U.S. patent application number 13/787244 was filed with the patent office on 2013-09-26 for automation of data storage activities.
This patent application is currently assigned to CommVault Systems, Inc.. The applicant listed for this patent is COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC.. Invention is credited to Amey Vijaykumar Karandikar, Anand Vibhor.
Application Number | 20130253977 13/787244 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 49213211 |
Filed Date | 2013-09-26 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130253977 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Vibhor; Anand ; et
al. |
September 26, 2013 |
AUTOMATION OF DATA STORAGE ACTIVITIES
Abstract
A system allows user to design data storage system workflows by
selecting on a user interface various data objects associated with
data storage system related activities. The activities include
computer-executable instructions and can be predefined or
determined by the user. Once the workflow is created, the workflow
is deployed to one or more workflow engines that can execute the
various data storage activities related to the workflow. Prior to
executing a data storage activity, the system can determine which
workflow engine to use based on an allocation scheme.
Inventors: |
Vibhor; Anand; (Eatontown,
NJ) ; Karandikar; Amey Vijaykumar; (Long Branch,
NJ) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC. |
Oceanport |
NJ |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
CommVault Systems, Inc.
Oceanport
NJ
|
Family ID: |
49213211 |
Appl. No.: |
13/787244 |
Filed: |
March 6, 2013 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
61615037 |
Mar 23, 2012 |
|
|
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Current U.S.
Class: |
705/7.26 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04L 47/70 20130101;
G06Q 10/10 20130101; G06F 2201/84 20130101; G06F 11/1464 20130101;
H04L 67/1097 20130101; G06Q 10/06316 20130101; G06F 9/5072
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
705/7.26 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 10/06 20120101
G06Q010/06 |
Claims
1. A method for generating a pre-configured data storage system
workflow suite designed by a user via interaction with a graphical
user interface, the method comprising: causing a graphical user
interface to be presented on a display, the graphical user
interface including a plurality of activity display objects
available for inclusion in a workflow associated with a networked
data storage system, wherein each of the activity display objects
is presented in a first area of the display, wherein each activity
display object corresponds to one of a plurality of data storage
workflow activities, wherein the data storage system comprises: one
or more client computing devices; secondary storage; and one or
more agent modules configured to manage storage operations between
client computing devices and the secondary storage; in response to
interaction by a user with the graphical user interface, receiving
an indication of a subset of the plurality of activity display
objects for inclusion in the workflow; and generating, using one or
more processors, a workflow suite comprising computer-executable
instructions for performing, in an order specified by the user via
interaction with the graphical user interface, the plurality of
data storage workflow activities that correspond to the subset of
activity display objects.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the activity
display objects corresponds to a secondary copy operation in which
production data associated with at least one of the one or more
client computing devices is copied to the secondary storage to
create a secondary copy of the production data.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting the
workflow suite to a plurality of workflow engines in a pool of
available workflow engines; instructing a first workflow engine of
the plurality of workflow engines to perform at least a first
activity of the plurality of data storage workflow activities that
correspond to the subset of activity display objects; and
instructing a second workflow engine of the plurality of workflow
engines to perform at least a second activity of the plurality of
data storage activities that correspond to the subset of activity
display objects.
4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: prior to instructing
the first workflow engine to perform the first activity,
determining that the first workflow engine is relatively less busy
than one or more of the other workflow engines of the plurality of
workflow engines; and prior to instructing the second workflow
engine to perform the second activity, determining that the second
workflow engine is relatively less busy than one or more of the
other workflow engines of the plurality of workflow engines.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to an
interaction with the graphical user interface, receiving
indications corresponding to relationships between one or more of
the subset of the plurality of display objects.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the workflow suite is generated
based on the relationships.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the subset of the plurality of
display objects is presented in a second area of the display to
provide a graphical depiction of the order and content of the
workflow.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving indications
to alter properties of a display object.
9. A networked storage system for generating a pre-configured data
storage system workflow suite through a graphical user interface,
the networked storage system comprising: a storage manager
including a workflow manager module executing on a first computing
device and configured to cause a graphical user interface to be
presented on a display, the graphical user interface including a
plurality of activity display objects available for inclusion in a
workflow associated with a networked data storage system, wherein
each of the activity display objects is presented in a first area
of a display, wherein the activity display objects each correspond
to one of a plurality of data storage workflow activities, wherein
in response to an interaction with the graphical user interface,
the storage manager receives an indication to include a subset of
the plurality of activity display objects in the workflow, wherein
the subset includes at least one activity display object
corresponding to a secondary copy operation, and the storage
manager generates, a workflow suite comprising computer-executable
instructions corresponding to performance of the plurality of data
storage workflow activities that correspond to the subset of the
plurality of activity display objects, the performance being in an
order specified by the user via interaction with the graphical user
interface.
10. The networked storage system of claim 9, wherein in response to
an interaction with the graphical user interface, the storage
manager receives an indication to relate the subset of the
plurality of display objects.
11. The networked storage system of claim 10, wherein the storage
manager generates the workflow suite based on the relationships of
the subset of the plurality of display objects.
12. The networked storage system of claim 11, wherein the storage
manager reviews the order and relationship between display objects
for consistency.
13. The networked storage system of claim 9, wherein the subset of
the plurality of display objects is presented in a second area of
the display.
14. The networked storage system of claim 9, wherein the storage
manager compares outputs of earlier display objects to inputs of
subsequent display objects.
15. The networked storage system of claim 9, wherein the storage
manager receives indications to alter properties of a display
object.
16. A method for generating a pre-configured data storage system
workflow suite designed by a user through interaction with a
graphical user interface, the method comprising: causing a
graphical user interface to be presented on a display, the
graphical user interface including a plurality of activity display
objects available for inclusion in a workflow associated with a
networked data storage system, wherein each of the activity display
objects is presented in a first area of the display, wherein the
activity display objects each correspond to one of a plurality of
data storage workflow activities, the data storage system
comprising: a storage manager; one or more client computing
devices; one or more storage devices; and one or more media agent
modules configured, in response to instructions from the storage
manager, to manage data storage operations between the client
computing devices and the one or more storage devices, at least one
of the activity display objects corresponding to a secondary copy
operation in which a first media agent module of the one or more
media agent modules, which is selected by the storage manager to
execute the secondary copy operation, manages the copying of
production data from a client computing device to at least one of
the one or more storage devices to create a secondary copy of the
production data; in response to an interaction with the graphical
user interface, receiving an indication for inclusion of a subset
of the plurality of activity display objects in the workflow, the
subset including the at least one activity display object
corresponding to a secondary copy operation; and generating, by one
or more processors, a workflow suite comprising computer-executable
instructions corresponding to performance of the plurality of data
storage workflow activities that correspond to the subset of the
plurality of activity display objects, the performance being in an
order specified by the user via interaction with the graphical user
interface.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising in response to an
interaction with the graphical user interface, receiving an
indication to relate the subset of the plurality of display
objects.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the workflow suite is generated
based on the relationships between the subset of the plurality of
display objects.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein the subset of the plurality of
display objects is presented in a second area of the display.
20. The method of claim 16, further comprising reviewing the order
and relationship between display objects for consistency.
21. The method of claim 16, further comprising comparing outputs of
earlier display objects to inputs of subsequent display
objects.
22. The method of claim 16, further comprising receiving
indications to alter properties of a display object.
23. A networked storage system for generating a pre-configured data
storage system workflow suite through a graphical user interface,
the networked storage system comprising: a storage manager
including a workflow manager module executing on a first computing
device and configured to cause a graphical user interface to be
presented on a display, the graphical user interface including a
plurality of activity display objects available for inclusion in a
workflow associated with a networked data storage system, wherein
each of the activity display objects is presented in a first area
of a display, wherein the activity display objects each correspond
to one of a plurality of data storage workflow activities, the data
storage system comprising: one or more client computing devices;
one or more storage devices; and one or more media agent modules
configured, in response to instructions from the storage manager,
to manage data storage operations between the client computing
devices and the one or more storage devices, at least one of the
activity display objects corresponding to a secondary copy
operation in which a first media agent module of the one or more
media agent modules, which is selected by the storage manager to
execute the secondary copy operation, manages the copying of
production data from a client computing device to at least one of
the one or more storage devices to create a secondary copy of the
production data, wherein in response to an interaction with the
graphical user interface, the storage manager receives an
indication to include a subset of the plurality of activity display
objects in the workflow, wherein the subset includes at least one
activity display object corresponding to a secondary copy
operation, and the storage manager generates, a workflow suite
comprising computer-executable instructions corresponding to
performance of the plurality of data storage workflow activities
that correspond to the subset of the plurality of activity display
objects, the performance being in an order specified by the user
via interaction with the graphical user interface.
24. The networked storage system of claim 23, wherein in response
to an interaction with the graphical user interface, the storage
manager receives an indication to relate the subset of the
plurality of display objects.
25. The networked storage system of claim 24, wherein the storage
manager generates workflow suite based on the relationship of the
subset of the plurality of display objects.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims priority benefit to U.S. Provisional
Application No. 61/615,037 filed Mar. 23, 2012, entitled AUTOMATION
OF DATA STORAGE ACTIVITIES, which is hereby incorporated by
reference herein in its entirety.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their
data and seek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the
information stored on their computer networks while minimizing
impact on productivity. Protecting information is often part of a
routine process that is performed within an organization.
[0003] A company might back up critical computing systems such as
databases, file servers, web servers, and so on as part of a daily,
weekly, or monthly maintenance schedule. The company may similarly
protect computing systems used by each of its employees, such as
those used by an accounting department, marketing department,
engineering department, and so forth.
[0004] Given the rapidly expanding volume of data under management,
companies also continue to seek innovative techniques for managing
data growth, in addition to protecting data. For instance,
companies often implement migration techniques for moving data to
lower cost storage over time and data reduction techniques for
reducing redundant data, pruning lower priority data, etc.
[0005] Enterprises also increasingly view their stored data as a
valuable asset. Along these lines, customers are looking for
solutions that not only protect and manage, but also leverage their
data. For instance, solutions providing data analysis capabilities,
improved data presentation and access features, and the like, are
in increasing demand.
[0006] In addition, as enterprises are storing and backing up ever
increasing amounts of data, the ability to store and back up
properly and quickly has become increasingly complex. The increased
complexity for maintaining and restoring data has placed heavy
demands on system administrators who are tasked with ensuring the
data is stored and backed up efficiently and cost-effectively.
System administrators may spend significant amounts of time
monitoring the processes involved with different storage operations
and ensuring they are completed successfully.
SUMMARY
[0007] A system is described that allows a user to design data
storage system workflows by selecting on a user interface various
data objects associated with data storage system related
activities. The activities include computer-executable instructions
and can be predefined or determined by the user. Once the workflow
is created, the workflow is deployed to one or more workflow
engines that can execute the various data storage activities
related to the workflow. Prior to executing a data storage
activity, the storage manager can determine which workflow engine
to use based on an allocation scheme.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary
information management system.
[0009] FIG. 1B is a detailed view of a primary storage device, a
secondary storage device, and some examples of primary data and
secondary copy data.
[0010] FIG. 1C is a block diagram of an exemplary information
management system including a storage manager, one or more data
agents, and one or more media agents.
[0011] FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable
information management system.
[0012] FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations
according to an exemplary storage policy.
[0013] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram illustrative of an embodiment
of a networked storage system.
[0014] FIG. 3A depicts an illustrative user interface that enables
a user to prepare a workflow for a networked storage system.
[0015] FIG. 3B depicts an illustrative user interface that enables
a user to view the properties of a workflow activity.
[0016] FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a
routine for generating workflow suite.
[0017] FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a
routine for allocating workflow assignments between workflow
engines.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0018] Generally described, the present disclosure is directed to a
system, method, and computer-readable storage medium for a storage
management system. Specifically, embodiments described herein
include systems and methods for generating and implementing an
automated workflow for a networked storage system. For instance, a
graphical user interface (e.g., a drag and drop interface) is
provided allowing a user to intuitively design the desired
workflow. The system can then generate and execute the automated
workflow based on the user's input. Further embodiments provide
intelligent allocation of workflow task execution. For instance,
the system can distribute automation tasks to members of a workflow
engine pool in order to balance resource usage, reduce automation
time, or provide other advantages.
[0019] In general, the automated workflow manages a series of
workflow activities, or tasks, to produce a final outcome or
outcomes. The workflow may run over an extended period of time, for
example, such as multiple hours, days, weeks, months, years, or
longer. Furthermore, subsequent workflow activities of the workflow
generally follow preceding workflow activities. Moreover, the
automated activities may have dependencies. For instance, the
activities can be dependent on the completion of one or more of the
other data storage workflow activities, user input, or some other
factor. As the various workflow activities are completed additional
workflow activities are initiated or invoked. Once all the workflow
activities are completed, the workflow can end.
[0020] As just one illustrative example, one or more client
computers in a data storage system may generate production data
associated with various user applications running on the clients.
And a user may want to automate the scheduled creation of secondary
copies of the production data. Embodiments described herein allow
the user to create a data storage workflow to automate this
process. For instance, the user can select for inclusion in the
workflow a number of pre-configured or user-definable data storage
activities. As just two examples, these activities may include (1)
a data store backup activity which executes the actual creation of
the secondary copy and (2) a backup monitoring activity which
monitors the results (e.g., success or failure) of the secondary
copy operation. The automated workflow may run generally
continuously, automatically launching the data store backup
activity at the scheduled backup times (e.g., at discrete times
each week). Moreover, the automation system may also launch the
backup monitoring activity, after completion of the data backup
activity, or when otherwise appropriate.
[0021] According to certain aspects, the workflow management system
includes a user interface that allows users to intuitively select
and relate workflow activities together to define a workflow. In
some embodiments, the workflow activities are data storage
activities and the workflow is a data storage workflow. For
example, users can drag-and-drop and then relate display objects
that represent the various data storage workflow activities in the
user interface. Based on the user input, the data storage workflow
system generates a workflow for execution.
[0022] According to additional aspects, once the automated workflow
is defined, the workflow is deployed to one or more workflow
engines that can execute the workflow activities. When a workflow
event occurs, the storage management system can select which
computing device will execute the workflow activity based on a
number of different criteria, such as measured activity levels of
the workflow engines, for example.
Information Management System Overview
[0023] With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging
data, organizations simply cannot afford to take the risk of losing
critical data. Moreover, runaway data growth and other modern
realities make protecting and managing data an increasingly
difficult task. There is therefore a need for efficient, powerful,
and user-friendly solutions for protecting and managing data.
[0024] Depending on the size of the organization, there are
typically many data production sources which are under the purview
of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of employees or other
individuals. In the past, individual employees were sometimes
responsible for managing and protecting their data. A patchwork of
hardware and software point solutions have been applied in other
cases. These solutions were often provided by different vendors and
had limited or no interoperability.
[0025] Certain embodiments described herein provide systems and
methods capable of addressing these and other shortcomings of prior
approaches by implementing unified, organization-wide information
management. FIG. 1A shows one such information management system
100, which generally includes combinations of hardware and software
configured to protect and manage data and metadata generated and
used by the various computing devices in the information management
system 100.
[0026] The organization which employs the information management
system 100 may be a corporation or other business entity,
non-profit organization, educational institution, household,
governmental agency, or the like.
[0027] Generally, the systems and associated components described
herein may be compatible with and/or provide some or all of the
functionality of the systems and corresponding components described
in one or more of the following U.S. patents and patent application
publications assigned to CommVault Systems, Inc., each of which is
hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference herein: [0028]
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2010-0332456, entitled "DATA OBJECT STORE AND
SERVER FOR A CLOUD STORAGE ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING DATA
DEDUPLICATION AND DATA MANAGEMENT ACROSS MULTIPLE CLOUD STORAGE
SITES"; [0029] U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled "MODULAR BACKUP
AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A STORAGE AREA
NETWORK"; [0030] U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled "HIERARCHICAL
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING A UNIFIED VIEW OF STORAGE
INFORMATION"; [0031] U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled
"HIERARCHICAL BACKUP AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM"; [0032] U.S. Pat. No.
