U.S. patent application number 14/789843 was filed with the patent office on 2015-12-31 for systems and methods for performing storage operations using network attached storage.
The applicant listed for this patent is Commvault Systems, Inc.. Invention is credited to Anand Prahlad, Jeremy Alan Schwartz.
Application Number | 20150378611 14/789843 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34619400 |
Filed Date | 2015-12-31 |
United States Patent
Application |
20150378611 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Prahlad; Anand ; et
al. |
December 31, 2015 |
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS USING NETWORK
ATTACHED STORAGE
Abstract
Systems and methods for performing hierarchical storage
operations on electronic data in a computer network are provided.
In one embodiment, the present invention may store electronic data
from a network device to a network attached storage (NAS) device
pursuant to certain storage criteria. The data stored on the NAS
may be migrated to a secondary storage and a stub file having a
pointer pointing to the secondary storage may be put at the
location the data was previously stored on the NAS. The stub file
may redirect the network device to the secondary storage if a read
request for the data is received from the network device.
Inventors: |
Prahlad; Anand; (Bangalore,
IN) ; Schwartz; Jeremy Alan; (Austin, TX) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Commvault Systems, Inc. |
Tinton Falls |
NJ |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
34619400 |
Appl. No.: |
14/789843 |
Filed: |
July 1, 2015 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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14038614 |
Sep 26, 2013 |
9104340 |
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14789843 |
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13607561 |
Sep 7, 2012 |
8577844 |
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14038614 |
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13293975 |
Nov 10, 2011 |
8266106 |
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13607561 |
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12467596 |
May 18, 2009 |
8078583 |
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13293975 |
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10990360 |
Nov 15, 2004 |
7546324 |
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12467596 |
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60519949 |
Nov 13, 2003 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
707/626 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0607 20130101;
G06F 3/065 20130101; G06F 3/0685 20130101; G06F 16/185 20190101;
G06F 3/0649 20130101; G06F 3/067 20130101; G06F 3/0619 20130101;
Y10S 707/99955 20130101; G11B 27/034 20130101; H04L 67/1097
20130101; G06F 16/1824 20190101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 3/06 20060101
G06F003/06; H04L 29/08 20060101 H04L029/08; G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30 |
Claims
1. (canceled)
2. A method for controlling a networked storage device, the method
comprising: with a computing device, controlling a first storage
device coupled to a network to write electronic data to a first
storage location in the first storage device, the first storage
device comprising first computer hardware and an internal operating
system, the electronic data generated by a software application
running on a first client computing device of a plurality of client
computing devices coupled to the network; consulting a stored
storage criteria to determine that the electronic data is to be
moved to a second storage location in a second storage device
different than the first storage device; in response to the
determination that the electronic data is to be moved to the second
storage location, copying the electronic data to the second storage
location with a computing device; subsequent to said copying,
receiving a read request to access the electronic data from the
first storage device; in response to the read request, controlling
the first storage device with a computing device to access
re-direction information from the first storage device, the
re-direction information pointing to the second storage location on
the second storage device; and using the re-direction information
to control the second storage device with a computing device to
obtain the electronic data from the second storage location without
transferring the electronic data to the first storage location in
the first storage device.
3. The method of claim 2 wherein the first storage device is
configured to support one or more of the Unix network file system
(NFS) protocol or server message block/common Internet file system
(SMB/CIFS) protocol.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the first storage device is
configured to support one or more of Ethernet and Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
5. The method of claim 2 wherein said copying is part of an archive
operation.
6. The method of claim 2 wherein said read request is satisfied
without de-migrating the electronic data from the second storage
device to the first storage device.
7. The method of claim 2 further comprising decompressing or
otherwise decoding the retrieved data obtained from the second
storage device.
8. The method of claim 2 wherein the first storage device is a
network attached storage (NAS) device and further comprises an
internal file management system.
9. The method of claim 2 wherein the re-direction information is
included in a Windows shortcut or a Unix softlink.
10. The method of claim 2 further comprising storing edited
versions of the electronic data in the second storage device and
updating the re-direction information to reflect the edited
versions.
