U.S. patent application number 14/148465 was filed with the patent office on 2014-07-10 for virtual machine management in a data storage system.
This patent application is currently assigned to COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC.. The applicant listed for this patent is COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC.. Invention is credited to Sri Karthik Bhagi, Sumer Dilip Deshpande, Henry Wallace Dornemann, Rajiv Kottomtharayil, Rahul S. Pawar, Ashwin Gautamchand Sancheti, Ananda Venkatesha.
Application Number | 20140196038 14/148465 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 51062046 |
Filed Date | 2014-07-10 |
United States Patent
Application |
20140196038 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Kottomtharayil; Rajiv ; et
al. |
July 10, 2014 |
VIRTUAL MACHINE MANAGEMENT IN A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM
Abstract
Virtual machine (VM) proliferation may be reduced through the
use of Virtual Server Agents (VSAs) assigned to a group of VM hosts
that may determine the availability of a VM to perform a task.
Tasks may be assigned to existing VMs instead of creating a new VM
to perform the task. Furthermore, a VSA coordinator may determine a
grouping of VMs or VM hosts based on one or more factors associated
with the VMs or the VM hosts, such as VM type or geographical
location of the VM hosts. The VSA coordinator may also assign one
or more VSAs to facilitate managing the group of VM hosts. In some
embodiments, the VSA coordinators may facilitate load balancing of
VSAs during operation, such as during a backup operation, a restore
operation, or any other operation between a primary storage system
and a secondary storage system.
Inventors: |
Kottomtharayil; Rajiv;
(Marlboro, NJ) ; Pawar; Rahul S.; (Marlboro,
NJ) ; Sancheti; Ashwin Gautamchand; (Ocean, NJ)
; Deshpande; Sumer Dilip; (Ocean, NJ) ; Bhagi; Sri
Karthik; (Hyderabad, IN) ; Dornemann; Henry
Wallace; (Eatontown, NJ) ; Venkatesha; Ananda;
(Manalapan, NJ) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC. |
OCEANPORT |
NJ |
US |
|
|
Assignee: |
COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC.
OCEANPORT
NJ
|
Family ID: |
51062046 |
Appl. No.: |
14/148465 |
Filed: |
January 6, 2014 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
61750255 |
Jan 8, 2013 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
718/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 2209/5022 20130101;
G06F 9/505 20130101; G06F 9/5083 20130101; G06F 9/45533
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
718/1 |
International
Class: |
G06F 9/455 20060101
G06F009/455 |
Claims
1. A method of reducing virtual machine proliferation, the method
comprising: receiving a job request at a virtual server agent, the
virtual server agent comprising computer hardware; determining a
load for each virtual machine from a set of virtual machines, the
set of virtual machines at least partially managed by the virtual
server agent; determining whether the load of at least one virtual
machine from the set of virtual machines is below a threshold load;
in response to determining that the load of at least one virtual
machine from the set of virtual machines is below the threshold
load, selecting a virtual machine from a set of virtual machines
with a load that is below the threshold load and assigning a job
associated with the job request to the selected virtual machine;
and in response to determining that no virtual machine from the set
of virtual machines is below a threshold load, initiating creation
of a new virtual machine and assigning the job associated with the
job request to the new virtual machine.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the load for each
virtual machine from the set of virtual machines comprises
accessing one or more virtual machine monitors to obtain the load
for each virtual machine.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the job request is received from
a virtual server agent coordinator.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual server agent is one
of a plurality of virtual server agents configured to at least
partially manage the set of virtual machines.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the virtual machine
comprises selecting the virtual machine based at least partially on
a load balancing scheme.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein the load balancing scheme
includes round robin.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a job
type of the job request; and selecting the load threshold based at
least partially on the job type.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining an
expected load for the job request; and selecting the load threshold
based at least partially on the expected load for the job
request.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual server agent is part
of a primary storage system.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual server agent is
configured to communicate with one or more media agents of a
secondary storage system via one or more streams between the
virtual server agent and each media agent of the one or more media
agents.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein initiating creation of the new
virtual machine comprises: selecting a computing system from a set
of computing systems, the set of computing systems hosting the set
of virtual machines; and causing a virtual machine monitor of the
selected computing system to create the new virtual machine.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting the computing system
is based at least partially on a job type of the job request.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein selecting the computing system
comprises selecting the computing system based at least partially
on a load balancing scheme.
14. A system for reducing virtual machine proliferation, the system
comprising: a virtual server agent comprising computer hardware,
the virtual server agent configured to: receive a job request;
access load information for each virtual machine from a set of
virtual machines assigned to the virtual server agent; identify,
based at least partially on the load information for each virtual
machine, a subset of virtual machines from the set of virtual
machines with a load below a threshold load; and select a virtual
machine from the subset of virtual machines and assign a job
associated with the job request to the selected virtual machine
when the subset of virtual machines is a non-empty set.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein the virtual server agent is
further configured to initiate creation of a new virtual machine
and to assign the job associated with the job request to the new
virtual machine when the subset of virtual machines is an empty
set.
16. The system of claim 15, wherein the virtual server agent is
further configured to initiate the creation of the new virtual
machine by: selecting a computing system from a set of computing
systems, the set of computing systems configured to host the set of
virtual machines; and causing a virtual machine monitor of the
selected computing system to create the new virtual machine.
17. The system of claim 15, wherein the virtual server agent is
further configured to provide information associated with the new
virtual machine to a virtual machine management interface
configured to present virtual machine status information to a
user.
18. The system of claim 14, wherein the virtual server agent is
further configured to access one or more virtual machine monitors
to obtain the load information for each virtual machine.
19. The system of claim 14, wherein the virtual server agent is
further configured to determine the threshold load based on the job
request.
20. The system of claim 14, wherein the virtual server agent is
further configured to communicate with one or more media agents of
a secondary storage system via one or more streams between the
virtual server agent and each media agent of the one or more media
agents.
Description
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This disclosure claims the benefit of priority under 35
U.S.C. .sctn.119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.
61/750,255, filed on Jan. 8, 2013, and titled "VIRTUAL MACHINE
MANAGEMENT IN A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM," the disclosure of which is
hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Further, this
disclosure is related to the following disclosures that were filed
on Jan. 6, 2014, the same date as the present disclosure, and which
are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety herein: U.S.
application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. COMMV.151A2),
titled "VIRTUAL MACHINE CATEGORIZATION SYSTEM AND METHOD" and U.S.
application Ser. No. ______ (Attorney Docket No. COMMV.151A3),
titled "VIRTUAL SERVER AGENT LOAD BALANCING."
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 certain environments, data storage operations can be
implemented with the use of virtual machines. As such virtual
machines are generally allocated physical resources for operational
purposes, excessive utilization numbers of virtual machines can
limit a system's available resources. Furthermore, inefficient
allocation/use of virtual machines can affect a system's
operational capacity. Therefore, effective virtual machine
management may be a concern in data storage systems.
SUMMARY
[0007] For purposes of summarizing the disclosure, certain aspects,
advantages and novel features of the inventions have been described
herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such
advantages may be achieved in accordance with any particular
embodiment of the inventions disclosed herein. Thus, the inventions
disclosed herein may be embodied or carried out in a manner that
achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as
taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may
be taught or suggested herein.
[0008] In large enterprise environments, numerous virtual machines
(VMs) may be instantiated. Often, a number of virtual machines may
remain unused or may be left running after a user or system has
completed accessing the virtual machine. This proliferation of
virtual machines can result in wasted resources. Further, managing
backup of a primary storage system to a secondary storage system
can be complicated and require significant resources due at least
in part to the proliferation of virtual machines.
[0009] In order to address the above and other challenges relating
to virtual machine proliferation, an information management system
is provided that includes a number of virtual server agents (VSAs)
and a VSA coordinator that can reduce VM proliferation. A job or
task to be performed by a virtual machine may instead be provided
to a VSA, which can identify an available VM to perform the task.
If a VM is not available, a new VM may be created within a set of
VM host systems. However, if an existing VM has resources available
to process the task, the VSA may provide the task to the existing
VM. Advantageously, in certain embodiments, by providing tasks to
existing VMs, the number of VMs instantiated in the information
management system are reduced.
[0010] In some implementations, VMs or VM host systems are grouped
based on one or more factors. For example, VM host systems may be
grouped based on the capabilities available to the VM host system
and/or VMs hosted by the VM host system. The groups of VMs or VM
host systems may then be assigned or associated with one or more
VSAs to help manage job allocations to VMs within the group.
[0011] In some embodiments, the VSA coordinator facilitates load
balancing of the VSAs. During a backup process, the VSA coordinator
may identify a number of VSAs available to help backup a set of VMs
from a primary storage system to a secondary storage system. The
VSA coordinator may allocate the VMs among the available VSAs based
on a number of communication streams between each VSA and systems
of the secondary storage system. Further, in some cases, the VSA
coordinator determines an allocation of the VMs based on
characteristics of the VMs to be backed up, such as the type of VM
or the size of the VM.
[0012] Certain embodiments described herein include a method of
reducing virtual machine proliferation. The method may include
receiving a job request at a virtual server agent. This virtual
server agent may include computer hardware. Further, the method may
include determining a load for each virtual machine from a set of
virtual machines. The set of virtual machines may be at least
partially managed by the virtual server agent. In addition, the
method may include determining whether the load of at least one
virtual machine from the set of virtual machines is below a
threshold load. In response to determining that the load of at
least one virtual machine from the set of virtual machines is below
the threshold load, the method may include selecting a virtual
machine from a set of virtual machines with a load that is below
the threshold load and assigning a job associated with the job
request to the selected virtual machine. Further, in response to
determining that no virtual machine from the set of virtual
machines is below a threshold load, the method can include
initiating creation of a new virtual machine and assigning the job
associated with the job request to the new virtual machine.
[0013] In some embodiments, a system for reducing virtual machine
proliferation is disclosed. The system can include a virtual server
agent comprising computer hardware. The virtual server agent may be
configured to receive a job request and to access load information
for each virtual machine from a set of virtual machines assigned to
the virtual server agent. Further, the virtual server agent may
identify, based at least partially on the load information for each
virtual machine, a subset of virtual machines from the set of
virtual machines with a load below a threshold load. In addition,
the virtual server agent can select a virtual machine from the
subset of virtual machines and assign a job associated with the job
request to the selected virtual machine when the subset of virtual
machines is a non-empty set.
[0014] Certain embodiments described herein include a method of
grouping virtual machines. The method may be performed by a virtual
server agent coordinator comprising computer hardware. The method
can include identifying a set of virtual machine provider systems
in a primary storage system. Each of the virtual machine provider
systems may include a virtual machine monitor and may be configured
to host a set of virtual machines. Further, the method can include
accessing metadata for each of the virtual machine provider systems
from the set of virtual machine provider systems. In addition, the
method may include grouping the virtual machine provider systems
into one or more groups based at least partially on the metadata
for each of the virtual machine provider systems. Moreover, the
method can include assigning a set of virtual server agents to each
group of virtual machine provider systems. Each virtual server
agent may be configured to backup data from at least one virtual
machine in the primary storage system to a secondary storage
system.
[0015] In some embodiments, a system for grouping virtual machines
is disclosed. The system may include a virtual server agent
coordinator comprising computer hardware. The virtual server agent
coordinator may be configured to identify a set of virtual machine
provider systems in a primary storage system. Each of the virtual
machine provider systems may include a virtual machine monitor and
may be configured to host a set of virtual machines. Further, the
virtual server agent coordinator may access metadata for each of
the virtual machine provider systems from the set of virtual
machine provider systems. In addition, the virtual server agent
coordinator can group the virtual machine provider systems into one
or more groups based at least partially on the metadata for each of
the virtual machine provider systems. Moreover, the virtual server
agent coordinator can assign a set of virtual server agents to each
group of virtual machine provider systems. Each virtual server
agent may be configured to backup data from at least one virtual
machine in the primary storage system to a secondary storage
system.