7,246,207, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY PERFORMING
STORAGE OPERATIONS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK"; [0033] U.S. Pat. No.
7,747,579, entitled "METABASE FOR FACILITATING DATA
CLASSIFICATION"; [0034] U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled "MANAGING
COPIES OF DATA"; [0035] U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled "SYSTEM
AND METHODS FOR MONITORING APPLICATION DATA IN A DATA REPLICATION
SYSTEM"; [0036] U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled "SYSTEM AND
METHODS FOR PERFORMING A SNAPSHOT AND FOR RESTORING DATA"; [0037]
U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PERFORMING
AUXILIARY STORAGE OPERATIONS"; [0038] U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652,
entitled "CONTENT-ALIGNED, BLOCK-BASED DEDUPLICATION"; [0039] U.S.
Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD TO SUPPORT
SINGLE INSTANCE STORAGE OPERATIONS"; [0040] U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2009/0329534, entitled "APPLICATION-AWARE AND REMOTE SINGLE
INSTANCE DATA MANAGEMENT"; [0041] U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150826,
entitled "DISTRIBUTED DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM"; [0042] U.S.
Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, entitled "CLIENT-SIDE REPOSITORY IN A
NETWORKED DEDUPLICATED STORAGE SYSTEM"; [0043] U.S. Pat. No.
8,170,995, entitled "METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR OFFLINE INDEXING OF
CONTENT AND CLASSIFYING STORED DATA"; and [0044] U.S. Pat. No.
8,156,086, entitled "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR STORED DATA
VERIFICATION".
[0045] The illustrated information management system 100 includes
one or more client computing device 102 having at least one
application 110 executing thereon, and one or more primary storage
devices 104 storing primary data 112. The client computing
device(s) 102 and the primary storage devices 104 may generally be
referred to in some cases as a primary storage subsystem 117.
[0046] Depending on the context, the term "information management
system" can refer to generally all of the illustrated hardware and
software components. Or, in other instances, the term may refer to
only a subset of the illustrated components.
[0047] For instance, in some cases information management system
100 generally refers to a combination of specialized components
used to protect, move, manage, manipulate and/or process data and
metadata generated by the client computing devices 102. However,
the term may generally not refer to the underlying components that
generate and/or store the primary data 112, such as the client
computing devices 102 themselves, the applications 110 and
operating system residing on the client computing devices 102, and
the primary storage devices 104.
[0048] As an example, "information management system" may sometimes
refer only to one or more of the following components and
corresponding data structures: storage managers, data agents, and
media agents. These components will be described in further detail
below.
Client Computing Devices
[0049] There are typically a variety of sources in an organization
that produce data to be protected and managed. As just one
illustrative example, in a corporate environment such data sources
can be employee workstations and company servers such as a mail
server, a web server, or the like. In the information management
system 100, the data generation sources include the one or more
client computing devices 102.
[0050] The client computing devices 102 may include, without
limitation, one or more: workstations, personal computers, desktop
computers, or other types of generally fixed computing systems such
as mainframe computers and minicomputers.
[0051] The client computing devices 102 can also include mobile or
portable computing devices, such as one or more laptops, tablet
computers, personal data assistants, mobile phones (such as
smartphones), and other mobile or portable computing devices such
as embedded computers, set top boxes, vehicle-mounted devices,
wearable computers, etc.
[0052] In some cases, each client computing device 102 is
associated with one or more users and/or corresponding user
accounts, of employees or other individuals.
[0053] The term "client computing device" is used herein because
the information management system 100 generally "serves" the data
management and protection needs for the data generated by the
client computing devices 102. However, the use of this term does
not imply that the client computing devices 102 cannot be "servers"
in other respects. For instance, a particular client computing
device 102 may act as a server with respect to other devices, such
as other client computing devices 102. As just a few examples, the
client computing devices 102 can include mail servers, file
servers, database servers, and web servers.
[0054] The client computing devices 102 may additionally include
virtualized and/or cloud computing resources. For instance, one or
more virtual machines may be provided to the organization by a
third-party cloud service vendor. Or, in some embodiments, the
client computing devices 102 include one or more virtual machine(s)
running on a virtual machine host computing device operated by the
organization. As one example, the organization may use one virtual
machine as a database server and another virtual machine as a mail
server. A virtual machine manager (VMM) (e.g., a Hypervisor) may
manage the virtual machines, and reside and execute on the virtual
machine host computing device.
[0055] Each client computing device 102 may have one or more
applications 110 (e.g., software applications) executing thereon
which generate and manipulate the data that is to be protected from
loss.
[0056] The applications 110 generally facilitate the operations of
an organization (or multiple affiliated organizations), and can
include, without limitation, mail server applications (e.g.,
Microsoft Exchange Server), file server applications, mail client
applications (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Client), database
applications (e.g., SQL, Oracle, SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word
processing applications (e.g., Microsoft Word), spreadsheet
applications, financial applications, presentation applications,
browser applications, mobile applications, entertainment
applications, and so on.
[0057] The applications 110 can include at least one operating
system (e.g., Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS, Linux,
other Unix-based operating systems, etc.), which may support one or
more file systems and host the other applications 110.
[0058] As shown, the client computing devices 102 and other
components in the information management system 100 can be
connected to one another via one or more communication pathways
114. The communication pathways 114 can include one or more
networks or other connection types including as any of following,
without limitation: the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a
local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN), a Fibre
Channel connection, a Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
connection, a virtual private network (VPN), a token ring or TCP/IP
based network, an intranet network, a point-to-point link, a
cellular network, a wireless data transmission system, a two-way
cable system, an interactive kiosk network, a satellite network, a
broadband network, a baseband network, other appropriate wired,
wireless, or partially wired/wireless computer or
telecommunications networks, combinations of the same or the like.
The communication pathways 114 in some cases may also include
application programming interfaces (APIs) including, e.g., cloud
service provider APIs, virtual machine management APIs, and hosted
service provider APIs.
Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices
[0059] Primary data 112 according to some embodiments is production
data or other "live" data generated by the operating system and
other applications 110 residing on a client computing device 102.
The primary data 112 is stored on the primary storage device(s) 104
and is organized via a file system supported by the client
computing device 102. For instance, the client computing device(s)
102 and corresponding applications 110 may create, access, modify,
write, delete, and otherwise use primary data 112.
[0060] Primary data 112 is generally in the native format of the
source application 110. According to certain aspects, primary data
112 is an initial or first (e.g., created before any other copies
or before at least one other copy) stored copy of data generated by
the source application 110. Primary data 112 in some cases is
created substantially directly from data generated by the
corresponding source applications 110.
[0061] The primary data 112 may sometimes be referred to as a
"primary copy" in the sense that it is a discrete set of data.
However, the use of this term does not necessarily imply that the
"primary copy" is a copy in the sense that it was copied or
otherwise derived from another stored version.
[0062] The primary storage devices 104 storing the primary data 112
may be relatively fast and/or expensive (e.g., a disk drive, a
hard-disk array, solid state memory, etc.). In addition, primary
data 112 may be intended for relatively short term retention (e.g.,
several hours, days, or weeks).
[0063] According to some embodiments, the client computing device
102 can access primary data 112 from the primary storage device 104
by making conventional file system calls via the operating system.
Primary data 112 representing files may include structured data
(e.g., database files), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/or
semi-structured data. Some specific examples are described below
with respect to FIG. 1B.
[0064] It can be useful in performing certain tasks to break the
primary data 112 up into units of different granularities. In
general, primary data 112 can include files, directories, file
system volumes, data blocks, extents, or any other types or
granularities of data objects. As used herein, a "data object" can
refer to both (1) any file that is currently addressable by a file
system or that was previously addressable by the file system (e.g.,
an archive file) and (2) a subset of such a file.
[0065] As will be described in further detail, it can also be
useful in performing certain functions of the information
management system 100 to access and modify metadata within the
primary data 112. Metadata generally includes information about
data objects or characteristics associated with the data
objects.
[0066] Metadata can include, without limitation, one or more of the
following: the data owner (e.g., the client or user that generates
the data), the last modified time (e.g., the time of the most
recent modification of the data object), a data object name (e.g.,
a file name), a data object size (e.g., a number of bytes of data),
information about the content (e.g., an indication as to the
existence of a particular search term), to/from information for
email (e.g., an email sender, recipient, etc.), creation date, file
type (e.g., format or application type), last accessed time,
application type (e.g., type of application that generated the data
object), location/network (e.g., a current, past or future location
of the data object and network pathways to/from the data object),
frequency of change (e.g., a period in which the data object is
modified), business unit (e.g., a group or department that
generates, manages or is otherwise associated with the data
object), and aging information (e.g., a schedule, such as a time
period, in which the data object is migrated to secondary or long
term storage), boot sectors, partition layouts, file location
within a file folder directory structure, user permissions, owners,
groups, access control lists [ACLs]), system metadata (e.g.,
registry information), combinations of the same or the like.
[0067] In addition to metadata generated by or related to file
systems and operating systems, some of the applications 110
maintain indices of metadata for data objects, e.g., metadata
associated with individual email messages. Thus, each data object
may be associated with corresponding metadata. The use of metadata
to perform classification and other functions is described in
greater detail below.
[0068] Each of the client computing devices 102 are associated with
and/or in communication with one or more of the primary storage
devices 104 storing corresponding primary data 112. A client
computing device 102 may be considered to be "associated with" or
"in communication with" a primary storage device 104 if it is
capable of one or more of: storing data to the primary storage
device 104, retrieving data from the primary storage device 104,
and modifying data retrieved from a primary storage device 104.
[0069] The primary storage devices 104 can include, without
limitation, disk drives, hard-disk arrays, semiconductor memory
(e.g., solid state drives), and network attached storage (NAS)
devices. In some cases, the primary storage devices 104 form part
of a distributed file system. The primary storage devices 104 may
have relatively fast I/O times and/or are relatively expensive in
comparison to the secondary storage devices 108. For example, the
information management system 100 may generally regularly access
data and metadata stored on primary storage devices 104, whereas
data and metadata stored on the secondary storage devices 108 is
accessed relatively less frequently.
[0070] In some cases, each primary storage device 104 is dedicated
to an associated client computing devices 102. For instance, a
primary storage device 104 in one embodiment is a local disk drive
of a corresponding client computing device 102. In other cases, one
or more primary storage devices 104 can be shared by multiple
client computing devices 102. As one example, a primary storage
device 104 can be a disk array shared by a group of client
computing devices 102, such as one of the following types of disk
arrays: EMC Clariion, EMC Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, Dell EqualLogic,
IBM XIV, NetApp FAS, HP EVA, and HP 3PAR.
[0071] The information management system 100 may also include
hosted services (not shown), which may be hosted in some cases by
an entity other than the organization that employs the other
components of the information management system 100. For instance,
the hosted services may be provided by various online service
providers to the organization. Such service providers can provide
services including social networking services, hosted email
services, or hosted productivity applications or other hosted
applications).
[0072] Hosted services may include software-as-a-service (SaaS),
platform-as-a-service (PaaS), application service providers (ASPs),
cloud services, or other mechanisms for delivering functionality
via a network. As it provides services to users, each hosted
service may generate additional data and metadata under management
of the information management system 100, e.g., as primary data
112. In some cases, the hosted services may be accessed using one
of the applications 110. As an example, a hosted mail service may
be accessed via browser running on a client computing device
102.
Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices
[0073] The primary data 112 stored on the primary storage devices
104 may be compromised in some cases, such as when an employee
deliberately or accidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112
during their normal course of work. Or the primary storage devices
104 can be damaged or otherwise corrupted.
[0074] For recovery and/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is
therefore useful to generate copies of the primary data 112.
Accordingly, the information management system 100 includes one or
more secondary storage computing devices 106 and one or more
secondary storage devices 108 configured to create and store one or
more secondary copies 116 of the primary data 112 and associated
metadata. The secondary storage computing devices 106 and the
secondary storage devices 108 may be referred to in some cases as a
secondary storage subsystem 118.
[0075] Creation of secondary copies 116 can help meet information
management goals, such as: restoring data and/or metadata if an
original version (e.g., of primary data 112) is lost (e.g., by
deletion, corruption, or disaster); allowing point-in-time
recovery; complying with regulatory data retention and electronic
discovery (e-discovery) requirements; reducing utilized storage
capacity; facilitating organization and search of data; improving
user access to data files across multiple computing devices and/or
hosted services; and implementing data retention policies.
[0076] Types of secondary copy operations can include, without
limitation, backup operations, archive operations, snapshot
operations, replication operations (e.g., continuous data
replication [CDR]), data retention policies such as information
lifecycle management and hierarchical storage management
operations, and the like. These specific types operations are
discussed in greater detail below.
[0077] Regardless of the type of secondary copy operation, the
client computing devices 102 access or receive primary data 112 and
communicate the data, e.g., over the communication pathways 114,
for storage in the secondary storage device(s) 108.
[0078] A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of
application data that is derived from one or more earlier created,
stored copies (e.g., derived from primary data 112 or another
secondary copy 116). Secondary copies 116 can include point-in-time
data, and may be intended for relatively long-term retention (e.g.,
weeks, months or years), before some or all of the data is moved to
other storage or is discarded.
[0079] In some cases, a secondary copy 116 is a copy of application
data created and stored subsequent to at least one other stored
instance (e.g., subsequent to corresponding primary data 112 or to
another secondary copy 116), in a different storage device than at
least one previous stored copy, and/or remotely from at least one
previous stored copy. Secondary copies 116 may be stored in
relatively slow and/or low cost storage (e.g., magnetic tape). A
secondary copy 116 may be stored in a backup or archive format, or
in some other format different than the native source application
format or other primary data format.
[0080] In some cases, secondary copies 116 are indexed so users can
browse and restore at another point in time. After creation of a
secondary copy 116 representative of certain primary data 112, a
pointer or other location indicia (e.g., a stub) may be placed in
primary data 112, or be otherwise associated with primary data 112
to indicate the current location on the secondary storage device(s)
108.
[0081] Since an instance a data object or metadata in primary data
112 may change over time as it is modified by an application 110
(or hosted service or the operating system), the information
management system 100 may create and manage multiple secondary
copies 116 of a particular data object or metadata, each
representing the state of the data object in primary data 112 at a
particular point in time. Moreover, since an instance of a data
object in primary data 112 may eventually be deleted from the
primary storage device 104 and the file system, the information
management system 100 may continue to manage point-in-time
representations of that data object, even though the instance in
primary data 112 no longer exists.
[0082] For virtualized computing devices the operating system and
other applications 110 of the client computing device(s) 102 may
execute within or under the management of virtualization software
(e.g., a VMM), and the primary storage device(s) 104 may comprise a
virtual disk created on a physical storage device. The information
management system 100 may create secondary copies 116 of the files
or other data objects in a virtual disk file and/or secondary
copies 116 of the entire virtual disk file itself (e.g., of an
entire .vmdk file).
[0083] Secondary copies 116 may be distinguished from corresponding
primary data 112 in a variety of ways, some of which will now be
described. First, as discussed, secondary copies 116 can be stored
in a different format (e.g., backup, archive, or other non-native
format) than primary data 112. For this or other reasons, secondary
copies 116 may not be directly useable by the applications 110 of
the client computing device 102, e.g., via standard system calls or
otherwise without modification, processing, or other intervention
by the information management system 100.
[0084] Secondary copies 116 are also often stored on a secondary
storage device 108 that is inaccessible to the applications 110
running on the client computing devices 102 (and/or hosted
services). Some secondary copies 116 may be "offline copies," in
that they are not readily available (e.g. not mounted to tape or
disk). Offline copies can include copies of data that the
information management system 100 can access without human
intervention (e.g. tapes within an automated tape library, but not
yet mounted in a drive), and copies that the information management
system 100 can access only with at least some human intervention
(e.g. tapes located at an offsite storage site).