11. A system comprising: a first storage device coupled to a
network and comprising first computer hardware and an internal
operating system; one or more computing devices externally located
with respect to the first storage device configured to: control the
first storage device to write electronic data to a first storage
location in the first storage device, the electronic data generated
by a software application running on a first client computing
device of a plurality of client computing devices coupled to the
network; consult a stored storage criteria to determine that the
electronic data is to be moved to a second storage location in a
second storage device different than the first storage device; in
response to the determination that the electronic data is to be
moved to the second storage location, copy the electronic data to
the second storage location with a computing device; subsequent to
said copying, receive a read request to access the electronic data;
in response to the read request, control the first storage device
with a computing device to access re-direction information from the
first storage device, the re-direction information pointing to the
second storage location on the second storage device; and use the
re-direction information to control the second storage device with
a computing device to obtain the electronic data from the second
storage location, without transferring the electronic data to the
first storage location in the first storage device.
12. The system of claim 11 wherein the first storage device is
configured to support one or more of the Unix network file system
(NFS) protocol or server message block/common Internet file system
(SMB/CIFS) protocol.
13. The system of claim 11 wherein the first storage device is
configured to support one or more of Ethernet and Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
14. The system of claim 11 wherein the re-direction information is
included in a Windows shortcut or a Unix softlink.
15. The system of claim 11 wherein said copying is part of an
archive operation.
16. The system of claim 11 wherein said read request is satisfied
without de-migrating the electronic data from the second storage
device to the first storage device.
17. The system of claim 11 further comprising decompressing or
otherwise decoding the retrieved data obtained from the second
storage device.
18. The system of claim 11 wherein the first storage device further
comprises an internal file management system.
19. The system of claim 11 wherein the re-direction information is
contained in a Windows shortcut or a Unix softlink.
20. The system of claim 11 wherein the one or more computing
devices are further configured to store edited versions of the
electronic data in the second storage device and to update the
re-direction information to reflect the edited versions.
21. Non-transitory computer-readable storage comprising
computer-readable instructions that, when executed cause computer
hardware to perform operations defined by the computer-readable
instructions, the operations comprising: with a computing device,
controlling a first storage device coupled to a network to write
electronic data to a first storage location in the first storage
device, the first storage device comprising first computer hardware
and an internal operating system, the electronic data generated by
a software application running on a first client computing device
of a plurality of client computing devices coupled to the network;
consulting a stored storage criteria to determine that the
electronic data is to be moved to a second storage location in a
second storage device different than the first storage device; in
response to the determination that the electronic data is to be
moved to the second storage location, copying the electronic data
to the second storage location with a computing device; subsequent
to said copying, receiving a read request to access the electronic
data from the first storage device; in response to the read
request, controlling the first storage device with a computing
device to access re-direction information from the first storage
device, the re-direction information pointing to the second storage
location on the second storage device; and using the re-direction
information to control the second storage device with a computing
device to obtain the electronic data from the second storage
location without transferring the electronic data to the first
storage location in the first storage device.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 14/038,614, filed Sep. 26, 2013, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS
FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS USING NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE,
which is a continuation of Ser. No. 13/607,561, filed Sep. 7, 2012,
entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS
USING NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE, which is a continuation of U.S.
application Ser. No. 13/293,975, filed Nov. 10, 2011, entitled
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS USING NETWORK
ATTACHED STORAGE, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 12/467,596, filed May 18, 2009, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS
FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS USING NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE,
which is a division of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/990,360, filed
Nov. 15, 2004, entitled SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING STORAGE
OPERATIONS USING NETWORK ATTACHED STORAGE, which claims the benefit
of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/519,949, filed Nov.
13, 2003, entitled PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS USING NETWORK
ATTACHED STORAGE, each of which is hereby incorporated herein by
reference in its entirety.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
[0002] Portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains
material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright
owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of
the patent document or the patent disclosures, as it appears in the
Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise
expressly reserves all other rights to copyright protection.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0003] This application is related to the following patents and
pending applications, each of which is hereby incorporated herein
by reference in its entirety:
[0004] U.S. Pat. No. 6,418,478, titled PIPELINED HIGH SPEED DATA
TRANSFER MECHANISM, issued Jul. 9, 2002;
[0005] U.S. application Ser. No. 09/610,738, titled MODULAR BACKUP
AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A STORAGE AREA
NETWORK, filed Jul. 6, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, issued
Apr. 25, 2006;
[0006] U.S. Pat. No. 6,542,972, titled LOGICAL VIEW AND ACCESS TO
PHYSICAL STORAGE IN MODULAR DATA AND STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM,
issued Apr. 1, 2003;
[0007] U.S. application Ser. No. 10/658,095, titled DYNAMIC STORAGE
DEVICE POOLING IN A COMPUTER SYSTEM, filed Sep. 9, 2003, now U.S.
