Hierarchical systems and methods for performing data storage operations

• US 7,877,351 B2
• Filed: 04/24/2008
• Issued: 01/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Oshinsky, David Alan, Crescenti, John, Kavuri, Srinivas, Prahlad, Anand
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert; Ella
• Application Number:
  US12/109,201
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201343A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,006 Days
• Field of Search: 707/609, 707/610, 707/635, 707/636, 707/638, 707/651, 707/661, 707/673, 707/672, 707/668, 707/659, 707/660, 707/682, 707/686, 707/786, 707/778, 711/112, 711/113, 711/117, 711/162, 709/203, 709/204, 709/224, 709/226, 709/229
• US Class Current: 707/609
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/20 using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/00 Accessing, addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures digital input from, or digital output to record carriers, e.g. to disk storage units, G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/02 Addressing or allocation; Relocation program address sequencing G06F9/00; arrangements for selecting an address in a digital store G11C8/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/178 Techniques for file synchronisation in file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/182 Distributed file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0604 Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• 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: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

The invention is a hierarchical backup system. The interconnected network computing devices are put into groups of backup cells. A backup cell has a manager software agent responsible maintaining and initiating a backup regime for the network computing devices in the backup cell. The backups are directed to backup devices within the backup cell. Several backup cells can be defined. A manager software agent for a particular cell may be placed into contact with the manager software agent of another cell, by which information about the cells may be passed back and forth. Additionally, one of the software agents may be given administrative control over another software agent with which it is in communication.

Claims

1. A hierarchical storage management system for storing data in a network environment, the storage management system comprising:

a plurality of backup cells, each of the plurality of backup cells being coupled to another of the plurality of backup cells, and wherein at least one of the plurality of backup cells further comprises;

a media component configured to execute on a first network computing device of a plurality of network computing devices and being communicatively coupled to at least one storage device to store data to the at least one storage device,

a client component configured to execute on a second network computing device of the plurality of network computing devices and to obtain the data from at least one of the plurality of network computing devices according to first parameters maintained by the client component, the client component being further configured to transmit the data to the media component, and

a first manager component configured to execute on a third network computing device of the plurality of network computing devices and to direct the client component to obtain the data according to second parameters maintained by the first manager component; and

a second manager component of at least one other of the plurality of backup cells, wherein the second manager component is configured to control the first manager component of the at least one backup cell of the plurality of backup cells.

2. The storage management system of claim 1, wherein the media component further comprises an index of the physical location of the data stored on the at least one storage device.

3. The storage management system of claim 2, wherein the media component is configured to send at least a portion of the index to the first manager component.

4. The storage management system of claim 3, wherein the first manager component is configured to send the portion of the index to the second manager component.

5. The storage management system of claim 1, wherein the second manager component is configured to execute on a fourth network computing device.

6. The storage management system of claim 5, wherein the second manager component is configured to independently and directly control storage operations to the at least one storage device.

7. The storage management system of claim 5, wherein the second manager component is configured to control storage operations via the first manager component.

8. The storage management system of claim 1, wherein the second manager component is configured to maintain information regarding an operational status of at least one of the first manager component, the at least one storage device and the media component.

9. The storage management system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of backup cells further comprises the at least one storage device.

10. The storage management system of claim 1, wherein the at least one other of the plurality of backup cells further comprises:

a second media component configured to execute on a fourth network computing device of the plurality of network computing devices and being communicatively coupled to a second storage device to store second data to the second storage device;

a second client component configured to execute on a fifth network computing device of the plurality of network computing devices and to obtain and transmit the second data to the second media component; and

wherein the at least one other of the plurality of backup cells is configured to be controlled by a third manager component of a third backup cell of the plurality of backup cells.

11. The storage management system of claim 1, further comprising a second backup cell of the plurality of backup cells, wherein the second backup cell further comprises:

a second media component configured to execute on a fourth network computing device of the plurality of network computing devices and being communicatively coupled to a second storage device to store second data to the second storage device;

a second client component configured to execute on a fifth network computing device of the plurality of network computing devices and to obtain and transmit the second data to the second media component; and

a third manager component configured to execute on a sixth network computing device of the plurality of network computing devices and to direct the second client component to obtain the second data according to third parameters maintained by the third manager component, and wherein the second manager component of the at least one other of the plurality of backup cells is configured to control the third manager component of the second backup cell.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the second parameters include at least one of a storage schedule, an aging policy and a pruning policy.

13. A method for performing a storage operation in a hierarchical storage management system, the method comprising:

receiving a request to perform a storage operation on data stored on a first client device;

instructing, with a first manager component of a first network device, a second manager component of a second network device to initiate the storage operation;

obtaining the data from the first client device with a client component configured to execute on the first client device;

storing the data to a storage device with a media component of a third network device according to parameters maintained by the first manager component;

updating an index maintained by the media component, the index indicating a physical location of the data stored on the storage device; and

forwarding at least a portion of the index to the first manager component, wherein the first manager component is part of a first backup cell hierarchically coupled to a second backup cell comprising the second manager component, the client component and the media component.

14. The method of claim 13, additionally comprising initiating the request to perform the storage operation based at least on an aging policy.

15. The method of claim 13, additionally comprising alerting the first manager component with respect to operation of the second backup cell.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein said receiving is performed by the first manager component.

17. The method of claim 13, additionally comprising receiving with the first manager component status information regarding the second manager component and a third manager component of a third backup cell hierarchically coupled to the first backup cell.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said instructing the second manager component to initiate the storage operation further comprises selecting the second manager component based on an availability of the second manager component and the third manager component.

19. A hierarchical storage management system, the system comprising:

a first backup cell comprising;

a first manager component communicatively coupled to at least one storage device and configured to control storage of data from a first client device to the at least one storage device; and

a second backup cell communicatively coupled to the first backup cell, the second backup cell comprising a second manager component configured to (i) directly and independently control the storage of the data to the at least one storage device of the first backup cell and (ii) alternatively, instruct the first manager component of the first backup cell to control the storage of the data to the at least one storage device.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein each of the first and second manager components maintains an index of a physical location of the data stored on the at least one storage device.