[0085] The secondary storage devices 108 can include any suitable
type of storage device such as, without limitation, one or more
tape libraries, disk drives or other magnetic, non-tape storage
devices, optical media storage devices, solid state storage
devices, NAS devices, combinations of the same, and the like. In
some cases, the secondary storage devices 108 are provided in a
cloud (e.g. a private cloud or one operated by a third-party
vendor).
[0086] The secondary storage device(s) 108 in some cases comprises
a disk array or a portion thereof. In some cases, a single storage
device (e.g., a disk array) is used for storing both primary data
112 and at least some secondary copies 116. In one example, a disk
array capable of performing hardware snapshots stores primary data
112 and creates and stores hardware snapshots of the primary data
112 as secondary copies 116.
The Use of Intermediary Devices for Creating Secondary Copies
[0087] Creating secondary copies can be a challenging task. For
instance, there can be hundreds or thousands of client computing
devices 102 continually generating large volumes of primary data
112 to be protected. Also, there can be significant overhead
involved in the creation of secondary copies 116. Moreover,
secondary storage devices 108 may be special purpose components,
and interacting with them can require specialized intelligence.
[0088] In some cases, the client computing devices 102 interact
directly with the secondary storage device 108 to create the
secondary copies 116. However, in view of the factors described
above, this approach can negatively impact the ability of the
client computing devices 102 to serve the applications 110 and
produce primary data 112. Further, the client computing devices 102
may not be optimized for interaction with the secondary storage
devices 108.
[0089] Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system
100 includes one or more software and/or hardware components which
generally act as intermediaries between the client computing
devices 102 and the secondary storage devices 108. In addition to
off-loading certain responsibilities from the client computing
devices 102, these intermediary components can provide other
benefits. For instance, as discussed further below with respect to
FIG. 1D, distributing some of the work involved in creating
secondary copies 116 can enhance scalability.
[0090] The intermediary components can include one or more
secondary storage computing devices 106 as shown in FIG. 1A and/or
one or more media agents, which can be software modules residing on
corresponding secondary storage computing devices 106 (or other
appropriate devices). Media agents are discussed below (e.g., with
respect to FIGS. 1C-1E).
[0091] The secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise
any appropriate type of computing device and can include, without
limitation, any of the types of fixed and portable computing
devices described above with respect to the client computing
devices 102. In some cases, the secondary storage computing
device(s) 106 include specialized hardware and/or software
componentry for interacting with the secondary storage devices
108.
[0092] To create a secondary copy 116, the client computing device
102 communicates the primary data 112 to be copied (or a processed
version thereof) to the designated secondary storage computing
device 106, via the communication pathway 114. The secondary
storage computing device 106 in turn conveys the received data (or
a processed version thereof) to the secondary storage device 108.
In some such configurations, the communication pathway 114 between
the client computing device 102 and the secondary storage computing
device 106 comprises a portion of a LAN, WAN or SAN. In other
cases, at least some client computing devices 102 communicate
directly with the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., via Fibre
Channel or SCSI connections).
Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy
[0093] FIG. 1B is a detailed view showing some specific examples of
primary data stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 and
secondary copy data stored on the secondary storage device(s) 108,
with other components in the system removed for the purposes of
illustration. Stored on the primary storage device(s) 104 are
primary data objects including word processing documents 119A-B,
spreadsheets 120, presentation documents 122, video files 124,
image files 126, email mailboxes 128 (and corresponding email
messages 129A-C), html/xml or other types of markup language files
130, databases 132 and corresponding tables 133A-133C).
[0094] Some or all primary data objects are associated with a
primary copy of object metadata (e.g., "Meta1-11"), which may be
file system metadata and/or application specific metadata. Stored
on the secondary storage device(s) 108 are secondary copy objects
134A-C which may include copies of or otherwise represent
corresponding primary data objects and metadata.
[0095] As shown, the secondary copy objects 134A-C can individually
represent more than one primary data object. For example, secondary
copy data object 134A represents three separate primary data
objects 133C, 122 and 129C (represented as 133C', 122' and 129C',
respectively). Moreover, as indicated by the prime mark ('), a
secondary copy object may store a representation of a primary data
object or metadata differently than the original format, e.g., in a
compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, or other modified format.
Exemplary Information Management System Architecture
[0096] The information management system 100 can incorporate a
variety of different hardware and software components, which can in
turn be organized with respect to one another in many different
configurations, depending on the embodiment. There are critical
design choices involved in specifying the functional
responsibilities of the components and the role of each component
in the information management system 100. For instance, as will be
discussed, such design choices can impact performance as well as
the adaptability of the information management system 100 to data
growth or other changing circumstances.
[0097] FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed
according to these considerations and which includes: a central
storage or information manager 140 configured to perform certain
control functions, one or more data agents 142 executing on the
client computing device(s) 102 configured to process primary data
112, and one or more media agents 144 executing on the one or more
secondary storage computing devices 106 for performing tasks
involving the secondary storage devices 108.
[0098] Storage Manager
[0099] As noted, the number of components in the information
management system 100 and the amount of data under management can
be quite large. Managing the components and data is therefore a
significant task, and a task that can grow in an often
unpredictable fashion as the quantity of components and data scale
to meet the needs of the organization.
[0100] For these and other reasons, according to certain
embodiments, responsibility for controlling the information
management system 100, or at least a significant portion of that
responsibility, is allocated to the storage manager 140.
[0101] By distributing control functionality in this manner, the
storage manager 140 can be adapted independently according to
changing circumstances. Moreover, a host computing device can be
selected to best suit the functions of the storage manager 140.
These and other advantages are described in further detail below
with respect to FIG. 1D.
[0102] The storage manager 140 may be a software module or other
application. The storage manager generally initiates, coordinates
and/or controls storage and other information management operations
performed by the information management system 100, e.g., to
protect and control the primary data 112 and secondary copies 116
of data and metadata.
[0103] As shown by the dashed, arrowed lines, the storage manager
140 may communicate with and/or control some or all elements of the
information management system 100, such as the data agents 142 and
media agents 144. Thus, in certain embodiments, control information
originates from the storage manager 140, whereas payload data and
metadata is generally communicated between the data agents 142 and
the media agents 144 (or otherwise between the client computing
device(s) 102 and the secondary storage computing device(s) 106),
e.g., at the direction of the storage manager 140. In other
embodiments, some information management operations are controlled
by other components in the information management system 100 (e.g.,
the media agent(s) 144 or data agent(s) 142), instead of or in
combination with the storage manager 140.
[0104] According to certain embodiments, the storage manager
provides one or more of the following functions: [0105] initiating
execution of secondary copy operations; [0106] managing secondary
storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of the same; [0107]
allocating secondary storage devices 108 for secondary storage
operations; [0108] monitoring completion of and providing status
reporting related to secondary storage operations; [0109] tracking
age information relating to secondary copies 116, secondary storage
devices 108, and comparing the age information against retention
guidelines; [0110] tracking movement of data within the information
management system 100; [0111] tracking logical associations between
components in the information management system 100; [0112]
protecting metadata associated with the information management
system 100; and [0113] implementing operations management
functionality.
[0114] The storage manager 140 may maintain a database 146 of
management-related data and information management policies 148.
The database 146 may include a management index 150 or other data
structure that stores logical associations between components of
the system, user preferences and/or profiles (e.g., preferences
regarding encryption, compression, or deduplication of primary or
secondary copy data, preferences regarding the scheduling, type, or
other aspects of primary or secondary copy or other operations,
mappings of particular information management users or user
accounts to certain computing devices or other components, etc.),
management tasks, media containerization, or other useful data. For
example, the storage manager 140 may use the index 150 to track
logical associations between media agents 144 and secondary storage
devices 108 and/or movement of data from primary storage devices
104 to secondary storage devices 108.
[0115] Administrators and other employees may be able to manually
configure and initiate certain information management operations on
an individual basis. But while this may be acceptable for some
recovery operations or other relatively less frequent tasks, it is
often not workable for implementing on-going organization-wide data
protection and management.
[0116] Thus, the information management system 100 may utilize
information management policies 148 for specifying and executing
information management operations (e.g., on an automated basis).
Generally, an information management policy 148 can include a data
structure or other information source that specifies a set of
parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated with storage or
other information management operations.
[0117] The storage manager database 146 may maintain the
information management policies 148 and associated data, although
the information management policies 148 can be stored in any
appropriate location. For instance, a storage policy may be stored
as metadata in a media agent database 152 or in a secondary storage
device 108 (e.g., as an archive copy) for use in restore operations
or other information management operations, depending on the
embodiment. Information management policies 148 are described
further below.
[0118] According to certain embodiments, the storage manager
database 146 comprises a relational database (e.g., an SQL
database) for tracking metadata, such as metadata associated with
secondary copy operations (e.g., what client computing devices 102
and corresponding data were protected). This and other metadata may
additionally be stored in other locations, such as at the secondary
storage computing devices 106 or on the secondary storage devices
108, allowing data recovery without the use of the storage manager
140.
[0119] As shown, the storage manager 140 may include a jobs agent
156, a user interface 158, and a management agent 154, all of which
may be implemented as interconnected software modules or
application programs.
[0120] The jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls,
and/or monitors the status of some or all storage or other
information management operations previously performed, currently
being performed, or scheduled to be performed by the information
management system 100. For instance, the jobs agent 156 may access
information management policies 148 to determine when and how to
initiate and control secondary copy and other information
management operations, as will be discussed further.
[0121] The user interface 158 may include information processing
and display software, such as a graphical user interface ("GUI"),
an application program interface ("API"), or other interactive
interface through which users and system processes can retrieve
information about the status of information management operations
(e.g., storage operations) or issue instructions to the information
management system 100 and its constituent components.
[0122] The storage manager 140 may also track information that
permits it to select, designate, or otherwise identify content
indices, deduplication databases, or similar databases or resources
or data sets within its information management cell (or another
cell) to be searched in response to certain queries. Such queries
may be entered by the user via interaction with the user interface
158.
[0123] Via the user interface 158, users may optionally issue
instructions to the components in the information management system
100 regarding performance of storage and recovery operations. For
example, a user may modify a schedule concerning the number of
pending secondary copy operations. As another example, a user may
employ the GUI to view the status of pending storage operations or
to monitor the status of certain components in the information
management system 100 (e.g., the amount of capacity left in a
storage device).
[0124] In general, the management agent 154 allows multiple
information management systems 100 to communicate with one another.
For example, the information management system 100 in some cases
may be one information management subsystem or "cell" of a network
of multiple cells adjacent to one another or otherwise logically
related in a WAN or LAN. With this arrangement, the cells may be
connected to one another through respective management agents
154.
[0125] For instance, the management agent 154 can provide the
storage manager 140 with the ability to communicate with other
components within the information management system 100 (and/or
other cells within a larger information management system) via
network protocols and application programming interfaces ("APIs")
including, e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, REST, virtualization software
APIs, cloud service provider APIs, and hosted service provider
APIs. Inter-cell communication and hierarchy is described in
greater detail in U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, which is incorporated by
reference herein.
[0126] Data Agents
[0127] As discussed, a variety of different types of applications
110 can reside on a given client computing device 102, including
operating systems, database applications, e-mail applications, and
virtual machines, just to name a few. And, as part of the as part
of the process of creating and restoring secondary copies 116, the
client computing devices 102 may be tasked with processing and
preparing the primary data 112 from these various different
applications 110. Moreover, the nature of the
processing/preparation can differ across clients and application
types, e.g., due to inherent structural and formatting differences
between applications 110.
[0128] The one or more data agent(s) 142 are therefore
advantageously configured in some embodiments to assist in the
performance of information management operations based on the type
of data that is being protected, at a client-specific and/or
application-specific level.
[0129] The data agent 142 may be a software module or component
that is generally responsible for managing, initiating, or
otherwise assisting in the performance of information management
operations. For instance, the data agent 142 may take part in
performing data storage operations such as the copying, archiving,
migrating, replicating of primary data 112 stored in the primary
storage device(s) 104. The data agent 142 may receive control
information from the storage manager 140, such as commands to
transfer copies of data objects, metadata, and other payload data
to the media agents 144.
[0130] In some embodiments, a data agent 142 may be distributed
between the client computing device 102 and storage manager 140
(and any other intermediate components) or may be deployed from a
remote location or its functions approximated by a remote process
that performs some or all of the functions of data agent 142. In
addition, a data agent 142 may perform some functions provided by a
media agent 144, e.g., encryption and deduplication.
[0131] As indicated, each data agent 142 may be specialized for a
particular application 110, and the system can employ multiple data
agents 142, each of which may backup, migrate, and recover data
associated with a different application 110. For instance,
different individual data agents 142 may be designed to handle
Microsoft Exchange data, Lotus Notes data, Microsoft Windows file
system data, Microsoft Active Directory Objects data, SQL Server
data, SharePoint data, Oracle database data, SAP database data,
virtual machines and/or associated data, and other types of
data.
[0132] A file system data agent, for example, may handle data files
and/or other file system information. If a client computing device
102 has two or more types of data, one data agent 142 may be used
for each data type to copy, archive, migrate, and restore the
client computing device 102 data. For example, to backup, migrate,
and restore all of the data on a Microsoft Exchange server, the
client computing device 102 may use one Microsoft Exchange Mailbox
data agent 142 to backup the Exchange mailboxes, one Microsoft
Exchange Database data agent 142 to backup the Exchange databases,
one Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data agent 142 to backup the
Exchange Public Folders, and one Microsoft Windows File System data
agent 142 to backup the file system of the client computing device
102. In such embodiments, these data agents 142 may be treated as
four separate data agents 142 even though they reside on the same
client computing device 102.
[0133] Other embodiments may employ one or more generic data agents
142 that can handle and process data from two or more different
applications 110, or that can handle and process multiple data
types, instead of or in addition to using specialized data agents
142. For example, one generic data agent 142 may be used to back
up, migrate and restore Microsoft Exchange Mailbox data and
Microsoft Exchange Database data while another generic data agent
may handle Microsoft Exchange Public Folder data and Microsoft
Windows File System data.
[0134] Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or
metadata stored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated
with the data agent 142 and process the data as appropriate. For
example, during a secondary copy operation, the data agent 142 may
arrange or assemble the data and metadata into one or more files
having a certain format (e.g., a particular backup or archive
format) before transferring the file(s) to a media agent 144 or
other component. The file(s) may include a list of files or other
metadata. Each data agent 142 can also assist in restoring data or
metadata to primary storage devices 104 from a secondary copy 116.
For instance, the data agent 142 may operate in conjunction with
the storage manager 140 and one or more of the media agents 144 to
restore data from secondary storage device(s) 108.
[0135] Media Agents
[0136] As indicated above with respect to FIG. 1A, off-loading
certain responsibilities from the client computing devices 102 to
intermediary components such as the media agent(s) 144 can provide
a number of benefits including improved client computing device 102
operation, faster secondary copy operation performance, and
enhanced scalability. As one specific example which will be
discussed below in further detail, the media agent 144 can act as a
local cache of copied data and/or metadata that it has stored to
the secondary storage device(s) 108, providing improved restore
capabilities.
[0137] Generally speaking, a media agent 144 may be implemented as
a software module that manages, coordinates, and facilitates the
transmission of data, as directed by the storage manager 140,
between a client computing device 102 and one or more secondary
storage devices 108. Whereas the storage manager 140 controls the
operation of the information management system 100, the media agent
144 generally provides a portal to secondary storage devices
108.
[0138] Media agents 144 can comprise logically and/or physically
separate nodes in the information management system 100 (e.g.,
separate from the client computing devices 102, storage manager
140, and/or secondary storage devices 108). In addition, each media
agent 144 may reside on a dedicated secondary storage computing
device 106 in some cases, while in other embodiments a plurality of
media agents 144 reside on the same secondary storage computing
device 106.
[0139] A media agent 144 (and corresponding media agent database
152) may be considered to be "associated with" a particular
secondary storage device 108 if that media agent 144 is capable of
one or more of: routing and/or storing data to the particular
secondary storage device 108, coordinating the routing and/or
storing of data to the particular secondary storage device 108,
retrieving data from the particular secondary storage device 108,
and coordinating the retrieval of data from a particular secondary
storage device 108.