[0016] Certain embodiments described herein include a method of
virtual server agent load balancing. The method may be performed by
a virtual server agent coordinator comprising computer hardware.
The method may include identifying a set of virtual machines for
backup to a secondary storage system. The set of virtual machines
may be hosted by a set of virtual machine provider systems.
Further, the set of virtual machine provider systems may be
included in a primary storage system. The method may also include
identifying a set of virtual server agents available to backup data
from the set of virtual machines to the secondary storage system.
Further, the method may include determining a number of data
streams available to each virtual server agent from the set of
virtual server agents. Moreover, the method may include
distributing the set of virtual machines among the set of virtual
server agents based at least partially on the number of data
streams available to each of the virtual server agents.
[0017] In some embodiments, a system for virtual server agent load
balancing is disclosed. The system may include a virtual server
agent coordinator comprising computer hardware. Further, the
virtual server agent coordinator may be configured to identify a
set of virtual machines for backup to a secondary storage system.
The set of virtual machines may be hosted by a set of virtual
machine provider systems. Further, the set of virtual machine
provider systems may be included in a primary storage system.
Moreover, the virtual server agent coordinator may identify a set
of virtual server agents available to backup data from the set of
virtual machines to the secondary storage system. In addition, the
virtual server agent coordinator may determine a number of data
streams available to each virtual server agent from the set of
virtual server agents. Moreover, the virtual server agent
coordinator can distribute the set of virtual machines among the
set of virtual server agents based at least partially on the number
of data streams available to each of the virtual server agents.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] Throughout the drawings, reference numbers are re-used to
indicate correspondence between referenced elements. The drawings
are provided to illustrate embodiments of the inventive subject
matter described herein and not to limit the scope thereof.
[0019] FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary
information management system.
[0020] 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.
[0021] 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.
[0022] FIG. 1D is a block diagram illustrating a scalable
information management system.
[0023] FIG. 1E illustrates certain secondary copy operations
according to an exemplary storage policy.
[0024] FIGS. 1F-1H are block diagrams illustrating suitable data
structures that may be employed by the information management
system.
[0025] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a
scalable information management system.
[0026] FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart for an example virtual
machine job allocation process.
[0027] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart for an example virtual
machine grouping process.
[0028] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart for an example virtual server
agent load balancing process.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0029] Systems and methods are described herein for reducing
virtual machine (VM) proliferation, grouping virtual machines, and
load balancing virtual server agents (VSAs). Examples of such
systems and methods are discussed in further detail herein, e.g.,
with respect to FIGS. 2-5. Moreover, it will be appreciated that
reducing VM proliferation, grouping VMs, and load balancing VSAs
may be implemented by information management systems, such as those
that will now be described with respect to FIGS. 1A-1H. Further, as
will be described, the components for implementing a reduction in
VM proliferation, grouping VMs, and load balancing VSAs can be
incorporated into such systems.
System Overview
[0030] The system and methods described with respect to FIGS. 1A-1H
can be used for implementing a reduction in virtual machine
proliferation. In some embodiments, one or more VSAs assigned to a
group of virtual machine hosts (e.g., client computing devices and
server computing devices) may determine the availability of a VM to
perform a task or job. Thus, tasks may be assigned to existing VMs
instead of creating a new VM to perform the task. Furthermore,
systems and methods for grouping virtual machine hosts are also
disclosed herein. In some embodiments, a VSA coordinator may
determine a grouping of VMs or VM hosts based on one or more
factors associated with the VMs or the VM hosts, such as VM type or
geographical location of the VM hosts. The VSA coordinator may also
assign one or more VSAs to facilitate managing the group of VM
hosts. In some embodiments, the VSA coordinators may facilitate
load balancing of VSAs during operation, such as during a backup
operation, a restore operation, or any other operation between a
primary storage system and a secondary storage system.
Information Management System Overview
[0031] 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.
[0032] 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 has been applied in other
cases. These solutions were often provided by different vendors and
had limited or no interoperability.
[0033] 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.
[0034] 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.
[0035] 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: [0036]
U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681, entitled "Data Object Store and Server for
a Cloud Storage Environment, Including Data Deduplication and Data
Management Across Multiple Cloud Storage Sites"; [0037] U.S. Pat.
No. 8,307,177, entitled "Systems And Methods For Management Of
Virtualization Data"; [0038] U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled
"Modular Backup and Retrieval System Used in Conjunction With a
Storage Area Network"; [0039] U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled
"Hierarchical Systems and Methods for Providing a Unified View of
Storage Information"; [0040] U.S. Pat. No. 7,395,282, entitled
"Hierarchical Backup and Retrieval System"; [0041] U.S. Pat. No.
7,246,207, entitled "System and Method for Dynamically Performing
Storage Operations in a Computer Network"; [0042] U.S. Pat. No.
7,747,579, entitled "Metabase for Facilitating Data
Classification"; [0043] U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled "Managing
Copies of Data"; [0044] U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262, entitled "System
and Methods for Monitoring Application Data in a Data Replication
System"; [0045] U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled "System and
Methods for Performing a Snapshot and for Restoring Data"; [0046]
U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled "System And Method For Performing
Auxiliary Storage Operations"; [0047] U.S. Pat. No. 7,315,923,
entitled "System And Method For Combining Data Streams In Pipelined
Storage Operations In A Storage Network"; [0048] U.S. Pat. No.
8,364,652, entitled "Content-Aligned, Block-Based Deduplication";
[0049] U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled "System and Method
to Support Single Instance Storage Operations"; [0050] U.S. Pat.
No. 8,578,120, entitled "Block-Level Single Instancing"; [0051]
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2009/0319534, entitled "Application-Aware and
Remote Single Instance Data Management"; [0052] U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2012/0150826, entitled "Distributed Deduplicated Storage System";
[0053] U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2012/0150818, entitled "Client-Side
Repository in a Networked Deduplicated Storage System"; [0054] U.S.
Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled "Method and System for Offline
Indexing of Content and Classifying Stored Data"; [0055] U.S. Pat.
No. 7,107,298, entitled "System And Method For Archiving Objects In
An Information Store"; [0056] U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled
"System And Method For Performing Auxiliary Storage Operations";
[0057] U.S. Pat. No. 8,229,954, entitled "Managing Copies Of Data";
and [0058] U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled "Systems And Methods
For Stored Data Verification".
[0059] The information management system 100 can include a variety
of different computing devices. For instance, as will be described
in greater detail herein, the information management system 100 can
include one or more client computing devices 102 and secondary
storage computing devices 106.
[0060] Computing devices can 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.
[0061] Other computing devices can 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. Computing devices can include servers, such as mail
servers, file servers, database servers, and web servers.
[0062] In some cases, a computing device includes 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, computing devices can
include one or more virtual machine(s) running on a physical host
computing device (or "host machine") 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, both
virtual machines operating on the same host machine.
[0063] A virtual machine includes an operating system and
associated virtual resources, and is hosted simultaneously with
another operating system on a physical host computer (or host
machine). A hypervisor (typically software, and also known in the
art as a virtual machine monitor or a virtual machine manager or
"VMM") sits between the virtual machine and the hardware of the
physical host computer. One example of hypervisor as virtualization
software is ESX Server, by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif.; other
examples include Microsoft Virtual Server and Microsoft Windows
Server Hyper-V, both by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.,
and Sun xVM by Oracle America Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. In some
embodiments, the hypervisor may be firmware or hardware or a
combination of software and/or firmware and/or hardware.
[0064] The hypervisor provides to each virtual operating system
virtual resources, such as a virtual processor, virtual memory, a
virtual network device, and a virtual disk. Each virtual machine
has one or more virtual disks. The hypervisor typically stores the
data of virtual disks in files on the file system of the physical
host computer, called virtual machine disk files (in the case of
VMware virtual servers) or virtual hard disk image files (in the
case of Microsoft virtual servers). For example, VMware's ESX
Server provides the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) for the
storage of virtual machine disk files. A virtual machine reads data
from and writes data to its virtual disk much the same way that an
actual physical machine reads data from and writes data to an
actual disk.
[0065] Examples of techniques for implementing information
management techniques in a cloud computing environment are
described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,285,681, which is incorporated by
reference herein. Examples of techniques for implementing
information management techniques in a virtualized computing
environment are described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,177, also
incorporated by reference herein.
[0066] The information management system 100 can also include a
variety of storage devices, including primary storage devices 104
and secondary storage devices 108, for example. Storage devices can
generally be of any suitable type including, without limitation,
disk drives, hard-disk arrays, semiconductor memory (e.g., solid
state storage devices), network attached storage (NAS) devices,
tape libraries or other magnetic, non-tape storage devices, optical
media storage devices, DNA/RNA-based memory technology,
combinations of the same, and the like. In some embodiments,
storage devices can form part of a distributed file system. In some
cases, storage devices are provided in a cloud (e.g., a private
cloud or one operated by a third-party vendor). A storage device in
some cases comprises a disk array or portion thereof.
[0067] 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. A
computing device in an information management system 100 that has a
data agent 142 installed on it is generally referred to as a client
computing device 102 (or, in the context of a component of the
information management system 100 simply as a "client").
[0068] 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.
[0069] For instance, in some cases, the information management
system 100 generally refers to a combination of specialized
components used to protect, move, manage, manipulate, analyze,
and/or process data and metadata generated by the client computing
devices 102. However, the information management system 100 in some
cases does not include 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. As an example, "information management system"
may sometimes refer 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
[0070] 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.
[0071] The client computing devices 102 may include any of the
types of computing devices described above, without limitation, and
in some cases the client computing devices 102 are associated with
one or more users and/or corresponding user accounts, of employees
or other individuals.
[0072] The information management system 100 generally addresses
and handles 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.
[0073] 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 and managed.
[0074] 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.
[0075] The client computing devices 102 can have at least one
operating system (e.g., Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, iOS, IBM z/OS,
Linux, other Unix-based operating systems, etc.) installed thereon,
which may support or host one or more file systems and other
applications 110.
[0076] 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, a neural network, a mesh
network, an ad hoc 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
[0077] 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 generally 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.
In some cases, some or all of the primary data 112 can be stored in
cloud storage resources.
[0078] 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.
[0079] 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.
[0080] 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).
[0081] 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.
[0082] It can be useful in performing certain tasks to organize the
primary data 112 into units of different granularities. In general,
primary data 112 can include files, directories, file system
volumes, data blocks, extents, or any other hierarchies or
organizations 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 (e.g., a data
block).
[0083] 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.
[0084] 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), user-supplied tags, 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), geographic location (e.g., GPS coordinates),
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), 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 other
similar information related to the data object.
[0085] In addition to metadata generated by or related to file
systems and operating systems, some of the applications 110 and/or
other components of the information management system 100 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.
[0086] Each of the client computing devices 102 are generally
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: routing and/or storing data to the
particular primary storage device 104, coordinating the routing
and/or storing of data to the particular primary storage device
104, retrieving data from the particular primary storage device
104, coordinating the retrieval of data from the particular primary
storage device 104, and modifying and/or deleting data retrieved
from the particular primary storage device 104.
[0087] The primary storage devices 104 can include any of the
different types of storage devices described above, or some other
kind of suitable storage device. 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.
[0088] In some cases, each primary storage device 104 is dedicated
to an associated client computing device 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, e.g., via a network such as in a
cloud storage implementation. 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.
[0089] 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).
[0090] 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.
The hosted services may be implemented in a variety of computing
environments. In some cases, they are implemented in an environment
having a similar arrangement to the information management system
100, where various physical and logical components are distributed
over a network.
Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices
[0091] 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.
[0092] 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 sometimes be referred to as a
secondary storage subsystem 118.
[0093] Creation of secondary copies 116 can help in search and
analysis efforts and meet other 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.
[0094] 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.
[0095] 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.
[0096] 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. In some other cases, secondary copies can be
stored in the same storage device as primary data 112 and/or other
previously stored copies. For example, in one embodiment 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. 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.
[0097] 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.
[0098] Since an instance of 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.
[0099] 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).
[0100] 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.
[0101] Secondary copies 116 are also in some embodiments 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).
