U.S. patent application number 16/924018 was filed with the patent office on 2021-01-14 for preparing containerized applications for backup using a backup services container in a container-orchestration pod.
The applicant listed for this patent is Commvault Systems, Inc.. Invention is credited to Shankarbabu BHAVANARUSHI, Sumedh Pramod DEGAONKAR, Sanjay KUMAR, Vikash KUMAR, Amit MITKAR.
Application Number | 20210011816 16/924018 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 1000004955581 |
Filed Date | 2021-01-14 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20210011816 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
MITKAR; Amit ; et
al. |
January 14, 2021 |
PREPARING CONTAINERIZED APPLICATIONS FOR BACKUP USING A BACKUP
SERVICES CONTAINER IN A CONTAINER-ORCHESTRATION POD
Abstract
A "backup services container" comprises "backup toolkits," which
include scripts for accessing containerized applications plus
enabling utilities/environments for executing the scripts. The
backup services container is added to Kubernetes pods comprising
containerized applications without changing other pod containers.
For maximum value and advantage, the backup services container is
"over-equipped" with toolkits. The backup services container
selects and applies a suitable backup toolkit to a containerized
application to ready it for a pending backup. Interoperability with
a proprietary data storage management system provides features that
are not possible with third-party backup systems. Some embodiments
include one or more components of the proprietary data storage
management within the illustrative backup services container. Some
embodiments include one or more components of the proprietary data
storage management system in a backup services pod configured in a
Kubernetes node. All configurations and embodiments are suitable
for cloud and/or non-cloud computing environments.
Inventors: |
MITKAR; Amit; (Manalapan,
NJ) ; DEGAONKAR; Sumedh Pramod; (Surrey, CA) ;
KUMAR; Sanjay; (Morganville, NJ) ; BHAVANARUSHI;
Shankarbabu; (Neptune, NJ) ; KUMAR; Vikash;
(Edison, NJ) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Commvault Systems, Inc. |
Tinto Falls |
NJ |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
1000004955581 |
Appl. No.: |
16/924018 |
Filed: |
July 8, 2020 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
62872606 |
Jul 10, 2019 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 9/5077 20130101;
G06F 11/1469 20130101; G06F 11/1484 20130101; G06F 2009/45562
20130101; G06F 9/45558 20130101; G06F 11/1451 20130101; G06F
11/1461 20130101; G06F 2201/84 20130101; G06F 11/1464 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 11/14 20060101
G06F011/14; G06F 9/50 20060101 G06F009/50; G06F 9/455 20060101
G06F009/455 |
Claims
1. A computer-implemented method for using a backup services
container comprising: generating a first container that is based on
an operating system-level virtualization service, wherein the first
container comprises: (i) executable discovery logic, (ii) a
plurality of executable scripts and corresponding enabling
utilities for executing the scripts, wherein each script is
configured to prepare for backup one or more corresponding
applications, and (iii) executable selection logic; adding the
first container to a container-orchestration pod that comprises one
or more other containers comprising one or more containerized
applications, wherein components of the container-orchestration
pod, including the first container and the one or more other
containers, run on a computing environment comprising at least one
hardware processor and computer memory; by the discovery logic that
executes in the first container, based on an indication that a
backup operation has been triggered, identifying at least a first
containerized application among the one or more containerized
applications executing in the one or more other containers; by the
selection logic that executes in the first container, determining a
first executable script that is suitable for preparing the first
containerized application for backup; by the selection logic,
causing the first executable script to: (a) execute in the first
container using corresponding enabling utilities, (b) access the
first containerized application, and (c) prepare the first
containerized application for the backup operation; by the
selection logic, indicating that the first containerized
application is ready for the backup operation; and by the selection
logic, on receiving an indication that the backup operation has
completed, releasing the first containerized application from a
backup-ready state.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the backup operation comprises
taking a snapshot of data generated by the first containerized
application.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered indicates that a second container
comprising the first containerized application in the
container-orchestration pod is to be backed up.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered indicates that the first containerized
application in the container-orchestration pod is to be backed
up.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein to prepare the first
containerized application for backup, the first executable script
quiesces the first containerized application.
6. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the backup
operation has completed is received after a snapshot is taken of
data associated with the first containerized application.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the container-orchestration pod
is part of a node that executes as a service in a cloud computing
account.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the container-orchestration pod
is part of a node that executes on a computing device comprising
one or more hardware processors and computer memory.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the container-orchestration pod
is based on Kubernetes technology.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered is received from a data storage
management system, and wherein the backup operation generates one
or more secondary copies of data associated with the first
containerized application.
11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more secondary
copies generated by the backup operation are live browsed by a user
of the data storage management system.
12. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered is received from a backup system that
operates outside the container-orchestration pod.
13. The method of claim 1 further comprising: by the discovery
logic, collecting a plurality of attributes about the first
containerized application in the container-orchestration pod; and
transmitting the plurality of attributes about the first
containerized application to a data storage management system that
performs the backup operation.
14. The method of claim 1 further comprising: by the discovery
logic, collecting a plurality of attributes about the first
containerized application in the container-orchestration pod;
transmitting the plurality of attributes about the first
containerized application to a data storage management system that
performs the backup operation; and based on the plurality of
attributes, generating one or more preferences at the data storage
management system for backing up data associated with the first
containerized application.
15. The method of claim 1 further comprising: by the discovery
logic, collecting information associated with a second container
among the one or more other containers in the
container-orchestration pod; and transmitting the information to a
data storage management system that performs the backup operation,
wherein the information comprises one or more of: information about
applications in the second container, information about data
storage in the second container, metadata associated with the
second container, system logs in the second container, and
information about kernel representations of hardware allocated to
the second container.
16. A cloud computing system for using a backup services container,
the system comprising: a cloud computing environment providing a
cloud computing account; wherein the cloud computing account
comprises: a first container that is based on an operating
system-level virtualization service, wherein the first container
comprises: (i) executable discovery logic, (ii) a plurality of
executable scripts and corresponding enabling utilities for
executing the scripts, wherein each script is configured to prepare
for backup one or more corresponding applications, and (iii)
executable selection logic; a container-orchestration pod that
comprises the first container and one or more other containers
comprising one or more containerized applications, wherein
components of the container-orchestration pod, including the first
container and the one or more other containers, run on the cloud
computing environment; wherein the discovery logic that executes in
the first container is configured to, based on an indication that a
backup operation has been triggered, identify at least a first
containerized application among the one or more containerized
applications executing in the one or more other containers; wherein
the selection logic that executes in the first container is
configured to determine a first executable script that is suitable
for preparing the first containerized application for backup;
wherein the selection logic is further configured to cause the
first executable script to: (a) execute in the first container
using corresponding enabling utilities, (b) access the first
containerized application, and (c) prepare the first containerized
application for the backup operation; wherein the selection logic
is further configured to indicate that the first containerized
application is ready for the backup operation; and wherein the
selection logic is further configured to, based on receiving an
indication that the backup operation has completed, release the
first containerized application from a backup-ready state.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein the container-orchestration pod
is part of a node that executes as a service in the cloud computing
account.
18. The system of claim 16, wherein the container-orchestration pod
is based on Kubernetes technology.
19. The system of claim 16, wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered is received from a data storage
management system outside the container-orchestration pod, and
wherein the backup operation generates one or more secondary copies
of data associated with the first containerized application.
20. The system of claim 16, wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered is received from a component of a data
storage management system outside the first container; wherein the
backup operation generates one or more secondary copies of data
associated with the first containerized application; and wherein at
least one of the one or more secondary copies are stored in another
pod outside the container-orchestration pod.
Description
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE TO ANY PRIORITY APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent
Application Ser. No. 62/872,606, filed on Jul. 10, 2019 with the
title of "PREPARING CONTAINERIZED APPLICATIONS FOR BACKUP USING A
BACKUP SERVICES CONTAINER," which is incorporated by reference in
its entirety herein. Any and all applications for which a foreign
or domestic priority claim is identified in the Application Data
Sheet of the present application are hereby incorporated by
reference in their entireties under 37 CFR 1.57.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
[0002] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains
material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright
owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of
the patent document and/or the patent disclosure as it appears in
the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent file and/or
records, but otherwise reserves all copyrights whatsoever.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Businesses 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. A company might back up critical computing systems
such as databases, file servers, web servers, virtual machines, and
so on as part of a maintenance plan. Given the rapidly expanding
volume of data under management, companies also continue to seek
innovative techniques for managing data growth and costs.
SUMMARY
[0004] Containerization of applications and open source deployments
sometimes present special challenges in protecting data. Although
they provide advantages in ease of deployment and/or reduced costs,
containerized and/or open source solutions are not necessarily
equipped for robust and scalable data protection. For example, some
database management systems (DBMS) ship without resources needed
for data backups. For example, some open source backup utilities
lack features for file level recovery, granular live browsing,
and/or content indexing. These deficiencies require substantial
manual intervention and/or tracking, thus contravening the
aforementioned ease of deployment and cost advantages.
[0005] The present inventors devised a streamlined approach that
overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art. The illustrative
computer-implemented technological improvement includes: (i)
creating a specially-equipped "backup services container", that
comprises scripts implementing commands for accessing containerized
applications, and also comprises execution resources and
environments (enabling utilities) therefor, such as runtime C,
python, etc.; (collectively the scripts and their enabling
utilities are referred to herein as "backup preparation toolkits"
or "backup toolkits" or "toolkits"); (ii) adding the backup
services container to any number of Kubernetes pods comprising
containerized applications (e.g., DBMS, web server, file system,
login server, etc.); (iii) to provide maximum value and advantage,
the backup services container is "over-equipped" with a spectrum of
toolkits--generally many more toolkit types than types of target
applications that might be found in any given Kubernetes pod; (iv)
when a backup operation is pending for a target containerized
application in the Kubernetes pod, the backup services container
selects and applies a suitable backup preparation toolkit to the
application to ready the application for the backup operation; (v)
some embodiments include close interoperability with a proprietary
data storage management system, thereby providing additional
features and enhancements that are not possible with third-party
backup systems; and (vi) the illustrative embodiments facilitate
and enhance backup operations without necessitating changes to
existing containers configured in the Kubernetes pod, thereby
acting as value-added helpers that do not interfere with existing
container configurations.
[0006] Interoperability with an illustrative proprietary data
storage management system provides additional advantages for
managing backup operations and backed up data, such as creating
inventories of containerized applications, creating and applying
backup preferences for individual target applications, granular
browse and restore features, indexing of backed up data, using
retention policies, etc.
[0007] However, in some embodiments, the illustrative backup
services container does not require the proprietary data storage
management system, and is capable of interoperating with
third-party backup systems. A third-party backup system, such as
Velero (see, e.g., http://github.com/heptio/velero), may include
open source utilities for backing up Kubernetes applications, and
generally lacks the robustness, feature richness, and scalability
of the proprietary data storage management system described
herein.