[0140] While media agent(s) 144 are generally associated with one
or more secondary storage devices 108, the media agents 144 in
certain embodiments are physically separate from the secondary
storage devices 108. For instance, the media agents 144 may reside
on secondary storage computing devices 106 having different
housings or packages than the secondary storage devices 108. In one
example, a media agent 144 resides on a first server computer and
is in communication with a secondary storage device(s) 108 residing
in a separate, rack-mounted RAID-based system.
[0141] In operation, a media agent 144 associated with a particular
secondary storage device 108 may instruct the secondary storage
device 108 (e.g., a tape library) to use a robotic arm or other
retrieval means to load or eject a certain storage media, and to
subsequently archive, migrate, or retrieve data to or from that
media, e.g., for the purpose of restoring the data to a client
computing device 102. The media agent 144 may communicate with a
secondary storage device 108 via a suitable communications link,
such as a SCSI or Fiber Channel link.
[0142] As shown, each media agent 144 may maintain an associated
media agent database 152. The media agent database 152 may be
stored in a disk or other storage device (not shown) that is local
to the secondary storage computing device 106 on which the media
agent 144 resides. In other cases, the media agent database 152 is
stored remotely from the secondary storage computing device
106.
[0143] The media agent database 152 can include, among other
things, an index 153 including data generated during secondary copy
operations and other storage or information management operations.
The index 153 provides a media agent 144 or other component with a
fast and efficient mechanism for locating secondary copies 116 or
other data stored in the secondary storage devices 108. In one
configuration, a storage manager index 150 or other data structure
may store data associating a client computing device 102 with a
particular media agent 144 and/or secondary storage device 108, as
specified in a storage policy. A media agent index 153 or other
data structure associated with the particular media agent 144 may
in turn include information about the stored data.
[0144] For instance, for each secondary copy 116, the index 153 may
include metadata such as a list of the data objects (e.g.,
files/subdirectories, database objects, mailbox objects, etc.), a
path to the secondary copy 116 on the corresponding secondary
storage device 108, location information indicating where the data
objects are stored in the secondary storage device 108, when the
data objects were created or modified, etc. Thus, the index 153
includes metadata associated with the secondary copies 116 that is
readily available for use in storage operations and other
activities without having to be first retrieved from the secondary
storage device 108. In yet further embodiments, some or all of the
data in the index 153 may instead or additionally be stored along
with the data in a secondary storage device 108, e.g., with a copy
of the index 153.
[0145] Because the index 153 maintained in the database 152 may
operate as a cache, it can also be referred to as an index cache.
In such cases, information stored in the index cache 153 typically
comprises data that reflects certain particulars about storage
operations that have occurred relatively recently. After some
triggering event, such as after a certain period of time elapses,
or the index cache 153 reaches a particular size, the index cache
153 may be copied or migrated to a secondary storage device(s) 108.
This information may need to be retrieved and uploaded back into
the index cache 153 or otherwise restored to a media agent 144 to
facilitate retrieval of data from the secondary storage device(s)
108. In some embodiments, the cached information may include format
or containerization information related to archives or other files
stored on the storage device(s) 108. In this manner, the index
cache 153 allows for accelerated restores.
[0146] In some alternative embodiments the media agent 144
generally acts as a coordinator or facilitator of storage
operations between client computing devices 102 and corresponding
secondary storage devices 108, but does not actually write the data
to the secondary storage device 108. For instance, the storage
manager 140 (or the media agent 144) may instruct a client
computing device 102 and secondary storage device 108 to
communicate with one another directly. In such a case the client
computing device 102 transmits the data directly to the secondary
storage device 108 according to the received instructions, and vice
versa. In some such cases, the media agent 144 may still receive,
process, and/or maintain metadata related to the storage
operations. Moreover, in these embodiments, the payload data can
flow through the media agent 144 for the purposes of populating the
index cache 153 maintained in the media agent database 152, but not
for writing to the secondary storage device 108.
[0147] The media agent 144 and/or other components such as the
storage manager 140 may in some cases incorporate additional
functionality, such as data classification, content indexing,
deduplication, encryption, compression, and the like. Further
details regarding these and other functions are described
below.
[0148] Distributed, Scalable Architecture
[0149] As described, certain functions of the information
management system 100 can be distributed amongst various physical
and/or logical components in the system. For instance, one or more
of the storage manager 140, data agents 142, and media agents 144
may reside on computing devices that are physically separate from
one another. This architecture can provide a number of
benefits.
[0150] For instance, hardware and software design choices for each
distributed component can be targeted to suit its particular
function. The secondary computing devices 106 on which the media
agents 144 reside can be tailored for interaction with associated
secondary storage devices 108 and provide fast index cache
operation, among other specific tasks. Similarly, the client
computing device(s) 102 can be selected to effectively service the
applications 110 residing thereon, in order to efficiently produce
and store primary data 112.
[0151] Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual
components in the information management system 100 can be
distributed to multiple, separate computing devices. As one
example, for large file systems where the amount of data stored in
the storage management database 146 is relatively large, the
management database 146 may be migrated to or otherwise reside on a
specialized database server (e.g., an SQL server) separate from a
server that implements the other functions of the storage manager
140. This configuration can provide added protection because the
database 146 can be protected with standard database utilities
(e.g., SQL log shipping or database replication) independent from
other functions of the storage manager 140. The database 146 can be
efficiently replicated to a remote site for use in the event of a
disaster or other data loss incident at the primary site. Or the
database 146 can be replicated to another computing device within
the same site, such as to a higher performance machine in the event
that a storage manager host device can no longer service the needs
of a growing information management system 100.
[0152] The distributed architecture also provides both scalability
and efficient component utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of
the information management system 100 including a plurality of
client computing devices 102 and associated data agents 142 as well
as a plurality of secondary storage computing devices 106 and
associated media agents 144.
[0153] Additional components can be added or subtracted based on
the evolving needs of the information management system 100. For
instance, depending on where bottlenecks are identified,
administrators can add additional client computing devices 102,
secondary storage devices 106 (and corresponding media agents 144),
and/or secondary storage devices 108.
[0154] Moreover, each client computing device 102 in some
embodiments can communicate with any of the media agents 144, e.g.,
as directed by the storage manager 140. And each media agent 144
may be able to communicate with any of the secondary storage
devices 108, e.g., as directed by the storage manager 140. Thus,
operations can be routed to the secondary storage devices 108 in a
dynamic and highly flexible manner. Further examples of scalable
systems capable of dynamic storage operations are provided in U.S.
Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0155] In alternative configurations, certain components are not
distributed and may instead reside and execute on the same
computing device. For example, in some embodiments one or more data
agents 142 and the storage manager 140 reside on the same client
computing device 102. In another embodiment, one or more data
agents 142 and one or more media agents 144 reside on a single
computing device.
Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations
[0156] In order to protect and leverage stored data, the
information management system 100 can be configured to perform a
variety of information management operations. As will be described,
these operations can generally include secondary copy and other
data movement operations, processing and data manipulation
operations, and management operations.
[0157] Data Movement Operations
[0158] Data movement operations according to certain embodiments
are generally operations that involve the copying or migration of
data (e.g., payload data) between different locations in the
information management system 100. For example, data movement
operations can include operations in which stored data is copied,
migrated, or otherwise transferred from primary storage device(s)
104 to secondary storage device(s) 108, from secondary storage
device(s) 108 to different secondary storage device(s) 108, or from
primary storage device(s) 104 to different primary storage
device(s) 104.
[0159] Data movement operations can include by way of example,
backup operations, archive operations, information lifecycle
management operations such as hierarchical storage management
operations, replication operations (e.g., continuous data
replication operations), snapshot operations, deduplication
operations, single-instancing operations, auxiliary copy
operations, and the like. As will be discussed, some of these
operations involve the copying, migration or other movement of
data, without actually creating multiple, distinct copies.
Nonetheless, some or all of these operations are referred to as
"copy" operations for simplicity.
[0160] Backup Operations
[0161] A backup operation creates a copy of primary data 112 at a
particular point in time. Each subsequent backup copy may be
maintained independently of the first. Further, a backup copy in
some embodiments is stored in a backup format. This can be in
contrast to the version in primary data 112 from which the backup
copy is derived, and which may instead be stored in a native format
of the source application(s) 110. In various cases, backup copies
can be stored in a format in which the data is compressed,
encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from the
original application format. For example, a backup copy may be
stored in a backup format that facilitates compression and/or
efficient long-term storage.
[0162] Backup copies can have relatively long retention periods as
compared to primary data 112, and may be stored on media with
slower retrieval times than primary data 112 and certain other
types of secondary copies 116. On the other hand, backups may have
relatively shorter retention periods than some other types of
secondary copies 116, such as archive copies (described below).
Backups may sometimes be stored at on offsite location.
[0163] Backup operations can include full, synthetic or incremental
backups. A full backup in some embodiments is generally a complete
image of the data to be protected. However, because full backup
copies can consume a relatively large amount of storage, it can be
useful to use a full backup copy as a baseline and only store
changes relative to the full backup copy for subsequent backup
copies.
[0164] For instance, a differential backup operation (or cumulative
incremental backup operation) tracks and stores changes that have
occurred since the last full backup. Differential backups can grow
quickly in size, but can provide relatively efficient restore times
because a restore can be completed in some cases using only the
full backup copy and the latest differential copy.
[0165] An incremental backup operation generally tracks and stores
changes since the most recent backup copy of any type, which can
greatly reduce storage utilization. In some cases, however, restore
times can be relatively long in comparison to full or differential
backups because completing a restore operation may involve
accessing a full backup in addition to multiple incremental
backups.
[0166] Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the
file-level, e.g., where the information management system 100
generally tracks changes to files at the file-level, and includes
copies of files in the backup copy. In other cases, block-level
backups are employed, where files are broken into constituent
blocks, and changes are tracked at the block-level. Upon restore,
the information management system 100 reassembles the blocks into
files in a transparent fashion.
[0167] Far less data may actually be transferred and copied to the
secondary storage devices 108 during a block-level copy than during
a file-level copy, resulting in faster execution times. However,
when restoring a block-level copy, the process of locating
constituent blocks can sometimes result in longer restore times as
compared to file-level backups. Similar to backup operations, the
other types of secondary copy operations described herein can also
be implemented at either the file-level or the block-level.
[0168] Archive Operations
[0169] Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a
version of the copied data in primary data 112 and also maintaining
backup copies in secondary storage device(s) 108, they can consume
significant storage capacity. To help reduce storage consumption,
an archive operation according to certain embodiments creates a
secondary copy 116 by both copying and removing source data. Or,
seen another way, archive operations can involve moving some or all
of the source data to the archive destination. Thus, data
satisfying criteria for removal (e.g., data of a threshold age or
size) from the source copy may be removed from source storage.
Archive copies are sometimes stored in an archive format or other
non-native application format. The source data may be primary data
112 or a secondary copy 116, depending on the situation. As with
backup copies, archive copies can be stored in a format in which
the data is compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, and/or otherwise
modified from the original application format.
[0170] In addition, archive copies may be retained for relatively
long periods of time (e.g., years) and, in some cases, are never
deleted. Archive copies are generally retained for longer periods
of time than backup copies, for example. In certain embodiments,
archive copies may be made and kept for extended periods in order
to meet compliance regulations.
[0171] Moreover, when primary data 112 is archived, in some cases
the archived primary data 112 or a portion thereof is deleted when
creating the archive copy. Thus, archiving can serve the purpose of
freeing up space in the primary storage device(s) 104. Similarly,
when a secondary copy 116 is archived, the secondary copy 116 may
be deleted, and an archive copy can therefore serve the purpose of
freeing up space in secondary storage device(s) 108. In contrast,
source copies often remain intact when creating backup copies.
[0172] Snapshot Operations
[0173] Snapshot operations can provide a relatively lightweight,
efficient mechanism for protecting data. From an end-user
viewpoint, a snapshot may be thought of as an "instant" image of
the primary data 112 at a given point in time. In one embodiment, a
snapshot may generally capture the directory structure of an object
in primary data 112 such as a file or volume or other data set at a
particular moment in time and may also preserve file attributes and
contents. A snapshot in some cases is created relatively quickly,
e.g., substantially instantly, using a minimum amount of file
space, but may still function as a conventional file system
backup.
[0174] A snapshot copy in many cases can be made quickly and
without significantly impacting primary computing resources because
large amounts of data need not be copied or moved. In some
embodiments, a snapshot may exist as a virtual file system,
parallel to the actual file system. Users in some cases gain
read-only access to the record of files and directories of the
snapshot. By electing to restore primary data 112 from a snapshot
taken at a given point in time, users may also return the current
file system to the state of the file system that existed when the
snapshot was taken.
[0175] Some types of snapshots do not actually create another
physical copy of all the data as it existed at the particular point
in time, but may simply create pointers that are able to map files
and directories to specific memory locations (e.g., disk blocks)
where the data resides, as it existed at the particular point in
time. For example, a snapshot copy may include a set of pointers
derived from the file system or an application. Each pointer points
to a respective stored data block, so collectively, the set of
pointers reflect the storage location and state of the data object
(e.g., file(s) or volume(s) or data set(s)) at a particular point
in time when the snapshot copy was created.
[0176] In some embodiments, once a snapshot has been taken,
subsequent changes to the file system typically do not overwrite
the blocks in use at the time of the snapshot. Therefore, the
initial snapshot may use only a small amount of disk space needed
to record a mapping or other data structure representing or
otherwise tracking the blocks that correspond to the current state
of the file system. Additional disk space is usually required only
when files and directories are actually modified later.
Furthermore, when files are modified, typically only the pointers
which map to blocks are copied, not the blocks themselves. In some
embodiments, for example in the case of "copy-on-write" snapshots,
when a block changes in primary storage, the block is copied to
secondary storage or cached in primary storage before the block is
overwritten in primary storage. The snapshot mapping of file system
data is also updated to reflect the changed block(s) at that
particular point in time. In some other cases, a snapshot includes
a full physical copy of all or substantially all of the data
represented by the snapshot. Further examples of snapshot
operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, which is
incorporated by reference herein.
[0177] Replication Operations
[0178] Another type of secondary copy operation is a replication
operation. Some types of secondary copies 116 are used to
periodically capture images of primary data 112 at particular
points in time (e.g., backups, archives, and snapshots). However,
it can also be useful for recovery purposes to protect primary data
112 in a more continuous fashion, by replicating the primary data
112 substantially as changes occur. In some cases a replication
copy can be a mirror copy, for instance, where changes made to
primary data 112 are mirrored to another location (e.g., to
secondary storage device(s) 108). By copying each write operation
to the replication copy, two storage systems are kept synchronized
or substantially synchronized so that they are virtually identical
at approximately the same time. Where entire disk volumes are
mirrored, however, mirroring can require significant amount of
storage space and utilizes a large amount of processing
resources.
[0179] According to some embodiments storage operations are
performed on replicated data that represents a recoverable state,
or "known good state" of a particular application running on the
source system. For instance, in certain embodiments, known good
replication copies may be viewed as copies of primary data 112.
This feature allows the system to directly access, copy, restore,
backup or otherwise manipulate the replication copies as if the
data was the "live", primary data 112. This can reduce access time,
storage utilization, and impact on source applications 110, among
other benefits.
[0180] Based on known good state information, the information
management system 100 can replicate sections of application data
that represent a recoverable state rather than rote copying of
blocks of data. Examples of compatible replication operations
(e.g., continuous data replication) are provided in U.S. Pat. No.
7,617,262, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0181] Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations
[0182] Another type of data movement operation is deduplication,
which is useful to reduce the amount of data within the system. For
instance, some or all of the above-described secondary storage
operations can involve deduplication in some fashion. New data is
read, broken down into blocks (e.g., sub-file level blocks) of a
selected granularity, compared with blocks that are already stored,
and only the new blocks are stored. Blocks that already exist are
represented as pointers to the already stored data.