The Use of Intermediate Devices for Creating Secondary Copies
[0102] 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.
[0103] 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.
[0104] 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 intermediate 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.
[0105] The intermediate 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).
[0106] The secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise
any of the computing devices described above, without limitation.
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.
[0107] To create a secondary copy 116 involving the copying of data
from the primary storage subsystem 117 to the secondary storage
subsystem 118, the client computing device 102 in some embodiments
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). In some other cases, one or more
secondary copies 116 are created from existing secondary copies,
such as in the case of an auxiliary copy operation, described in
greater detail below.
Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy
[0108] 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 or other data
structures 133A-133C).
[0109] Some or all primary data objects are associated with
corresponding metadata (e.g., "Meta1-11"), which may include file
system metadata and/or application specific metadata. Stored on the
secondary storage device(s) 108 are secondary copy data objects
134A-C which may include copies of or otherwise represent
corresponding primary data objects and metadata.
[0110] As shown, the secondary copy data 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, and accompanied by the corresponding
metadata Meta11, Meta3, and Meta8, 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. Likewise, secondary data
object 134B represents primary data objects 120, 133B, and 119A as
120', 133B', and 119A', respectively and accompanied by
corresponding metadata Meta2, Meta10, and Meta1, respectively.
Also, secondary data object 134C represents primary data objects
133A, 119B, and 129A as 133A', 119B', and 129A', respectively,
accompanied by corresponding metadata Meta9, Meta5, and Meta6,
respectively.
Exemplary Information Management System Architecture
[0111] 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.
[0112] FIG. 1C shows an information management system 100 designed
according to these considerations and which includes: storage
manager 140, a centralized storage and/or information manager that
is 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. While distributing functionality amongst multiple
computing devices can have certain advantages, in other contexts it
can be beneficial to consolidate functionality on the same
computing device. As such, in various other embodiments, one or
more of the components shown in FIG. 1C as being implemented on
separate computing devices are implemented on the same computing
device. In one configuration, a storage manager 140, one or more
data agents 142, and one or more media agents 144 are all
implemented on the same computing device. In another embodiment,
one or more data agents 142 and one or more media agents 144 are
implemented on the same computing device, while the storage manager
140 is implemented on a separate computing device.
Storage Manager
[0113] 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.
[0114] 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.
[0115] By distributing control functionality in this manner, the
storage manager 140 can be adapted independently according to
changing circumstances. Moreover, a computing device for hosting
the storage manager 140 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.
[0116] The storage manager 140 may be a software module or other
application. In some embodiments, storage manager 140 is a
computing device comprising circuitry for executing computer
instructions and performs the functions described herein. The
storage manager generally initiates, performs, 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.
[0117] As shown by the dashed arrowed lines 114, 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 payload 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. Control information can generally include
parameters and instructions for carrying out information management
operations, such as, without limitation, instructions to perform a
task associated with an operation, timing information specifying
when to initiate a task associated with an operation, data path
information specifying what components to communicate with or
access in carrying out an operation, and the like. Payload data, on
the other hand, can include the actual data involved in the storage
operation, such as content data written to a secondary storage
device 108 in a secondary copy operation. Payload metadata can
include any of the types of metadata described herein, and may be
written to a storage device along with the payload content data
(e.g., in the form of a header).
[0118] 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.
[0119] According to certain embodiments, the storage manager 140
provides one or more of the following functions: [0120] initiating
execution of secondary copy operations; [0121] managing secondary
storage devices 108 and inventory/capacity of the same; [0122]
reporting, searching, and/or classification of data in the
information management system 100; [0123] allocating secondary
storage devices 108 for secondary storage operations; [0124]
monitoring completion of and providing status reporting related to
secondary storage operations; [0125] tracking age information
relating to secondary copies 116, secondary storage devices 108,
and comparing the age information against retention guidelines;
[0126] tracking movement of data within the information management
system 100; [0127] tracking logical associations between components
in the information management system 100; [0128] protecting
metadata associated with the information management system 100; and
[0129] implementing operations management functionality.
[0130] The storage manager 140 may maintain a database 146 (or
"storage manager database 146" or "management database 146") of
management-related data and information management policies 148.
The database 146 may include a management index 150 (or "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. For instance, the index 150 may store data
associating a client computing device 102 with a particular media
agent 144 and/or secondary storage device 108, as specified in an
information management policy 148 (e.g., a storage policy, which is
defined in more detail below).
[0131] 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.
[0132] 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.
[0133] 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, an information management
policy 148 such as 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.
[0134] 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.
[0135] 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.
[0136] 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.
[0137] 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(s) 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.
[0138] 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).
[0139] An information management "cell" may generally include a
logical and/or physical grouping of a combination of hardware and
software components associated with performing information
management operations on electronic data, typically one storage
manager 140 and at least one client computing device 102
(comprising data agent(s) 142) and at least one media agent 144.
For instance, the components shown in FIG. 1C may together form an
information management cell. Multiple cells may be organized
hierarchically. With this configuration, cells may inherit
properties from hierarchically superior cells or be controlled by
other cells in the hierarchy (automatically or otherwise).
Alternatively, in some embodiments, cells may inherit or otherwise
be associated with information management policies, preferences,
information management metrics, or other properties or
characteristics according to their relative position in a hierarchy
of cells. Cells may also be delineated and/or organized
hierarchically according to function, geography, architectural
considerations, or other factors useful or desirable in performing
information management operations. A first cell may represent a
geographic segment of an enterprise, such as a Chicago office, and
a second cell may represent a different geographic segment, such as
a New York office. Other cells may represent departments within a
particular office. Where delineated by function, a first cell may
perform one or more first types of information management
operations (e.g., one or more first types of secondary or other
copies), and a second cell may perform one or more second types of
information management operations (e.g., one or more second types
of secondary or other copies).
[0140] 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. In general, the management agent 154 allows multiple
information management cells to communicate with one another. For
example, the information management system 100 in some cases may be
one information management 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.
[0141] 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. Nos. 7,747,579 and 7,343,453, which are
incorporated by reference herein.
Data Agents
[0142] 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 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.
[0143] 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.
[0144] 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.
[0145] 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, or may perform other functions such as encryption
and deduplication.
[0146] As indicated, each data agent 142 may be specialized for a
particular application 110, and the system can employ multiple
application-specific data agents 142, each of which may perform
information management operations (e.g., perform backup, migration,
and data recovery) 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.
[0147] 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.
[0148] 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.
[0149] 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.
Media Agents
[0150] As indicated above with respect to FIG. 1A, off-loading
certain responsibilities from the client computing devices 102 to
intermediate 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.
[0151] 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.
For instance, other components in the system interact with the
media agents 144 to gain access to data stored on the secondary
storage devices 108, whether it be for the purposes of reading,
writing, modifying, or deleting data. Moreover, as will be
described further, media agents 144 can generate and store
information relating to characteristics of the stored data and/or
metadata, or can generate and store other types of information that
generally provides insight into the contents of the secondary
storage devices 108.
[0152] Media agents 144 can comprise separate nodes in the
information management system 100 (e.g., nodes that are separate
from the client computing devices 102, storage manager 140, and/or
secondary storage devices 108). In general, a node within the
information management system 100 can be a logically and/or
physically separate component, and in some cases is a component
that is individually addressable or otherwise identifiable. 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.
[0153] 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,
coordinating the retrieval of data from a particular secondary
storage device 108, and modifying and/or deleting data retrieved
from the particular secondary storage device 108.
[0154] While media agent(s) 144 are generally associated with one
or more secondary storage devices 108, one or more 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.
[0155] Where the information management system 100 includes
multiple media agents 144 (FIG. 1D), a first media agent 144 may
provide failover functionality for a second, failed media agent
144. In addition, media agents 144 can be dynamically selected for
storage operations to provide load balancing. Failover and load
balancing are described in greater detail below.
[0156] In operation, a media agent 144 associated with a particular
secondary storage device 108 may instruct the secondary storage
device 108 to perform an information management operation. For
instance, a media agent 144 may instruct 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. As another example, a
secondary storage device 108 may include an array of hard disk
drives or solid state drives organized in a RAID configuration, and
the media agent 144 may forward a logical unit number (LUN) and
other appropriate information to the array, which uses the received
information to execute the desired storage operation. 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.
[0157] 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.
[0158] 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 some
cases, the index 153 does not form a part of and is instead
separate from the media agent database 152.
[0159] A media agent index 153 or other data structure associated
with the particular media agent 144 may include information about
the stored data. 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. In some embodiments, the secondary
storage devices 108 can include sufficient information to perform a
"bare metal restore", where the operating system of a failed client
computing device 102 or other restore target is automatically
rebuilt as part of a restore operation.
[0160] Because the index 153 maintained in the media agent 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.
[0161] 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 or via one or more
intermediary components 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.
[0162] 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.
Distributed, Scalable Architecture
[0163] 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.
[0164] 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.
[0165] 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 database 146 is relatively large, the 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.
[0166] 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.
[0167] 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 computing devices 106 (and corresponding media
agents 144), and/or secondary storage devices 108. Moreover, where
multiple fungible components are available, load balancing can be
implemented to dynamically address identified bottlenecks. As an
example, the storage manager 140 may dynamically select which media
agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108 to use for storage
operations based on a processing load analysis of the media agents
144 and/or secondary storage devices 108, respectively.
[0168] Moreover, each client computing device 102 in some
embodiments can communicate with, among other components, 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, among
other components, 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, to provide load balancing, failover, and the like.
Further examples of scalable systems capable of dynamic storage
operations, and of systems capable of performing load balancing and
fail over are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, which is
incorporated by reference herein.
[0169] 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
[0170] 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, analysis, reporting, and management operations. The
operations described herein may be performed on any type of
computing platform, e.g., between two computers connected via a
LAN, to a mobile client telecommunications device connected to a
server via a WLAN, to any manner of client device coupled to a
cloud storage target.
Data Movement Operations
[0171] 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 in an original/native and/or one
or more different formats. For example, data movement operations
can include operations in which stored data is copied, migrated, or
otherwise transferred from one or more first storage devices to one
or more second storage devices, such as 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,
from secondary storage devices 108 to primary storage devices 104,
or from primary storage device(s) 104 to different primary storage
device(s) 104.
[0172] 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 or
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.
[0173] Backup Operations
[0174] A backup operation creates a copy of a version of data
(e.g., one or more files or other data units) in 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 generally stored in a form that is different
than the native format, e.g., 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.
[0175] 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.
[0176] 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.
[0177] 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.
[0178] 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.
[0179] Any of the above types of backup operations can be at the
volume-level, file-level, or block-level. Volume level backup
operations generally involve the copying of a data volume (e.g., a
logical disk or partition) as a whole. In a file-level backup, the
information management system 100 may generally track changes to
individual files at the file-level, and includes copies of files in
the backup copy. In the case of a block-level backup, 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.
[0180] Far less data may actually be transferred and copied to the
secondary storage devices 108 during a file-level copy than a
volume-level copy. Likewise, a block-level copy may involve the
transfer of less data than a file-level copy, resulting in faster
execution times. However, restoring a relatively higher-granularity
copy can result in longer restore times. For instance, 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 volume-level, file-level, or
block-level.
[0181] Archive Operations
[0182] 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.
[0183] 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.
[0184] 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.
Examples of compatible data archiving operations are provided in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
[0185] Snapshot Operations
[0186] 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, and may include
state and/or status information relative to an application that
creates/manages the data. 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.
[0187] A "hardware snapshot" (or "hardware-based snapshot")
operation can be a snapshot operation where a target storage device
(e.g., a primary storage device 104 or a secondary storage device
108) performs the snapshot operation in a self-contained fashion,
substantially independently, using hardware, firmware and/or
software residing on the storage device itself. For instance, the
storage device may be capable of performing snapshot operations
upon request, generally without intervention or oversight from any
of the other components in the information management system 100.
In this manner. In this manner, hardware snapshots can off-load
other components of information management system 100 from
processing involved in snapshot creation and management.
