time of the known good state of the computer application.

5. The method of claim 4, additionally comprising logically associating the snapshot with the source system time of the known good state of the computer application.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more routines comprise a plurality of threads, each of which is configured to replicate data to a different replication volume of the destination storage device.

7. The method of claim 1, additionally comprising presenting a user with an indication of data resulting from the storage operation.

8. A destination system for performing data replication in a computer network, the destination system comprising:

at least one log file on a source system, the log file comprising;

a plurality of log entries indicative of data operations generated by a computer application for execution on the source storage device, and

at least one consistency point marker indicative of a known good state of the computer application; and

at least one replication log file on a destination machine wherein the replication log file comprises copies of at least a portion of the log file on the source machine;

a replication module configured to create replicated data on the destination storage device, the replication module comprising;

a replication agent executing in one or more computer processors, and

at least one process configured to traverse the plurality of log entries in the at least one replication log file and to execute the data operations on the destination storage device, the at least one thread being further configured to notify the replication agent when encountering the at least one consistency point marker,

wherein the replication agent suspends execution of the data operations on the destination storage machine when the process encounters the consistency point marker in the replication log file, the consistency point marker being indicative of a known good state of the computer application wherein the consistency point marker further comprises the time of the known good state of the computer application, and

wherein the replication agent performs a storage operation on the replicated data on the destination storage device when the replicated data represents the known good state of the computer application; and

wherein the replication agent associates results of the storage operation on the replicated data on the destination storage device with the time of the known good state of the computer system executing on the source system.

9. The destination system of claim 8, wherein the replication agent is configured to suspend operation of the at least one process when the at least one process has reached the at least one consistency point marker.

10. The destination system of claim 9, wherein the replication agent is further configured to initiate a copy operation on the replicated data when at least one process has reached the at least one consistency point marker.

11. The destination system of claim 10, wherein the copy operation comprises a snapshot operation or a backup operation.

12. The destination system of claim 8, wherein the data is application-specific data.

13. The destination system of claim 8, wherein the at least one process comprises multiple threads.

14. The destination system of claim 13, wherein each of the multiple threads is configured to replicate a different type of data operation represented by the plurality of log entries in the at least one replication log file.

15. The destination system of claim 13, wherein the multiple threads are configured to execute in parallel.

16. The destination system of claim 13, wherein the at least one replication log file comprises multiple replication log files, and wherein each of the multiple threads is assigned to one of the multiple replication log files.

17. The destination system of claim 8, wherein the replication agent is configured to provide path information to the at least one thread, wherein the path information identifies one or more locations on the destination storage device for receiving the replicated data.

18. The destination system of claim 8, further comprising a user interface configured to display to a user an indication of the replicated data.

19. A system for replicating data generated on a source device in a computer network, the system comprising:

means for storing a plurality of log entries indicative of modification operations generated by a computer application executing on a source system, the modification operations being directed to data on a source storage device;

means for copying with one or more computer processors at least portions of the log file to a destination storage device to create a second log file on the destination storage device;

means executing on one or more computer processors for traversing the second log and for replaying the modification operations to create replicated data on the destination storage device;

means for suspending said replaying on the destination storage device with one or more computer processors when said traversing and replaying means encounters a consistency point marker in the second log, the consistency point marker being indicative of a known good state of the computer application wherein the consistency point marker further comprises the time of the known good state of the computer application executing on the source system; and

means for performing a storage operation on the replicated data on the destination storage device when the replicated data represents the known good state of the computer application and for associating results of the storage operation on the replication data on the destination storage device with the time of the known good state of the computer system executing on the source system.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein said traversing and replaying means is configured to replicate application-specific data of the computer application to a first volume of the destination storage device and to replicate application-specific data of a second computer application to a second volume of the destination storage device.