[0183] In order to stream-line the comparison process, the
information management system 100 may calculate and/or store
signatures (e.g., hashes) corresponding to the individual data
blocks and compare the hashes instead of comparing entire data
blocks. In some cases, only a single instance of each element is
stored, and deduplication operations may therefore be referred to
interchangeably as "single-instancing" operations. Depending on the
implementation, however, deduplication or single-instancing
operations can store more than one instance of certain data blocks,
but nonetheless significantly reduce data redundancy. Moreover,
single-instancing in some cases is distinguished from deduplication
as a process of analyzing and reducing data at the file level,
rather than the sub file level.
[0184] Depending on the embodiment, deduplication blocks can be of
fixed or variable length. Using variable length blocks can provide
enhanced deduplication by responding to changes in the data stream,
but can involve complex processing. In some cases, the information
management system 100 utilizes a technique for dynamically aligning
deduplication blocks (e.g., fixed-length blocks) based on changing
content in the data stream, as described in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2012/0084269, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0185] The information management system 100 can perform
deduplication in a variety of manners at a variety of locations in
the information management system 100. For instance, in some
embodiments, the information management system 100 implements
"target-side" deduplication by deduplicating data (e.g., secondary
copies 116) stored in the secondary storage devices 108. In some
such cases, the media agents 144 are generally configured to manage
the deduplication process. For instance, one or more of the media
agents 144 maintain a corresponding deduplication database that
stores deduplication information (e.g., datablock signatures).
Examples of such a configuration are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2012/0150826, which is incorporated by reference herein.
Deduplication can also be performed on the "source-side" (or
"client-side"), e.g., to reduce the amount of traffic between the
media agents 144 and the client computing device(s) 102 and/or
reduce redundant data stored in the primary storage devices 104.
Examples of such deduplication techniques are provided in U.S. Pat.
Pub. No. 2012/0150818, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
[0186] Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage
Management Operations
[0187] In some embodiments, files and other data over their
lifetime move from more expensive, quick access storage to less
expensive, slower access storage. Operations associated with moving
data through various tiers of storage are sometimes referred to as
information lifecycle management (ILM) operations.
[0188] One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage
management (HSM) operation. A HSM operation is generally an
operation for automatically moving data between classes of storage
devices, such as between high-cost and low-cost storage devices.
For instance, an HSM operation may involve movement of data from
primary storage devices 104 to secondary storage devices 108, or
between tiers of secondary storage devices 108. With each tier, the
storage devices may be progressively relatively cheaper, have
relatively slower access/restore times, etc. For example, movement
of data between tiers may occur as data becomes less important over
time.
[0189] In some embodiments, an HSM operation is similar to an
archive operation in that creating an HSM copy may (though not
always) involve deleting some of the source data. For example, an
HSM copy may include data from primary data 112 or a secondary copy
116 that is larger than a given size threshold or older than a
given age threshold and that is stored in a backup format.
[0190] Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data
that is removed or aged from the source copy is replaced by a
logical reference pointer or stub. The reference pointer or stub
can be stored in the primary storage device 104 to replace the
deleted data in primary data 112 (or other source copy) and to
point to or otherwise indicate the new location in a secondary
storage device 108.
[0191] According to one example, files are generally moved between
higher and lower cost storage depending on how often the files are
accessed. When a user requests access to the HSM data that has been
removed or migrated, the information management system 100 uses the
stub to locate the data and often make recovery of the data appear
transparent, even though the HSM data may be stored at a location
different from the remaining source data. The stub may also include
some metadata associated with the corresponding data, so that a
file system and/or application can provide some information about
the data object and/or a limited-functionality version (e.g., a
preview) of the data object.
[0192] An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native
application format (e.g., where the data is compressed, encrypted,
deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified from the original
application format). In some cases, copies which involve the
removal of data from source storage and the maintenance of stub or
other logical reference information on source storage may be
referred to generally as "on-line archive copies". On the other
hand, copies which involve the removal of data from source storage
without the maintenance of stub or other logical reference
information on source storage may be referred to as "off-line
archive copies".
[0193] Auxiliary Copy and Disaster Recovery Operations
[0194] An auxiliary copy is generally a copy operation in which a
copy is created of an existing secondary copy 116. For instance, an
initial or "primary" secondary copy 116 may be generated using or
otherwise be derived from primary data 112, whereas an auxiliary
copy is generated from the initial secondary copy 116. Auxiliary
copies can be used to create additional standby copies of data and
may reside on different secondary storage devices 108 than initial
secondary copies 116. Thus, auxiliary copies can be used for
recovery purposes if initial secondary copies 116 become
unavailable. Exemplary compatible auxiliary copy techniques are
described in further detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, which is
incorporated by reference herein.
[0195] The information management system 100 may also perform
disaster recovery operations that make or retain disaster recovery
copies, often as secondary, high-availability disk copies. The
information management system 100 may create secondary disk copies
and store the copies at disaster recovery locations using auxiliary
copy or replication operations, such as continuous data replication
technologies. Depending on the particular data protection goals,
disaster recovery locations can be remote from the client computing
devices 102 and primary storage devices 104, remote from some or
all of the secondary storage devices 108, or both.
[0196] Data Processing and Manipulation Operations
[0197] As indicated, the information management system 100 can also
be configured to implement certain data manipulation operations,
which according to certain embodiments are generally operations
involving the processing or modification of stored data. Some data
manipulation operations include content indexing operations and
classification operations can be useful in leveraging the data
under management to provide enhanced search and other features.
Other data manipulation operations such as compression and
encryption can provide data reduction and security benefits,
respectively.
[0198] Data manipulation operations can be different than data
movement operations in that they do not necessarily involve the
copying, migration or other transfer of data (e.g., primary data
112 or secondary copies 116) between different locations in the
system. For instance, data manipulation operations may involve
processing (e.g., offline processing) or modification of already
stored primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. However, in
some embodiments data manipulation operations are performed in
conjunction with data movement operations. As one example, the
information management system 100 may encrypt data while performing
an archive operation.
[0199] Content Indexing
[0200] In some embodiments, the information management system 100
"content indexes" data stored within the primary data 112 and/or
secondary copies 116, providing enhanced search capabilities for
data discovery and other purposes. The content indexing can be used
to identify files or other data objects having pre-defined content
(e.g., user-defined keywords or phrases), metadata (e.g., email
metadata such as "to", "from", "cc", "bcc", attachment name,
received time, etc.).
[0201] The information management system 100 generally organizes
and catalogues the results in a content index, which may be stored
within the media agent database 152, for example. The content index
can also include the storage locations of (or pointer references
to) the indexed data in the primary data 112 or secondary copies
116, as appropriate. The results may also be stored, in the form of
a content index database or otherwise, elsewhere in the information
management system 100 (e.g., in the primary storage devices 104, or
in the secondary storage device 108). Such index data provides the
storage manager 140 or another component with an efficient
mechanism for locating primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116
of data objects that match particular criteria.
[0202] For instance, search criteria can be specified by a user
through user interface 158 of the storage manager 140. In some
cases, the information management system 100 analyzes data and/or
metadata in secondary copies 116 to create an "off-line" content
index, without significantly impacting the performance of the
client computing devices 102. Depending on the embodiment, the
system can also implement "on-line" content indexing, e.g., of
primary data 112. Examples of compatible content indexing
techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, which is
incorporated by reference herein.
[0203] Classification Operations--Metabase
[0204] In order to help leverage the data stored in the information
management system 100, one or more components can be configured to
scan data and/or associated metadata for classification purposes to
populate a metabase of information. Such scanned, classified data
and/or metadata may be included in a separate database and/or on a
separate storage device from primary data 112 (and/or secondary
copies 116), such that metabase related operations do not
significantly impact performance on other components in the
information management system 100.
[0205] In other cases, the metabase(s) may be stored along with
primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. Files or other data
objects can be associated with user-specified identifiers (e.g.,
tag entries) in the media agent 144 (or other indices) to
facilitate searches of stored data objects. Among a number of other
benefits, the metabase can also allow efficient, automatic
identification of files or other data objects to associate with
secondary copy or other information management operations (e.g., in
lieu of scanning an entire file system). Examples of compatible
metabases and data classification operations are provided in U.S.
Pat. Nos. 8,229,954 and 7,747,579, which are incorporated by
reference herein.
[0206] Encryption Operations
[0207] The information management system 100 in some cases is
configured to process data (e.g., files or other data objects,
secondary copies 116, etc.), according to an appropriate encryption
algorithm (e.g., Blowfish, Advanced Encryption Standard [AES],
Triple Data Encryption Standard [3-DES], etc.) to limit access and
provide data security in the information management system 100.
[0208] The information management system 100 in some cases encrypts
the data at the client level, such that the client computing
devices 102 (e.g., the data agents 142) encrypt the data prior to
forwarding the data to other components, e.g., before sending the
data media agents 144 during a secondary copy operation. In such
cases, the client computing device 102 may maintain or have access
to an encryption key or passphrase for decrypting the data upon
restore. Encryption can also occur when creating copies of
secondary copies, e.g., when creating auxiliary copies. In yet
further embodiments, the secondary storage devices 108 can
implement built-in, high performance hardware encryption.
[0209] Management Operations
[0210] Certain embodiments leverage the integrated, ubiquitous
nature of the information management system 100 to provide useful
system-wide management functions. As two non-limiting examples, the
information management system 100 can be configured to implement
operations management and e-discovery functions.
[0211] Operations management can generally include monitoring and
managing the health and performance of information management
system 100 by, without limitation, performing error tracking,
generating granular storage/performance metrics (e.g., job
success/failure information, deduplication efficiency, etc.),
generating storage modeling and costing information, and the
like.
[0212] Such information can be provided to users via the user
interface 158 in a single, integrated view. For instance, the
integrated user interface 158 can include an option to show a
"virtual view" of the system that graphically depicts the various
components in the system using appropriate icons. The operations
management functionality can facilitate planning and
decision-making. For example, in some embodiments, a user may view
the status of some or all jobs as well as the status of each
component of the information management system 100. Users may then
plan and make decisions based on this data. For instance, a user
may view high-level information regarding storage operations for
the information management system 100, such as job status,
component status, resource status (e.g., network pathways, etc.),
and other information. The user may also drill down or use other
means to obtain more detailed information regarding a particular
component, job, or the like.
[0213] In some cases the information management system 100 alerts a
user such as a system administrator when a particular resource is
unavailable or congested. For example, a particular primary storage
device 104 or secondary storage device 108 might be full or require
additional capacity. Or a component may be unavailable due to
hardware failure, software problems, or other reasons. In response,
the information management system 100 may suggest solutions to such
problems when they occur (or provide a warning prior to
occurrence). For example, the storage manager 140 may alert the
user that a secondary storage device 108 is full or otherwise
congested. The storage manager 140 may then suggest, based on job
and data storage information contained in its database 146, an
alternate secondary storage device 108.
[0214] Other types of corrective actions may include suggesting an
alternate data path to a particular primary or secondary storage
device 104, 108, or dividing data to be stored among various
available primary or secondary storage devices 104, 108 as a load
balancing measure or to otherwise optimize storage or retrieval
time. Such suggestions or corrective actions may be performed
automatically, if desired. Further examples of some compatible
operations management techniques and of interfaces providing an
integrated view of an information management system are provided in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.
In some embodiments, the storage manager 140 implements the
operations management functions described herein.
[0215] The information management system 100 can also be configured
to perform system-wide e-discovery operations in some embodiments.
In general, e-discovery operations provide a unified collection and
search capability for data in the system, such as data stored in
the secondary storage devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or
other secondary copies 116). For example, the information
management system 100 may construct and maintain a virtual
repository for data stored in the information management system 100
that is integrated across source applications 110, different
storage device types, etc. According to some embodiments,
e-discovery utilizes other techniques described herein, such as
data classification and/or content indexing.
Information Management Policies
[0216] As indicated previously, an information management policy
148 can include a data structure or other information source that
specifies a set of parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated
with secondary copy or other information management operations.
[0217] One type of information management policy 148 is a storage
policy. According to certain embodiments, a storage policy
generally comprises a logical container that defines (or includes
information sufficient to determine) one or more of the following
items: (1) what data will be associated with the storage policy;
(2) a destination to which the data will be stored; (3) datapath
information specifying how the data will be communicated to the
destination; (4) the type of storage operation to be performed; and
(5) retention information specifying how long the data will be
retained at the destination.
[0218] Data associated with a storage policy can be logically
organized into groups, which can be referred to as "sub-clients". A
sub-client may represent static or dynamic associations of portions
of a data volume. Sub-clients may represent mutually exclusive
portions. Thus, in certain embodiments, a portion of data may be
given a label and the association is stored as a static entity in
an index, database or other storage location.
[0219] Sub-clients may also be used as an effective administrative
scheme of organizing data according to data type, department within
the enterprise, storage preferences, or the like. Depending on the
configuration, sub-clients can correspond to files, folders,
virtual machines, databases, etc. In one exemplary scenario, an
administrator may find it preferable to separate e-mail data from
financial data using two different sub-clients.
[0220] A storage policy can define where data is stored by
specifying a target or destination storage device (or group of
storage devices). For instance, where the secondary storage device
108 includes a group of disk libraries, the storage policy may
specify a particular disk library for storing the sub-clients
associated with the policy. As another example, where the secondary
storage devices 108 include one or more tape libraries, the storage
policy may specify a particular tape library for storing the
sub-clients associated with the storage policy, and may also
specify a drive pool and a tape pool defining a group of tape
drives and a group of tapes, respectively, for use in storing the
sub-client data.
[0221] Datapath information can also be included in the storage
policy. For instance, the storage policy may specify network
pathways and components to utilize when moving the data to the
destination storage device(s). In some embodiments, the storage
policy specifies one or more media agents 144 for conveying data
(e.g., one or more sub-clients) associated with the storage policy
between the source (e.g., one or more host client computing devices
102) and destination (e.g., a particular target secondary storage
device 108).
[0222] A storage policy can also specify the type(s) of operations
associated with the storage policy, such as a backup, archive,
snapshot, auxiliary copy, or the like. Retention information can
specify how long the data will be kept, depending on organizational
needs (e.g., a number of days, months, years, etc.)
[0223] The information management policies 148 may also include one
or more scheduling policies specifying when and how often to
perform operations. Scheduling information may specify with what
frequency (e.g., hourly, weekly, daily, event-based, etc.) or under
what triggering conditions secondary copy or other information
management operations will take place. Scheduling policies in some
cases are associated with particular components, such as particular
sub-clients, client computing device 102, and the like. In one
configuration, a separate scheduling policy is maintained for
particular sub-clients on a client computing device 102. The
scheduling policy specifies that those sub-clients are to be moved
to secondary storage devices 108 every hour according to storage
policies associated with the respective sub-clients.
[0224] When adding a new client computing device 102,
administrators can manually configure information management
policies 148 and/or other settings, e.g., via the user interface
158. However, this can be an involved process resulting in delays,
and it may be desirable to begin data protecting operations
quickly.
[0225] Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system
100 automatically applies a default configuration to client
computing device 102. As one example, when a data agent(s) 142 is
installed on a client computing devices 102, the installation
script may register the client computing device 102 with the
storage manager 140, which in turn applies the default
configuration to the new client computing device 102. In this
manner, data protection operations can begin substantially
immediately. The default configuration can include a default
storage policy, for example, and can specify any appropriate
information sufficient to begin data protection operations. This
can include a type of data protection operation, scheduling
information, a target secondary storage device 108, data path
information (e.g., a particular media agent 144), and the like.
[0226] Other types of information management policies 148 are
possible. For instance, the information management policies 148 can
also include one or more audit or security policies. An audit
policy is a set of preferences, rules and/or criteria that protect
sensitive data in the information management system 100. For
example, an audit policy may define "sensitive objects" as files or
objects that contain particular keywords (e.g. "confidential," or
"privileged") and/or are associated with particular keywords (e.g.,
in metadata) or particular flags (e.g., in metadata identifying a
document or email as personal, confidential, etc.).
