Pre-summarization and analysis of results generated by an agent

• US 8,990,285 B2
• Filed: 02/29/2008
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Original Assignee: NetApp, Inc.
• Inventors: Deshmukh, Vijay, Swartzlander, Benjamin
• Primary Examiner(s): Desrosiers, Evans
• Assistant Examiner(s): COSBY, LAWRENCE V
• Application Number:
  US12/074,178
• Publication Number:
  US 20080155011A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,580 Days
• Field of Search: 709/202, 709/201, 707/770
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/10 File systems; File servers
• 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: H04L 67/14 Session management for real-time applications in data packet communications networks H04L65/1066
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing

Abstract

According to an embodiment of the invention, an agent scans a storage server, and collects information about files stored on the storage server. The agent then summarizes the information into a summary, and stores the summary on a database server. The summaries can be accessed by a system administrator using a graphical user interface (GUI). The summaries contain information about the use of the storage server, and highlight potential problem areas. By having an agent, rather than a multi-appliance management application (MMA) scan the storage server and create the summary, the MMA is able to perform other tasks.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

defining, by a multi-appliance management application (MMA), a plurality of subsets of data stored at one or more storage servers, the one or more storage servers monitored by the MMA, the one or more storage servers storing the subsets of data at a first storage device associated with the one or more storage servers, the one or more storage servers using a first file system of the one or more storage servers to store the subsets of the data at the first storage device;

determining, by the MMA, an amount of the data stored at the one or more storage servers;

determining, by the MMA, a set of a plurality of agent devices to be deployed as a function of the amount of the data;

causing each agent device, of the set of the plurality of agent devices distributed over one or more networks, to collect information about data in a corresponding subset of the plurality of subsets maintained by the one or more storage servers over the one or more networks, each of the set of the plurality of agent devices operable to;

collect the information from any of the one or more storage servers monitored by the MMA, and

analyze the collected information to generate;

summarized information including a table and a histogram, and statistics regarding the collected information; and

receiving, by the MMA, information representative of the collected information from the set of the agent devices, wherein each of the set of the agent devices, the MMA, and the one or more storage servers is an independent processing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of the agent devices, while collecting the information from the one or more storage servers, use a file system that the one or more storage servers do not use for maintaining files.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the set of the agent devices uses a file system different from a file system that one or more of the other agents use.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising

receiving, by the MMA, the summarized information.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein each agent device uses a multi-threaded system to collect information, the multi-threaded system including:

a file thread to collect information about files in a file queue; and

a directory thread to examine directories and place files contained in the directories into the file queue.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising, assigning, by the MMA, each subset of data to one or more agent devices of the set of the plurality of agent devices distributed over one or more networks.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each subset of data is assigned to a different agent device.

4. A system comprising:

a multi-appliance management application (MMA) to manage one or more storage servers over one or more networks, the MMA configured to define a plurality of subsets of data stored on the one or more storage servers, the one or more storage servers storing the subsets of data at a first storage device associated with the one or more storage servers, the one or more storage servers using a first file system of the one or more storage servers to store the subsets of the data at the first storage device; and

a set of a plurality of agents distributed over the one or more networks, each agent of the set of the plurality of agents operable to collect information about data in a corresponding subset of the plurality of subsets maintained by the one or more storage servers and send information representative of the collected information to the MMA, wherein the set of the plurality of agents to be deployed is determined by the MMA as a function of an amount of the data stored at the one or more storage servers,

wherein each of the set of the plurality of agent devices is operable to;

collect the information from any of the one or more storage servers managed by the MMA, and

analyze the collected information to generate;

summarized information including a table and a histogram, and statistics regarding the collected information; and

wherein each of the set of the plurality of agents, the MMA and the one or more storage servers is an independent processing system.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein one or more of the set of the plurality of agents, while collecting the information from the one or more storage servers, use a file system that the one or more storage servers do not use for maintaining the files.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein one or more of the set of the plurality of agents uses a file system different from a file system that one or more of the other agents of the set use.

11. The system of claim 4 wherein the set of the plurality of agents are further operable to send the summarized collected information to the MMA.

18. The system of claim 4, wherein the MMA is configured to assign each subset of data to one or more agents of the set of the plurality of agents.

7. A system comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled with the processor; and

logic operable to cause the system to;

collect information about a specific subset of data maintained by any of one or more storage servers connected to a network, wherein a multi-appliance management application (MMA) defines a plurality of subsets of data maintained by the one or more storage servers and assigns the specific subset of data to the system, the one or more storage servers storing the subsets of data at a first storage device associated with the one or more storage servers, the one or more storage servers using a first file system of the one or more storage servers to store the subsets of the data at the first storage device, wherein the system is one of a plurality of systems, the system selected by the MMA to collect the information based on an amount of the data stored at the one or more storage servers;

summarize the collected information, the summarized collected information including a table and a histogram, and

analyze the collected information to generate statistics regarding the collected information; and

send the summarized collected information to the MMA connected to the network,

wherein each of the storage servers and the MMA is a processing system independent from said system.

8. The system of claim 7 further comprising a storage adapter coupled with the processor, the storage adapter configured to allow the processor to communicate with an external storage device.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the logic further causes the summarized collected information to be stored on the external storage device.

12. A non-transitory machine readable storage medium having stored thereon executable program code which, when executed, causes a computing device to collect information from any of one or more storage servers managed by a multi-appliance management application (MMA), the executable program code comprising:

program code for performing a file walk of a specific subset of data maintained by the one or more storage servers over one or more networks, wherein each of the one or more storage servers is an independent processing system from the computing device and the MMA defines a plurality of subsets of the data maintained by the one or more storage servers and assigns to the computing device the specific subset on which to perform the file walk, the one or more storage servers storing the subsets of data at a first storage device associated with the one or more storage servers, the one or more storage servers using a first file system of the one or more storage servers to store the subsets of the data at the first storage device, wherein the computing device is one of a plurality of computing devices, the computing device selected by the MMA to collect the information based on an amount of the data stored at the one or more storage servers; and

program code for collecting information about data in the subset of data maintained by the one or more storage servers;

program code for analyzing the collected information and generating statistics regarding the collected information;

program code for summarizing the collected information, the summarized collected information including a table and a histogram; and

program code for sending the summarized collected information to the MMA, wherein the MMA is an independent processing system from the computing device.

13. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the executable program code further comprises program code for creating a summary of the collected information.

14. The non-transitory machine readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the executable program code further comprises program code for displaying the collected information through a network.