[0008] Database management systems (DBMSs) and file systems
typically require preparation before backup in order to maintain
state and prevent data loss. Pre-backup preparation usually
includes quiescing. Typically, a snapshot immediately follows to
capture targeted data (e.g., database, file system data) while the
application is quiescent, and the application is then released to
resume normal operations. Other applications that need to preserve
and maintain state require similar pre-backup preparation. The
illustrative proprietary data storage management system, or a
third-party backup system, then uses the snapshot as a data source
to be processed for backup and to generate secondary copies
therefrom.
[0009] Because each application has its own unique architecture,
features, states, and application programming interface (API), each
application requires specialized pre-backup processing to prevent
data loss and maintain state through the backup operation. Some
applications are sometimes packaged without sufficient resources
for implementing the necessary backup preparations. For example, a
DBMS might lack suitable scripts for quiescing/unquiescing the
DBMS. Even when scripts are included with the DBMS package, they
need an execution environment (e.g., C runtime, python, etc.) that
might be missing from the DBMS package. For example, applications
supplied by an application store might lack necessary
utilities/resources needed to enable scripts for accessing the
applications. As a result, an attempt to back up the targeted
application might fail altogether or might leave the application in
an inconsistent state resulting in data loss or data
corruption.
[0010] The illustrative backup services container is specially
configured to overcome these risks and deficiencies by supplying a
comprehensive set of backup preparation toolkits that include
scripts and enabling execution environments. Each toolkit is suited
to one or more types of applications. The collection of toolkits
equipped into the backup services container thus has the ability to
work with a variety of applications commonly deployed in containers
and/or configured in Kubernetes pods. Since the backup services
container is pre-configured before deployment into the Kubernetes
pod, the more toolkits it comprises, the more versatile it will be
in operation.
[0011] Thus, the illustrative backup services container comprises a
wide-ranging set of backup preparation toolkits targeted to a large
variety of applications deployed in Kubernetes pods. In addition to
the backup toolkits, the backup services container comprises logic
for checking pod assets (e.g., applications, storage, etc.) and
discovering their attributes; logic for selecting and applying
suitable backup preparation toolkits to target applications and for
releasing the applications after a backup operation completes; and
logic for interfacing with external backup systems performing
backup operations, such the illustrative proprietary data storage
management system and/or third-party backup systems. Such backup
systems are referred to herein as "external" in the sense that the
backup systems are outside of the backup services container. The
backup services container streamlines backup operations, and
additionally functions as a collector of information that can be
used productively by the proprietary data storage management
system.
[0012] In some embodiments, one or more components (e.g., data
agents, media agents) of the proprietary data storage management
system are configured within the backup services container to
facilitate backup operations and/or to improve backup performance
within the pod. In some embodiments, a Kubernetes pod is specially
configured with components (e.g., data agents, media agents,
storage manager, storage resources, etc.) of the proprietary data
storage management system, thereby forming a "backup services pod."
The illustrative backup services pod interoperates with backup
services container(s) in one or more other Kubernetes pods that
co-reside within a Kubernetes node. The backup services pod also
facilitates backup operations and/or improves backup performance
for data in the Kubernetes node.
[0013] Illustrative "discovery logic" in the backup services
container determines what containerized applications are actually
present in the Kubernetes pod and determines their characteristics
and attributes. The discovery logic is configured to also interpret
information, e.g., to determine whether "my_pictures" in a host
container refers to a file system, a DBMS, a web server, or some
other kind of application, by analyzing configuration parameters
associated with "my_pictures" in the host container. In some
embodiments, the discovery logic reports its findings, including
inventories of applications and their attributes, to a storage
manager in the proprietary data storage management system. The
storage manager, which is generally responsible for controlling
storage operations including backups, stores the information
reported by the discovery logic. The storage manager further
employs the received information to generate preferences that apply
to the discovered container assets, e.g., storage policies, backup
schedules, backup staggering, retention policies, etc. Certain
information collected by the discovery logic is used in non-backup
operations, e.g., mounting selected volumes in live browse, content
indexing, etc.
[0014] In some embodiments, the storage manager also establishes
activity tracking of targeted containerized application to help
trigger backup operations based on application activity rather than
a fixed schedule (e.g., more frequent backups for busy
applications, more frequent backups for applications generating
large amounts of data, etc.). In some embodiments, the backup
services container comprises activity monitoring logic (e.g., as
part of the discovery logic and/or as a separate functional
component) that tracks targeted containerized applications and
reports to the external backup system, for example by using
pre-defined thresholds to determine suitable timing for a
backup.
[0015] When a backup operation is triggered (e.g., by the
proprietary data storage management system, by a third-party backup
system, etc.), the backup services container receives notice, e.g.,
in the form of a trigger, an instruction, a message, etc. The
discovery logic then determines and/or confirms which containerized
applications (and other container assets) are present in the
present Kubernetes pod, including associated attributes.
[0016] Logic for selecting and applying suitable backup preparation
toolkits ("selection logic") is then invoked at the backup services
container. First, the selection logic determines which of the
discovered containerized applications require which of the
pre-configured backup preparation toolkits, if any. Some
containerized applications need not be expressly prepared for
backup, and therefore will not require the services of a backup
toolkit. Next, the selection logic selects a suitable backup
toolkit, establishes communications with the target containerized
application, and executes the script in the toolkit, e.g., invoking
certain commands via an API, thereby causing the target application
to be readied for backup. For example, a backup preparation script
issues one or more API commands to quiesce a DBMS or a file system.
The selection logic reports to the external backup system that the
target application is ready for backup (e.g., quiescent) and the
selection logic waits for an indication that the backup operation
has completed, e.g., received from the external backup system after
a snapshot is taken. The selection logic then releases the
application from its backup-ready (e.g., quiescent) state to resume
normal operations (e.g., issues an unquiesce command via API). Any
number of target containerized applications and different types and
versions of containerized applications can be prepared for backup
in this way using the various illustrative backup toolkits in the
backup services container.
[0017] The backup operation is typically managed by the external
backup system, e.g., the proprietary data storage management
system, a third-party backup system, etc. The backup services
container uses an illustrative backup system interface logic to
communicate with the external system for exchanging information,
attributes, triggers, instructions, reports, status updates, etc.
In some embodiments, the interface logic is part of the discovery
and/or selection logic.
[0018] The illustrative embodiments are directed to containerized
applications configured in Kubernetes pods and/or Kubernetes nodes,
and the illustrative containers are configured as Docker
containers, but the invention is not so limited. In alternative
embodiments, any operating system-level virtualization platform
other than Docker containers and any container-orchestration system
other than Kubernetes pods/nodes can be implemented with the
illustrative backup services container and/or backup services pod.
Moreover, although Kubernetes is often referred to in the context
of serverless cloud computing environments, the invention is
suitable for cloud and non-cloud implementations alike, without
limitation.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[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. 2A illustrates a system and technique for synchronizing
primary data to a destination such as a failover site using
secondary copy data.
[0026] FIG. 2B illustrates an information management system
architecture incorporating use of a network file system (NFS)
protocol for communicating between the primary and secondary
storage subsystems.
[0027] FIG. 2C is a block diagram of an example of a highly
scalable managed data pool architecture.
[0028] FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating some salient
portions of a system 300 comprising backup services container 301
and data storage management system 302, according to an
illustrative embodiment.
[0029] FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating backup services
container 301 interoperating with a third-party backup system,
according to another illustrative embodiment.
[0030] FIG. 3C is a block diagram of an illustrative overview of
Kubernetes pods.
[0031] FIG. 3D is a block diagram of an illustrative overview of a
Kubernetes node comprising a plurality of Kubernetes pods.
[0032] FIG. 4A is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
backup services container 301 and data storage management system
302.
[0033] FIG. 4B is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
backup services container 301 and data storage management system
302, wherein one or more data agents 442 are deployed in backup
services container 301.
[0034] FIG. 4C is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
system 300 in which backup proxy 486 is configured and deployed as
a Kubernetes pod within a Kubernetes node 413.
[0035] FIG. 4D is a block diagram depicting some details of a
"backup services pod" 486 deployed in a Kubernetes node.
[0036] FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
and logical information paths to/from backup services container 301
and storage manager 440.
[0037] FIG. 6 depicts some salient operations of a method 600
according to an illustrative embodiment.
[0038] FIG. 7 depicts some salient details of block 608 in method
600.
[0039] FIG. 8 depicts some salient details of block 610 in method
600.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0040] Detailed descriptions and examples of systems and methods
according to one or more illustrative embodiments of the present
invention may be found in the section entitled PREPARING
CONTAINERIZED APPLICATIONS FOR BACKUP USING A BACKUP SERVICES
CONTAINER, as well as in the section entitled Example Embodiments,
and also in FIGS. 3A-8 herein. Furthermore, components and
functionality for preparing containerized applications for backup
using a backup services container may be configured and/or
incorporated into information management systems such as those
described herein in FIGS. 1A-1H and 2A-2C.
[0041] Various embodiments described herein are intimately tied to,
enabled by, and would not exist except for, computer technology.
For example, configuring a backup services container,
communications to/from containerized applications and to/from
external backup systems described herein in reference to various
embodiments cannot reasonably be performed by humans alone, without
the computer technology upon which they are implemented.
Information Management System Overview
[0042] With the increasing importance of protecting and leveraging
data, organizations simply cannot risk losing critical data.
Moreover, runaway data growth and other modern realities make
protecting and managing data increasingly difficult. There is
therefore a need for efficient, powerful, and user-friendly
solutions for protecting and managing data and for smart and
efficient management of data storage. Depending on the size of the
organization, there may be many data production sources which are
under the purview of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of
individuals. In the past, individuals were sometimes responsible
for managing and protecting their own data, and a patchwork of
hardware and software point solutions may have been used in any
given organization. These solutions were often provided by
different vendors and had limited or no interoperability. Certain
embodiments described herein address these and other shortcomings
of prior approaches by implementing scalable, unified,
organization-wide information management, including data storage
management.
[0043] FIG. 1A shows one such information management system 100 (or
"system 100"), which generally includes combinations of hardware
and software configured to protect and manage data and metadata
that are generated and used by computing devices in system 100.
System 100 may be referred to in some embodiments as a "storage
management system" or a "data storage management system." System
100 performs information management operations, some of which may
be referred to as "storage operations" or "data storage
operations," to protect and manage the data residing in and/or
managed by system 100. The organization that employs system 100 may
be a corporation or other business entity, non-profit organization,
educational institution, household, governmental agency, or the
like.
[0044] 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/publications and
patent applications assigned to Commvault Systems, Inc., each of
which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety herein:
[0045] U.S. Pat. No. 7,035,880, entitled "Modular Backup and
Retrieval System Used in Conjunction With a Storage Area Network";
[0046] U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298, entitled "System And Method For
Archiving Objects In An Information Store"; [0047] U.S. Pat. No.
7,246,207, entitled "System and Method for Dynamically Performing
Storage Operations in a Computer Network"; [0048] U.S. Pat. No.