Pat. No. 7,130,970, issued Oct. 31, 2006; and
[0008] U.A. application Ser. No. 10/818,749, titled SYSTEM AND
METHOD FOR PERFORMING STORAGE OPERATIONS IN A COMPUTER NETWORK,
filed Apr. 3, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207, issued Jul. 17,
2007.
BACKGROUND
Field
[0009] The present invention relates generally to performing
storage operations on electronic data in a computer network, and
more particularly, to data storage systems that employ primary and
secondary storage devices wherein certain electronic data from the
primary storage device is relocated to the secondary storage device
pursuant to a storage policy and electronic data from the second
storage device may retrieved directly or through the primary
storage device.
[0010] The storage of electronic data has evolved over time. During
the early development of the computer, storage of electronic data
was limited to individual computers. Electronic data was stored in
the Random Access Memory (RAM) or some other storage medium such as
a magnetic tape or hard drive that was a part of the computer
itself.
[0011] Later, with the advent of network computing, the storage of
electronic data gradually migrated from the individual computer to
stand-alone storage devices accessible via a network. These
individual network storage devices soon evolved into networked tape
drives, optical libraries, Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks
(RAID), CD-ROM jukeboxes, and other devices. Common architectures
also include network attached storage devices (NAS devices) that
are coupled to a particular network (or networks) that are used to
provide dedicated storage for various storage operations that may
be required by a particular network (e.g., backup operations,
archiving, and other storage operations including the management
and retrieval of such information).
[0012] A NAS device may include a specialized file server or
network attached storage system that connects to the network. A NAS
device often contains a reduced capacity or minimized operating and
file management system (e.g., a microkernel) and normally processes
only input/output (I/O) requests by supporting common file sharing
protocols such as the Unix network file system (NFS), DOS/Windows,
and server message block/common Internet file system (SMB/CIFS).
Using traditional local area network protocols such as Ethernet and
transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP), a NAS
device typically enables additional storage to be quickly added by
connecting to a network hub or switch.
[0013] Hierarchical storage management (HSM) provides for the
automatic movement of files from hard disk to slower,
less-expensive storage media, or secondary storage. As shown in
FIG. 1, the typical migration hierarchy is from magnetic disk 10 to
optical disk 20 to tape 30. Conventional HSM software usually
monitors hard disk capacity and moves data from one storage level
to the next (e.g., from production level to primary storage and/or
from primary storage to secondary storage, etc.) based on storage
criteria associated with that data such as a storage policy, age,
category or other criteria as specified by the network or system
administrator. For example, an email system such as Microsoft
Outlook.TM. may have attachments "aged off" (i.e., migrated once an
age requirement is met) from production level storage to a network
attached storage device by HSM systems. When data is moved off the
hard disk, it is typically replaced with a smaller "placeholder" or
"stub" file that indicates, among other things, where the original
file is located on the secondary storage device.
[0014] A stub file may contain some basic information to identify
the file itself and also include information indicating the
location of the data on the secondary storage device. When the stub
file is accessed with the intention of performing a certain storage
operation, such as a read or write operation, the file system call
(or a read/write request) is trapped by software and a data
retrieval process (sometimes referred to as de-migration or
restore) is completed prior to satisfying the request. De-migration
is often accomplished by inserting specialized software into the
I/O stack to intercept read/write requests. The data is usually
copied back to the original primary storage location from secondary
storage, and then the read/write request is processed as if the
file had not been moved. The effect is that the user sees and
manipulates the file as the user normally would, except
experiencing a small latency initially when the de-migration
occurs.
[0015] Currently, however, HSM is not commonly practiced in NAS
devices. One reason for this is because it is very difficult, if
not impossible, to intercept file system calls in NAS devices.
Moreover, there are many different types of NAS devices, such as
WAFL by Network Appliance of Sunnyvale, Calif., the EMC Celera file
system by the EMC Corporation of Hopkinton, Mass., the Netware file
system by Novell of Provo, Utah, and other vendors. Most of these
systems export their file systems to host computers such as the
common Internet file system (CIFS) or the network file system
(NFS), but provide no mechanism to run software on their operating
systems or reside on the file system stack to intercept read/write
or other data requests. Further, many NAS devices are proprietary,
which may require a significant reverse-engineering effort to
determine how to insert software into the I/O stack to perform HSM
operations, reducing portability of an HSM implementation.
