Unified snapshot storage management

• US 9,448,731 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2014
• Issued: 09/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Nallathambi, Vimal Kumar, Vijayan, Manoj Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Verbrugge, Kevin
• Application Number:
  US14/542,371
• Publication Number:
  US 20160139836A1
• Time in Patent Office: 676 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• 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 3/0665 at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes
• 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]

Abstract

An illustrative approach to managing snapshots streamlines how and when snapshots are generated in a storage management system, such that fewer snapshots may be generated without diminishing the scope of data protection. A novel unified-snapshot storage policy may govern snapshots for any number of subclients. A unified-snapshot job based on the unified-snapshot storage policy enables the illustrative storage management system to automatically discover relevant components and generate at most one snapshot per target logical unit number (“LUN”) in a storage array. Each snapshot may comprise the data of any number of subclients and/or clients in the storage management system. Accordingly, one unified-snapshot job may yield a minimum but sufficient number of snapshots comprising data of all subclients associated with the governing unified-snapshot storage policy. An enhanced storage manager may manage the unified-snapshot jobs. One or more enhanced media agents and/or data agents may participate in the unified-snapshot jobs and in subsequent cataloguing of the snapshots.

Claims

1. A method for snapshot management in a storage management system that comprises one or more snapshot-capable storage arrays hosting a plurality of logical unit numbers, the method comprising:

executing a unified-snapshot job that generates at most one snapshot for a logical unit number in the plurality of logical unit numbers, regardless of the number of clients that store primary data to the respective logical unit number;

wherein the executing of the unified-snapshot job comprises;

discovering, by a storage manager, a first subclient of a first client and a second subclient of a second client which is distinct from the first client,

wherein the first client generates first primary data that is stored to one or more logical unit numbers in the plurality of logical unit numbers, and

wherein the first subclient represents a logical grouping of part of the first primary data, and

wherein the second client generates second primary data that is stored to at least one of the one or more logical unit numbers storing the first primary data, and

wherein the second subclient represents a logical grouping of part of the second primary data,

discovering, by a media agent component of the storage management system, a first logical unit number in the plurality of logical unit numbers, wherein the first logical unit number comprises (i) data of the first subclient and (ii) data of the second subclient,

instructing, by the media agent, a first storage array that hosts the first logical unit number to generate and store a first snapshot of the first logical unit number; and

registering, by at least one of the media agent and the storage manager;

(a) a first association between the generated first snapshot of the first logical unit number and the first subclient, and (b) a second association between the generated first snapshot of the first logical unit number and the second subclient.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

cataloguing the first snapshot generated in the unified-snapshot job relative to the first subclient, based on the respective registered association, wherein the cataloguing is performed at least in part by a first data agent associated with the first client.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

cataloguing the first snapshot generated in the unified-snapshot job relative to the first subclient, based on the respective registered association, wherein the cataloguing is performed at least in part by a first data agent associated with the first client, wherein the cataloguing associates a file of the first subclient with a datapath to the file in the first snapshot.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

after the unified-snapshot job is completed;

(A) cataloguing the first snapshot generated in the unified-snapshot job relative to the first subclient, based on the respective registered association, wherein the cataloguing is performed at least in part by a first data agent associated with the first client, and (B) cataloguing the first snapshot generated in the unified-snapshot job relative to the second subclient, based on the respective registered association, wherein the cataloguing is performed at least in part by a second data agent associated with the second client.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the cataloguing associates a first file of the first subclient with a first datapath to the first file in the first snapshot, and associates a second file of the second subclient with a second datapath to the second file in the first snapshot.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein a logical unit number designates a portion of storage in a storage array.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein a volume configured in a client computing device maps to at least one logical unit number in the plurality of logical unit numbers.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein a logical unit number in the plurality of logical unit numbers designates at least one volume configured on a client computing device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the unified-snapshot job unifies the data of the first subclient in the first logical unit number and the data of the second subclient in the first logical unit number into at most one snapshot of the first logical unit number regardless of the number of clients that store respective primary data to the first logical unit number.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the unified-snapshot job unifies the data of the first subclient in the first logical unit number and the data of the second subclient in the first logical unit number into at most one snapshot of the first logical unit number regardless of the number of clients that store respective primary data to the first logical unit number, and wherein the unified-snapshot job is based on a storage policy associated with the first subclient and the second subclient.