7,315,923, entitled "System And Method For Combining Data Streams
In Pipelined Storage Operations In A Storage Network"; [0049] U.S.
Pat. No. 7,343,453, entitled "Hierarchical Systems and Methods for
Providing a Unified View of Storage Information"; [0050] U.S. Pat.
No. 7,395,282, entitled "Hierarchical Backup and Retrieval System";
[0051] U.S. Pat. No. 7,529,782, entitled "System and Methods for
Performing a Snapshot and for Restoring Data"; [0052] U.S. Pat. No.
7,617,262, entitled "System and Methods for Monitoring Application
Data in a Data Replication System"; [0053] U.S. Pat. No. 7,734,669,
entitled "Managing Copies Of Data"; [0054] U.S. Pat. No. 7,747,579,
entitled "Metabase for Facilitating Data Classification"; [0055]
U.S. Pat. No. 8,156,086, entitled "Systems And Methods For Stored
Data Verification"; [0056] U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995, entitled
"Method and System for Offline Indexing of Content and Classifying
Stored Data"; [0057] U.S. Pat. No. 8,230,195, entitled "System And
Method For Performing Auxiliary Storage Operations"; [0058] 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"; [0059] U.S. Pat.
No. 8,307,177, entitled "Systems And Methods For Management Of
Virtualization Data"; [0060] U.S. Pat. No. 8,364,652, entitled
"Content-Aligned, Block-Based Deduplication"; [0061] U.S. Pat. No.
8,578,120, entitled "Block-Level Single Instancing"; [0062] U.S.
Pat. No. 8,954,446, entitled "Client-Side Repository in a Networked
Deduplicated Storage System"; [0063] U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900,
entitled "Distributed Deduplicated Storage System"; [0064] U.S.
Pat. No. 9,098,495, entitled "Application-Aware and Remote Single
Instance Data Management"; [0065] U.S. Pat. No. 9,239,687, entitled
"Systems and Methods for Retaining and Using Data Block Signatures
in Data Protection Operations"; [0066] U.S. Pat. No. 9,633,033,
entitled "High Availability Distributed Deduplicated Storage
System"; [0067] U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846, entitled "System
and Method to Support Single Instance Storage Operations"; [0068]
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2016-0350391, entitled "Replication Using
Deduplicated Secondary Copy Data"; [0069] U.S. Pat. Pub. No.
2017-0168903 A1, entitled "Live Synchronization and Management of
Virtual Machines across Computing and Virtualization Platforms and
Using Live Synchronization to Support Disaster Recovery"; [0070]
U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017-0185488 A1, entitled "Application-Level
Live Synchronization Across Computing Platforms Including
Synchronizing Co-Resident Applications To Disparate Standby
Destinations And Selectively Synchronizing Some Applications And
Not Others"; [0071] U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2017-0192866 A1, entitled
"System For Redirecting Requests After A Secondary Storage
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A1, entitled "Data Protection Operations Based on Network Path
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entitled "Data Restoration Operations Based on Network Path
Information".
[0075] System 100 includes computing devices and computing
technologies. For instance, system 100 can include one or more
client computing devices 102 and secondary storage computing
devices 106, as well as storage manager 140 or a host computing
device for it. 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, servers, and minicomputers. 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. Servers can
include mail servers, file servers, database servers, virtual
machine servers, and web servers. Any given computing device
comprises one or more processors (e.g., CPU and/or single-core or
multi-core processors), as well as corresponding non-transitory
computer memory (e.g., random-access memory (RAM)) for storing
computer programs which are to be executed by the one or more
processors. Other computer memory for mass storage of data may be
packaged/configured with the computing device (e.g., an internal
hard disk) and/or may be external and accessible by the computing
device (e.g., network-attached storage, a storage array, etc.). In
some cases, a computing device includes cloud computing resources,
which may be implemented as virtual machines. For instance, one or
more virtual machines may be provided to the organization by a
third-party cloud service vendor.
[0076] 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. A Virtual machine ("VM") is a
software implementation of a computer that does not physically
exist and is instead instantiated in an operating system of a
physical computer (or host machine) to enable applications to
execute within the VM's environment, i.e., a VM emulates a physical
computer. AVM includes an operating system and associated virtual
resources, such as computer memory and processor(s). A hypervisor
operates between the VM and the hardware of the physical host
machine and is generally responsible for creating and running the
VMs. Hypervisors are also known in the art as virtual machine
monitors or a virtual machine managers or "VMMs", and may be
implemented in software, firmware, and/or specialized hardware
installed on the host machine. Examples of hypervisors include ESX
Server, by VMware, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif.; Microsoft Virtual
Server and Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V, both by Microsoft
Corporation of Redmond, Wash.; Sun xVM by Oracle America Inc. of
Santa Clara, Calif.; and Xen by Citrix Systems, Santa Clara, Calif.
The hypervisor provides resources to each virtual operating system
such as a virtual processor, virtual memory, a virtual network
device, and a virtual disk. Each virtual machine has one or more
associated virtual disks. The hypervisor typically stores the data
of virtual disks in files on the file system of the physical host
machine, called virtual machine disk files ("VMDK" in VMware lingo)
or virtual hard disk image files (in Microsoft lingo). 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 way
that a physical machine reads data from and writes data to a
physical disk. Examples of techniques for implementing information
management in a cloud computing environment are described in U.S.
Pat. No. 8,285,681. Examples of techniques for implementing
information management in a virtualized computing environment are
described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,307,177.
[0077] Information management system 100 can also include
electronic data storage devices, generally used for mass storage of
data, including, e.g., primary storage devices 104 and secondary
storage devices 108. Storage devices can generally be of any
suitable type including, without limitation, disk drives, storage
arrays (e.g., storage-area network (SAN) and/or network-attached
storage (NAS) technology), 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, combinations of the same, etc. In some
embodiments, storage devices form part of a distributed file
system. In some cases, storage devices are provided in a cloud
storage environment (e.g., a private cloud or one operated by a
third-party vendor), whether for primary data or secondary copies
or both.
[0078] Depending on context, the term "information management
system" can refer to generally all of the illustrated hardware and
software components in FIG. 1C, or the term may refer to only a
subset of the illustrated components. For instance, in some cases,
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 client computing
devices 102. However, system 100 in some cases does not include the
underlying components that generate and/or store primary data 112,
such as the client computing devices 102 themselves, and the
primary storage devices 104. Likewise secondary storage devices 108
(e.g., a third-party provided cloud storage environment) may not be
part of system 100. As an example, "information management system"
or "storage management system" may sometimes refer to one or more
of the following components, which will be described in further
detail below: storage manager, data agent, and media agent.
[0079] One or more client computing devices 102 may be part of
system 100, each client computing device 102 having an operating
system and at least one application 110 and one or more
accompanying data agents executing thereon; and associated with one
or more primary storage devices 104 storing primary data 112.
Client computing device(s) 102 and primary storage devices 104 may
generally be referred to in some cases as primary storage subsystem
117.
Client Computing Devices, Clients, and Subclients
[0080] Typically, a variety of sources in an organization 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, a database server, a transaction server, or the like. In
system 100, data generation sources include one or more client
computing devices 102. A computing device that has a data agent 142
installed and operating on it is generally referred to as a "client
computing device" 102, and may include any type of computing
device, without limitation. A client computing device 102 may be
associated with one or more users and/or user accounts.
[0081] A "client" is a logical component of information management
system 100, which may represent a logical grouping of one or more
data agents installed on a client computing device 102. Storage
manager 140 recognizes a client as a component of system 100, and
in some embodiments, may automatically create a client component
the first time a data agent 142 is installed on a client computing
device 102. Because data generated by executable component(s) 110
is tracked by the associated data agent 142 so that it may be
properly protected in system 100, a client may be said to generate
data and to store the generated data to primary storage, such as
primary storage device 104. However, the terms "client" and "client
computing device" as used herein do not imply that a client
computing device 102 is necessarily configured in the client/server
sense relative to another computing device such as a mail server,
or that a client computing device 102 cannot be a server in its own
right. As just a few examples, a client computing device 102 can be
and/or include mail servers, file servers, database servers,
virtual machine servers, and/or web servers.
[0082] Each client computing device 102 may have application(s) 110
executing thereon which generate and manipulate the data that is to
be protected from loss and managed in system 100. Applications 110
generally facilitate the operations of an organization, and can
include, without limitation, mail server applications (e.g.,
Microsoft Exchange Server), file system applications, mail client
applications (e.g., Microsoft Exchange Client), database
applications or database management systems (e.g., SQL, Oracle,
SAP, Lotus Notes Database), word processing applications (e.g.,
Microsoft Word), spreadsheet applications, financial applications,
presentation applications, graphics and/or video applications,
browser applications, mobile applications, entertainment
applications, and so on. Each application 110 may be accompanied by
an application-specific data agent 142, though not all data agents
142 are application-specific or associated with only application. A
file manager application, e.g., Microsoft Windows Explorer, may be
considered an application 110 and may be accompanied by its own
data agent 142. 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. In some embodiments, a virtual machine that
executes on a host client computing device 102 may be considered an
application 110 and may be accompanied by a specific data agent 142
(e.g., virtual server data agent).
[0083] Client computing devices 102 and other components in system
100 can be connected to one another via one or more electronic
communication pathways 114. For example, a first communication
pathway 114 may communicatively couple client computing device 102
and secondary storage computing device 106; a second communication
pathway 114 may communicatively couple storage manager 140 and
client computing device 102; and a third communication pathway 114
may communicatively couple storage manager 140 and secondary
storage computing device 106, etc. (see, e.g., FIG. 1A and FIG.
1C). A communication pathway 114 can include one or more networks
or other connection types including one or more of the following,
without limitation: the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a
local area network (LAN), a Storage Area Network (SAN), a Fibre
Channel (FC) 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 computer or
telecommunications networks, combinations of the same or the like.
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. The underlying infrastructure of
communication pathways 114 may be wired and/or wireless, analog
and/or digital, or any combination thereof; and the facilities used
may be private, public, third-party provided, or any combination
thereof, without limitation.
[0084] A "subclient" is a logical grouping of all or part of a
client's primary data 112. In general, a subclient may be defined
according to how the subclient data is to be protected as a unit in
system 100. For example, a subclient may be associated with a
certain storage policy. A given client may thus comprise several
subclients, each subclient associated with a different storage
policy. For example, some files may form a first subclient that
requires compression and deduplication and is associated with a
first storage policy. Other files of the client may form a second
subclient that requires a different retention schedule as well as
encryption, and may be associated with a different, second storage
policy. As a result, though the primary data may be generated by
the same application 110 and may belong to one given client,
portions of the data may be assigned to different subclients for
distinct treatment by system 100. More detail on subclients is
given in regard to storage policies below.