[0016] Accordingly, what is needed are systems and methods that
overcome these and other deficiencies.
SUMMARY
[0017] The present invention provides, among other things, systems
and methods for performing storage operations for electronic data
in a computer network on a network attached storage device (NAS).
Some of the steps involved in one aspect of the invention may
include receiving electronic data from a network device for writing
to the NAS device; writing the electronic data to the NAS device in
a first location (i.e., primary storage); subsequently storing the
electronic data to a second location (i.e., secondary storage); and
storing a stub file at the first location, the stub file including
a pointer to the second location that may redirect the network
device to the second location if an access request for the
electronic data is received from the network device. In some
embodiments, when the NAS device receives an electronic data
request from a network device, the operating system of the network
device may recognize the stub file as a stub file. In this case,
the network device may use the pointer to find the actual location
of the stored electronic data, where the electronic data may be
accessed and processed over the network by the network device
itself.
[0018] In accordance with some aspects of the present invention,
computerized methods are provided for archiving data that is
written to a first location in a NAS device to a second location,
and storing a stub file at the first location, the stub file having
a pointer pointing to the second location, the stub file for
redirecting a network device to the second location if a read
request for the file is received from the network device.
[0019] The system may include a NAS device connected to a network.
The network may interconnect several network devices, including,
for example, several client computers, host computers, server
computers, mainframe computers or mid-range computers, all sending
file system requests to the NAS. The NAS device may receive the
file request from the network devices and process them.
[0020] An example of a method for processing a request for storing
data on the NAS device may include receiving the data from a
network device for writing to the NAS device; writing the data to
the NAS device in a first location known to the network device;
storing the data to a second location; and storing a stub file at
the first location, the stub file having a pointer pointing to the
second location, the stub file for redirecting the network device
to the second location if a read request for the data is received
from the network device. In some embodiments, the stub file may be
named the same as the data that was stored in the first location
before archiving. However, when the network attached storage device
provides a read request to read the data, the operating system of
the network device may recognize the stub file as a stub file. The
network device may then perform the task of following the pointer
to the actual location of the archived data, where the data may be
read from and processed over the network by the network device
itself. This relieves the NAS device from excess processing of the
read request, including having to de-migrate the data from
secondary storage.
[0021] Thus, one way to process a read request in accordance with
an embodiment of the present invention includes opening the stub
file stored in place of the data by the NAS device at a first
location, the first location being where the data was stored before
the file was archived to a second location by the network attached
storage system; reading a pointer stored in the stub file, the
pointer pointing to the second location; and reading the data from
the second storage location.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0022] The invention is illustrated in the figures of the
accompanying drawings which are meant to be exemplary and not
limiting, in which like references are intended to refer to like or
corresponding parts throughout, and in which:
[0023] FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of basic components
and data flow of prior art HSM systems;
[0024] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system constructed in
accordance with the principles of the present invention for storing
and retrieving electronic data from primary and secondary storage
locations;
[0025] FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps for
performing storage and retrieval operations on electronic data in a
computer network according to an embodiment of the invention;
[0026] FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps
performed when a system application attempts to access electronic
data moved from primary storage to secondary storage in accordance
with an embodiment of the present invention;
[0027] FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps
performed when a system application attempts to alter electronic
data moved from primary storage to secondary storage in accordance
with an embodiment of the present invention; and
[0028] FIG. 6 is a chart illustrating steps performed in a
Solaris-based embodiment of the system shown in FIG. 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0029] An embodiment of a system 50 constructed in accordance with
the principles of the present invention is shown in FIG. 2. As
shown, system 50 may include a NAS device 100, a network 90,
network devices 85, data migrators 95, primary storage device 102,
secondary storage devices 120 and 130, storage area network (SAN)
70, media agent 97, storage device 140 and storage manager 180. NAS
100 may be coupled to network 90 which may itself also include or
be part of several other network types, including, without
limitation, Ethernet, IP, Infineon, Wi-Fi, wireless, Bluetooth or
token-ring, and other types.
[0030] One or more network devices 85 may be coupled to network 90.
Each network device 85 may include a client application, a client
computer, a host computer, a mainframe computer, a mid-range
computer, or any other type of device capable of being connected in
a network and running applications which produce electronic data
that is periodically stored. Such data may be sometimes referred to
as "production level" data. In some embodiments, a network device
85 may have the ability to generate electronic data requests, such
as file requests and system requests to NAS device 100 through the
network 90.