[0188] A "software snapshot" (or "software-based snapshot")
operation, on the other hand, can be a snapshot operation in which
one or more other components in information management system 100
(e.g., client computing devices 102, data agents 142, etc.)
implement a software layer that manages the snapshot operation via
interaction with the target storage device. For instance, the
component implementing the snapshot management software layer may
derive a set of pointers and/or data that represents the snapshot.
The snapshot management software layer may then transmit the same
to the target storage device, along with appropriate instructions
for writing the snapshot.
[0189] 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., to specific
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.
In some other cases, the snapshot may be created at the
block-level, such as where creation of the snapshot occurs without
awareness of the file system. Each pointer points to a respective
stored data block, so that 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.
[0190] 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 later modified. 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, and the
pointer to that block changed to reflect the new location of that
block. The snapshot mapping of file system data may also be 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.
[0191] 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.
[0192] Replication Operations
[0193] 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 or substantially immediately copied
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.
[0194] 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.
[0195] 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.
[0196] Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations
[0197] Another type of data movement operation is deduplication or
single-instance storage, 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
portions (e.g., sub-file level blocks, files, etc.) 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.
[0198] In order to streamline the comparison process, the
information management system 100 may calculate and/or store
signatures (e.g., hashes or cryptographically unique IDs)
corresponding to the individual data blocks in a database and
compare the signatures 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.
[0199] 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. No.
8,364,652, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0200] 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. Instead of
or in combination with "target-side" deduplication, 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. According to various
implementations, one or more of the storage devices of the
target-side, source-side, or client-side of an operation can be
cloud-based storage devices. Thus, the target-side, source-side,
and/or client-side deduplication can be cloud-based deduplication.
In particular, as discussed previously, the storage manager 140 may
communicate with other components within the information management
system 100 via network protocols and cloud service provider APIs to
facilitate cloud-based deduplication/single instancing. Examples of
such deduplication techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2012/0150818, which is incorporated by reference herein. Some other
compatible deduplication/single instancing techniques are described
in U.S. Pat. Pub. Nos. 2006/0224846 and 2009/0319534, which are
incorporated by reference herein.
[0201] Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage
Management Operations
[0202] 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.
[0203] 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.
[0204] 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, e.g., according
to one or more criteria related to 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.
[0205] 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 (or other source
storage device, such as a secondary storage device 108) 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.
[0206] 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. In this manner, the data
appears to the user (e.g., in file system browsing windows and the
like) as if it still resides in the source location (e.g., in a
primary storage device 104). 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.
[0207] 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". Examples of HSM and ILM techniques are provided in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
[0208] Auxiliary Copy and Disaster Recovery Operations
[0209] An auxiliary copy is generally a copy operation in which a
copy is created of an existing secondary copy 116. For instance, an
initial secondary copy 116 may be generated using or otherwise be
derived from primary data 112 (or other data residing in the
secondary storage subsystem 118), 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 the 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.
[0210] 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.
[0211] Data Analysis, Reporting, and Management Operations
[0212] Data analysis, reporting, and management 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 analysis
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 analysis operations
are performed in conjunction with data movement operations. Some
data analysis operations include content indexing operations and
classification operations which can be useful in leveraging the
data under management to provide enhanced search and other
features. Other data analysis operations such as compression and
encryption can provide data reduction and security benefits,
respectively.
[0213] Classification Operations/Content Indexing
[0214] In some embodiments, the information management system 100
analyzes and indexes characteristics, content, and metadata
associated with the data stored within the primary data 112 and/or
secondary copies 116, providing enhanced search and management
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, other
keywords/phrases that are not defined by a user, etc.), and/or
metadata (e.g., email metadata such as "to", "from", "cc", "bcc",
attachment name, received time, etc.).
[0215] 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.
[0216] 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.
[0217] In order to further leverage the data stored in the
information management system 100 to perform these and other tasks,
one or more components can be configured to scan data and/or
associated metadata for classification purposes to populate a
database (or other data structure) of information (which can be
referred to as a "data classification database" or a "metabase").
Depending on the embodiment, the data classification database(s)
can be organized in a variety of different ways, including
centralization, logical sub-divisions, and/or physical
sub-divisions. For instance, one or more centralized data
classification databases may be associated with different
subsystems or tiers within the information management system 100.
As an example, there may be a first centralized metabase associated
with the primary storage subsystem 117 and a second centralized
metabase associated with the secondary storage subsystem 118. In
other cases, there may be one or more metabases associated with
individual components. For instance, there may be a dedicated
metabase associated with some or all of the client computing
devices 102 and/or media agents 144. In some embodiments, a data
classification database may reside as one or more data structures
within management database 146, or may be otherwise associated with
storage manager 140.
[0218] In some cases, the metabase(s) may be included in separate
database(s) and/or on separate storage device(s) from primary data
112 and/or secondary copies 116, such that operations related to
the metabase do not significantly impact performance on other
components in the information management system 100. 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 identifiers (e.g., tag entries, etc.) 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.
[0219] Encryption Operations
[0220] 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.
[0221] 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 to 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 or archive
copies. In yet further embodiments, the secondary storage devices
108 can implement built-in, high performance hardware
encryption.
[0222] Management and Reporting Operations
[0223] Certain embodiments leverage the integrated, ubiquitous
nature of the information management system 100 to provide useful
system-wide management and reporting functions. Examples of some
compatible management and reporting techniques are provided in U.S.
Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0224] 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.
[0225] As an example, a storage manager 140 or other component in
the information management system 100 may analyze traffic patterns
and suggest or automatically route data via a particular route to
e.g., certain facilitate storage and minimize congestion. In some
embodiments, the system can generate predictions relating to
storage operations or storage operation information. Such
predictions described may be based on a trending analysis that may
be used to predict various network operations or use of network
resources such as network traffic levels, storage media use, use of
bandwidth of communication links, use of media agent components,
etc. Further examples of traffic analysis, trend analysis,
prediction generation, and the like are described in U.S. Pat. No.
7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0226] In some configurations, a master storage manager 140 may
track the status of a set of associated storage operation cells in
a hierarchy of information management cells, such as the status of
jobs, system components, system resources, and other items, by
communicating with storage managers 140 (or other components) in
the respective storage operation cells. Moreover, the master
storage manager 140 may track the status of its associated storage
operation cells and associated information management operations by
receiving periodic status updates from the storage managers 140 (or
other components) in the respective cells regarding jobs, system
components, system resources, and other items. In some embodiments,
a master storage manager 140 may store status information and other
information regarding its associated storage operation cells and
other system information in its index 150 (or other location).
[0227] The master storage manager 140 or other component in the
system may also determine whether a storage-related criteria or
other criteria is satisfied, and perform an action or trigger event
(e.g., data migration) in response to the criteria being satisfied,
such as where a storage threshold is met for a particular volume,
or where inadequate protection exists for certain data. For
instance, in some embodiments, the system uses data from one or
more storage operation cells to advise users of risks or indicates
actions that can be used to mitigate or otherwise minimize these
risks, and in some embodiments, dynamically takes action to
mitigate or minimize these risks. For example, an information
management policy may specify certain requirements (e.g., that a
storage device should maintain a certain amount of free space, that
secondary copies should occur at a particular interval, that data
should be aged and migrated to other storage after a particular
period, that data on a secondary volume should always have a
certain level of availability and be able to be restored within a
given time period, that data on a secondary volume may be mirrored
or otherwise migrated to a specified number of other volumes,
etc.). If a risk condition or other criteria is triggered, the
system can notify the user of these conditions and may suggest (or
automatically implement) an action to mitigate or otherwise address
the condition or minimize risk. For example, the system may
indicate that data from a primary copy 112 should be migrated to a
secondary storage device 108 to free space on the primary storage
device 104. Examples of the use of risk factors and other
triggering criteria are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which
is incorporated by reference herein.
[0228] In some embodiments, the system 100 may also determine
whether a metric or other indication satisfies a particular storage
criteria and, if so, perform an action. For example, as previously
described, a storage policy or other definition might indicate that
a storage manager 140 should initiate a particular action if a
storage metric or other indication drops below or otherwise fails
to satisfy specified criteria such as a threshold of data
protection. Examples of such metrics are described in U.S. Pat. No.
7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0229] In some embodiments, risk factors may be quantified into
certain measurable service or risk levels for ease of
comprehension. For example, certain applications and associated
data may be considered to be more important by an enterprise than
other data and services, Financial compliance data, for example,
may be of greater importance than marketing materials, etc. Network
administrators may assign priorities or "weights" to certain data
or applications, corresponding to its importance (priority value).
The level of compliance with the storage operations specified for
these applications may also be assigned a certain value. Thus, the
health, impact and overall importance of a service on an enterprise
may be determined, for example, by measuring the compliance value
and calculating the product of the priority value and the
compliance value to determine the "service level" and comparing it
to certain operational thresholds to determine if the operation is
being performed within a specified data protection service level.
Further examples of the service level determination are provided in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which is incorporated by reference
herein.
[0230] The system 100 may additionally calculate data costing and
data availability associated with information management operation
cells according to an embodiment of the invention. For instance,
data received from the cell may be used in conjunction with
hardware-related information and other information about network
elements to generate indications of costs associated with storage
of particular data in the system or the availability of particular
data in the system. In general, components in the system are
identified and associated information is obtained (dynamically or
manually). Characteristics or metrics associated with the network
elements may be identified and associated with that component
element for further use generating an indication of storage cost or
data availability. Exemplary information generated could include
how fast a particular department is using up available storage
space, how long data would take to recover over a particular
network pathway from a particular secondary storage device, costs
over time, etc. Moreover, in some embodiments, such information may
be used to determine or predict the overall cost associated with
the storage of certain information. The cost associated with
hosting a certain application may be based, at least in part, on
the type of media on which the data resides. Storage devices may be
assigned to a particular cost category which is indicative of the
cost of storing information on that device. Further examples of
costing techniques are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453, which
is incorporated by reference herein.
[0231] Any of the above types of information (e.g., information
related to trending, predictions, job, cell or component status,
risk, service level, costing, etc.) can generally be provided to
users via the user interface 158 in a single, integrated view or
console. The console may support a reporting capability that allows
for the generation of a variety of reports, which may be tailored
to a particular aspect of information management. Report types may
include: scheduling, event management, media management and data
aging. Available reports may also include backup history, data
aging history, auxiliary copy history, job history, library and
drive, media in library, restore history, and storage policy. Such
reports may be specified and created at a certain point in time as
a network analysis, forecasting, or provisioning tool. Integrated
reports may also be generated that illustrate storage and
performance metrics, risks and storage costing information.
Moreover, users may create their own reports based on specific
needs.
[0232] 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. As one
example, the user interface 158 may provide a graphical depiction
of one or more primary storage devices 104, the secondary storage
devices 108, data agents 142 and/or media agents 144, and their
relationship to one another in the information management system
100. 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.
[0233] Further examples of some reporting techniques and associated
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.
[0234] 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
[0235] 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.
[0236] One type of information management policy 148 is a storage
policy. According to certain embodiments, a storage policy
generally comprises a data structure or other information source
that defines (or includes information sufficient to determine) a
set of preferences or other criteria for performing information
management operations. Storage policies can include 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.
[0237] As an illustrative example, data associated with a storage
policy can be logically organized into groups. In some cases, these
logical groupings 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.
[0238] 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.
[0239] 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. While information in the storage policy can be
statically assigned in some cases, some or all of the information
in the storage policy can also be dynamically determined based on
criteria, which can be set forth in the storage policy. For
instance, based on such criteria, a particular destination storage
device(s) (or other parameter of the storage policy) may be
determined based on characteristics associated with the data
involved in a particular storage operation, device availability
(e.g., availability of a secondary storage device 108 or a media
agent 144), network status and conditions (e.g., identified
bottlenecks), user credentials, and the like).
[0240] 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).
[0241] 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.)
[0242] 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
logical groupings of data associated with a storage policy (e.g., a
sub-client), client computing device 102, and the like. In one
configuration, a separate scheduling policy is maintained for
particular logical groupings of data on a client computing device
102. The scheduling policy specifies that those logical groupings
are to be moved to secondary storage devices 108 every hour
according to storage policies associated with the respective
sub-clients.