Primary Data and Exemplary Primary Storage Devices
[0085] Primary data 112 is generally production data or "live" data
generated by the operating system and/or applications 110 executing
on client computing device 102. Primary data 112 is generally
stored on primary storage device(s) 104 and is organized via a file
system operating on the client computing device 102. Thus, client
computing device(s) 102 and corresponding applications 110 may
create, access, modify, write, delete, and otherwise use primary
data 112. Primary data 112 is generally in the native format of the
source application 110. Primary data 112 is an initial or first
stored body 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 application 110. It
can be useful in performing certain tasks to organize 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 (i) 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/or to (ii) a subset of such a file (e.g., a data block, an
extent, etc.). Primary data 112 may include structured data (e.g.,
database files), unstructured data (e.g., documents), and/or
semi-structured data. See, e.g., FIG. 1B.
[0086] It can also be useful in performing certain functions of
system 100 to access and modify metadata within primary data 112.
Metadata generally includes information about data objects and/or
characteristics associated with the data objects. For simplicity
herein, it is to be understood that, unless expressly stated
otherwise, any reference to primary data 112 generally also
includes its associated metadata, but references to metadata
generally do not include the primary data. 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 other similar information related to the data
object. In addition to metadata generated by or related to file
systems and operating systems, some applications 110 and/or other
components of system 100 maintain indices of metadata for data
objects, e.g., metadata associated with individual email messages.
The use of metadata to perform classification and other functions
is described in greater detail below.
[0087] Primary storage devices 104 storing primary data 112 may be
relatively fast and/or expensive technology (e.g., flash storage, a
disk drive, a hard-disk storage array, solid state memory, etc.),
typically to support high-performance live production environments.
Primary data 112 may be highly changeable and/or may be intended
for relatively short term retention (e.g., hours, days, or weeks).
According to some embodiments, client computing device 102 can
access primary data 112 stored in primary storage device 104 by
making conventional file system calls via the operating system.
Each client computing device 102 is generally associated with
and/or in communication with one or more primary storage devices
104 storing corresponding primary data 112. A client computing
device 102 is said to be associated with or in communication with a
particular primary storage device 104 if it is capable of one or
more of: routing and/or storing data (e.g., primary data 112) to
the primary storage device 104, coordinating the routing and/or
storing of data to the primary storage device 104, retrieving data
from the primary storage device 104, coordinating the retrieval of
data from the primary storage device 104, and modifying and/or
deleting data in the primary storage device 104. Thus, a client
computing device 102 may be said to access data stored in an
associated storage device 104.
[0088] Primary storage device 104 may be dedicated or shared. In
some cases, each primary storage device 104 is dedicated to an
associated client computing device 102, e.g., a local disk drive.
In other cases, one or more primary storage devices 104 can be
shared by multiple client computing devices 102, e.g., via a local
network, in a cloud storage implementation, etc. As one example,
primary storage device 104 can be a storage array shared by a group
of client computing devices 102, such as EMC Clariion, EMC
Symmetrix, EMC Celerra, Dell EqualLogic, IBM XIV, NetApp FAS, HP
EVA, and HP 3PAR.
[0089] 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 system 100. For
instance, the hosted services may be provided by online service
providers. Such service providers can provide social networking
services, hosted email services, or hosted productivity
applications or other hosted applications such as
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
services users, each hosted service may generate additional data
and metadata, which may be managed by system 100, e.g., as primary
data 112. In some cases, the hosted services may be accessed using
one of the applications 110. As an example, a hosted mail service
may be accessed via browser running on a client computing device
102.
Secondary Copies and Exemplary Secondary Storage Devices
[0090] Primary data 112 stored on primary storage devices 104 may
be compromised in some cases, such as when an employee deliberately
or accidentally deletes or overwrites primary data 112. Or primary
storage devices 104 can be damaged, lost, or otherwise corrupted.
For recovery and/or regulatory compliance purposes, it is therefore
useful to generate and maintain copies of primary data 112.
Accordingly, 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
primary data 112 including its associated metadata. The secondary
storage computing devices 106 and the secondary storage devices 108
may be referred to as secondary storage subsystem 118.
[0091] Secondary copies 116 can help in search and analysis efforts
and meet other information management goals as well, such as:
restoring data and/or metadata if an original version 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 in the production system and/or in
secondary storage; facilitating organization and search of data;
improving user access to data files across multiple computing
devices and/or hosted services; and implementing data retention and
pruning policies.
[0092] A secondary copy 116 can comprise a separate stored copy of
data that is derived from one or more earlier-created stored copies
(e.g., derived from primary data 112 or from another secondary copy
116). Secondary copies 116 can include point-in-time data, and may
be intended for relatively long-term retention before some or all
of the data is moved to other storage or discarded. In some cases,
a secondary copy 116 may be in a different storage device than
other previously stored copies; and/or may be remote from other
previously stored copies. Secondary copies 116 can be stored in the
same storage device as primary data 112. For example, a disk array
capable of performing hardware snapshots stores primary data 112
and creates and stores hardware snapshots of the primary data 112
as secondary copies 116. Secondary copies 116 may be stored in
relatively slow and/or lower 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 from the native source application
format or other format of primary data 112.
[0093] Secondary storage computing devices 106 may index secondary
copies 116 (e.g., using a media agent 144), enabling users to
browse and restore at a later time and further enabling the
lifecycle management of the indexed data. After creation of a
secondary copy 116 that represents 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 of a particular secondary copy
116. Since an instance of a data object or metadata in primary data
112 may change over time as it is modified by application 110 (or
hosted service or the operating system), system 100 may create and
manage multiple secondary copies 116 of a particular data object or
metadata, each copy 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 primary storage device 104 and the file system, 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. For virtual machines, the operating system and other
applications 110 of 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. 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).
[0094] Secondary copies 116 are distinguishable from corresponding
primary data 112. First, secondary copies 116 can be stored in a
different format from primary data 112 (e.g., backup, archive, or
other non-native format). For this or other reasons, secondary
copies 116 may not be directly usable by applications 110 or client
computing device 102 (e.g., via standard system calls or otherwise)
without modification, processing, or other intervention by system
100 which may be referred to as "restore" operations. Secondary
copies 116 may have been processed by data agent 142 and/or media
agent 144 in the course of being created (e.g., compression,
deduplication, encryption, integrity markers, indexing, formatting,
application-aware metadata, etc.), and thus secondary copy 116 may
represent source primary data 112 without necessarily being exactly
identical to the source.
[0095] Second, secondary copies 116 may be stored on a secondary
storage device 108 that is inaccessible to application 110 running
on client computing device 102 and/or hosted service. 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 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
system 100 can access only with some human intervention (e.g.,
tapes located at an offsite storage site).
Using Intermediate Devices for Creating Secondary Copies--Secondary
Storage Computing Devices
[0096] Creating secondary copies can be challenging when hundreds
or thousands of client computing devices 102 continually generate
large volumes of primary data 112 to be protected. Also, there can
be significant overhead involved in the creation of secondary
copies 116. Moreover, specialized programmed intelligence and/or
hardware capability is generally needed for accessing and
interacting with secondary storage devices 108. Client computing
devices 102 may interact directly with a secondary storage device
108 to create secondary copies 116, but in view of the factors
described above, this approach can negatively impact the ability of
client computing device 102 to serve/service application 110 and
produce primary data 112. Further, any given client computing
device 102 may not be optimized for interaction with certain
secondary storage devices 108.
[0097] Thus, system 100 may include one or more software and/or
hardware components which generally act as intermediaries between
client computing devices 102 (that generate primary data 112) and
secondary storage devices 108 (that store secondary copies 116). In
addition to off-loading certain responsibilities from client
computing devices 102, these intermediate components 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 and improve system
performance. For instance, using specialized secondary storage
computing devices 106 and media agents 144 for interfacing with
secondary storage devices 108 and/or for performing certain data
processing operations can greatly improve the speed with which
system 100 performs information management operations and can also
improve the capacity of the system to handle large numbers of such
operations, while reducing the computational load on the production
environment of client computing devices 102. 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
144. Media agents are discussed further below (e.g., with respect
to FIGS. 1C-1E). These special-purpose components of system 100
comprise specialized programmed intelligence and/or hardware
capability for writing to, reading from, instructing, communicating
with, or otherwise interacting with secondary storage devices
108.
[0098] Secondary storage computing device(s) 106 can comprise any
of the computing devices described above, without limitation. In
some cases, secondary storage computing device(s) 106 also include
specialized hardware componentry and/or software intelligence
(e.g., specialized interfaces) for interacting with certain
secondary storage device(s) 108 with which they may be specially
associated.
[0099] To create a secondary copy 116 involving the copying of data
from primary storage subsystem 117 to secondary storage subsystem
118, client computing device 102 may communicate the primary data
112 to be copied (or a processed version thereof generated by a
data agent 142) to the designated secondary storage computing
device 106, via a communication pathway 114. Secondary storage
computing device 106 in turn may further process and convey the
data or a processed version thereof to secondary storage device
108. One or more secondary copies 116 may be created from existing
secondary copies 116, such as in the case of an auxiliary copy
operation, described further below.
Exemplary Primary Data and an Exemplary Secondary Copy
[0100] FIG. 1B is a detailed view of some specific examples of
primary data stored on primary storage device(s) 104 and secondary
copy data stored on secondary storage device(s) 108, with other
components of the system removed for the purposes of illustration.
Stored on primary storage device(s) 104 are primary data 112
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. Some
or all primary data 112 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 116 data objects 134A-C
which may include copies of or may otherwise represent
corresponding primary data 112.
[0101] 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 corresponding metadata Meta11,
Meta3, and Meta8, respectively). Moreover, as indicated by the
prime mark ('), secondary storage computing devices 106 or other
components in secondary storage subsystem 118 may process the data
received from primary storage subsystem 117 and store a secondary
copy including a transformed and/or supplemented representation of
a primary data object and/or metadata that is different from the
original format, e.g., in a compressed, encrypted, deduplicated, or
other modified format. For instance, secondary storage computing
devices 106 can generate new metadata or other information based on
said processing, and store the newly generated information along
with the secondary copies. Secondary copy data object 1346
represents primary data objects 120, 1336, and 119A as 120', 1336',
and 119A', respectively, accompanied by corresponding metadata
Meta2, Meta10, and Meta1, respectively. Also, secondary copy data
object 134C represents primary data objects 133A, 1196, and 129A as
133A', 1196', and 129A', respectively, accompanied by corresponding
metadata Meta9, Meta5, and Meta6, respectively.
Exemplary Information Management System Architecture
[0102] 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 system 100. Such design choices can
impact how system 100 performs and adapts to data growth and other
changing circumstances. FIG. 1C shows a system 100 designed
according to these considerations and includes: storage manager
140, one or more data agents 142 executing on client computing
device(s) 102 and configured to process primary data 112, and one
or more media agents 144 executing on one or more secondary storage
computing devices 106 for performing tasks involving secondary
storage devices 108.
[0103] Storage Manager
[0104] Storage manager 140 is a centralized storage and/or
information manager that is configured to perform certain control
functions and also to store certain critical information about
system 100--hence storage manager 140 is said to manage system 100.