[0031] NAS device 100 may include, and/or be connected to, a
primary storage device 102 such as a hard disk or other memory that
provides relatively high-speed data access (as compared to
secondary storage systems). Primary storage device 102 may include
additional storage for NAS device 100 (which may itself include
some internal storage), and may be the first network storage device
accessed by network devices 85.
[0032] As shown in FIG. 2, NAS device 100 may include one or more
data migrators 95, each of which may be implemented as a software
program operating on NAS 100, as an external computer connected to
NAS 100, or any combination of the two implementations. Data
migrator 95 may be responsible for storing electronic data
generated by a network device 85 in primary storage device 102, or
other memory location in NAS device 100, based on a set of storage
criteria specified by a system user (e.g., storage policy, file
size, age, type, etc.). Moreover, data migrators 95 may form a list
or otherwise keep track of all qualifying data within network
devices 85 and copy that data to primary storage device 102 as
necessary (e.g., in a backup or archiving procedure, discussed in
more detail below).
[0033] A storage policy (or criteria) is generally a data structure
or other information that includes a set of preferences and other
storage criteria for performing a storage operation. The
preferences and storage criteria may include, but are not limited
to: a storage location, relationships between system components,
network pathway(s) to utilize, retention policies, data
characteristics, compression or encryption requirements, preferred
system components to utilize in a storage operation, and other
criteria relating to a storage operation. A storage policy may be
stored to a storage manager index, to archive media as metadata for
use in restore operations or other storage operations, or to other
locations or components of the system.
[0034] Storage operations, which may generally include data
migration and archiving operations may involve some or all of the
following operations, but are not limited thereto, including
creation, storage, retrieval, migration, deletion, and tracking of
primary or production volume data, secondary volume data, primary
copies, secondary copies, auxiliary copies, snapshot copies, backup
copies, incremental copies, differential copies, synthetic copies,
HSM copies, archive copies, Information Lifecycle Management
("ILM") copies, and other types of copies and versions of
electronic data.
[0035] De-migration as used herein generally refers to data
retrieval-type operations and may occur when electronic data that
has been previously transferred from a first location to a second
location is transferred back or otherwise restored to the first
location. For example, data stored on NAS 100 and migrated to in
secondary storage and then returned to NAS 100 may be considered
de-migrated. De-migration may also occur in other contexts, for
example, when data is migrated from one tier of storage to another
tier of storage (e.g., from RAID storage to tape storage) based on
aging policies in an ILM context, etc. Thus, if it was desired to
access data that had been migrated to a tape, that data could be
de-migrated from the tape back to RAID, etc.
[0036] In some embodiments, data migrators 95 may also monitor or
otherwise keep track of electronic data stored in primary storage
102 for possible archiving in secondary storage devices 120 and
130. In such embodiments, some or all data migrators 95 may
periodically scan primary storage device 102 searching for data
that meet a set storage or archiving criteria. If certain data on
device 102 satisfies a set of established archiving criteria, data
migrator 95 may "discover" certain information regarding that data
and then migrate it (i.e., coordinate the transfer the data or
compressed versions of the data) to secondary storage devices,
which may include tape libraries, magnetic media, optical media, or
other storage devices. Moreover, is some embodiments archiving
criteria, which generally may be a subset set of storage criteria
(or policies), may specify criteria for archiving data or for
moving data from primary to secondary storage devices.
[0037] As shown in FIG. 2, one or more secondary storage devices
120 and 130 may be coupled to NAS device 100 and/or to one or more
stand alone or external versions of data migrators 95. Each
secondary storage device 120 and 130 may include some type of mass
storage device that is typically used for archiving or storing
large volumes of data. Whether a file is stored to secondary
storage device 120 or device 130 may depend on several different
factors, for example, on the set of storage criteria, the size of
the data, the space available on each storage device, etc.
[0038] In some embodiments, data migrators 95 may generally
communicate with the secondary storage devices 120 and 130 via a
local bus such as a SCSI adaptor or an HBA (host bus adaptor). In
some embodiments, secondary storage devices 120 and 130 may be
communicatively coupled to the NAS device 100 or data migrators 95
via a storage area network (SAN) 70.