11. A method for snapshot management in a storage management system that comprises one or more snapshot-capable storage arrays hosting a plurality of logical unit numbers, the method comprising:

configuring, by a storage manager that manages the storage management system, a storage policy;

associating, by the storage manager, one or more subclients with the storage policy,

wherein the storage management system comprises a plurality of clients,

wherein each client generates primary data that is stored to one or more logical unit numbers hosted by one or more storage arrays, and

wherein each subclient of a client represents a logical grouping of part of the client'"'"'s primary data;

executing a unified-snapshot job based on the storage policy, wherein the executing is managed by the storage manager, and wherein the executing comprises;

discovering, by the storage manager, a plurality of subclients that are associated with the storage policy, wherein the plurality of subclients comprises a first subclient of a first client and a second subclient of a second client which is distinct from the first client,

discovering, by a media agent component of the storage management system, a first logical unit number that comprises (i) data of the first subclient and (ii) data of the second subclient, and

instructing, by the media agent, a first storage array that hosts the discovered first logical unit number to generate and store a first snapshot of the first logical unit number;

registering, by at least one of the media agent and the storage manager, (a) a first association between the generated first snapshot of the first logical unit number and the first subclient, and (b) a second association between the generated first snapshot of the first logical unit number and the second subclient; and

cataloguing the first snapshot relative to the first subclient and the second subclient, based on the respective registered association, wherein the cataloguing is performed at least in part by a data agent.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein executing the unified-snapshot job further comprises discovering, by the storage manager, a plurality of subclients that are snapshot-enabled.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein executing the unified-snapshot job based on the storage policy generates only one snapshot for a discovered logical unit number, regardless of the number of clients that store primary data to the respective discovered logical unit number.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the unified-snapshot job generates only one snapshot for a discovered logical unit number, regardless of the number of subclients whose data a discovered logical unit comprises.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein executing the unified-snapshot job based on the storage policy generates only one snapshot for a discovered logical unit number, regardless of the number of subclients representing data stored to the respective discovered logical unit number.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the first snapshot is a crash-consistent snapshot.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein the first snapshot is an application-consistent snapshot.

18. A storage management system for unified snapshot management, the storage management system comprising:

a storage manager comprising a storage policy;

a first client computing device in communication with the storage manager, wherein the first client computing device comprises a first executable component and an associated first data agent;

a second client computing device in communication with the storage manager, wherein the second client computing device comprises a second executable component and an associated second data agent;

a secondary storage computing device in communication with the storage manager, wherein the secondary storage computing device comprises a media agent;

a storage array in communication with at least the first and second client computing devices and with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the storage array hosts at least one logical unit number that comprises primary data generated by the first and second executable components;

a first subclient that represents a first part of primary data generated by the first executable component, wherein the storage manager comprises an association between the first subclient and the storage policy;

a second subclient that represents a second part of primary data generated by the second executable component, wherein the storage manager comprises an association between the second subclient and the storage policy; and

a snapshot of a logical unit number resulting from a unified-snapshot job managed by the storage manager based on the storage policy, wherein at most one snapshot of the logical unit number results from the unified-snapshot job regardless of the number of executable components that store respective primary data to the logical unit number.

19. The storage management system of claim 18 wherein the first executable component is at least one of an application, an operating system, a file system, and a virtual machine, and wherein the second executable component is at least one of an application, an operating system, a file system, and a virtual machine.

20. The storage management system of claim 18 wherein the media agent is configured to discover a first logical unit number that comprises (i) data of the first subclient and (ii) data of the second subclient, and wherein the snapshot resulting from the unified-snapshot job is a snapshot of the first logical unit number.