Systems and methods for performing storage operations in a computer network

• US 8,176,268 B2
• Filed: 06/10/2010
• Issued: 05/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Gokhale, Parag, Prahlad, Anand, Kumar, Manoj, Ngo, David, Devassy, Varghese
• Primary Examiner(s): ELMORE, STEPHEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/813,398
• Publication Number:
  US 20110010440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 698 Days
• Field of Search: 711/154, 711/4, 711/100, 711/111, 711/112, 714/1, 714/5, 714/7, 714/6.2, 714/6.32
• US Class Current: 711/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2228 Indexing structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0635 by changing the path, e.g. traffic rerouting, path reconfiguration
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0655 Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices
• 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 3/0689 Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for performing storage operations on electronic data in a network. In response to the initiation of a storage operation and according to a first set of selection logic, a media management component is selected to manage the storage operation. In response to the initiation of a storage operation and according to a second set of selection logic, a network storage device to associate with the storage operation. The selected media management component and the selected network storage device perform the storage operation on the electronic data.

Claims

1. A method for performing a storage operation on data in a network, the method comprising:

selecting at least one of a plurality of modules to manage a storage operation, wherein at least first and second modules of the plurality of modules are configured to communicate with a plurality of physical network storage devices such that at least two of the physical network storage devices are shared by the first and second modules;

performing with one or computer processors the storage operation on data with at least the first module and at least one of the network storage devices; and

storing a list of at least another module that is configured as a failover module to the first module.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the first module further comprises selecting according to an available bandwidth of a network path.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein information about the failover module is stored in association with a storage policy.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data that identifies the failover module further comprises at least one of the storage devices, and a drive pool.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the first module further comprises load balancing the first and second modules.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the at least one network storage device with a storage manager module.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein selecting the at least one of network storage device is based at least in part on a comparison of a storage availability of the plurality of network storage devices.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising querying with a storage manager module other modules to identify a second network storage device when the storage operation spans multiple network storage devices.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage operation comprises at least one of archiving, migrating and restoring application-specific data.

2. A method for performing a storage operation on data in a network, the method comprising:

selecting a first module from at least first and second modules to manage a storage operation, wherein the first and second modules are configured to share at least two physical network storage devices, and wherein the first and second modules further share at least two client devices;

performing with one or computer processors the storage operation on data with at least the first module and at least one of the network storage devices; and

storing data that identifies that at least another module is configured as a failover module to the first module.

11. A system for performing a storage operation on data in a computer network, the system comprising:

a plurality of storage devices;

at least first and second modules, wherein the first and second modules are configured to share at least two of the plurality of storage devices, and wherein the first and second modules further share at least two client devices; and

a storage manager module that selects at least the first module to manage a storage operation and at least one of the plurality of storage devices to associate with the storage operation; and

data accessible to the storage manager that identifies at least another module that is configured as a failover module to the first module.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage manager is configured to select the first module based at least in part on an available bandwidth of a network path.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein information about the failover module is stored in association with a storage policy.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the data that identifies the failover module further comprises at least one of the plurality of storage devices and a drive pool.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage manager is configured to select the first module based at least in part on load balancing the first and second modules.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage manager is configured to select one of the plurality of storage devices based at least in part on a comparison of a storage availability of the plurality of storage devices.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage manager module is further configured to query other modules to identify a second storage device when the storage operation spans multiple storage devices.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the storage operation comprises at least one of archiving, migrating and restoring application specific data.