[0039] Certain hardware and software elements of system 50 may be
the same as those described in the three-tier backup system
commercially available as the CommVault QiNetx backup system from
CommVault Systems, Inc. of Oceanport, N.J., and further described
in application Ser. No. 09/610,738 which is incorporated herein by
reference in its entirety.
[0040] In some embodiments, rather than using a dedicated SAN 70 to
connect NAS 100 to secondary storage devices 120 and 130, the
secondary storage devices may be directly connected to the network
90. In this case, the data migrators 95 may store or archive the
files over the network 90 directly to the secondary storage devices
120 and 130. In the case where stand-alone versions of the data
migrators 95 are used without a dedicated SAN 70, data migrators 95
may be connected to the network 90, with each stand-alone data
migrator 95 performing its tasks on the NAS device 100 over the
network.
[0041] In some embodiments, system 50 may include a storage manager
180 and one or more of the following: a media agent 98, an index
cache 97, and another information storage device 140 that may be a
redundant array of independent disks (RAID) or other storage
system. These elements are exemplary of a three-tier backup system
such as the CommVault QiNetx backup system, available from
CommVault Systems, Inc. of Oceanport, N.J., and further described
in application Ser. No. 09/610,738 which is incorporated herein by
reference in its entirety.
[0042] Storage manager 180 may generally be a software module or
application that coordinates and controls system 50. Storage
manager 180 may communicate with some or all elements of system 50
including client network devices 85, media agents 97, and storage
devices 120, 130 and 140, to initiate and manage system storage
operations, backups, migrations, and recoveries.
[0043] A media agent 97 may generally be a software module that
conveys data, as directed by the storage manager 180, between
network device 85, data migrator 95, and one or more of the
secondary storage devices 120, 130 and 140 as necessary. Media
agent 97 is coupled to and may control the secondary storage
devices 120, 130 and 140 and may communicate with the storage
devices 120, 130 and 140 either via a local bus such as a SCSI
adaptor, an HBA or SAN 70.
[0044] Each media agent 97 may maintain an index cache 98 that
stores index data system 50 generates during, store backup,
migration, archive and restore operations. For example, storage
operations for Microsoft Exchange data may generate index data.
Such index data may provide system 50 with an efficient mechanism
for locating stored data for recovery or restore operations. This
index data is generally stored with the data backed up on storage
devices 120, 130 and 140 as a header file or other local indicia
and media agent 97 (that typically controls a storage operation)
may also write an additional copy of the index data to its index
cache 98. The data in the media agent index cache 98 is thus
generally readily available to system 50 for use in storage
operations and other activities without having to be first
retrieved from a storage device 120, 130 or 140.
[0045] Storage manager 180 may also maintain an index cache 98. The
index data may be used to indicate logical associations between
components of the system, user preferences, management tasks, and
other useful data. For example, the storage manager 180 may use its
index cache 98 to track logical associations between several media
agents 97 and storage devices 120, 130 and 140.
[0046] Index caches 98 may reside on their corresponding storage
component's hard disk or other fixed storage device. In one
embodiment, system 50 may manage index cache 98 on a least recently
used ("LRU") basis as known in the art. When the capacity of the
index cache 98 is reached, system 50 may overwrite those files in
the index cache 98 that have been least recently accessed with new
index data. In some embodiments, before data in the index cache 98
is overwritten, the data may be copied t a storage device 120, 130
or 140 as a "cache copy." If a recovery operation requires data
that is no longer stored in the index cache 98, such as in the case
of a cache miss, system 50 may recover the index data from the
index cache copy stored in the storage device 120, 130 or 140.
[0047] In some embodiments, other components of system 50 may
reside and execute on the storage manager 180. For example, one or
more data migrators 95 may execute on the storage manager 180.
[0048] Referring now to FIG. 3, some of the steps involved in
practicing an embodiment of the present invention are shown in the
flow chart illustrated thereon. When a network device sends a write
request for writing a data to the NAS device, the write request may
include a folder, directory or other location in which to store the
data on the NAS device (step 300). Through a network, the network
device may write the data to the NAS device, storing the file in
primary storage (and/or NAS) in the location specified in the write
request (step 302). As shown, after a data migrator copies data to
secondary storage (step 304) the data migrator may store a stub
file at the original file location, the stub file having a pointer
pointing to the location in secondary storage where the actual file
was stored, and to which the network device can be redirected if a
read request for the file is received from the network device, step
306.