[0227] An audit policy may further specify rules for handling
sensitive objects. As an example, an audit policy may require that
a reviewer approve the transfer of any sensitive objects to a cloud
storage site, and that if approval is denied for a particular
sensitive object, the sensitive object should be transferred to a
local storage device 104 instead. To facilitate this approval, the
audit policy may further specify how a secondary storage computing
device 106 or other system component should notify a reviewer that
a sensitive object is slated for transfer.
[0228] In some implementations, the information management policies
148 may include one or more provisioning policies. A provisioning
policy can include a set of preferences, priorities, rules, and/or
criteria that specify how clients 102 (or groups thereof) may
utilize system resources, such as available storage on cloud
storage and/or network bandwidth. A provisioning policy specifies,
for example, data quotas for particular client computing devices
102 (e.g. a number of gigabytes that can be stored monthly,
quarterly or annually). The storage manager 140 or other components
may enforce the provisioning policy. For instance, the media agents
144 may enforce the policy when transferring data to secondary
storage devices 108. If a client computing device 102 exceeds a
quota, a budget for the client computing device 102 (or associated
department) is adjusted accordingly or an alert may trigger.
[0229] While the above types of information management policies 148
have been described as separate policies, one or more of these can
be generally combined into a single information management policy
148. For instance, a storage policy may also include or otherwise
be associated with one or more scheduling, audit, or provisioning
policies. Moreover, while storage policies are typically associated
with moving and storing data, other policies may be associated with
other types of information management operations. The following is
a non-exhaustive list of items the information management policies
148 may specify: [0230] schedules or other timing information,
e.g., specifying when and/or how often to perform information
management operations; [0231] the type of secondary copy 116 and/or
secondary copy format (e.g., snapshot, backup, archive, HSM, etc.);
[0232] a location or a class or quality of storage for storing
secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more particular secondary
storage devices 108); [0233] preferences regarding whether and how
to encrypt, compress, deduplicate, or otherwise modify or transform
secondary copies 116; [0234] which system components and/or network
pathways (e.g., preferred media agents 144) should be used to
perform secondary storage operations; [0235] resource allocation
between different computing devices or other system components used
in performing information management operations (e.g., bandwidth
allocation, available storage capacity, etc.); [0236] whether and
how to synchronize or otherwise distribute files or other data
objects across multiple computing devices or hosted services; and
[0237] retention information specifying the length of time primary
data 112 and/or secondary copies 116 should be retained, e.g., in a
particular class or tier of storage devices, or within the
information management system 100.
[0238] Policies can additionally specify or depend on a variety of
historical or current criteria that may be used to determine which
rules to apply to a particular data object, system component, or
information management operation, such as: [0239] frequency with
which primary data 112 or a secondary copy 116 of a data object or
metadata has been or is predicted to be used, accessed, or
modified; [0240] time-related factors (e.g., aging information such
as time since the creation or modification of a data object);
[0241] deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,
deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other
metrics); [0242] an estimated or historic usage or cost associated
with different components (e.g., with secondary storage devices
108); [0243] the identity of users, applications 110, client
computing devices 102 and/or other computing devices that created,
accessed, modified, or otherwise utilized primary data 112 or
secondary copies 116; [0244] a relative sensitivity (e.g.,
confidentiality) of a data object, e.g., as determined by its
content and/or metadata; [0245] the current or historical storage
capacity of various storage devices; [0246] the current or
historical network capacity of network pathways connecting various
components within the storage operation cell; [0247] access control
lists or other security information; and [0248] the content of a
particular data object (e.g., its textual content) or of metadata
associated with the data object.
Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Storage Operations
[0249] FIG. 1E shows a data flow data diagram depicting performance
of storage operations by an embodiment of an information management
system 100, according to an exemplary data storage policy 148A. The
information management system 100 includes a storage manger 140, a
client computing device 102 having a file system data agent 142A
and an email data agent 142B residing thereon, a primary storage
device 104, two media agents 144A, 144B, and two secondary storage
devices 108A, 108B: a disk library 108A and a tape library 108B. As
shown, the primary storage device 104 includes primary data 112A,
112B associated with a file system sub-client and an email
sub-client, respectively.
[0250] As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B
and the tape library 108B are "off-site", and may therefore be
remotely located from the other components in the information
management system 100 (e.g., in a different city, office building,
etc.). In this manner, information stored on the tape library 108B
may provide protection in the event of a disaster or other
failure.
[0251] The file system sub-client and its associated primary data
112A in certain embodiments generally comprise information
generated by the file system and/or operating system of the client
computing device 102, and can include, for example, file system
data (e.g., regular files, file tables, mount points, etc.),
operating system data (e.g., registries, event logs, etc.), and the
like. The e-mail sub-client, on the other hand, and its associated
primary data 112B, include data generated by an e-mail client
application operating on the client computing device 102, and can
include mailbox information, folder information, emails,
attachments, associated database information, and the like. As
described above, the sub-clients can be logical containers, and the
data included in the corresponding primary data 112A, 112B may or
may not be stored contiguously.
[0252] The exemplary storage policy 148A includes a backup copy
rule set 160, a disaster recovery copy rule set 162, and a
compliance copy rule set 164. The backup copy rule set 160
specifies that it is associated with a file system sub-client 166
and an email sub-client 168. Each of these sub-clients 166, 168 are
associated with the particular client computing device 102. The
backup copy rule set 160 further specifies that the backup
operation will be written to the disk library 108A, and designates
a particular media agent 144A to convey the data to the disk
library 108A. Finally, the backup copy rule set 160 specifies that
backup copies created according to the rule set 160 are scheduled
to be generated on an hourly basis and to be retained for 30 days.
In some other embodiments, scheduling information is not included
in the storage policy 148A, and is instead specified by a separate
scheduling policy.
[0253] The disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with
the same two sub-clients 166, 168. However, the disaster recovery
copy rule set 162 is associated with the tape library 108B, unlike
the backup copy rule set 160. Moreover, the disaster recovery copy
rule set 162 specifies that a different media agent 144B than the
media agent 144A associated with the backup copy rule set 160 will
be used to convey the data to the tape library 108B. As indicated,
disaster recovery copies created according to the rule set 162 will
be retained for 60 days, and will be generated on a daily basis.
Disaster recovery copies generated according to the disaster
recovery copy rule set 162 can provide protection in the event of a
disaster or other data-loss event that would affect the backup copy
116A maintained on the disk library 108A.
[0254] The compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the
email sub-client 166, and not the file system sub-client 168.
Compliance copies generated according to the compliance copy rule
set 164 will therefore not include primary data 112A from the file
system sub-client 166. For instance, the organization may be under
an obligation to store maintain copies of email data for a
particular period of time (e.g., 10 years) to comply with state or
federal regulations, while similar regulations do not apply to the
file system data. The compliance copy rule set 164 is associated
with the same tape library 108B and media agent 144B as the
disaster recovery copy rule set 162, although a different storage
device or media agent could be used in other embodiments. Finally,
the compliance copy rule set 164 specifies that copies generated
under the compliance copy rule set 164 will be retained for 10
years, and will be generated on a quarterly basis.
[0255] At step 1, the storage manager 140 initiates a backup
operation according to the backup copy rule set 160. For instance,
a scheduling service running on the storage manager 140 accesses
scheduling information from the backup copy rule set 160 or a
separate scheduling policy associated with the client computing
device 102, and initiates a backup copy operation on an hourly
basis. Thus, at the scheduled time slot the storage manager 140
sends instructions to the client computing device 102 to begin the
backup operation.
[0256] At step 2, the file system data agent 142A and the email
data agent 142B residing on the client computing device 102 respond
to the instructions received from the storage manager 140 by
accessing and processing the primary data 112A, 112B involved in
the copy operation from the primary storage device 104. Because the
operation is a backup copy operation, the data agent(s) 142A, 142B
may format the data into a backup format or otherwise process the
data.
[0257] At step 3, the client computing device 102 communicates the
retrieved, processed data to the first media agent 144A, as
directed by the storage manager 140, according to the backup copy
rule set 160. In some other embodiments, the information management
system 100 may implement a load-balancing, availability-based, or
other appropriate algorithm to select from the available set of
media agents 144A, 144B. Regardless of the manner the media agent
144A is selected, the storage manager 140 may further keep a record
in the storage manager database 140 of the association between the
selected media agent 144A and the client computing device 102
and/or between the selected media agent 144A and the backup copy
116A.
[0258] The target media agent 144A receives the data from the
client computing device 102, and at step 4 conveys the data to the
disk library 108A to create the backup copy 116A, again at the
direction of the storage manager 140 and according to the backup
copy rule set 160. The secondary storage device 108A can be
selected in other ways. For instance, the media agent 144A may have
a dedicated association with a particular secondary storage
device(s), or the storage manager 140 or media agent 144A may
select from a plurality of secondary storage devices, e.g.,
according to availability, using one of the techniques described in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
[0259] The media agent 144A can also update its index 153 to
include data and/or metadata related to the backup copy 116A, such
as information indicating where the backup copy 116A resides on the
disk library 108A, data and metadata for cache retrieval, etc.
After the 30 day retention period expires, the storage manager 140
instructs the media agent 144A to delete the backup copy 116A from
the disk library 108A.
[0260] At step 5, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of
a disaster recovery copy 116B according to the disaster recovery
copy rule set 162. For instance, at step 6, based on instructions
received from the storage manager 140 at step 5, the specified
media agent 144B retrieves the most recent backup copy 116A from
the disk library 108A.
[0261] At step 7, again at the direction of the storage manager 140
and as specified in the disaster recovery copy rule set 162, the
media agent 144B uses the retrieved data to create a disaster
recovery copy 116B on the tape library 108B. In some cases, the
disaster recovery copy 116B is a direct, mirror copy of the backup
copy 116A, and remains in the backup format. In other embodiments,
the disaster recovery copy 116C may be generated in some other
manner, such as by using the primary data 112A, 112B from the
storage device 104 as source data. The disaster recovery copy
operation is initiated once a day and the disaster recovery copies
116A are deleted after 60 days.
[0262] At step 8, the storage manager 140 initiates the creation of
a compliance copy 116C, according to the compliance copy rule set
164. For instance, the storage manager 140 instructs the media
agent 144B to create the compliance copy 116C on the tape library
108B at step 9, as specified in the compliance copy rule set 164.
In the example, the compliance copy 116C is generated using the
disaster recovery copy 116B. In other embodiments, the compliance
copy 116C is instead generated using either the primary data 112B
corresponding to the email sub-client or using the backup copy 116A
from the disk library 108A as source data. As specified, compliance
copies 116C are created quarterly, and are deleted after ten
years.
[0263] While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a
restore operation can be initiated involving one or more of the
secondary copies 116A, 116B, 116C. As one example, a user may
manually initiate a restore of the backup copy 116A by interacting
with the user interface 158 of the storage manager 140. The storage
manager 140 then accesses data in its index 150 (and/or the
respective storage policy 148A) associated with the selected backup
copy 116A to identify the appropriate media agent 144A and/or
secondary storage device 116A.
[0264] In other cases, a media agent may be selected for use in the
restore operation based on a load balancing algorithm, an
availability based algorithm, or other criteria. The selected media
agent 144A retrieves the data from the disk library 108A. For
instance, the media agent 144A may access its index 153 to identify
a location of the backup copy 116A on the disk library 108A, or may
access location information residing on the disk 108A itself.
[0265] When the backup copy 116A was recently created or accessed,
the media agent 144A accesses a cached version of the backup copy
116A residing in the media agent index 153, without having to
access the disk library 108A for some or all of the data. Once it
has retrieved the backup copy 116A, the media agent 144A
communicates the data to the source client computing device 102.
Upon receipt, the file system data agent 142A and the email data
agent 142B may unpackage (e.g., restore from a backup format to the
native application format) the data in the backup copy 116A and
restore the unpackaged data to the primary storage device 104.
Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting
[0266] The formatting and structure of secondary copies 116 can
vary, depending on the embodiment. In some cases, secondary copies
116 are formatted as a series of logical data units or "chunks"
(e.g., 512 MB, 1 GB, 2 GB, 4 GB, or 8 GB chunks). This can
facilitate efficient communication and writing to secondary storage
devices 108, e.g., according to resource availability. For example,
a single secondary copy 116 may be written on a chunk-by-chunk
basis to a single secondary storage device 108 or across multiple
secondary storage devices 108. In some cases, users can select
different chunk sizes, e.g., to improve throughput to tape storage
devices.
[0267] Generally, each chunk can include a header and a payload.
The payload can include files (or other data units) or subsets
thereof included in the chunk, whereas the chunk header generally
includes metadata relating to the chunk, some or all of which may
be derived from the payload. For example, during a secondary copy
operation, the media agent 144, storage manager 140, or other
component may divide the associated files into chunks and generate
headers for each chunk by processing the constituent files.
[0268] The headers can include a variety of information such as
file identifier(s), volume(s), offset(s), or other information
associated with the payload data items, a chunk sequence number,
etc. Importantly, in addition to being stored with the secondary
copy 116 on the secondary storage device 108, the chunk headers can
also be stored to the index 153 of the associated media agent(s)
144 and/or the storage manager index 150. This is useful in some
cases for providing faster processing of secondary copies 116
during restores or other operations. In some cases, once a chunk is
successfully transferred to a secondary storage device 108, the
secondary storage device 108 returns an indication of receipt,
e.g., to the media agent 144 and/or storage manager 140, which may
update their respective indexes 150, 153 accordingly.
[0269] During restore, chunks may be processed (e.g., by the media
agent 144) according to the information in the chunk header to
reassemble the files. Additional information relating to chunks can
be found in U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, which is incorporated by
reference herein.
Workflow Engines Overview
[0270] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram illustrative of an embodiment
of the networked storage system 100, described in greater detail
above with reference to FIGS. 1A-1E. In the illustrated embodiment
of FIG. 2, the storage system 100 further includes workflow engines
161, a workflow manager 109, and a user interface 111.
[0271] As illustrated, in certain embodiments, the storage manager
140 includes a workflow manager 109 as a separate component that is
typically implemented as a software module or application program.
In some embodiments, the workflow manager 109 executes on a
computing device that is distinct from the computing device on
which the storage manager executes. In some embodiments, the
workflow manager 109 implements a workflow user interface 111 that
enables a user to create, form, and/or modify workflows, workflow
suites, and/or workflow activities, as will be described in greater
detail below with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B. The workflow
manager 109 can also deploy workflows to the workflow engines 161,
as will be described in greater detail below with reference to FIG.
5. As workflow activities are invoked, the workflow manager 109 can
determine which workflow engine 161 is to perform the workflow
activity based on an allocation scheme as will be described in
greater detail below with reference to FIG. 5.
[0272] Generally speaking, the workflow engines 161 may be
implemented as software modules that perform one or more data
storage workflow activities as part of an overarching workflow, as
will be described in greater detail below with reference to FIGS.
3A and 3B. The workflow engines 161 can be used to execute various
workflow activities in order to automate workflows. As such, the
demands on system administrators can be significantly reduced. The
workflow engines 161 can be implemented on separate computing
devices, or form part of the storage manager 140, clients 102,
media agents 144, and the like. When implemented as separate
computing devices, the workflow engines can be located remotely or
in close proximity to the storage manager 140, clients 102, and/or
media agents 144, and can communicate with the other components via
the one or more communication pathways 114.
[0273] As will be described in greater detail below with reference
to FIG. 5, once a workflow is defined by a user, the workflow
manager 109 can deploy the workflow to one or more of the workflow
engines 161. Once the workflow is deployed to one or more of the
workflow engines 161, the storage system 100 can monitor incoming
data to determine if a workflow event has occurred. For example,
the storage system 100 can monitor incoming emails, status reports
from the media agents 144 and storage devices 136, etc. Once a
workflow event has occurred, the storage manager 140 can direct one
or more of the workflow engines that include the deployed workflow
to perform a predefined workflow activity. The storage manager 140
can determine which workflow engine to use based on an allocation
scheme.