[0243] 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.
[0244] Thus, in some embodiments, the information management system
100 automatically applies a default configuration to client
computing device 102. As one example, when one or more data
agent(s) 142 are installed on one or more 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.
[0245] 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.).
[0246] 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 primary 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.
[0247] 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 client computing devices 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.
[0248] 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: [0249] schedules or other timing information,
e.g., specifying when and/or how often to perform information
management operations; [0250] the type of copy 116 (e.g., type of
secondary copy) and/or copy format (e.g., snapshot, backup,
archive, HSM, etc.); [0251] a location or a class or quality of
storage for storing secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or more
particular secondary storage devices 108); [0252] preferences
regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress, deduplicate, or
otherwise modify or transform secondary copies 116; [0253] which
system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred media
agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage operations;
[0254] resource allocation between different computing devices or
other system components used in performing information management
operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage capacity,
etc.); [0255] whether and how to synchronize or otherwise
distribute files or other data objects across multiple computing
devices or hosted services; and [0256] 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.
[0257] 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: [0258] 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; [0259] time-related factors (e.g., aging information such
as time since the creation or modification of a data object);
[0260] deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data blocks,
deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other
metrics); [0261] an estimated or historic usage or cost associated
with different components (e.g., with secondary storage devices
108); [0262] 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; [0263] a relative sensitivity (e.g.,
confidentiality) of a data object, e.g., as determined by its
content and/or metadata; [0264] the current or historical storage
capacity of various storage devices; [0265] the current or
historical network capacity of network pathways connecting various
components within the storage operation cell; [0266] access control
lists or other security information; and [0267] 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
[0268] 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 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 logical grouping of data associated with a
file system) and a logical grouping of data associated with email
data, respectively. Although for simplicity the logical grouping of
data associated with the file system is referred to as a file
system sub-client, and the logical grouping of data associated with
the email data is referred to as an email sub-client, the
techniques described with respect to FIG. 1E can be utilized in
conjunction with data that is organized in a variety of other
manners.
[0269] 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.). Indeed, "off-site" may refer to a magnetic tape located in
storage, which must be manually retrieved and loaded into a tape
drive to be read. In this manner, information stored on the tape
library 108B may provide protection in the event of a disaster or
other failure.
[0270] 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.
[0271] The exemplary storage policy 148A includes backup copy
preferences or rule set 160, disaster recovery copy preferences
rule set 162, and compliance copy preferences or 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.
[0272] 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.
[0273] The compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the
email sub-client 168, and not the file system sub-client 166.
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 and 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.
[0274] 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.
[0275] 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.
[0276] 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 146 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.
[0277] 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.
[0278] 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. The storage manager 140 may similarly update
its index 150 to include information relating to the storage
operation, such as information relating to the type of storage
operation, a physical location associated with one or more copies
created by the storage operation, the time the storage operation
was performed, status information relating to the storage
operation, the components involved in the storage operation, and
the like. In some cases, the storage manager 140 may update its
index 150 to include some or all of the information stored in the
index 153 of the media agent 144A.
[0279] 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.
[0280] 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 116B may be generated in some other
manner, such as by using the primary data 112A, 112B from the
primary storage device 104 as source data. The disaster recovery
copy operation is initiated once a day and the disaster recovery
copies 116B are deleted after 60 days.
[0281] 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, in the
illustrated example, compliance copies 116C are created quarterly,
and are deleted after ten years.
[0282] 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 108A.
[0283] 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.
[0284] 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 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 Applications of Storage Policies
[0285] The storage manager 140 may permit a user to specify aspects
of the storage policy 148A. For example, the storage policy can be
modified to include information governance policies to define how
data should be managed in order to comply with a certain regulation
or business objective. The various policies may be stored, for
example, in the database 146. An information governance policy may
comprise a classification policy, which is described herein. An
information governance policy may align with one or more compliance
tasks that are imposed by regulations or business requirements.
Examples of information governance policies might include a
Sarbanes-Oxley policy, a HIPAA policy, an electronic discovery
(E-Discovery) policy, and so on.
[0286] Information governance policies allow administrators to
obtain different perspectives on all of an organization's online
and offline data, without the need for a dedicated data silo
created solely for each different viewpoint. As described
previously, the data storage systems herein build a centralized
index that reflects the contents of a distributed data set that
spans numerous clients and storage devices, including both primary
and secondary copies, and online and offline copies. An
organization may apply multiple information governance policies in
a top-down manner over that unified data set and indexing schema in
order to permit an organization to view and manipulate the single
data set through different lenses, each of which is adapted to a
particular compliance or business goal. Thus, for example, by
applying an E-discovery policy and a Sarbanes-Oxley policy, two
different groups of users in an organization can conduct two very
different analyses of the same underlying physical set of data
copies, which may be distributed throughout the organization.
[0287] A classification policy defines a taxonomy of classification
terms or tags relevant to a compliance task and/or business
objective. A classification policy may also associate a defined tag
with a classification rule. A classification rule defines a
particular combination of data criteria, such as users who have
created, accessed or modified a document or data object; file or
application types; content or metadata keywords; clients or storage
locations; dates of data creation and/or access; review status or
other status within a workflow (e.g., reviewed or un-reviewed);
modification times or types of modifications; and/or any other data
attributes. A classification rule may also be defined using other
classification tags in the taxonomy. The various criteria used to
define a classification rule may be combined in any suitable
fashion, for example, via Boolean operators, to define a complex
classification rule. As an example, an E-discovery classification
policy might define a classification tag "privileged" that is
associated with documents or data objects that (1) were created or
modified by legal department staff, (2) were sent to or received
from outside counsel via email, and/or (3) contain one of the
following keywords: "privileged" or "attorney," "counsel", or other
terms.
[0288] One specific type of classification tag, which may be added
to an index at the time of indexing, is an entity tag. An entity
tag may be, for example, any content that matches a defined data
mask format. Examples of entity tags might include, e.g., social
security numbers (e.g., any numerical content matching the
formatting mask XXX-XX-XXXX), credit card numbers (e.g., content
having a 13-16 digit string of numbers), SKU numbers, product
numbers, etc.
[0289] A user may define a classification policy by indicating
criteria, parameters or descriptors of the policy via a graphical
user interface that provides facilities to present information and
receive input data, such as a form or page with fields to be filled
in, pull-down menus or entries allowing one or more of several
options to be selected, buttons, sliders, hypertext links or other
known user interface tools for receiving user input. For example, a
user may define certain entity tags, such as a particular product
number or project ID code that is relevant in the organization.
[0290] In some implementations, the classification policy can be
implemented using cloud-based techniques. For example, the storage
devices may be cloud storage devices, and the storage manager 140
may execute cloud service provider API over a network to classify
data stored on cloud storage devices.
Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting
[0291] 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.
[0292] 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.
[0293] 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 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 153, 150 accordingly. 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.
[0294] Data can also be communicated within the information
management system 100 in data channels that connect the client
computing devices 102 to the secondary storage devices 108. These
data channels can be referred to as "data streams", and multiple
data streams can be employed to parallelize an information
management operation, improving data transfer rate, among providing
other advantages. Example data formatting techniques including
techniques involving data streaming, chunking, and the use of other
data structures in creating copies (e.g., secondary copies) are
described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,315,923 and 8,156,086, and 8,578,120,
each of which is incorporated by reference herein.
[0295] FIGS. 1F and 1G are diagrams of example data streams 170 and
171, respectively, which may be employed for performing data
storage operations. Referring to FIG. 1F, the data agent 142 forms
the data stream 170 from the data associated with a client
computing device 102 (e.g., primary data 112). The data stream 170
is composed of multiple pairs of stream header 172 and stream data
(or stream payload) 174. The data streams 170 and 171 shown in the
illustrated example are for a single-instanced storage operation,
and a stream payload 174 therefore may include both single-instance
("SI") data and/or non-SI data. A stream header 172 includes
metadata about the stream payload 174. This metadata may include,
for example, a length of the stream payload 174, an indication of
whether the stream payload 174 is encrypted, an indication of
whether the stream payload 174 is compressed, an archive file
identifier (ID), an indication of whether the stream payload 174 is
single instanceable, and an indication of whether the stream
payload 174 is a start of a block of data.
[0296] Referring to FIG. 1G, the data stream 171 has the stream
header 172 and stream payload 174 aligned into multiple data
blocks. In this example, the data blocks are of size 64 KB. The
first two stream header 172 and stream payload 174 pairs comprise a
first data block of size 64 KB. The first stream header 172
indicates that the length of the succeeding stream payload 174 is
63 KB and that it is the start of a data block. The next stream
header 172 indicates that the succeeding stream payload 174 has a
length of 1 KB and that it is not the start of a new data block.
Immediately following stream payload 174 is a pair comprising an
identifier header 176 and identifier data 178. The identifier
header 176 includes an indication that the succeeding identifier
data 178 includes the identifier for the immediately previous data
block. The identifier data 178 includes the identifier that the
data agent 142 generated for the data block. The data stream 171
also includes other stream header 172 and stream payload 174 pairs,
which may be for SI data and/or for non-SI data.
[0297] FIG. 1H is a diagram illustrating the data structures 180
that may be used to store blocks of SI data and non-SI data on the
storage device (e.g., secondary storage device 108). According to
certain embodiments, the data structures 180 do not form part of a
native file system of the storage device. The data structures 180
include one or more volume folders 182, one or more chunk folders
184/185 within the volume folder 182, and multiple files within the
chunk folder 184. Each chunk folder 184/185 includes a metadata
file 186/187, a metadata index file 188/189, one or more container
files 190/191/193, and a container index file 192/194. The metadata
file 186/187 stores non-SI data blocks as well as links to SI data
blocks stored in container files. The metadata index file 188/189
stores an index to the data in the metadata file 186/187. The
container files 190/191/193 store SI data blocks. The container
index file 192/194 stores an index to the container files
190/191/193. Among other things, the container index file 192/194
stores an indication of whether a corresponding block in a
container file 190/191/193 is referred to by a link in a metadata
file 186/187. For example, data block B2 in the container file 190
is referred to by a link in the metadata file 187 in the chunk
folder 185. Accordingly, the corresponding index entry in the
container index file 192 indicates that the data block B2 in the
container file 190 is referred to. As another example, data block
B1 in the container file 191 is referred to by a link in the
metadata file 187, and so the corresponding index entry in the
container index file 192 indicates that this data block is referred
to.
[0298] As an example, the data structures 180 illustrated in FIG.
1H may have been created as a result of two storage operations
involving two client computing devices 102. For example, a first
storage operation on a first client computing device 102 could
result in the creation of the first chunk folder 184, and a second
storage operation on a second client computing device 102 could
result in the creation of the second chunk folder 185. The
container files 190/191 in the first chunk folder 184 would contain
the blocks of SI data of the first client computing device 102. If
the two client computing devices 102 have substantially similar
data, the second storage operation on the data of the second client
computing device 102 would result in the media agent 144 storing
primarily links to the data blocks of the first client computing
device 102 that are already stored in the container files 190/191.
Accordingly, while a first storage operation may result in storing
nearly all of the data subject to the storage operation, subsequent
storage operations involving similar data may result in substantial
data storage space savings, because links to already stored data
blocks can be stored instead of additional instances of data
blocks.
[0299] If the operating system of the secondary storage computing
device 106 on which the media agent 144 resides supports sparse
files, then when the media agent 144 creates container files
190/191/193, it can create them as sparse files. As previously
described, a sparse file is type of file that may include empty
space (e.g., a sparse file may have real data within it, such as at
the beginning of the file and/or at the end of the file, but may
also have empty space in it that is not storing actual data, such
as a contiguous range of bytes all having a value of zero). Having
the container files 190/191/193 be sparse files allows the media
agent 144 to free up space in the container files 190/191/193 when
blocks of data in the container files 190/191/193 no longer need to
be stored on the storage devices. In some examples, the media agent
144 creates a new container file 190/191/193 when a container file
190/191/193 either includes 100 blocks of data or when the size of
the container file 190 exceeds 50 MB. In other examples, the media
agent 144 creates a new container file 190/191/193 when a container
file 190/191/193 satisfies other criteria (e.g., it contains from
approximately 100 to approximately 1000 blocks or when its size
exceeds approximately 50 MB to 1 GB).