As noted, the number of components in system 100 and the amount of
data under management can be large. Managing the components and
data is therefore a significant task, which can grow unpredictably
as the number of components and data scale to meet the needs of the
organization. For these and other reasons, according to certain
embodiments, responsibility for controlling system 100, or at least
a significant portion of that responsibility, is allocated to
storage manager 140. Storage manager 140 can be adapted
independently according to changing circumstances, without having
to replace or re-design the remainder of the system. Moreover, a
computing device for hosting and/or operating as storage manager
140 can be selected to best suit the functions and networking needs
of storage manager 140. These and other advantages are described in
further detail below and with respect to FIG. 1D.
[0105] Storage manager 140 may be a software module or other
application hosted by a suitable computing device. In some
embodiments, storage manager 140 is itself a computing device that
performs the functions described herein. Storage manager 140
comprises or operates in conjunction with one or more associated
data structures such as a dedicated database (e.g., management
database 146), depending on the configuration. The storage manager
140 generally initiates, performs, coordinates, and/or controls
storage and other information management operations performed by
system 100, e.g., to protect and control primary data 112 and
secondary copies 116. In general, storage manager 140 is said to
manage system 100, which includes communicating with, instructing,
and controlling in some circumstances components such as data
agents 142 and media agents 144, etc.
[0106] As shown by the dashed arrowed lines 114 in FIG. 1C, storage
manager 140 may communicate with, instruct, and/or control some or
all elements of system 100, such as data agents 142 and media
agents 144. In this manner, storage manager 140 manages the
operation of various hardware and software components in system
100. In certain embodiments, control information originates from
storage manager 140 and status as well as index reporting is
transmitted to storage manager 140 by the managed components,
whereas payload data and metadata are generally communicated
between data agents 142 and media agents 144 (or otherwise between
client computing device(s) 102 and secondary storage computing
device(s) 106), e.g., at the direction of and under the management
of 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, data path information specifying what
components to communicate with or access in carrying out an
operation, and the like. In other embodiments, some information
management operations are controlled or initiated by other
components of system 100 (e.g., by media agents 144 or data agents
142), instead of or in combination with storage manager 140.
[0107] According to certain embodiments, storage manager 140
provides one or more of the following functions: [0108]
communicating with data agents 142 and media agents 144, including
transmitting instructions, messages, and/or queries, as well as
receiving status reports, index information, messages, and/or
queries, and responding to same; [0109] initiating execution of
information management operations; [0110] initiating restore and
recovery operations; [0111] managing secondary storage devices 108
and inventory/capacity of the same; [0112] allocating secondary
storage devices 108 for secondary copy operations; [0113]
reporting, searching, and/or classification of data in system 100;
[0114] monitoring completion of and status reporting related to
information management operations and jobs; [0115] tracking
movement of data within system 100; [0116] tracking age information
relating to secondary copies 116, secondary storage devices 108,
comparing the age information against retention guidelines, and
initiating data pruning when appropriate; [0117] tracking logical
associations between components in system 100; [0118] protecting
metadata associated with system 100, e.g., in management database
146; [0119] implementing job management, schedule management, event
management, alert management, reporting, job history maintenance,
user security management, disaster recovery management, and/or user
interfacing for system administrators and/or end users of system
100; [0120] sending, searching, and/or viewing of log files; and
[0121] implementing operations management functionality.
[0122] Storage manager 140 may maintain an associated database 146
(or "storage manager database 146" or "management database 146") of
management-related data and information management policies 148.
Database 146 is stored in computer memory accessible by storage
manager 140. Database 146 may include a management index 150 (or
"index 150") or other data structure(s) that may store: logical
associations between components of the system; user preferences
and/or profiles (e.g., preferences regarding encryption,
compression, or deduplication of primary data or secondary copies;
preferences regarding the scheduling, type, or other aspects of
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; other useful data; and/or any combination
thereof. For example, storage manager 140 may use index 150 to
track logical associations between media agents 144 and secondary
storage devices 108 and/or movement of data to/from secondary
storage devices 108. For instance, 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.
[0123] Administrators and others may configure and initiate certain
information management operations on an individual basis. But while
this may be acceptable for some recovery operations or other
infrequent tasks, it is often not workable for implementing
on-going organization-wide data protection and management. Thus,
system 100 may utilize information management policies 148 for
specifying and executing information management operations on an
automated basis. Generally, an information management policy 148
can include a stored data structure or other information source
that specifies parameters (e.g., criteria and rules) associated
with storage management or other information management operations.
Storage manager 140 can process an information management policy
148 and/or index 150 and, based on the results, identify an
information management operation to perform, identify the
appropriate components in system 100 to be involved in the
operation (e.g., client computing devices 102 and corresponding
data agents 142, secondary storage computing devices 106 and
corresponding media agents 144, etc.), establish connections to
those components and/or between those components, and/or instruct
and control those components to carry out the operation. In this
manner, system 100 can translate stored information into
coordinated activity among the various computing devices in system
100.
[0124] Management database 146 may maintain information management
policies 148 and associated data, although information management
policies 148 can be stored in computer memory at any appropriate
location outside management database 146. 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 or
other information management operations, depending on the
embodiment. Information management policies 148 are described
further below. According to certain embodiments, management
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 subclient data were protected and where the
secondary copies are stored and which media agent 144 performed the
storage operation(s)). This and other metadata may additionally be
stored in other locations, such as at secondary storage computing
device 106 or on the secondary storage device 108, allowing data
recovery without the use of storage manager 140 in some cases.
Thus, management database 146 may comprise data needed to kick off
secondary copy operations (e.g., storage policies, schedule
policies, etc.), status and reporting information about completed
jobs (e.g., status and error reports on yesterday's backup jobs),
and additional information sufficient to enable restore and
disaster recovery operations (e.g., media agent associations,
location indexing, content indexing, etc.).
[0125] 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. These are described further below.
[0126] Jobs agent 156 in some embodiments initiates, controls,
and/or monitors the status of some or all information management
operations previously performed, currently being performed, or
scheduled to be performed by system 100. A job is a logical
grouping of information management operations such as daily storage
operations scheduled for a certain set of subclients (e.g.,
generating incremental block-level backup copies 116 at a certain
time every day for database files in a certain geographical
location). Thus, jobs agent 156 may access information management
policies 148 (e.g., in management database 146) to determine when,
where, and how to initiate/control jobs in system 100.
[0127] Storage Manager User Interfaces
[0128] User interface 158 may include information processing and
display software, such as a graphical user interface (GUI), an
application program interface (API), and/or other interactive
interface(s) through which users and system processes can retrieve
information about the status of information management operations
or issue instructions to storage manager 140 and other components.
Via user interface 158, users may issue instructions to the
components in system 100 regarding performance of secondary copy
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 secondary copy jobs or to monitor the status of certain
components in system 100 (e.g., the amount of capacity left in a
storage device). Storage manager 140 may 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 by interacting with user interface
158.
[0129] Various embodiments of information management system 100 may
be configured and/or designed to generate user interface data
usable for rendering the various interactive user interfaces
described. The user interface data may be used by system 100 and/or
by another system, device, and/or software program (for example, a
browser program), to render the interactive user interfaces. The
interactive user interfaces may be displayed on, for example,
electronic displays (including, for example, touch-enabled
displays), consoles, etc., whether direct-connected to storage
manager 140 or communicatively coupled remotely, e.g., via an
internet connection. The present disclosure describes various
embodiments of interactive and dynamic user interfaces, some of
which may be generated by user interface agent 158, and which are
the result of significant technological development. The user
interfaces described herein may provide improved human-computer
interactions, allowing for significant cognitive and ergonomic
efficiencies and advantages over previous systems, including
reduced mental workloads, improved decision-making, and the like.
User interface 158 may operate in a single integrated view or
console (not shown). The console may support a reporting capability
for generating a variety of reports, which may be tailored to a
particular aspect of information management.
[0130] User interfaces are not exclusive to storage manager 140 and
in some embodiments a user may access information locally from a
computing device component of system 100. For example, some
information pertaining to installed data agents 142 and associated
data streams may be available from client computing device 102.
Likewise, some information pertaining to media agents 144 and
associated data streams may be available from secondary storage
computing device 106.
[0131] Storage Manager Management Agent
[0132] Management agent 154 can provide storage manager 140 with
the ability to communicate with other components within system 100
and/or with other information management cells via network
protocols and application programming interfaces (APIs) including,
e.g., HTTP, HTTP, FTP, REST, virtualization software APIs, cloud
service provider APIs, and hosted service provider APIs, without
limitation. Management agent 154 also allows multiple information
management cells to communicate with one another. For example,
system 100 in some cases may be one information management cell in
a network of multiple cells adjacent to one another or otherwise
logically related, e.g., in a WAN or LAN. With this arrangement,
the cells may communicate with one another through respective
management agents 154. Inter-cell communications and hierarchy is
described in greater detail in e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.
[0133] Information Management Cell
[0134] An "information management cell" (or "storage operation
cell" or "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
data agent 142 (executing on a client computing device 102) and at
least one media agent 144 (executing on a secondary storage
computing device 106). For instance, the components shown in FIG.
1C may together form an information management cell. Thus, in some
configurations, a system 100 may be referred to as an information
management cell or a storage operation cell. A given cell may be
identified by the identity of its storage manager 140, which is
generally responsible for managing the cell.
[0135] Multiple cells may be organized hierarchically, so that
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 operational parameters, or
other properties or characteristics according to their relative
position in a hierarchy of cells. Cells may also be organized
hierarchically according to function, geography, architectural
considerations, or other factors useful or desirable in performing
information management operations. For example, 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 City office. Other cells may represent
departments within a particular office, e.g., human resources,
finance, engineering, etc. 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 copies at a
certain frequency), and a second cell may perform one or more
second types of information management operations (e.g., one or
more second types of secondary copies at a different frequency and
under different retention rules). In general, the hierarchical
information is maintained by one or more storage managers 140 that
manage the respective cells (e.g., in corresponding management
database(s) 146).
[0136] Data Agents
[0137] A variety of different applications 110 can operate on a
given client computing device 102, including operating systems,
file 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 device 102 may be tasked with processing and preparing
the primary data 112 generated by these various applications 110.
Moreover, the nature of the processing/preparation can differ
across application types, e.g., due to inherent structural, state,
and formatting differences among applications 110 and/or the
operating system of client computing device 102. Each data agent
142 is 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.