[0049] Referring now to FIG. 4, some of the steps involved in
attempting to read certain data that has been migrated to secondary
storage media is shown in the flow chart of FIG. 4. As illustrated,
a network device may attempt to read data that was originally
stored at the current location of the stub file at step 400. The
operating system of the network device may read the stub file at
step 402 and recognize that the data is now a stub file, and be
automatically redirected to read the data from the location pointed
to by the stub file at step 404. This may be accomplished for
example, by having the network device follow a Windows shortcut or
a UNIX softlink (in Solaris applications). The data may then be
accessed by directly reading from the secondary storage location at
step 406. Although this process may cause a slight delay or latency
attributable to the redirection, and, in the case of a secondary
storage device using cassettes or other library media, may cause
additional delay involved with finding the proper media, the delay
normally associated with de-migrating the data to primary storage
is eliminated.
[0050] With reference to FIG. 5, a flow chart illustrating some of
the steps performed when data is edited after being read from
archive by a client network device are shown. After the data is
read from a secondary storage device and edited (step 500), if the
network device performs a save operation and issues a write request
to the NAS device (and generally speaking, not a save-as operation
to store the file in a new location), the data may be stored in the
primary storage device at the original location where the data was
stored before archiving, replacing the stub file (step 502).
Depending on the type of file system and configuration of the
secondary storage device, the archived data may be marked as
deleted or outdated if the secondary storage device retains old
copies of files as a backup mechanism (step 504). Next, the edited
data continues to reside in primary storage until a data migrator
archives the edited data to secondary storage (step 506) and places
a stub file in its place in primary storage (step 508).
[0051] In other embodiments, when a network device issues a save
command after the data edited in step 500, instead of being stored
to the stub file location, the data may be stored back to the
archive location, leaving the stub file intact, except that if the
stub file may keep track of data information, such information may
be changed according to the edited data.
[0052] In an embodiment that stores files that can be read by a
network device using the Windows operating system, for example, the
data migrator may produce a Windows shortcut file of the same name
as the archived file. Other operating systems may provide for use
of shortcut files similar to Windows shortcuts that can be used as
stub files in the present system, including, for example, Mac OS by
Apple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.
[0053] Also, in embodiments which store files that can be read by a
network device using Unix type file systems, such as Linux,
Solaris, or the like, a softlink is used for re-direction, which is
similar to a Windows shortcut. For example, a typical command to
create a softlink in Unix systems is as follows: [0054] In -s
/primary_storage_location/stubfile/secondary_storage_location/archivefile
wherein primary_storage_location is the location in the primary
storage device, the stubfile is the name of the stub file
containing the softlink, the secondary_storage_location is the
location to which the file is archived, and the archivefile is the
name of the file stored in the secondary location.
[0054] In some Unix-based systems, such as Solaris, when a network
device needs to read a file, the network directory and drive where
the file resides may need to be mounted if the directory and file
are not already mounted. When the network device issues a read
request to a NAS device to read an archived file in such a system,
the Softlink stored in the data's primary storage location may have
been archived to a drive or directory that is not already mounted
for file access.
[0055] One way to resolve this issue of unmounted drives or
directories is to trap the read request, either by the NAS device
or the network device, to interrupt processing and to mount the
drive and/or directory to which the Softlink is pointing to the
archived data so the network device may then read the data from the
secondary location.
[0056] However, many Unix file systems do not provide a ready
infrastructure to trap an input/output request before the request
is usually propagated to the file system. Using Solaris as an
example, many Unix systems typically provide a generic file system
interface called a virtual file system (vfs). Vfs supports use by
various file systems such as the Unix file system (ufs), Unix
network file system (nfs), the Veritas file system (vxfs), etc.
Similarly, directories in these file systems may need to be mounted
on the individual network devices in Unix based systems. Vfs can
act as a bridge to communicate with different file systems using a
stackable file system.
[0057] FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating some of the steps
performed in a Solaris-based embodiment of the present invention,
which provides one or more data migrators that each which may
include a stackable loopback file system. The stackable loopback
file system's interface may be designed such that if a network
device or an application issues a read/write request (i.e., an
open( ) request), the stackable loopback file system intercepts the
request (step 600). The stackable loopback file system may provide
a facility to trap calls, such as open, read, write and other
typical Unix file operations if the request is for a stub file
(step 602). If the request is for a non-archived file, (step 604)
then the stackable loopback file system propagates the normal
operations to the underlying file system such as ufs and vxfs, step
605, and a regular open( ) is performed by the underlying file
system.