[0300] In some cases, a file on which a storage operation is
performed may comprise a large number of data blocks. For example,
a 100 MB file may be comprised in 400 data blocks of size 256 KB.
If such a file is to be stored, its data blocks may span more than
one container file, or even more than one chunk folder. As another
example, a database file of 20 GB may comprise over 40,000 data
blocks of size 512 KB. If such a database file is to be stored, its
data blocks will likely span multiple container files, multiple
chunk folders, and potentially multiple volume folders. As
described in detail herein, restoring such files may thus requiring
accessing multiple container files, chunk folders, and/or volume
folders to obtain the requisite data blocks.
Example Scalable Information Management System
[0301] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a
scalable information management system 200. In some embodiments,
the scalable information management system 200 can include some or
all of the embodiments described previously with respect to the
information management systems 100. To simplify discussion,
reference numbers are re-used to indicate correspondence between
certain referenced elements of the information management system
200 and the information management system 100. Further, to simplify
the illustration, certain elements are omitted from the
illustration of the information management system 200, but which
may be included in certain embodiments. For example, although the
storage manager 140 of the information management system 200 omits
a job agent, the storage manager 140 as illustrated in FIG. 1C may
include a jobs agent 156.
[0302] The information management system 200 can implement a number
of processes in addition to those that have been previously
described. For example, the information management system 200 may
implement a process to reduce the proliferation of virtual machines
(VMs) by allocating job requests among existing virtual machines.
As a second example, the information management system 200 can
implement a process for grouping virtual machines and/or virtual
machine host systems or provider systems. As a third example, the
information management system 200 can implement a load-balancing
process or distribute work among virtual server agents. Although
not limited as such, this load-balancing process may be used to
distribute the load during a backup process. These example
processes are described in more detail below with reference to
FIGS. 3-5. Further, the example processes are described with
respect to a number of example systems of the information
management system 200. However, other systems may implement the
processes including some of the systems that have previously been
described. Some of the example systems will now be described.
[0303] As previously described, the information management system
200 may include a number of client computing devices 102. In
addition to the applications 110 and the data agents 142 (not shown
in FIG. 2), the computing devices may include a number of virtual
machines 204. The virtual machines 204 may include any type of
virtual machine created for any purpose. For example, the virtual
machines 204 may be Windows-based virtual machines, UNIX-based
virtual machines, or Apple OS-based virtual machines. Further, the
virtual machines 204 may be for facilitating application access,
emulating hardware, accessing or managing different databases,
performing data management, sharing computing resources among
multiple user, or for any other purpose.
[0304] In addition to the virtual machines 204, the client
computing devices 102 may include a virtual machine monitor 206 or
a hypervisor. The virtual machine monitor 206 may be any type of
virtual machine monitor for managing the virtual machines 204. For
example, the virtual machine monitor 206 may be a native or bare
metal hypervisor (e.g., Oracle VM Server or Microsoft Hyper-V) or a
hosted hypervisor run within an operating system environment (e.g.,
VMware Workstation or VirtualBox). In some cases, multiple virtual
machine monitors 206 may be included by the client computing
devices 102. For example, a virtual machine monitor 206 may be
included for one type or group of virtual machines and another
virtual machine monitor 206 may be included for another type or
group of virtual machines.
[0305] In addition to the client computing devices 102, the
information management system 200 includes a number of server
computing devices 212. Like the client computing devices 102, a
server computing device 212 may include a number of virtual
machines 204 and a virtual machine monitor 206. Although the terms
client and server are used with respect to the computing devices of
the primary storage subsystem 117, this disclosure is not limited
to a client/server computing infrastructure, but may include other
types of computing systems and/or network configurations.
[0306] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the information management system
200 may include a number of virtual server agents 210A, 210B, 210C
(referred to collectively as virtual server agents or VSAs 210).
The virtual server agents 210 can include any type of agent or
system for managing operations between the primary storage
subsystem 117 and the secondary storage subsystem 118 with respect
to the virtual machines 204. For example, the virtual server agents
210 may facilitate or implement a backup and/or restoration process
for backing/restoring files of a virtual machine 204 or a virtual
disk to/from the secondary storage subsystem 118. As another
example, the virtual server agents 210 may facilitate deduplication
or encryption/decryption of files or virtual disks to be stored to
or restored from the secondary storage subsystem 118. The virtual
server agents may be standalone computing systems (e.g., the
virtual server agent 210B). Alternatively, the virtual server
agents may be a hardware and/or software module included with one
or more of the computing systems hosting the virtual machines
(e.g., the virtual server agents 210A of the server computing
devices 212).
[0307] In some embodiments, the virtual server agents 210 may be
grouped. For example, virtual server agents 210A may be grouped and
may be configured to manage operations and interactions between the
server computing devices 212 and the secondary storage subsystem
118. As a second example, the virtual server agents 210C may be
grouped and may be configured to manage operations and interactions
between the server computing device 212 and the secondary storage
subsystem 118 instead of or in addition to the virtual serve agents
210A.
[0308] Each of the virtual server agents 210 may include one or
more data connections, data paths, data streams, or streams to the
media agents 144 hosted by the secondary storage computing devices
106. Via the streams, the virtual machines, files accessed via the
virtual machines, and/or virtual disks of the virtual machines may
be communicated to/from the secondary storage subsystem 118. These
data connections or communication paths are illustrated by the
solid line arrows between the virtual server agents 210 and the
secondary storage computing devices 106 indicating paths for data
transfer. Although not illustrated, in some cases, commands may
also be communicated from a system of the secondary storage
subsystem 118 to a virtual server agent 210 via a command
communication channel. In some cases, each communication channel
between a virtual server agent 210 and a media agent 144 may
include a single data stream. Alternatively, a communication
channel may include multiple data streams.
[0309] Information management system 200 may also include one or
more VSA coordinators 202A and 202B (referred to collectively as
VSA coordinators 202). The VSA coordinators 202 may manage or help
distribute job requests among virtual server agents 210 assigned to
one or more virtual machines 204. For example, the storage manager
140 may determine, based for example on a backup policy stored at
the repository 146, that the virtual machines 204 of the server
computing devices 212 are scheduled for backup. Consequently, the
storage manager 140 may provide a job request to the VSA
coordinator 202A to backup the virtual machines 204 of the server
computing devices 212. The VSA coordinator 202A may select one or
more VSAs (e.g., the virtual server agents 210C) assigned to the
virtual machines 204 of the server computing devices 212 to
facilitate the scheduled backup to the secondary storage subsystem
118. Further, in some cases, the VSA coordinator 202A may
distribute the virtual machines 204 of the server computing devices
212 among the virtual server agents included in the group of
virtual server agents 210C.
[0310] As indicated by the dashed line arrows between the virtual
server agents 210 and the VSA coordinators 202, a virtual server
agent 210 may receive commands and/or control data from the VSA
coordinators 202. In some embodiments, the VSA coordinators 202 may
be standalone systems as indicated by the VSA coordinator 202B. In
other embodiments, the VSA coordinators 202 may be included as part
of the storage manager 140 as illustrated by the VSA coordinator
202k
[0311] In some instances, a virtual server agent 210 may serve as a
VSA coordinator 202. For example, when a job request is received by
a group of virtual server agents associated with a set of virtual
machines, a virtual server agent from the group of virtual server
agents may designate itself or may be designated as the VSA
coordinator using a leader selection algorithm. This leader
selection algorithm may include any type of algorithm for selecting
a leader among a group of systems. For example, the leader
selection algorithm may be based on a round robin algorithm where
the leader rotates for each new job request. As another example,
the leader selection algorithm may determine the least busy virtual
server agent and select that server agent as the VSA coordinator
for the current job request, or for a particular time period or set
of job requests.
[0312] As previously stated, virtual machines 204 and/or virtual
machine provider system or hosts (e.g., the server computing
devices 212) may be categorized or grouped together. Further, a set
of virtual server agents 210 may be grouped together based on
characteristics or the virtual server agents. In some cases, the
set of virtual server agents may be grouped solely based on their
assignment to the same set of virtual machines and/or virtual
machine provider systems or hosts.
[0313] In some embodiments, the VSA coordinator 202 may group the
virtual machine 204 and/or the virtual machine provider systems
(e.g., the server computing devices 212). For example, the VSA
coordinator 202 may identify a number of characteristics associated
with one or more computing devices configured to host virtual
machines 204. The VSA coordinator 202 may then group he computing
devices based on the identified characteristics. After grouping the
computing devices, the VSA coordinator may assign one or more
virtual server agents to the group of computing devices based on
characteristics of the virtual server agents (e.g., geographic
location of the virtual server agents, and network location of the
virtual server agents, or the media agents to which the virtual
server agents have established communication streams). In some
embodiments, virtual machines 204 and/or virtual machine provider
systems may be grouped by a virtual server agent, which in some
cases may be selected by the VSA coordinator 202.
[0314] Further, in some embodiments the VSA coordinator 202 may
perform a load-balancing operation with respect to the virtual
server agents 210. For example, when an operation, such as a backup
operation, is initiated, the VSA coordinator 202 may distribute the
virtual machines 204 among the assigned virtual server agents 210
based on the capacity of each of the virtual server agents 210, the
size of each of the virtual machines 204, and/or the number of
streams between each of the virtual server agents and the media
agents of the secondary storage subsystem 118.
[0315] As illustrated in FIG. 2, the information management system
200 may further include a virtual machine management interface 245,
which when implemented in software may sometimes be referred to as
VM navigation software. The VM management interface 245 can include
any system implemented in hardware and/or software that can provide
a centralized platform for managing virtual infrastructure. The
centralized platform allows visibility into the configuration of
the virtual machines 204 within the information management system
200. The VM management interface 245 can store information about
the structural relationship between physical servers or hosts,
resource pools or store devices (e.g., the primary storage devices
104), and virtual machines 204 in the information management system
200. Examples of a VM management interface 245 include VMware
vCenter.TM., Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager.RTM.,
and the like. The VM management interface 245 can interface with
the VM monitors 206 to retrieve information about the virtual
machines 204, which may be stored in a database or repository
associated with the VM management interface 245. Examples of the
stored information can include a name, an address, other
identifying information of each host and primary storage device 104
associated with the virtual machines 204 in the information
management system 200, status information for each virtual machine
204, type of each virtual machine 204, identity of associated
virtual server agents 210, an assigned secondary storage computing
device 106, if any, and any other information that may be
associated with the virtual machines 204.
[0316] In some embodiments, the VM management interface 245 may
present information associated with the VMs to a user (e.g., an
administrator). Further, the VM management interface 245 may be
utilized by a user to manage the virtual machines 204 across one or
more host systems (e.g., the client computing devices 102 and/or
server computing devices 212).
[0317] Further, in some implementations, the VM management
interface 245 may include the VSA coordinator 202. Alternatively,
the VM management interface 245 may be separate from the VSA
coordinator 202. In some such cases, the VM management interface
245 may interact with the VSA coordinator 202 to obtain information
regarding relating to the VSA groups and/or VSAs 210. Further, in
some cases, the VM management interface 245 may be used to
configure, manage, or control the VSAs 210 by interacting with the
VSA coordinators 202. In some embodiments, one of the virtual
machine management interface 245 and the VSA coordinator 202 may be
optional.
[0318] To simplify the illustration, the VM management interface
245 is illustrated in FIG. 2 as communicating with the storage
manager 140, the client computing devices 102, and the virtual
server agent 2108. However, the VM management interface 245 is not
limited as such. Instead, as described above, the VM management
interface 245 may communicate with one or more of the VSA
coordinators 202, virtual server agents 210, and/or virtual machine
monitors 206.
