Client-side repository in a networked deduplicated storage system

• US 9,104,623 B2
• Filed: 12/13/2011
• Issued: 08/11/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Retnamma, Manoj Kumar Vijayan, Attarde, Deepak Raghunath, Joshi, Hetalkumar N.
• Primary Examiner(s): Jalil, Neveen Abel
• Assistant Examiner(s): BISKEBORN, KRISTOFER M
• Application Number:
  US13/324,848
• Publication Number:
  US 20120150817A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,337 Days
• Field of Search: 707/712
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques

Abstract

A storage system according to certain embodiments includes a client-side repository (CSR). The CSR may communicate with a client at a higher data transfer rate than the rate used for communication between the client and secondary storage. During copy operations, for instance, some or all of the data being backed up or otherwise copied to secondary storage is stored in the CSR. During restore operations, copies of the data stored in the CSR is accessed from the CSR instead of from secondary storage, improving performance. Remaining data blocks not stored in the CSR can be restored from secondary storage.

Claims

1. A method for restoring data to a client system from secondary storage, the method comprising:

providing one or more computer processors;

performing with a media agent executing in the one or more computer processors, a secondary copy operation that copies a plurality of data blocks associated with primary storage in a client system to secondary storage located remotely from the primary storage, wherein the client system communicates with the secondary storage via a wide area network and wherein the secondary copy operation creates a secondary copy of the plurality of data blocks in the secondary storage;

during performance of the secondary copy operation, creating with the media agent, for each data block of the plurality of data blocks a hash signature for each data block according to a deduplication scheme;

during performance of the secondary copy operation, further copying at least a portion of the data blocks and a first copy of hash signatures associated with the data blocks to a client-side repository comprising at least computer memory, wherein client-side repository is different than the secondary storage, and wherein the client system communicates with the client-side repository over a local area network;

during performance of the secondary copy operation, populating an index in communication with the media agent with a second copy of the hash signatures associated with the plurality of the data blocks stored in the secondary storage;

further creating with the media agent, age information associated with the time of the creation of the secondary copy of the plurality of data blocks in the secondary storage;

storing in at least computer memory, the age information about the time of creation of the secondary copy of the plurality of data blocks in secondary storage;

receiving at the media agent, a request to restore data to the client system;

consulting with the media agent, the age information to determine the time of the creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of at least one data block associated with the restore data;

based on the age information of the time of the creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of the at least one data block associated with the restore data, deciding with the media agent whether to query the client-side repository remote from the secondary storage as to whether the client-side repository is populated with a copy of the at least one data block associated with the restore data;

in response to determining that the age of creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of the at least one data block associated with the restore data satisfies a threshold age,

querying the client-side repository with the second copy of the hash signature from the index to determine whether the first copy of the hash signature is stored in the client-side repository;

receiving an answer from the client-side repository indicating a result of the query; and

in response to the answer, accessing the at least one data block associated with the restore data from secondary storage for transmission to the client system when the result indicates that the client-side repository is not populated with the first hash signature, wherein the at least one data block associated with the restore data is restored from the client-side repository to an information store of the client system via the local area network when the client-side repository is populated with the first hash signature; and

in response to determining that the age of creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of the at least one data block associated with the restore data does not satisfy the threshold age, restoring the at least one data block from secondary storage for transmission to the client system via the wide area network.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the client system communicates with the client-side repository via a local area network and the client system communicates with the secondary storage via a wide area network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the age information comprises a copy session identifier identifying a particular copy session associated with the at least one data block associated with the restore data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the age information is indicative of when the at least one data block associated with the restore data was stored at the secondary storage.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the age information is indicative of when the at least one data block associated with the restore data was stored at the secondary storage relative to when one or more other data blocks were stored at the secondary storage.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein determining that the age of the at least one data block associated with the restore data satisfies the threshold age comprises determining that the age is less than the threshold age.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the age information provides an indication as to the likelihood that the at least one data block associated with the restore data was pruned from the client-side repository.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary copy of the plurality of data blocks were previously copied to the secondary storage during a backup operation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the secondary copy of the plurality of data blocks were previously copied to the secondary storage during a replication operation.

10. A storage system, comprising:

one or more computer processors;

primary storage in a client system wherein the primary storage stores a plurality of data blocks created by the client system;

secondary storage located remotely from the primary storage and is in communication with the client system via a wide area network, the secondary storage storing in response to a secondary copy operation, a secondary copy of the plurality of data blocks and according to a deduplication scheme that creates a hash signature for each of the data blocks;

a client-side repository comprising at least computer memory that is different than secondary storage and is in communication with the client system via a local area network, the client-side repository stores copies of at least a portion the data blocks copied to secondary storage and stores a first copy of the hash signatures associated with the portion of the data blocks;

a media agent executing in the one or more computer processors, the media agent having an index comprising at least computer memory, the index storing at least a second copy of the hash signatures associated with the plurality of the data blocks stored in the secondary storage, the index further storing age information associated with the time of the creation of the secondary copy of the plurality of data blocks in the secondary storage;

in response to receiving a request to restore data to the client system, the media agent further configured to;

consult the age information to determine the time of the creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of at least one data block associated with the restore data;

based on the age information of the time of the creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of the at least one data block associated with the restore data, determine whether to query a client-side repository remote from the secondary storage as to whether the client-side repository is populated with a copy of the at least one data block associated with the restore data;

in response to a determination that the age of creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of the at least one data block satisfies a threshold age,

query the client-side repository with the second copy of the hash signature from the index to determine whether the first copy of the hash signature is stored in the client-side repository;

receive an answer from the client-side repository indicating a result of the query;

in response to the answer, access the at least one data block associated with the restore data from secondary storage for transmission to the client system when the result indicates that the client-side repository is not populated with the first hash signature, wherein the data block is restored from the client-side repository to an information store of the client system via the local area network when the client-side repository is populated with the first hash signature; and

in response to a determination that the age of creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of the at least one data block associated with the restore data does not satisfy the threshold age, restoring the at least one data block from secondary storage for transmission to the client system via the wide area network.

11. The storage system of claim 10, wherein the age information comprises a copy session identifier identifying a particular copy session associated with the at least one data block associated with the restore data.

12. The storage system of claim 10, wherein the client system communicates with the client-side repository via a local area network and the client system communicates with the secondary storage via a wide area network.

13. The storage system of claim 10, wherein the age information is indicative of when the at least one data block associated with the restore data was stored at the secondary storage.

14. The storage system of claim 10, wherein the age information is indicative of when the at least one data block associated with the restore data was stored at the secondary storage relative to when one or more other data blocks were stored in the secondary storage.

15. The storage system of claim 10, wherein to determine that the age of creation of the secondary copy in secondary storage of the at least one data block associated with the restore data satisfies the threshold age, the media agent is configured to determine that the age is less than the threshold age.

16. The storage system of claim 10, wherein the age information provides an indication as to the likelihood that the at least one data block associated with the restore data was pruned from the client-side repository.