[0058] Otherwise, if the request is for an archived file, FIG. 6
presents some options of three different embodiments to perform the
handling of the trapped request, steps 606A, 606B or 606C, after
which, the system may redirect the application or restores the file
stored at the secondary location to the stub file location, step
608. Option one, step 606A, is to override the open( ) operation in
the libc.so library with a new open( ) command (i.e. cv_open). This
may be used for applications that use libc.so during runtime. For
the applications which are using dynamically linkable libraries, if
the open( ) operation can be overwritten in libc.so with cv_open
keeping intact the existing symbols for the other calls, then this
option will work for those applications as well. However, this
option may not work for applications which directly open the file
in the kernel, such as database applications. Further, this option
may not work for the statically linked applications.
[0059] Option two, step 606B, involves changing the trap handler
for the open( ) system call. Trap handlers are implemented in
assembly and are typically specific to the various Unix
architectures. Solaris systems usually include a generic trap
handler for system calls and other traps and may be implemented, if
desired.
[0060] Option three, step 606C, may be used for implementing a
stackable loopback file system. This option uses a loopback file
system that propagates the normal operations to the underlying file
System like ufs, vxfs and also provides a facility to trap the
required calls. The stackable loopback file system provides the
various vfs operations. The stackable loopback file system also
provides vnode operations typically used by other file systems. A
vnode may be a virtual node comprising a data structure used within
Unix-based operating systems to represent an open file, directory,
device, or other entity (e.g., socket) that can appear in the file
system name-space. The stackable loopback file system provides a
mount option to mount the existing file directory to some other
location that is used as the secondary location for storing the
file. The special mount operation may search through the underlying
file system, store the necessary information of the underlying file
system, and assign the path as its starting root. Example commands
to accomplish this operation follows:
[0061] mount_cxfs/etc/etc
[0062] mount_cxfs/etc/tmp/etc_temp
[0063] Where /etc/tmp/etc_temp does not appear in a mounted path
already. This mount option is used for those file directories,
which are not already mounted.
[0064] One way to implement the additional functionality of
stackable loopback file system is to make the stackable loopback
file system a loadable module or driver. Unix systems, such as
Solaris, usually support file system drivers such as the loadable
modules. The stackable loopback file system module may support both
normal file system and driver functionalities. The stackable
loopback file system driver may use input-output controls (ioctls),
which are special request device drivers above and beyond calls to
the read or write entry points, to provide the capability to mount
the file directories. Vnode operations may simply pass through the
driver to the underlying file system, except that read/write/mmap
operations are trapped to handle data migration of the relocated
files, and performs a lookup operation to resolve recursions of the
files mounted to some other location.
[0065] The driver may be included in the migrator, preferably in an
embodiment where the migrator resides on the NAS. The migrator may
include a relocate daemon that triggers the data migration for the
files to be migrated if user defined policies are met. The relocate
daemon may then creates the stub file. A redirect/restore daemon
may be triggered by the stackable loopback file system when a stub
file is accessed. The restore daemon may mount the drive and/or
secondary drive or directory where the file was archived if the
drive and directory are not already mounted. The stackable loopback
file system may then re-directs the network device to the directory
where the file is stored as described above. In an alternative
embodiment, after mounting the drive and directory, the file may be
restored to the primary location. The driver may generate an event
for the restore daemon to complete restoration. Restore daemon may
send an ioctl for the completion of the restoration and deletes the
stub file.
[0066] Thus, as can be seen from the above, systems and methods for
recovering electronic information from a storage medium are
provided. It will be understood that the foregoing is merely
illustrative of the principles of the present invention and that
various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art
without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
Accordingly, such embodiments will be recognized as within the
scope of the present invention.
[0067] 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
other application in an ASP context, 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 interfaces suitable for the purposes
described herein. Screenshots presented and described herein can be
displayed differently as known in the art to input, access, change,
manipulate, modify, alter, and work with information.
[0068] While the invention has been described and illustrated in
connection with preferred embodiments, many variations and
modifications as will be evident to those skilled in this art may
be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention, and the invention is thus not to be limited to the
precise details of methodology or construction set forth above as
such variations and modification are intended to be included within
the scope of the invention.
[0069] Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that the present
invention can be practiced by other than the described embodiments,
which are presented for purposes of illustration rather than of
limitation and that the present invention is limited only by the
claims that follow.
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