Example Virtual Machine Job Allocation Process
[0319] FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart for an example virtual
machine job allocation process 300. The process 300 can be
implemented, at least in part, by any system that can allocate a
job request to a virtual machine from among a set of virtual
machines based at least partially on the load of each of the
virtual machines from the set of virtual machines. Advantageously,
in certain embodiments, by allocating job requests to existing
virtual machines, the proliferation of new virtual machines may be
reduced in the information management system 200. By reducing the
proliferation of new virtual machines, resource consumption can
consequently be reduced. For example, in some cases, the number of
server computing devices 212 maintained in the information
management system 200 may be reduced. In certain embodiments, the
process 300 may be implemented, in whole or in part, by a storage
manager 140, a VSA coordinator 202, a VM management interface 245,
and/or a virtual server agent 210, to name a few. Although any
number of systems, in whole or in part, can implement the process
300, to simplify discussion, portions of the process 300 will be
described with reference to particular systems.
[0320] The process 300 begins at block 302 where, for example, a
VSA (e.g., VSA 210B) receives a new job request. This job request
may be received from a VSA coordinator (e.g., VSA coordinator
202A), from a jobs agent 156, from a VM management interface 245,
or from any other system that may provide a job request. In some
embodiments, the job request may be received from another VSA, such
as a VSA serving as a VSA coordinator for a group of virtual
machines. In some cases, the job request may be received by the VSA
from itself, such as when the VSA serves as a VSA coordinator and
in its capacity as VSA coordinator selects itself to process the
job request. The VSA receiving the job request may be one of a
number of VSAs assigned to at least partially manage an assigned
set of virtual machines.
[0321] At block 304, the VSA determines a load for the virtual
machines 204 assigned to the VSA. The VSA may determine the load of
the virtual machines by, for example, accessing one or more virtual
machine monitors 206 associated with the virtual machines 204
and/or one or more data agents associated with the virtual machine.
Alternatively, or in addition, the VSA may determine the load for
one or more of the virtual machines 204 by tracking and/or
accessing a table that tracks jobs or processes that have been
assigned to the one or more virtual machines 204. In certain
embodiments, the VSA is able to track the jobs assigned to the
virtual machines 204 because the VSA assigns to and/or filters job
requests for the virtual machines 204. In certain embodiments, the
VSA may determine the load for a subset of virtual machines that
are assigned to the VSA, which may be assigned based on a type of
the virtual machine 204 and/or the type of jobs to be allocated to
the virtual machines 204. In other words, in some cases, a subset
of virtual machines may be allocated for one particular job type
and another subset of virtual machines may be allocated for another
job type. In such cases, the VSA may limit its analysis of load to
the virtual machines that are allocated to the job type of the job
request received at the block 302. In some embodiments, the VSA may
determine the load for the virtual machines 204 by accessing or
requesting load or status information from the VM management
interface 245.
[0322] The VSA determines at decision block 306 whether there are
any virtual machines with a load that satisfies a threshold.
Further, in some cases, the decision block 306 may determine
whether the VMs with a load that satisfies the threshold is a
non-empty set. In some cases, determining whether the load
satisfies a threshold may include determining whether the load is
below a threshold and/or whether the load is at or below a
threshold. In some instances, the load may be preset by, for
example, an administrator of the information management system 200.
Further, in some cases, the threshold may be based at least
partially on the job request or a type of job associated with the
job request. Moreover, in some cases, the threshold may be based at
least partially on the anticipated job load from the job request
received at the block 302.
[0323] If the VSA determines at the decision block 306 that there
is a virtual machine with a load below a threshold, the VSA, at
block 308, selects a virtual machine from the set of virtual
machines that the VSA identified as having a load below the
threshold. The set of virtual machines may comprise the virtual
machines identified at the decision block 306. To select the
virtual machine from the set of identified virtual machines at the
block 308, the VSA may use a round robin selection scheme, or any
other type of load balancing selection scheme. In some cases, the
virtual machine may be selected at random. In other cases, a
weighted round robin algorithm or other weighted selection
algorithm may be used to select the virtual machine from the set of
virtual machines with a load below the threshold. For example,
virtual machines may be weighted based on the capabilities of the
computing system (e.g., client computing device 102 or server
computing device 212) hosting the virtual machines. For instance, a
host machine with more memory or a newer generation of processors
may be weighted higher than a host machine with less memory or an
older generation of processors such that the host machine with more
memory or a newer generation of processors is selected more
frequently than the host machine with less memory or older
processors. As another example, a virtual machine may be selected
based on the ability to access data or backup the virtual machine
without a network. For instance, some virtual machines may be able
to access data using a hotadd feature without accessing a network.
The hotadd feature may enable accessing data or a new virtual disk
without shutting down the virtual machine. Further, in some cases,
the virtual machine may be located on the same datastore or
repository as a virtual disk to be accessed via hotadd thereby
enabling loading a new disk without accessing a network. In some
cases, the virtual machine may access data using a storage area
network (SAN) communicating over a fibre channel. In some
embodiments, a virtual machine may be selected based on its ability
to access data or be backed up over the SAN without accessing or
transmitting the data over a LAN or other network that may be
created between the VM host systems.
[0324] At block 310, the VSA assigns the job to the selected
virtual machine that was selected at the block 308. Assigning the
job to the selected virtual machine may include providing the job
request to the selected virtual machine. Further, the block 310 may
include updating one or more load tables associated with the
virtual machine and/or set of virtual machines assigned to or
allocated to the VSA. In addition, in some cases, the block 310 may
include updating one or more load tables associated with one or
more additional VSA associated with the virtual machine. For
instance, in some cases a plurality of virtual server agents may be
assigned a set of virtual machines. In such cases, the VSA may
update each of the virtual server agents that have been assigned to
the set of virtual machines. In some embodiments, the block 310 may
include updating the VM management interface 245 with the
assignment information. Advantageously, in certain embodiments, by
updating the VM management interface 245 with the assigned job
information, a system or user (e.g., an administrator) may monitor
the status of each of the VMs 204 and their assigned jobs or tasks
by accessing a single system, the VM management interface 245.
[0325] If the VSA determines at the decision block 306 that there
are no virtual machines (e.g., a set of identified VMs is an empty
set) assigned to the VSA with a load satisfying the threshold
(e.g., at or below the threshold), the VSA may initiate creation of
a new virtual machine at block 312. Initiating creation of a new
virtual machine may include selecting a virtual machine provider
system (e.g., client computing device 102 or server computing
device 212) to host the new virtual machine. The virtual machine
provider system may be selected based on the type of virtual
machine to be created, the number of virtual machines already
hosted by the virtual machine provider system, the type of job
associated with the job request, or using any other factor or
algorithm for selecting a virtual machine provider system. Further,
in some cases, the virtual machine provider system may be selected
using a load balancing scheme to ensure or reduce the probability
that one virtual machine provider system is associated with a
disproportionate load compared to other virtual machine provider
systems in a group of virtual machine provider systems assigned to
a set of VSAs. Once the virtual machine provider system has been
selected, the VSA may use the virtual machine monitor 206 of the
selected virtual machine provider system to create the new virtual
machine.
[0326] After the new virtual machine has been created, the VSA may
assign the job to the virtual machine at block 314. Assigning the
job to the new virtual machine may include providing the job
request to the new virtual machine. In some cases, the block 314
may include one or more of the embodiments described with respect
to the block 310. For example, a load table associated with the
newly created virtual machine may be updated to reflect the
assignment of the job to the new virtual machine.
Example Virtual Machine Grouping Process
[0327] FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart for an example virtual
machine grouping process 400. The process 400 can be implemented,
at least in part, by any system that can group virtual machines
based on virtual machine provider systems and/or virtual machine
host systems. Advantageously, in certain embodiments, by grouping
virtual machine provider systems, jobs may be allocated more
efficiently to virtual machines based at least partially on the
capabilities of the host systems. Further, management of the
virtual machines and/or virtual machine provider systems may be
simplified compared to information management systems with
non-grouped virtual machine provider systems. Simplifying
management can reduce management costs in terms of both time and
money. In certain embodiments, the process 400 may be implemented,
in whole or in part, by a storage manager 140, a VSA coordinator
202, and/or a VM management interface 245, to name a few. Although
any number of systems, in whole or in part, can implement the
process 400, to simplify discussion, portions of the process 400
will be described with reference to particular systems.
[0328] The process 400 begins at block 402 where, for example, a
VSA coordinator 202 identifies a set of available virtual machine
provider systems. These virtual machine provider systems may
include any type of system that is capable of hosting a virtual
machine 204. For example, the virtual machine provider systems may
include the client computing devices 102 and/or the server
computing devices 212. Further, the available virtual machine
provider systems may include any computing systems in the
information management system 200 capable of hosting virtual
machines. Alternatively, the available virtual machine provider
systems may be limited to computing systems capable of hosting
virtual machines that have been registered with the VSA coordinator
202 and/or the storage manager 140.
[0329] At block 404, the VSA coordinator 202 may access metadata
associated with the set of available virtual machine provider
systems identified at the block 402. This metadata may include the
identity of the features, specifications, and/or capabilities
associated with each of the available virtual machine provider
systems. For example, the metadata may include an amount of memory,
a number of processors, or an amount of storage space for a
particular virtual machine provider system, to name a few. As
another example, the metadata may identify whether a particular
virtual machine provider system is capable of supporting hotadd
mode, or the ability to clone a virtual disk such that a virtual
machine may continue running while the virtual disk is backed up
to, for example, a secondary storage system. As yet another
example, the metadata may include a geographic location of the
virtual machine provider system, a network location of the virtual
machine provider system, an age or amount of time in service of the
virtual machine provider system, a security level associated with
the virtual machine provider system, and any other information that
may be used to categorize or group a virtual machine provider
system with one or more additional virtual machine provider
systems.
[0330] At block 406, the VSA coordinator 202 groups the virtual
machine provider systems into one or more categories based at least
partially on the metadata accessed at the block 404. In some
embodiments, the VSA coordinator 202 may group the virtual machine
provider systems based at least partially on grouping rules. These
grouping rules may be accessed from the storage manager 140.
Alternatively, the grouping rules may be received from the virtual
machine management interface 245. Further, in some cases, the
grouping rules may be generated by a user (e.g., an administrator).
The grouping rules may include any type of rule for grouping
virtual machine provider systems. For example, the grouping rules
may be based on one or more types of metadata associated with the
virtual machine provider systems.
[0331] The VSA coordinator 202, at block 408, assigns one or more
virtual server agents 210 to each of the virtual machine provider
system groups determined at the block 406. Although in some cases a
single virtual server agent may be assigned to a virtual machine
provider system group, it is often advantageous to assign multiple
virtual server agents. For one, operations may be completed faster
because more streams may be maintained or initiated between the
primary storage system 117 and the secondary storage system 118
when multiple virtual server agents are assigned to a group. An
additional advantage, in some cases, is that each virtual server
agent can serve as a failover virtual server agent for other
virtual server agents assigned to the virtual machine provider
system group. For instance, if a backup operation is in progress,
and a virtual server agent fails, rather than the backup operation
failing, the virtual machines assigned to the failed virtual server
agent for backup may be reassigned to another virtual server agent
in the group enabling the backup operation to proceed.
[0332] In some cases, at least some of the virtual server agents
assigned to a virtual machine provider system group may include
virtual server agents executing on the virtual machine provider
systems of the virtual machine provider system group.
Alternatively, or in addition, the virtual server agents assigned
to a virtual machine provider system group may be separate
computing systems and/or may be executed on separate computing
systems from the virtual machine provider systems included in the
virtual machine provider system group.
[0333] In some embodiments, if an additional virtual machine
provider system is added to the information management system 200,
the VSA coordinator 202 may access metadata for the new virtual
machine provider system. The VSA coordinator 202 may then identify
a group from the existing groups of virtual machine provider
systems based at least partially on the metadata of the newly added
virtual machine provider system. The VSA coordinator 202 may then
assign the additional virtual machine provider system to the
identified group. Assigning the additional virtual machine provider
system to the identified group may include updating assignment
information of the set of virtual server agents assigned to the
identified group to include the additional virtual machine provider
system. If a group cannot be identified based on the metadata of
the newly added virtual machine, the VSA coordinator 202 may create
a new group for the additional virtual machine provider system.