[0138] Data agent 142 is a component of information system 100 and
is generally directed by storage manager 140 to participate in
creating or restoring secondary copies 116. Data agent 142 may be a
software program (e.g., in the form of a set of executable binary
files) that executes on the same client computing device 102 as the
associated application 110 that data agent 142 is configured to
protect. Data agent 142 is generally responsible for managing,
initiating, or otherwise assisting in the performance of
information management operations in reference to its associated
application(s) 110 and corresponding primary data 112 which is
generated/accessed by the particular application(s) 110. For
instance, data agent 142 may take part in copying, archiving,
migrating, and/or replicating of certain primary data 112 stored in
the primary storage device(s) 104. Data agent 142 may receive
control information from storage manager 140, such as commands to
transfer copies of data objects and/or metadata to one or more
media agents 144. Data agent 142 also may compress, deduplicate,
and encrypt certain primary data 112, as well as capture
application-related metadata before transmitting the processed data
to media agent 144. Data agent 142 also may receive instructions
from storage manager 140 to restore (or assist in restoring) a
secondary copy 116 from secondary storage device 108 to primary
storage 104, such that the restored data may be properly accessed
by application 110 in a suitable format as though it were primary
data 112.
[0139] Each data agent 142 may be specialized for a particular
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. 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 112, a specialized data agent 142 may be used for each data
type. For example, to backup, migrate, and/or restore all of the
data on a Microsoft Exchange server, the client computing device
102 may use: (1) a Microsoft Exchange Mailbox data agent 142 to
back up the Exchange mailboxes; (2) a Microsoft Exchange Database
data agent 142 to back up the Exchange databases; (3) a Microsoft
Exchange Public Folder data agent 142 to back up the Exchange
Public Folders; and (4) a Microsoft Windows File System data agent
142 to back up the file system of client computing device 102. In
this example, these specialized data agents 142 are treated as four
separate data agents 142 even though they operate on the same
client computing device 102. Other examples may include archive
management data agents such as a migration archiver or a compliance
archiver, Quick Recovery.RTM. agents, and continuous data
replication agents. Application-specific data agents 142 can
provide improved performance as compared to generic agents. For
instance, because application-specific data agents 142 may only
handle data for a single software application, the design,
operation, and performance of the data agent 142 can be
streamlined. The data agent 142 may therefore execute faster and
consume less persistent storage and/or operating memory than data
agents designed to generically accommodate multiple different
software applications 110.
[0140] Each data agent 142 may be configured to access data and/or
metadata stored in the primary storage device(s) 104 associated
with data agent 142 and its host client computing device 102, and
process the data appropriately. For example, during a secondary
copy operation, 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. In some embodiments, a
data agent 142 may be distributed between 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 media agent 144. 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.
[0141] Media Agents
[0142] As noted, off-loading certain responsibilities from client
computing devices 102 to intermediate components such as secondary
storage computing device(s) 106 and corresponding media agent(s)
144 can provide a number of benefits including improved performance
of client computing device 102, faster and more reliable
information management operations, and enhanced scalability. In one
example which will be discussed further below, media agent 144 can
act as a local cache of recently-copied data and/or metadata stored
to secondary storage device(s) 108, thus improving restore
capabilities and performance for the cached data.
[0143] Media agent 144 is a component of system 100 and is
generally directed by storage manager 140 in creating and restoring
secondary copies 116. Whereas storage manager 140 generally manages
system 100 as a whole, media agent 144 provides a portal to certain
secondary storage devices 108, such as by having specialized
features for communicating with and accessing certain associated
secondary storage device 108. Media agent 144 may be a software
program (e.g., in the form of a set of executable binary files)
that executes on a secondary storage computing device 106. Media
agent 144 generally manages, coordinates, and facilitates the
transmission of data between a data agent 142 (executing on client
computing device 102) and secondary storage device(s) 108
associated with media agent 144. For instance, other components in
the system may interact with media agent 144 to gain access to data
stored on associated secondary storage device(s) 108, (e.g., to
browse, read, write, modify, delete, or restore data). Moreover,
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--generally referred to as indexing of the stored secondary
copies 116. Each media agent 144 may operate on a dedicated
secondary storage computing device 106, while in other embodiments
a plurality of media agents 144 may operate on the same secondary
storage computing device 106.
[0144] A media agent 144 may 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 the particular secondary
storage device 108; and modifying and/or deleting data retrieved
from the particular secondary storage device 108. Media agent 144
in certain embodiments is physically separate from the associated
secondary storage device 108. For instance, a media agent 144 may
operate on a secondary storage computing device 106 in a distinct
housing, package, and/or location from the associated secondary
storage device 108. In one example, a media agent 144 operates on a
first server computer and is in communication with a secondary
storage device(s) 108 operating in a separate rack-mounted
RAID-based system.
[0145] A media agent 144 associated with a particular secondary
storage device 108 may instruct secondary storage device 108 to
perform an information management task. 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 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 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 secondary copy operation. Media agent 144 may
communicate with a secondary storage device 108 via a suitable
communications link, such as a SCSI or Fibre Channel link.
[0146] Each media agent 144 may maintain an associated media agent
database 152. Media agent database 152 may be stored to a disk or
other storage device (not shown) that is local to the secondary
storage computing device 106 on which media agent 144 executes. In
other cases, media agent database 152 is stored separately from the
host secondary storage computing device 106. Media agent database
152 can include, among other things, a media agent index 153 (see,
e.g., FIG. 1C). In some cases, media agent index 153 does not form
a part of and is instead separate from media agent database
152.
[0147] Media agent index 153 (or "index 153") may be a data
structure associated with the particular media agent 144 that
includes information about the stored data associated with the
particular media agent and which may be generated in the course of
performing a secondary copy operation or a restore. Index 153
provides a fast and efficient mechanism for locating/browsing
secondary copies 116 or other data stored in secondary storage
devices 108 without having to access secondary storage device 108
to retrieve the information from there. For instance, for each
secondary copy 116, index 153 may include metadata such as a list
of the data objects (e.g., files/subdirectories, database objects,
mailbox objects, etc.), a logical path to the secondary copy 116 on
the corresponding secondary storage device 108, location
information (e.g., offsets) indicating where the data objects are
stored in the secondary storage device 108, when the data objects
were created or modified, etc. Thus, index 153 includes metadata
associated with the secondary copies 116 that is readily available
for use from media agent 144. In some embodiments, some or all of
the information in index 153 may instead or additionally be stored
along with secondary copies 116 in secondary storage device 108. In
some embodiments, a secondary storage device 108 can include
sufficient information to enable a "bare metal restore," where the
operating system and/or software applications of a failed client
computing device 102 or another target may be automatically
restored without manually reinstalling individual software packages
(including operating systems).
[0148] Because index 153 may operate as a cache, it can also be
referred to as an "index cache." In such cases, information stored
in index cache 153 typically comprises data that reflects certain
particulars about relatively recent secondary copy operations.
After some triggering event, such as after some time elapses or
index cache 153 reaches a particular size, certain portions of
index cache 153 may be copied or migrated to secondary storage
device 108, e.g., on a least-recently-used basis. This information
may be retrieved and uploaded back into index cache 153 or
otherwise restored to 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 storage
device(s) 108.
[0149] In some alternative embodiments media agent 144 generally
acts as a coordinator or facilitator of secondary copy operations
between client computing devices 102 and secondary storage devices
108, but does not actually write the data to secondary storage
device 108. For instance, storage manager 140 (or 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, client computing device 102 transmits data directly or via
one or more intermediary components to secondary storage device 108
according to the received instructions, and vice versa. Media agent
144 may still receive, process, and/or maintain metadata related to
the secondary copy operations, i.e., may continue to build and
maintain index 153. In these embodiments, payload data can flow
through media agent 144 for the purposes of populating index 153,
but not for writing to secondary storage device 108. Media agent
144 and/or other components such as 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
[0150] As described, certain functions of system 100 can be
distributed amongst various physical and/or logical components. For
instance, one or more of storage manager 140, data agents 142, and
media agents 144 may operate on computing devices that are
physically separate from one another. This architecture can provide
a number of benefits. 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
media agents 144 operate can be tailored for interaction with
associated secondary storage devices 108 and provide fast index
cache operation, among other specific tasks. Similarly, client
computing device(s) 102 can be selected to effectively service
applications 110 in order to efficiently produce and store primary
data 112.
[0151] Moreover, in some cases, one or more of the individual
components of 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 management database
146 is relatively large, database 146 may be migrated to or may
otherwise reside on a specialized database server (e.g., an SQL
server) separate from a server that implements the other functions
of storage manager 140. This distributed configuration can provide
added protection because database 146 can be protected with
standard database utilities (e.g., SQL log shipping or database
replication) independent from other functions of storage manager
140. Database 146 can be efficiently replicated to a remote site
for use in the event of a disaster or other data loss at the
primary site. Or 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
computing device can no longer service the needs of a growing
system 100.
[0152] The distributed architecture also provides scalability and
efficient component utilization. FIG. 1D shows an embodiment of
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. Additional components can be added or subtracted
based on the evolving needs of system 100. For instance, depending
on where bottlenecks are identified, administrators can add
additional client computing devices 102, secondary storage
computing devices 106, 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, 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 media agents 144 and/or secondary storage devices 108,
respectively.
[0153] Where system 100 includes multiple media agents 144 (see,
e.g., 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 to provide load
balancing. Each client computing device 102 can communicate with,
among other components, any of the media agents 144, e.g., as
directed by storage manager 140. And each media agent 144 may
communicate with, among other components, any of secondary storage
devices 108, e.g., as directed by storage manager 140. Thus,
operations can be routed to secondary storage devices 108 in a
dynamic and highly flexible manner, to provide load balancing,
failover, etc. Further examples of scalable systems capable of
dynamic storage operations, load balancing, and failover are
provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,246,207.
[0154] 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. In alternative configurations, certain components may
reside and execute on the same computing device. As such, in other
embodiments, one or more of the components shown in FIG. 1C may be
implemented on the same computing device. In one configuration, a
storage manager 140, one or more data agents 142, and/or one or
more media agents 144 are all implemented on the same computing
device. In other embodiments, one or more data agents 142 and one
or more media agents 144 are implemented on the same computing
device, while storage manager 140 is implemented on a separate
computing device, etc. without limitation.
Exemplary Types of Information Management Operations, Including
Storage Operations
[0155] In order to protect and leverage stored data, system 100 can
be configured to perform a variety of information management
operations, which may also be referred to in some cases as storage
management operations or storage operations. These operations can
generally include (i) data movement operations, (ii) processing and
data manipulation operations, and (iii) analysis, reporting, and
management operations.
Data Movement Operations, Including Secondary Copy Operations
[0156] Data movement operations are generally storage operations
that involve the copying or migration of data between different
locations in system 100. 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, or in some cases within the same primary storage
device 104 such as within a storage array.
[0157] 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), snapshot operations, deduplication or
single-instancing operations, auxiliary copy operations,
disaster-recovery copy operations, and the like. As will be
discussed, some of these operations do not necessarily create
distinct copies. Nonetheless, some or all of these operations are
generally referred to as "secondary copy operations" for
simplicity, because they involve secondary copies. Data movement
also comprises restoring secondary copies.