Workflow User Interface
[0274] FIG. 3A depicts an illustrative user interface 300 that
enables a user to create and/or modify a workflow for a networked
storage system. The workflows can be used to automate one or more
storage processes or procedures and can reduce the amount of time
spent by a system administrator monitoring those processes. As
illustrated, the user interface 300 includes various drop-down
menus 302 and commands 304, as well as various display objects 306.
Different display objects 306 can be viewed by selecting different
groups 308, such as Automation, Base, Server, and Decisions. One
skilled in the art will appreciate that the display objects 306 can
be organized, grouped, and displayed in a variety of different
ways. The user interface 300 may be the user interface 111 shown in
FIG. 2, for example.
[0275] Each display object 306 can be associated with a different
workflow activity that includes pre-configured, computer-executable
instructions enabling a computing device to perform a specific
operation or other task. In some embodiments, the specific
operation or task relates to the use, configuration,
administration, and/or maintenance of a networked storage system,
such as the networked storage system 100. The display objects can
be as numerous as the workflow activities, and can relate to a
broad spectrum of types of activities, such as user access, data
storage operations, communications, storage system configuration,
billing, account administration, and the like. For example, user
access display objects may include a login display object 310 and a
logout display object 312, among others. The login display object
310 can be related to a login workflow activity that allows a user
to access, or begin, the workflow. For instance, execution of the
login activity may launch a log-in screen prompting a user to enter
their log-in information. Similarly, the logout display object 312
can be related to a logout workflow activity that allows a user to
log out of, or end, the workflow (e.g., by presenting a log-out
interface on user interface).
[0276] Data storage operation display objects may include backup
and restore display objects 314, 316, restore display object 316,
and the like. The backup and restore display objects 314, 316 can
be associated with similarly named workflow activities that perform
a backup and restore operations. For example, the backup workflow
activity 314 can be any type of secondary data copy, such as a
snapshot copy, complete backup, archive copy, or the like. In some
embodiments, each type of backup workflow activity (e.g. secondary
data copy, snapshot copy, complete backup, archive copy,
deduplication, etc.) can be associated with a distinct display
object. Moreover, the backup activity can perform the secondary
copy operation on a single data store or portions thereof, or
multiple data stores or portions thereof, as defined by the
workflow activity. The restore workflow activity 316 can be a
restore of one or more data stores, or a restore of portions of one
or more data stores, such as of one or more particular files,
folders or data clusters.
[0277] The status display object 318 can be associated with a
status workflow activity that determines the status of another
workflow activity, such as a restore or backup. The status display
object 318 can be associated with the data storage operation
display objects or can form part of a general display objects
category that can be used with various categories, or types, of
display objects.
[0278] Communication display objects may include email display
object 320, SMS display objects, fax display objects,
computer-to-computer communication display objects or other display
objects associated with communication workflow activities. For
example, the email display object 320 can be associated with an
email workflow activity that sends an email to a particular user
based on different criteria. For example, if a backup or restore
fails, an email can be generated as part of an email workflow
activity and sent to a system administrator. Similarly, as part of
one or more workflow activities, an email can be generated to alert
a user if a bill is due or if a particular service is about to
end.
[0279] Similarly, storage system configuration display objects can
be associated with storage system configuration workflow
activities, such as a security check workflow activity, media agent
maintenance workflow activity, storage device expansion workflow
activity, etc. For example, the security check workflow activity
can review the data agents 142, media agents 144, clients 102,
secondary storage devices 136, and the like for security potential
security updates. In some embodiments, should any security updates
be available, the security check workflow activity can update the
component. In certain embodiments, a separate workflow activity can
update the component. Other storage system configuration workflow
activities can include software installation workflow activities to
install software to the various components of the networked storage
system 100, storage device installation workflow activities to
configure and install a new secondary storage device 136 as part of
the system 100. For instance, in one embodiment, one or more
activities of the workflow suite are configured to (1) discover or
otherwise identify the clients in the system 100, (2) determine
whether the individual clients have certain security software
installed (e.g., anti-virus software) and (3) for the clients not
having the security information installed, cause the security
software to be downloaded; and/or (4) cause the security
information to be installed.
[0280] Billing and account administration display objects can be
associated with similarly named workflow activities. For example,
billing workflow activities can review billing information and
monitor whether invoices for a particular account are up-to-date or
past due. Account administration workflow activities can track and
modify account information, such as whether an account is active or
suspended. The account administration workflow activities can also
be used to create, modify, or remove accounts and account
information as desired.
[0281] Other display objects 322 can be associated with
user-defined workflow activities that perform actions as defined by
the user. The illustrated examples are not limiting. Rather, a
large number of possible workflow activities and corresponding
display objects can be provided as part of the user interface 300,
such as performing a storage policy lookup, retrieving client,
media agent information, etc., and the like. For example, a storage
policy lookup workflow activity can query the storage manager or
other device to determine the storage policy for the system. Other
workflow activities can be used to modify the retrieved storage
policy. Similarly a workflow activity can retrieve client 102, data
agent 142, media agent 144, and/or secondary storage device 136
information from the desired system component. Other workflow
activities can modify the properties or parameters of the selected
system component as desired. Furthermore, a user can interact with
the workflow manager 109 (e.g., the user interface 300) to create
their own display objects and associated workflow activities, or to
group multiple workflow activities together to form a larger
workflow activity.
[0282] To create a workflow, a user can select one or more display
objects 306 and relocate the display objects 306 to a workflow
modify area 324 of the user interface 300. In some embodiments, the
user can "drag and drop" the display objects 306 onto the workflow
modify area 324. The user can also organize and relate the display
object 306 as desired to define a workflow for the storage system
100. For example, the user can move the display objects around the
workflow modify area 324 and then connect the display object 306
with connectors. Similarly, a user can modify an existing workflow
by adding, moving or removing one or more workflow activities from
the workflow.
Workflow Example
[0283] In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 3A, the user interface
displays a backup/restore workflow 326. The backup/restore workflow
326 includes multiple display objects that are associated with
workflow activities. Due to the association between display objects
and workflow activities, the components of the workflow 326 are
referred to as display objects and workflow activities
interchangeably. For example, the display object 330, which is
associated with a login workflow activity is also referred to as
the login workflow activity 330. The example workflow 326 is an
example, and is not to be construed as limiting. As will be
described in greater detail below with reference to FIG. 5, one or
more workflow engines 161 can be used to carry the constituent
workflow activities of the workflow 326. Furthermore, each time a
workflow activity or group of workflow activities of the workflow
326 are invoked for execution, the system can determine which
workflow engine 161 to use to carry out the current workflow
activity or group of workflow activities. To determine which
workflow engine 161 to use, the system can use an allocation scheme
and/or other information regarding the workflow engines 161.
[0284] Once the workflow 326 is initiated, the workflow manager 109
determines which workflow engine 161 will execute the next workflow
activity, as will be described in greater detail below with
reference to FIG. 5. In some embodiments, prior to each workflow
activity being executed, the workflow manager 109 identifies a
workflow engine 161 to perform the current workflow activity. In
certain embodiments, the workflow engine that performs the current
workflow activity is predetermined. The first workflow activity of
the workflow 326 includes a login workflow activity 330 that allows
a user to log into, or begin, the workflow 326. In some
embodiments, as part of the login workflow activity 330, the system
determines whether the login has occurred or was successful. The
determination can be made by the workflow manager 109, workflow
engine 161, or other system component. For example, the login
workflow activity 330 can include a timeout threshold or a failed
login attempts threshold that when reached can result in the login
being unsuccessful. In certain embodiments, the determination of
success, failure, completion and/or other status of a current
workflow activity is itself a distinct workflow activity. And,
depending on the determination, different subsequent workflow
activities can be invoked. For instance, if the login is
unsuccessful an email workflow activity 332 shown as a failure
email is invoked. As determined by the email workflow activity 332,
an email is generated and sent by the system. The failure email
workflow activity 332 can define when the email is to be sent, to
whom the email is sent, and the contents of the email.
[0285] On the other hand, if the login workflow activity 330 is
completed successfully, a backup workflow activity 334 is invoked
and a backup of the data storage devices referred to by the backup
workflow activity 334 begins. As mentioned previously, prior to
performing the backup workflow activity 334, the workflow manager
109 can identify a workflow engine to perform the backup workflow
activity 334. The determination can be made based on an allocation
scheme, as will be discussed in greater detail below. As part of
the backup workflow activity 334 and with reference to FIG. 2, the
workflow engine 161 can instruct the storage manager 140 or the
media agent 144 to initiate and manage a secondary copy of
production data generated by one or more clients 102 to one or more
secondary storage devices 136. In some embodiments, a separate
monitor backup workflow activity 336 is also invoked. In certain
embodiments, the monitor backup workflow activity 336 forms part of
the backup workflow activity 334. The monitor backup workflow
activity 336 monitors the backup to determine if there are any
errors and whether the backup is complete. The monitor backup
workflow activity 336 can use a predetermined time to determine
when the backup workflow activity 334 should be completed. If any
errors occur or if the backup workflow activity 334 is not
completed according to the monitor backup workflow activity 336,
the failure email workflow activity 338 is invoked and a failure
email is sent as determined by the failure email workflow activity
338.
[0286] On the hand, if the backup completes, the restore workflow
activity 340 and the monitor restore workflow activity 342 are
invoked, similar to the backup workflow activity 334 and the
monitor backup workflow activity 336, described above. The restore
workflow activity 340 can be used to restore one or more of the
secondary storage devices 136, or portions thereof, to one or more
clients 102, and the monitor restore workflow activity 342 can be
used to monitor the restore workflow activity 340. If the restore
is unsuccessful, failure email workflow activity 344 is invoked
similar to the failure email workflow activity 338. Following the
failure email workflow activity 344, the system logout workflow
activity 348 is invoked to allow the user to logout of, or end, the
backup/restore workflow 326. However, if the restore workflow
activity 340 is completed, the email workflow activity is 346 is
invoked and a success email is generated and sent as determined by
the email workflow activity is 346. Following the email workflow
activity 346, the system logout workflow activity 348 is invoked,
and the workflow 326 is ended. Depending on the embodiment, the
workflow 326 can be altered and modified in a variety of ways, and
different workflows can be created using different workflow
activities as desired.
[0287] FIG. 3B depicts the user interface 300 and a display window
350 displaying the properties of a workflow activity. In the
illustrated embodiment, the display window 350 enables a user to
view the properties of the backup workflow activity 314. Various
tabs 352 of the display window 350 relate to various properties of
the backup workflow activity 314.
[0288] In the illustrated embodiment, the inputs tab 354 is
displayed along with various inputs 356 of the backup workflow
activity 314. The various inputs 356 are used by the backup
workflow activity 314 to determine parameters of the backup or
other secondary copy operation. For example, the inputs can be used
to determine the type of backup, such as a snapshot or full backup.
The input parameters can also determine which client, clients, or
portions thereof are to be backed up. Additionally, the inputs can
include which data agents will be used during the backup and any
subclients within the clients that will be backed up. Other input
parameters can be used, such as the frequency of the backup, a
termination time of the backup or a time by when the backup needs
to be completed, certain criteria to determine which workflow
engine 161 should be used to handle the backup, etc. In some
embodiments, a user is able to edit the properties of the backup
workflow activity 314, such as the inputs, as desired.
[0289] The display window 350 can similarly be used to view other
properties of the backup workflow activity 314. For example, the
display window 350 can be used to display general information
related to the backup workflow activity 314, enter scripts, values,
exit scripts and outputs of the backup workflow activity 314.
Workflow Creation and Modification
[0290] FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a
routine 400 implemented by a storage manager 140 for modifying a
workflow. The elements outlined for routine 400 may be implemented
by one or more computing devices/components that are associated
with the storage system 100. For example, routine 400 can be
implemented by any one, or a combination of the storage manager
140, the workflow manager 109, the client 102, the media agent 144,
the workflow engines 161, and the like. Accordingly, routine 400
has been logically associated as being generally performed by the
storage manager 140, and thus the following illustrative embodiment
should not construed as limiting.
[0291] At block 402, the storage manager 140 transmits data to
cause display objects associated with the workflow activities to be
displayed on a display device associated with a user, similar to
the display objects 306 discussed previously with respect to FIGS.
3A and 3B. As mentioned previously, the workflow activities include
computer-executable instructions that enable a workflow engine 161
to perform a predefined operation or task. The display device can
be associated with a client computing device 102, a system
administrator computing device, or other display device.
[0292] At block 404, the storage manager 140 receives indications
to group a subset of the display objects. For example, when a user
places one or more display objects 306 within the workflow modify
area 324, the storage manager 140 can receive indications that the
one or more display objects within the workflow modify area 324
form a group. The grouped display objects 306 can be used to form a
workflow, similar to the workflow 326.
[0293] At block 406, the storage manager receives indications to
order the subset of the display objects. As a user arranges the one
or more display objects 306 within the workflow modify area 324,
the storage manager 140 can receive indications regarding the order
of the display objects. The order can relate to the location of the
display objects from left-to-right, top-to-bottom, front-to-back,
spiral, shapes, colors, a spatial location within the workflow
modify area 324, such as distance from center, side, top, or
bottom, etc.
[0294] At block 408, the storage manager receives indications to
relate the subset of display objects. As a user relates display
objects 306, the storage manager 140 can receive indications
regarding the created relationships. The user can use relationship
indicators to denote a relationship between display objects. The
relationship indicators can be implemented using arrows, pointers,
colors, numbers, letters, symbols, combinations thereof, and the
like. In addition, the relationship indicators can create various
types of relationships including, but not limited to, sequential
relationships, parallel relationship, conditional relationships,
and the like. For example, an arrow from one display object to
another, such as the arrow from the backup 334 to the monitor
backup 336 can indicate that the backup workflow activity 334 is to
begin prior to the monitor backup workflow activity 336. Similarly,
a "yes" arrow can indicate a conditional relationship between two
or more display objects.
[0295] At block 410, the storage manager generates a workflow suite
based on the group, order and/or relationship between the subset of
display objects, and the workflow activities associated with the
subset of the display objects. The workflow suite can include the
parameters, properties, and other information regarding the
individual workflow activities and the workflow as a whole. For
example, the workflow suite can include the order in which workflow
activities occur within the workflow, the relationship between
different workflow activities, dependencies associated with the
workflow activities, the inputs and outputs of the different
workflow activities, etc. In some embodiments the storage manager
can review the display objects to ensure the order, relationship,
and/or group are consistent and/or would not cause an error. For
example, the storage manager 140 can review the input and output
properties of each workflow activity and check that the outputs of
earlier workflow activities match the inputs of subsequent workflow
activities.
[0296] Additional, fewer, or different blocks can be used to
implement the routine 400 without departing from the spirit and
scope of the description. For example, the storage manager 140, can
receive indications to order the display objects before, after, or
at the same time as receiving indications to relate the display
objects. In some embodiments, the storage manager 140 receives the
indications regarding groups, order, and relationships at the same
time that it generates the workflow suite. In certain embodiments,
the storage manager 140 receives indications to include a subset of
the display objects in the workflow in response to a user's
interaction with the graphical user interface 300. Once the
indication is received, the storage manager 140 generates a
workflow suite that includes the subset of workflow activities that
correspond to the display objects included in the subset. As
mentioned above, the order and relationship between the workflow
activities can be based on user input via the user interface 300.
In certain embodiments, the storage manager can receive indications
to alter properties of a particular display object. The properties
may include, but are not limited to, inputs, outputs,
computer-executable instructions, dependencies on other display
objects, etc.