[0334] In certain implementations, the block 408 may include
registering the virtual machine group with the VM management
interface 245. Further, in some cases, the VM management interface
245 may cause the VSA coordinator 202 to perform the process
400.
[0335] A similar process to the process 400 may occur when the
configuration of a virtual machine provider system changes. For
example, if the VSA coordinator 202 detects that the configuration
of a virtual machine provider system has changed, or if an
administrator identifies to the VSA coordinator 202 to the
configuration of a virtual machine provider system is changed, the
VSA coordinator 202 may access the updated metadata for the
reconfigured virtual machine provider system. Based on the updated
metadata, the VSA coordinator 202 may reassign the virtual machine
provider system to another group. Alternatively, if another group
cannot be identified is associated with the updated metadata of the
modified virtual machine provider system, the VSA coordinator 202
may create a new group or the modified virtual machine provider
system. Further the VSA coordinator 202 may update assignment
information for set of virtual server agents to include or to
remove modified virtual machine provider system from the systems
assigned to the set of virtual server agents.
[0336] In some embodiments, the process 400 may be performed
periodically or may be performed each time a virtual machine
provider system is added or removed from the information management
system 200. Further, in some cases, when a VSA is no longer
assigned to a virtual machine group or when a virtual machine
provider system group to which the VSA was assigned no longer
includes any virtual machine provider systems and/or VMs, the VSA
may be shut down or deactivated. Alternatively, the VSA may be
reassigned to another virtual machine provider system group.
Example Virtual Server Agent Load Balancing Process
[0337] FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart for an example virtual server
agent load balancing process 500. The process 500 can be
implemented, at least in part, by any system that can balance the
load of a set of virtual server agents. Advantageously, in certain
embodiments, by balancing the load of the set of virtual server
agents, operations may be completed faster and/or in a more
efficient manner. In certain embodiments, the process 500 may be
implemented, in whole or in part, by a storage manager 140, a VSA
210, a VM management interface 245, and a VSA coordinator 202, to
name a few. Although any number of systems, in whole or in part,
can implement the process 500, to simplify discussion, portions of
the process 500 will be described with reference to particular
systems.
[0338] It is of note that the process 500 may be used with respect
to a number of types of operations including, for example,
deduplication, file and/or virtual disk restoration, and file
and/or virtual disk decryption/encryption, to name a few. Further,
the process 500 may be used with respect to any type of operation
that may involve communicating with the secondary storage subsystem
118. However, to simplify discussion, and not to limit the process,
the process 500 will be described primarily in the context of
backup.
[0339] The process 500 begins at block 502 where, for example, a
VSA coordinator 202 identifies a number of virtual machines to
backup. The virtual machines may be identified in response to a
backup command or a scheduled backup process. For example, a set of
virtual machines may be scheduled for backup on a nightly, weekly,
or monthly basis. Further, the set of virtual machines for backup
may be identified based on a grouping of the virtual machines
and/or a grouping of the virtual machine provider systems that host
the set of virtual machines. In some cases, the set of virtual
machines identified for backup may be identified based on the set
of virtual server agents assigned to the virtual machines. In some
embodiments, the virtual machines identified for backup may be
identified by a user (e.g., an administrator) via, for example, the
VM management interface 245. In some implementations, virtual
machines may be identified for backup based on one or more backup
policies or other virtual machine management policies. These
policies may be stored at or implemented by the storage manager
140, a virtual machine management interface 245, and/or a VSA
coordinator 202. Further, a determination of whether to implement
one or more of the management policies may be made based on one or
more factors associated with the virtual machines, such as
instantiation time, time of last backup, type of VM, size of the
VM, etc. In some cases, at least some of the factors may be based
on the VSAs 210 associated with the VMs.
[0340] At block 504, the VSA coordinator 202 may access metadata
associated with the virtual machines identified at the block 502.
The metadata may be accessed from a table at a database or
repository associated with the virtual machines and/or host systems
of the virtual machines. In some cases, the VSA coordinator 202 may
access the metadata by communicating with one or more virtual
machine monitors 206 that facilitate management of the virtual
machines 204 identified at the block 502. Alternatively, or in
addition, the VSA coordinator 202 may obtain access to the metadata
by communicating with the one or more virtual server agents 210
assigned to the virtual machines identified at the block 502 and/or
the host systems of the virtual machines.
[0341] The VSA coordinator 202, at block 506, identifies a number
of virtual server agents 210 available to facilitate backup of the
set of virtual machines identified at the block 502. The set of
virtual server agents 210 may be VSAs that have been assigned to
the set of virtual machines and/or host systems of the virtual
machines. For example, in reference to FIG. 2, the virtual machines
identified for backup at the block 502 include the virtual machines
hosted by the server computing devices 212, the set of VSAs
identified at the block 506 may include one or more of the virtual
server agents 210A and virtual server agents 210C.
[0342] At block 508, the VSA coordinator 202 determines a number of
streams available to each virtual server agent from the number of
virtual server agents identified at the block 506. The streams may
be identified by accessing metadata associated with each of the
identified virtual server agents. Further, the number of available
streams may be based at least partially on a number of data paths
and/or communication channels between the virtual server agents and
one or more media agents of the secondary storage subsystem 118. In
some embodiments one or more of the blocks 506 and 508 may be
optional. For example, in some cases the VSA coordinator 202 may
determine a number of streams associated with a grouping of virtual
machines and/or host computing systems of the virtual machines.
[0343] In some embodiments, the block 508 may include accessing
and/or determining additional metadata associated with the virtual
server agents identified at the block 506. This metadata may
include any type of information related to the load, capacity, or
features of the virtual server agents. For example, the metadata
may identify processing capacity or storage capacity of a virtual
server agent, the number of processors, the type of processors, or
the network bandwidth of each virtual server agent.
[0344] At block 510, the VSA coordinator 202 distributes the
virtual machines identified at the block 502 among the virtual
server agents identified at the block 506 for backup to the
secondary storage subsystem 118 based at least partially on the
metadata associated with the virtual machines and the number of
streams available to each virtual server agent. For example, the
virtual machines may be distributed such that a virtual server
agent with more available streams or a larger available bandwidth
receives larger virtual machines while a virtual server agent with
less available streams or a smaller available bandwidth may receive
smaller virtual machines. As a second example, a virtual server
agent with three streams may receive three virtual machines to
backup, a virtual server agent with two streams may receive to
virtual machines to backup, and a virtual server agent with one
stream may receive one virtual machine to backup. In some
embodiments, the block 510 may include distributing the virtual
machine among the virtual server agents based partially on the
metadata associated with the virtual server agents, such as the age
of the virtual server agent or the geographic and/or network
location of the virtual server agent.
[0345] In some cases, each of the virtual machines may be assigned
to a virtual server agent for backup as part of a finite process.
In other words, virtual machines may be queued for backup to a
selected virtual server agent upon initiation of the backup
operation or at the time of the scheduled backup. However, in other
cases, virtual machines may be assigned to a virtual server agent
on a rolling basis as a virtual server agent gains capacity to
process the virtual machine, such as at the completion of the
backup of another virtual machine. In other words, a virtual
machine may only be assigned to the virtual server agent at a time
that the virtual server agent is ready to begin processing the
backup of the virtual machine. Advantageously, in certain
embodiments, by assigning virtual machines to a virtual server
agent for backup only when the virtual server agent is ready to
begin backing up the virtual machine, load-balancing may be
improved. For instance, in a case where there are ten virtual
machines to backup and two virtual server agents, a round robin
allocation performed at the start of backup would result in each
virtual server agent being assigned five virtual machines to
backup. In cases where the virtual machines are equal or close in
size, five virtual machines per virtual server agent may be
optimal. However, in cases where the virtual machines differ
substantially in size (e.g., by a factor 2 or 3), or the virtual
server agents are unequal in capacity (e.g., network bandwidth or
number of processors), such an even distribution may be suboptimal
for completing backup in the shortest amount of time. Thus, in some
cases, assigning a virtual machine for backup as a virtual server
agent becomes available may be preferred.
[0346] In some cases the virtual machines may be assigned to the
virtual server agents for backup using a round robin selection
process. Alternatively, or in addition, virtual machines may be
assigned to the virtual server agents for backup using a weighting
process. For example, larger virtual machines, or virtual machines
with a larger virtual disk, may be weighted higher than smaller
virtual machines, virtual machines with a smaller virtual disk. In
such cases, a virtual server agent that is assigned a larger
virtual machine for backup may be assigned less virtual machines
than a virtual server agent that is assigned smaller virtual
machines.
[0347] Alternatively, or in addition, to the capabilities of the
virtual server agents, a virtual server agent may be selected to
backup a particular virtual machine based at least partially on the
media agent to which the virtual server agent has an available
stream. In certain embodiments, rather than distributing the
virtual machines to the virtual server agents, the VSA coordinator
202 may distribute the virtual machines to streams without
considering to which virtual server agent the stream belongs were
to which media agent stream communicates with.
[0348] In some cases, backing up a virtual machine may include
backing up files or data included in virtual storage of the virtual
machine or a virtual disk. Alternatively, backing up the virtual
machine may include backing up a file or a portion of a file that
comprises the virtual machine.
TERMINOLOGY
[0349] 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.
[0350] Unless the context clearly requires otherwise, throughout
the description and the claims, the words "comprise," "comprising,"
and the like are to be construed in an inclusive sense, as opposed
to an exclusive or exhaustive sense; that is to say, in the sense
of "including, but not limited to." As used herein, the terms
"connected," "coupled," or any variant thereof means any connection
or coupling, either direct or indirect, between two or more
elements; the coupling or connection between the elements can be
physical, logical, or a combination thereof. Additionally, the
words "herein," "above," "below," and words of similar import, when
used in this application, refer to this application as a whole and
not to any particular portions of this application. Where the
context permits, words in the above Detailed Description using the
singular or plural number may also include the plural or singular
number respectively. The word "or" in reference to a list of two or
more items, covers all of the following interpretations of the
word: any one of the items in the list, all of the items in the
list, and any combination of the items in the list. Likewise the
term "and/or" in reference to a list of two or more items, covers
all of the following interpretations of the word: any one of the
items in the list, all of the items in the list, and any
combination of the items in the list.
[0351] 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.
[0352] 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.
[0353] 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.
[0354] 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.
[0355] These computer program instructions may also be stored in a
non-transitory 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.
[0356] Any patents and applications and other references noted
above, including any that may be listed in accompanying filing
papers, are incorporated herein by reference. Aspects of the
invention can be modified, if necessary, to employ the systems,
functions, and concepts of the various references described above
to provide yet further implementations of the invention.
[0357] These and other changes can be made to the invention in
light of the above Detailed Description. While the above
description describes certain examples of the invention, and
describes the best mode contemplated, no matter how detailed the
above appears in text, the invention can be practiced in many ways.
Details of the system may vary considerably in its specific
implementation, while still being encompassed by the invention
disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when
describing certain features or aspects of the invention should not
be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to
be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects
of the invention with which that terminology is associated. In
general, the terms used in the following claims should not be
construed to limit the invention to the specific examples disclosed
in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section
explicitly defines such terms. Accordingly, the actual scope of the
invention encompasses not only the disclosed examples, but also all
equivalent ways of practicing or implementing the invention under
the claims.
[0358] To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the
invention are presented below in certain claim forms, but the
applicant contemplates the various aspects of the invention in any
number of claim forms. For example, while only one aspect of the
invention is recited as a means-plus-function claim under 35 U.S.C
sec. 112(f) (AIA), other aspects may likewise be embodied as a
means-plus-function claim, or in other forms, such as being
embodied in a computer-readable medium. Any claims intended to be
treated under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.112(f) will begin with the words
"means for", but use of the term "for" in any other context is not
intended to invoke treatment under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.112(f).
Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to pursue additional
claims after filing this application, in either this application or
in a continuing application.
* * * * *