[0158] Backup Operations
[0159] A backup operation creates a copy of a version of primary
data 112 at a particular point in time (e.g., one or more files or
other data units). Each subsequent backup copy 116 (which is a form
of secondary copy 116) may be maintained independently of the
first. A backup generally involves maintaining a version of the
copied primary data 112 as well as backup copies 116. Further, a
backup copy in some embodiments is generally stored in a form that
is different from the native format, e.g., a backup format. This
contrasts to the version in primary data 112 which may instead be
stored in a format native to 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 native application format. For example,
a backup copy may be stored in a compressed backup format that
facilitates efficient long-term storage. Backup copies 116 can have
relatively long retention periods as compared to primary data 112,
which is generally highly changeable. Backup copies 116 may be
stored on media with slower retrieval times than primary storage
device 104. Some backup copies may have shorter retention periods
than some other types of secondary copies 116, such as archive
copies (described below). Backups may be stored at an offsite
location.
[0160] Backup operations can include full backups, differential
backups, incremental backups, "synthetic full" backups, and/or
creating a "reference copy." A full backup (or "standard 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 afterwards.
[0161] A differential backup operation (or cumulative incremental
backup operation) tracks and stores changes that occurred since the
last full backup. Differential backups can grow quickly in size,
but can restore relatively efficiently because a restore can be
completed in some cases using only the full backup copy and the
latest differential copy.
[0162] 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,
restoring can be lengthy compared to full or differential backups
because completing a restore operation may involve accessing a full
backup in addition to multiple incremental backups.
[0163] Synthetic full backups generally consolidate data without
directly backing up data from the client computing device. A
synthetic full backup is created from the most recent full backup
(i.e., standard or synthetic) and subsequent incremental and/or
differential backups. The resulting synthetic full backup is
identical to what would have been created had the last backup for
the subclient been a standard full backup. Unlike standard full,
incremental, and differential backups, however, a synthetic full
backup does not actually transfer data from primary storage to the
backup media, because it operates as a backup consolidator. A
synthetic full backup extracts the index data of each participating
subclient. Using this index data and the previously backed up user
data images, it builds new full backup images (e.g., bitmaps), one
for each subclient. The new backup images consolidate the index and
user data stored in the related incremental, differential, and
previous full backups into a synthetic backup file that fully
represents the subclient (e.g., via pointers) but does not comprise
all its constituent data.
[0164] 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 copying of a data volume (e.g., a
logical disk or partition) as a whole. In a file-level backup,
information management system 100 generally tracks changes to
individual files and includes copies of files in the backup copy.
For block-level backups, files are broken into constituent blocks,
and changes are tracked at the block level. Upon restore, system
100 reassembles the blocks into files in a transparent fashion. Far
less data may actually be transferred and copied to secondary
storage devices 108 during a file-level copy than a volume-level
copy. Likewise, a block-level copy may transfer less data than a
file-level copy, resulting in faster execution. 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 and retrieving constituent blocks can sometimes take
longer than restoring file-level backups.
[0165] A reference copy may comprise copy(ies) of selected objects
from backed up data, typically to help organize data by keeping
contextual information from multiple sources together, and/or help
retain specific data for a longer period of time, such as for legal
hold needs. A reference copy generally maintains data integrity,
and when the data is restored, it may be viewed in the same format
as the source data. In some embodiments, a reference copy is based
on a specialized client, individual subclient and associated
information management policies (e.g., storage policy, retention
policy, etc.) that are administered within system 100.
[0166] Archive Operations
[0167] Because backup operations generally involve maintaining a
version of the copied primary data 112 and also maintaining backup
copies in secondary storage device(s) 108, they can consume
significant storage capacity. To reduce storage consumption, an
archive operation according to certain embodiments creates an
archive 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) may be
removed from source storage. 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 format of the original application or source
copy. In addition, archive copies may be retained for relatively
long periods of time (e.g., years) and, in some cases are never
deleted. In certain embodiments, archive copies may be made and
kept for extended periods in order to meet compliance
regulations.
[0168] Archiving can also serve the purpose of freeing up space in
primary storage device(s) 104 and easing the demand on
computational resources on client computing device 102. Similarly,
when a secondary copy 116 is archived, the archive copy can
therefore serve the purpose of freeing up space in the source
secondary storage device(s) 108. Examples of data archiving
operations are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,107,298.
[0169] Snapshot Operations
[0170] 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
primary data 112 at a given point in time, and may include state
and/or status information relative to an application 110 that
creates/manages primary data 112. 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.
[0171] A "hardware snapshot" (or "hardware-based snapshot")
operation occurs 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 operating
on the storage device itself. For instance, the storage device may
perform snapshot operations generally without intervention or
oversight from any of the other components of the system 100, e.g.,
a storage array may generate an "array-created" hardware snapshot
and may also manage its storage, integrity, versioning, etc. In
this manner, hardware snapshots can off-load other components of
system 100 from snapshot processing. An array may receive a request
from another component to take a snapshot and then proceed to
execute the "hardware snapshot" operations autonomously, preferably
reporting success to the requesting component.
[0172] A "software snapshot" (or "software-based snapshot")
operation, on the other hand, occurs where a component in system
100 (e.g., client computing device 102, etc.) implements a software
layer that manages the snapshot operation via interaction with the
target storage device. For instance, the component executing 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. One example of a software snapshot product is Microsoft
Volume Snapshot Service (VSS), which is part of the Microsoft
Windows operating system.
[0173] 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 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 from an application. In
some other cases, the snapshot may be created at the block-level,
such that 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 the point in time when the snapshot copy was
created.
[0174] An 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 change later on.
Furthermore, when files change, typically only the pointers which
map to blocks are copied, not the blocks themselves. For example
for "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 is 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. A snapshot copy
in many cases can be made quickly and without significantly
impacting primary computing resources because large amounts of data
need not be copied or moved. In some embodiments, a snapshot may
exist as a virtual file system, parallel to the actual file system.
Users in some cases gain read-only access to the record of files
and directories of the snapshot. By electing to restore primary
data 112 from a snapshot taken at a given point in time, users may
also return the current file system to the state of the file system
that existed when the snapshot was taken.
[0175] Replication Operations
[0176] Replication is another type of secondary copy operation.
Some types of secondary copies 116 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 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.
[0177] According to some embodiments, secondary copy 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,
back up, or otherwise manipulate the replication copies as if they
were the "live" primary data 112. This can reduce access time,
storage utilization, and impact on source applications 110, among
other benefits. Based on known good state information, system 100
can replicate sections of application data that represent a
recoverable state rather than rote copying of blocks of data.
Examples of replication operations (e.g., continuous data
replication) are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,262.
[0178] Deduplication/Single-Instancing Operations
[0179] Deduplication or single-instance storage is useful to reduce
the amount of non-primary data. For instance, some or all of the
above-described secondary copy operations can involve deduplication
in some fashion. New data is read, broken down into data portions
of a selected granularity (e.g., sub-file level blocks, files,
etc.), compared with corresponding portions that are already in
secondary storage, and only new/changed portions are stored.
Portions that already exist are represented as pointers to the
already-stored data. Thus, a deduplicated secondary copy 116 may
comprise actual data portions copied from primary data 112 and may
further comprise pointers to already-stored data, which is
generally more storage-efficient than a full copy.
[0180] In order to streamline the comparison process, system 100
may calculate and/or store signatures (e.g., hashes or
cryptographically unique IDs) corresponding to the individual
source data portions and compare the signatures to already-stored
data signatures, instead of comparing entire data portions. In some
cases, only a single instance of each data portion is stored, and
deduplication operations may therefore be referred to
interchangeably as "single-instancing" operations. Depending on the
implementation, however, deduplication operations can store more
than one instance of certain data portions, yet still significantly
reduce stored-data redundancy. Depending on the embodiment,
deduplication portions such as data blocks can be of fixed or
variable length. Using variable length blocks can enhance
deduplication by responding to changes in the data stream, but can
involve more complex processing. In some cases, system 100 utilizes
a technique for dynamically aligning deduplication blocks based on
changing content in the data stream, as described in U.S. Pat. No.
8,364,652.
[0181] System 100 can deduplicate in a variety of manners at a
variety of locations. For instance, in some embodiments, system 100
implements "target-side" deduplication by deduplicating data at the
media agent 144 after being received from data agent 142. In some
such cases, 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., data block signatures).
Examples of such a configuration are provided in U.S. Pat. No.
9,020,900. Instead of or in combination with "target-side"
deduplication, "source-side" (or "client-side") deduplication can
also be performed, e.g., to reduce the amount of data to be
transmitted by data agent 142 to media agent 144. Storage manager
140 may communicate with other components within system 100 via
network protocols and cloud service provider APIs to facilitate
cloud-based deduplication/single instancing, as exemplified in U.S.
Pat. No. 8,954,446. Some other deduplication/single instancing
techniques are described in U.S. Pat. Pub. No. 2006/0224846 and in
U.S. Pat. No. 9,098,495.
[0182] Information Lifecycle Management and Hierarchical Storage
Management
[0183] 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.
[0184] One type of ILM operation is a hierarchical storage
management (HSM) operation, which generally automatically moves
data between classes of storage devices, such as from high-cost to
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 cheaper, have relatively slower access/restore times,
etc. For example, movement of data between tiers may occur as data
becomes less important over time. In some embodiments, an HSM
operation is similar to archiving 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 primary data 112 or a secondary
copy 116 that exceeds a given size threshold or a given age
threshold. Often, and unlike some types of archive copies, HSM data
that is removed or aged from the source 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 source data and to point to or otherwise indicate the new
location in (another) secondary storage device 108.
[0185] For 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 HSM data that has been removed or
migrated, system 100 uses the stub to locate the data and can make
recovery of the data appear transparent, even though the HSM data
may be stored at a location different from other 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
include 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.
[0186] An HSM copy may be stored in a format other than the native
application format (e.g., compressed, encrypted, deduplicated,
and/or otherwise modified). 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 "online 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.
[0187] Auxiliary Copy Operations
[0188] An auxiliary copy is generally a copy of an existing
secondary copy 116. For instance, an initial secondary copy 116 may
be derived from primary data 112 or from data residing in secondary
storage subsystem 118, whereas an auxiliary copy is generated from
the initial secondary copy 116. Auxiliary copies provide 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 auxiliary copy
techniques are described in further detail in U.S. Pat. No.
8,230,195.
[0189] Disaster-Recovery Copy Operations
[0190] System 100 may also make and retain disaster recovery
copies, often as secondary, high-availability disk copies. System
100 may create secondary copies and store them 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.
[0191] Data Manipulation, Including Encryption and Compression
[0192] Data manipulation and processing may include encryption and
compression as well as integrity marking and checking, formatting
for transmission, formatting for storage, etc. Data may be
manipulated "client-side" by data agent 142 as well as
"target-side" by media agent 144 in the course of creating
secondary copy 116, or conversely in the course of restoring data
from secondary to primary.