Workflow Operation
[0297] FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram illustrative of embodiments of a
routine 500 implemented by a storage manager 140 for allocating
workflow assignments between workflow engines 161. The flow diagram
is not limiting, and the elements outlined for routine 500 may be
implemented by one or more computing devices/components that are
associated with the storage system 100. For example, routine 500
can be implemented by any one, or a combination of the storage
manager 140, the workflow manager 109, the client 102, the media
agent 144, the workflow engines 161, and the like. Accordingly,
routine 500 has been logically associated as being generally
performed by the storage manager 140, and thus the following
illustrative embodiment should not construed as limiting.
[0298] At block 502, the storage manager 140 receives the workflow
suite associated with a particular workflow from the workflow
manager 109 As mentioned previously, the workflow suite can include
the parameters and information regarding a specific workflow. For
example, the workflow suite can include the order in which workflow
activities occur within the workflow, the relationship between
different workflow activities, dependencies associated with the
workflow activities, the inputs and outputs of the different
workflow activities, and the like. As described in greater detail
above with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B, the workflow and many of
the workflow parameters can be defined using the user interface
300. In some embodiments the user interface 300, display objects
306, workflows, and workflow activities, are implemented using an
object-oriented computer language, such as Java, C++, C#, etc. The
storage manager 140 can receive the workflow suite via a LAN, such
as an organization's internal network, or a WAN (e.g., the
Internet).
[0299] At block 504, the storage manager 140 deploys the workflow
suite to one or more workflow engines 161. In some embodiments, the
storage manager 140 can use the workflow manager 109 to deploy the
workflow suite to the workflow engines 161. In some embodiments, as
part of the deployment, the storage manager 140 additionally
transmits the routines, processes, executable instructions, and
other information sufficient to execute the individual workflow
activities to the workflow engines 161. In certain embodiments, the
storage manager 140 can transmit the parameters of the workflow
suite that allow the workflow engines 161 to determine which
workflow activities already stored on the workflow engines 161 are
to be executed, and in what order. For example, the storage manager
140 can transmit workflow activity identifiers, pointers, function
calls, a combination thereof, and other appropriate information
that allows the workflow engines 161 to identify the workflow
activities to execute and which order to execute them in.
[0300] The storage manager 140 can deploy the workflow suite to one
or more workflow engines 161 based on the workflow engines 161
selected via the user interface 300 or based on a deployment scheme
The deployment scheme can be selected based on specific system
design preferences, user preferences, and can take into account a
variety of factors. In some embodiments, the allocation scheme can
be based on activity levels of the workflow engines 161. For
example, the storage manager 140 can deploy the workflow suite to
workflow engines 161 with low or medium activity levels prior to
deploying workflow suite to workflow engines 161 with high activity
levels. A wide variety or combination of metrics can be used to
determine the activity levels of the workflow engines 161, and what
constitutes "low," "medium," and "high" activity levels can be
determined by a user, as desired.
[0301] In some embodiments, the activity level can be based on the
total number of workflows (or total number of workflow suite) that
have been deployed to individual workflow engines 161. For example,
workflow engines having at or above a threshold number of deployed
workflows (or threshold number of workflow suite) can be identified
as having a high activity level, while workflow engines with fewer
than a threshold number of workflows (or number of workflow suite)
can be identified as having a low activity level. In some
embodiments, workflow engines with workflow suite between two
thresholds can be identified as having a medium activity level.
[0302] In certain embodiments, the activity level can be based on
the number of computer processes or active computer processes on a
workflow engine. The number of active processes can relate to the
number of workflow activities currently being performed by the
workflow engine 161. Similar to the number of workflow suite,
various thresholds can be set as desired to determine the number of
processes or active processes that constitutes "low," "medium," and
"high" activity levels.
[0303] In some embodiments, the activity level can be based on a
utilization rate of a workflow engine 161. The utilization rate can
be based on the amount, size and/or speed of the resources
available to the workflow engine (e.g., processing speed, number of
processors or processor cores, memory size and speed, communication
rates, etc.) compared with how close to capacity the resources are
operated. For example, a processor of a workflow engine may be
relatively slow, but on average only be operating at 30% of its
capacity, and therefore may have a low utilization rate and low
activity level. In contrast, a relatively fast processor with
multiple cores may operate at 95% capacity on average and therefore
have a high utilization rate or high activity level. Additional
metrics, or combinations thereof, can be used to determine the
activity level of a workflow engine.
[0304] In some embodiments, the deployment scheme can be based on
resources (speed, size, memory, processor) of the workflow engines.
In certain embodiments, the storage manager 140 may access a stored
table or index including a listing of the workflow engines 161 and
associated parameters (e.g., associated computing resources). As
mentioned above, the resources can relate to the processing speed,
number or processors or cores, memory size and speed, and/or
communication rates of a particular workflow engine. For example,
the deployment scheme may have minimum resource requirements, such
as minimum processing speed, memory size, etc. Other deployment
schemes may prefer older, smaller, or slower resources.
[0305] In certain embodiments, the deployment scheme is based on
physical proximity to the workflow engines 161. For example, the
deployment scheme may have preference for workflow engines 161 that
are physically closer to the storage manager 140 or a particular
client 102, media agent 144, and/or secondary storage device 136.
Similarly, the deployment scheme can be based on the speeds of
communication pathways between the workflow engines 161 and other
components of the system 100. For example, the workflow may be time
sensitive and the deployment scheme may have a preference for
faster communication pathways. In certain embodiments, the workflow
may be of low priority and the deployment scheme may have a
preference for slower communication pathways to reserve the faster
communication pathways for more important workflows.
[0306] In some embodiments, the deployment scheme can be based on
failure rates of the workflow engines 161. For example, the
deployment scheme may have a preference for workflow engines 161
with failure rates below a threshold. Different workflows may have
different failure rate thresholds depending on their priority
and/or sensitivity levels. In certain embodiments, the deployment
scheme can also take into account scheduled maintenance or down
time. For example, some workflows may have specific time
constraints, such as being completed on a weekend. The deployment
scheme can take into account the scheduled maintenance or down time
of workflow engines 161 to avoid deploying workflow suite to
workflow engines 161 that will be unavailable when workflow
activities will be performed. The deployment scheme can also take
into account software versions or updates. For example, workflow
engines 161 with a certain software version number may be preferred
over others, or the deployment scheme may prefer prior that all
workflow engines 161 that will receive the workflow suite have the
same software version number. In some embodiments, the deployment
scheme can use probabilistic determinations to identify the
workflow engines 161 that will likely have sufficient bandwidth to
handle future workflow activities associated with the workflow. In
certain embodiments, the deployment scheme deploys the workflow
suite to workflow engines 161 based on the costs of operating or
licensing the workflow engine.
[0307] In some embodiments, different workflow engines 161 are
configured to handle specific workflow activities, and the storage
manager 140 deploys portions of the workflow suite to the different
workflow engines based on their configuration. For example one
workflow engine may be specifically configured to handle backup
workflow activities, while another workflow engine may be
specifically configured to handle storage policy requests. Based on
these configurations, the storage manager 140 can deploy the
portions of the workflow suite that relate to backup storage
operations to the first workflow engine and deploy the portions of
the workflow suite that relate to storage policy requests to the
second workflow engine.
[0308] With continued reference to FIG. 5, at block 506, the
storage manager 140 queries the workflow engines 161. As part of
the query the storage manager can obtain information related to the
workflow engines that can be used to allocate the initial workflow
activity. The information queried from the workflow engines 161 can
be based on an allocation scheme of the system 100, the storage
manager 140, or the workflow itself, as will be described in
greater detail below
[0309] At block 508, the storage manager 140 allocates the initial
workflow activity based on the allocation scheme. The allocation
scheme can be similar in many respects to the deployment scheme
described above, and can be used to determine which of the workflow
engines 161 is to perform the initial workflow activity. Similar to
the deployment scheme, the allocation scheme can be based on
different factors, such as activity levels, workflow engine
resources, physical proximity, communication pathway speeds,
failure rates, schedule maintenance or down time, software
versions, costs of operation, etc. In some embodiments, the
allocation scheme takes into account a probabilistic determination
that the initial workflow activity will be completed within a
predetermined time frame. In some embodiments, the allocation
scheme allows the storage manager 140 to divide the initial
workflow activity between workflow engines. In this way, the
initial workflow activity can be completed more quickly. In some
embodiments, the allocation scheme directs the selection storage
manager 140 to select one or more workflow engines 161 from among
the workflow engines 161 to which the workflow suite has been
deployed. In certain embodiments, the storage manager 140 selects a
different workflow engine to which the workflow suite has not
already been deployed.
[0310] The allocation scheme can direct the storage manager 140 to
dynamically select a workflow engine 161 for the initial workflow
activity and for each subsequent workflow activity. Thus, in some
embodiments, prior to each workflow activity, the storage manager
140 determines which workflow engine is to perform the current
workflow activity.
[0311] In certain embodiments, as part of the allocation scheme,
the storage manager can select one or more workflow engines to
perform multiple workflow activities consecutively, or divide a
group of workflow activities between multiple workflow engines 161.
As such, the storage manager 140 can reduce the frequency of
allocating workflow activities to one or more workflow engines 161.
In some embodiments, the storage manager 140 can select one or more
workflow engines 161 to perform the entire workflow. Thus, each
time a workflow event occurs, the preselected workflow engines 161
are used to perform the current workflow activity. In such
embodiments, the assigned workflow engines 161 can determine when a
workflow activity is to be performed and which workflow engine 161
will perform the workflow activity.
[0312] In certain embodiments, the allocation scheme directs the
storage manager 140 to determine whether a workflow engine that
does not include the deployed workflow suite is better suited for
the initial workflow activity. If the workflow engine that does not
include the deployed configuration parameters is better equipped to
perform the initial workflow activity, the storage manager 140
assigns the initial workflow activity to the different workflow
engine. For example, the storage manager 140 may determine that the
workflow engines including the deployed workflow suite are over
utilized or lack sufficient bandwidth to complete the initial
workflow activity within a given time. Alternatively, the storage
manager 140 may determine that the different workflow engine is
under-utilized or includes resources that are better equipped to
handle the initial workflow activity. Accordingly, the storage
manager 140 can deploy the entire workflow or portions thereof to
the workflow engine that does not include the deployed workflow
suite and have that workflow engine execute the initial workflow
activity.
[0313] Once the initial workflow activity is allocated, the storage
manager 140 determines whether another workflow activity from the
workflow is to be allocated, as illustrated at block 510.
[0314] In some embodiments, to determine whether a workflow
activity should be allocated, the storage manager 140 can monitor
the workflow engine 161 that is performing the initial workflow
activity, other workflow engines 161, and/or additional data, such
as internal or external communications, user input that relates to
the workflow, requests to access the workflow, or other data. In
certain embodiments, the storage manager 140 can determine that a
workflow activity is to be allocated based on an incoming email
with predefined information. For example, an email from a customer
may include payment information or a request not to end services.
In certain embodiments, the storage manager 140 can determine that
a workflow activity is to be allocated based on a message from
another client computing device 102, media agent 144, secondary
storage device 136, or external computer reporting an error or
other issue. For example, a secondary storage device 136 may send a
message indicating that a backup cannot be completed within a
predetermined time or that additional storage space is needed to
complete the backup. In some embodiments, the workflow engines 161
send a message that a particular workflow activity has completed,
succeeded, failed, timed out, or cannot be completed. In the event
that the initial workflow activity cannot be completed as desired,
the workflow activity that is to be allocated can be the initial
workflow activity to another workflow engine 161.
[0315] If the storage manager 140 determines that there is not
another workflow activity to be allocated, the storage manager 140
can end the routine 500, as illustrated at block 516. On the other
hand, if the storage manager 140 determines that a workflow
activity is to be allocated, the storage manager queries the
workflow engines, as illustrated at block 512. The storage manager
140 can query the workflow engines 161 in a manner similar to that
described above with reference to block 506.
[0316] At block 514, the storage manager 140 allocates the workflow
activity or activities based on the allocation scheme. Similar to
the description above with reference to block 508 and the
allocation of the initial workflow activity, the storage manager
140 can allocate one or more workflow activities to one or more
workflow engines based on the allocation scheme. The allocation
scheme can take into account a variety of factors to determine how
the workflow activities are to be allocated between the workflow
engines 161. In some embodiments, the additional workflow activity
can be allocated at the same time as the initial workflow activity,
after the initial workflow activity has begun or has been
completed, or upon the occurrence of some other event. Upon
allocating the additional workflow activity 514, the storage manage
can determine if there are any additional workflow activities to be
allocated, as described in greater detail above with reference to
block 510.
[0317] Additional, fewer, or different blocks can be used to
implement the routine 500 without departing from the spirit and
scope of the description. For example, in some embodiments, block
506 can be consolidated with block 512 and block 508 can be
consolidated with block 514. In such embodiments, once the workflow
suite is deployed to the workflow engines (block 504), the storage
manager can determine if a workflow activity is to be allocated
(block 510). The workflow activity can include the initial workflow
activity. Once the storage manager 140 determines that a workflow
activity is to be allocated, the storage manager 140 can proceed to
blocks 512 and 514, as described in greater detail above.
Terminology
[0318] Conditional language, such as, among others, "can," "could,"
"might," or "may," unless specifically stated otherwise, or
otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally
intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other
embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or
steps. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to
imply that features, elements and/or steps are in any way required
for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments
necessarily include logic for deciding, with or without user input
or prompting, whether these features, elements and/or steps are
included or are to be performed in any particular embodiment.
[0319] Depending on the embodiment, certain acts, events, or
functions of any of the algorithms described herein can be
performed in a different sequence, can be added, merged, or left
out altogether (e.g., not all described acts or events are
necessary for the practice of the algorithms). Moreover, in certain
embodiments, acts or events can be performed concurrently, e.g.,
through multi-threaded processing, interrupt processing, or
multiple processors or processor cores or on other parallel
architectures, rather than sequentially.
[0320] Systems and modules described herein may comprise software,
firmware, hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or
hardware suitable for the purposes described herein. Software and
other modules may reside on servers, workstations, personal
computers, computerized tablets, PDAs, and other devices suitable
for the purposes described herein. Software and other modules may
be accessible via local memory, via a network, via a browser, or
via other means suitable for the purposes described herein. Data
structures described herein may comprise computer files, variables,
programming arrays, programming structures, or any electronic
information storage schemes or methods, or any combinations
thereof, suitable for the purposes described herein. User interface
elements described herein may comprise elements from graphical user
interfaces, command line interfaces, and other suitable
interfaces.
[0321] Further, the processing of the various components of the
illustrated systems can be distributed across multiple machines,
networks, and other computing resources. In addition, two or more
components of a system can be combined into fewer components.
Various components of the illustrated systems can be implemented in
one or more virtual machines, rather than in dedicated computer
hardware systems. Likewise, the data repositories shown can
represent physical and/or logical data storage, including, for
example, storage area networks or other distributed storage
systems. Moreover, in some embodiments the connections between the
components shown represent possible paths of data flow, rather than
actual connections between hardware. While some examples of
possible connections are shown, any of the subset of the components
shown can communicate with any other subset of components in
various implementations.
[0322] Embodiments are also described above with reference to flow
chart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus
(systems) and computer program products. Each block of the flow
chart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of
blocks in the flow chart illustrations and/or block diagrams, may
be implemented by computer program instructions. Such instructions
may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer,
special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing
apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which
execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable
data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the acts
specified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or
blocks.
[0323] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other
programmable data processing apparatus to operate in a particular
manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable
memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction
means which implement the acts specified in the flow chart and/or
block diagram block or blocks. The computer program instructions
may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data
processing apparatus to cause a series of operations to be
performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to
produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions
which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus
provide steps for implementing the acts specified in the flow chart
and/or block diagram block or blocks.
[0324] While certain embodiments have been described, these
embodiments have been presented by way of example only, and are not
intended to limit the scope of the disclosure. Indeed, the novel
methods and systems described herein may be embodied in a variety
of other forms; furthermore, various omissions, substitutions and
changes in the form of the described methods and systems may be
made without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. The
accompanying claims and their equivalents are intended to cover
such forms or modifications as would fall within the scope and
spirit of the disclosure.
* * * * *