[0193] Encryption Operations
[0194] System 100 in some cases is configured to process data
(e.g., files or other data objects, primary data 112, 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. System 100 in some cases encrypts the data at the client
level, such that client computing devices 102 (e.g., data agents
142) encrypt the data prior to transferring it to other components,
e.g., before sending the data to media agents 144 during a
secondary copy operation. In such cases, 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 media agent 144 creates auxiliary copies or archive copies.
Encryption may be applied in creating a secondary copy 116 of a
previously unencrypted secondary copy 116, without limitation. In
further embodiments, secondary storage devices 108 can implement
built-in, high performance hardware-based encryption.
[0195] Compression Operations
[0196] Similar to encryption, system 100 may also or alternatively
compress data in the course of generating a secondary copy 116.
Compression encodes information such that fewer bits are needed to
represent the information as compared to the original
representation. Compression techniques are well known in the art.
Compression operations may apply one or more data compression
algorithms. Compression may be applied in creating a secondary copy
116 of a previously uncompressed secondary copy, e.g., when making
archive copies or disaster recovery copies. The use of compression
may result in metadata that specifies the nature of the
compression, so that data may be uncompressed on restore if
appropriate.
[0197] Data Analysis, Reporting, and Management Operations
[0198] Data analysis, reporting, and management operations can
differ from data movement operations in that they do not
necessarily involve copying, migration or other transfer of data
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 data under management to enhance search and other
features.
[0199] Classification Operations/Content Indexing
[0200] In some embodiments, information management system 100
analyzes and indexes characteristics, content, and metadata
associated with primary data 112 ("online content indexing") and/or
secondary copies 116 ("off-line content indexing"). Content
indexing can identify files or other data objects based on 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.). Content indexes may be searched and search
results may be restored.
[0201] System 100 generally organizes and catalogues the results
into a content index, which may be stored within media agent
database 152, for example. The content index can also include the
storage locations of or pointer references to indexed data in
primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116. Results may also be
stored elsewhere in system 100 (e.g., in primary storage device 104
or in secondary storage device 108). Such content index data
provides storage manager 140 or other components with an efficient
mechanism for locating primary data 112 and/or secondary copies 116
of data objects that match particular criteria, thus greatly
increasing the search speed capability of system 100. For instance,
search criteria can be specified by a user through user interface
158 of storage manager 140. Moreover, when system 100 analyzes data
and/or metadata in secondary copies 116 to create an "off-line
content index," this operation has no significant impact on the
performance of client computing devices 102 and thus does not take
a toll on the production environment. Examples of content indexing
techniques are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 8,170,995.
[0202] One or more components, such as a content index engine, 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 data classification databases may be associated with different
subsystems or tiers within system 100. As an example, there may be
a first metabase associated with primary storage subsystem 117 and
a second metabase associated with secondary storage subsystem 118.
In other cases, metabase(s) may be associated with individual
components, e.g., 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, may
be otherwise associated with storage manager 140, and/or may reside
as a separate component. In some cases, 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(s) do not significantly impact performance
on other components of system 100. In other cases, 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.) 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. For instance, a metabase can dramatically
improve the speed with which system 100 can search through and
identify data as compared to other approaches that involve scanning
an entire file system. Examples of metabases and data
classification operations are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,734,669
and 7,747,579.
[0203] Management and Reporting Operations
[0204] Certain embodiments leverage the integrated ubiquitous
nature of system 100 to provide useful system-wide management and
reporting. Operations management can generally include monitoring
and managing the health and performance of 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. As an example, storage manager
140 or another component in system 100 may analyze traffic patterns
and suggest and/or automatically route data to minimize congestion.
In some embodiments, the system can generate predictions relating
to storage operations or storage operation information. Such
predictions, which may be based on a trending analysis, may predict
various network operations or resource usage, 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.
[0205] In some configurations having a hierarchy of storage
operation cells, a master storage manager 140 may track the status
of subordinate 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 also track status 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
management database 146 and/or index 150 (or in another location).
The master storage manager 140 or other component may also
determine whether certain storage-related or other criteria are
satisfied, and may 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, data
from one or more storage operation cells is used to dynamically and
automatically mitigate recognized risks, and/or to advise users of
risks or suggest actions to mitigate 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 restorable
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 criterion is
triggered, the system may notify the user of these conditions and
may suggest (or automatically implement) a mitigation action to
address the 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 up space on 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.
[0206] In some embodiments, system 100 may also determine whether a
metric or other indication satisfies particular storage criteria
sufficient to perform an action. For example, 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. In some
embodiments, risk factors may be quantified into certain measurable
service or risk levels. For example, certain applications and
associated data may be considered to be more important relative to
other data and services. Financial compliance data, for example,
may be of greater importance than marketing materials, etc. Network
administrators may assign priority values or "weights" to certain
data and/or applications corresponding to the relative importance.
The level of compliance of secondary copy operations specified for
these applications may also be assigned a certain value. Thus, the
health, impact, and overall importance of a service may be
determined, such as 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 whether it is acceptable.
Further examples of the service level determination are provided in
U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.
[0207] System 100 may additionally calculate data costing and data
availability associated with information management operation
cells. For instance, data received from a cell may be used in
conjunction with hardware-related information and other information
about system elements to determine the cost of storage and/or the
availability of particular data. 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 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, for
example. Storage devices may be assigned to a particular cost
categories, for example. Further examples of costing techniques are
described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.
[0208] 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 user interface 158 in a single integrated view or console
(not shown). 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, etc., without limitation. Such reports
may be specified and created at a certain point in time as a system
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. User interface 158 can
include an option to graphically depict the various components in
the system using appropriate icons. As one example, user interface
158 may provide a graphical depiction of primary storage devices
104, secondary storage devices 108, data agents 142 and/or media
agents 144, and their relationship to one another in system
100.
[0209] In general, the operations management functionality of
system 100 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 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 secondary copy operations for system 100, such as job
status, component status, resource status (e.g., communication
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. Further
examples are provided in U.S. Pat. No. 7,343,453.
[0210] 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 secondary storage
devices 108 (e.g., backups, archives, or other secondary copies
116). For example, system 100 may construct and maintain a virtual
repository for data stored in 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
[0211] 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 and/or other information management operations.
[0212] 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: (1) what data will be associated with the storage
policy, e.g., subclient; (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 secondary copy
operation to be performed; and (5) retention information specifying
how long the data will be retained at the destination (see, e.g.,
FIG. 1E). Data associated with a storage policy can be logically
organized into subclients, which may represent primary data 112
and/or secondary copies 116. A subclient may represent static or
dynamic associations of portions of a data volume. Subclients 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. Subclients 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, subclients 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 subclients.
[0213] 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 subclients
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
subclients 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 subclient
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
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
secondary copy 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.
[0214] 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
associated with the storage policy between the source and
destination. A storage policy can also specify the type(s) of
associated operations, such as backup, archive, snapshot, auxiliary
copy, or the like. Furthermore, retention parameters can specify
how long the resulting secondary copies 116 will be kept (e.g., a
number of days, months, years, etc.), perhaps depending on
organizational needs and/or compliance criteria.
[0215] When adding a new client computing device 102,
administrators can manually configure information management
policies 148 and/or other settings, e.g., via user interface 158.
However, this can be an involved process resulting in delays, and
it may be desirable to begin data protection operations quickly,
without awaiting human intervention. Thus, in some embodiments,
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 a client computing device 102, the
installation script may register the client computing device 102
with 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.
[0216] Another type of information management policy 148 is a
"scheduling policy," which specifies when and how often to perform
operations. Scheduling parameters 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 are to take place. Scheduling policies in
some cases are associated with particular components, such as a
subclient, client computing device 102, and the like.
[0217] Another type of information management policy 148 is an
"audit policy" (or "security policy"), which comprises preferences,
rules and/or criteria that protect sensitive data in system 100.
For example, an audit policy may define "sensitive objects" which
are files or data 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.). 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.
[0218] Another type of information management policy 148 is a
"provisioning policy," which can include 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).
Storage manager 140 or other components may enforce the
provisioning policy. For instance, 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) may be
adjusted accordingly or an alert may trigger.
[0219] While the above types of information management policies 148
are 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 or operational parameters thereof. 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 that information management policies 148 may specify: [0220]
schedules or other timing information, e.g., specifying when and/or
how often to perform information management operations; [0221] the
type of secondary copy 116 and/or copy format (e.g., snapshot,
backup, archive, HSM, etc.); [0222] a location or a class or
quality of storage for storing secondary copies 116 (e.g., one or
more particular secondary storage devices 108); [0223] preferences
regarding whether and how to encrypt, compress, deduplicate, or
otherwise modify or transform secondary copies 116; [0224] which
system components and/or network pathways (e.g., preferred media
agents 144) should be used to perform secondary storage operations;
[0225] resource allocation among different computing devices or
other system components used in performing information management
operations (e.g., bandwidth allocation, available storage capacity,
etc.); [0226] whether and how to synchronize or otherwise
distribute files or other data objects across multiple computing
devices or hosted services; and [0227] 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 system 100.
[0228] Information management policies 148 can additionally specify
or depend on 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: [0229]
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; [0230] time-related factors (e.g., aging
information such as time since the creation or modification of a
data object); [0231] deduplication information (e.g., hashes, data
blocks, deduplication block size, deduplication efficiency or other
metrics); [0232] an estimated or historic usage or cost associated
with different components (e.g., with secondary storage devices
108); [0233] 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; [0234] a relative sensitivity (e.g.,
confidentiality, importance) of a data object, e.g., as determined
by its content and/or metadata; [0235] the current or historical
storage capacity of various storage devices; [0236] the current or
historical network capacity of network pathways connecting various
components within the storage operation cell; [0237] access control
lists or other security information; and [0238] the content of a
particular data object (e.g., its textual content) or of metadata
associated with the data object.
[0239] Exemplary Storage Policy and Secondary Copy Operations
[0240] FIG. 1E includes a data flow diagram depicting performance
of secondary copy operations by an embodiment of information
management system 100, according to an exemplary storage policy
148A. System 100 includes a storage manager 140, a client computing
device 102 having a file system data agent 142A and an email data
agent 142B operating thereon, a primary storage device 104, two
media agents 144A, 144B, and two secondary storage devices 108: a
disk library 108A and a tape library 108B. As shown, primary
storage device 104 includes primary data 112A, which is associated
with a logical grouping of data associated with a file system
("file system subclient"), and primary data 112B, which is a
logical grouping of data associated with email ("email subclient").
The techniques described with respect to FIG. 1E can be utilized in
conjunction with data that is otherwise organized as well.
[0241] As indicated by the dashed box, the second media agent 144B
and tape library 108B are "off-site," and may be remotely located
from the other components in system 100 (e.g., in a different city,
office building, etc.). Indeed, "off-site" may refer to a magnetic
tape located in remote 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 at the main site(s)
where data is stored.
[0242] The file system subclient 112A in certain embodiments
generally comprises information generated by the file system and/or
operating system of 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 subclient 112B can include
data generated by an e-mail application operating on client
computing device 102, e.g., mailbox information, folder
information, emails, attachments, associated database information,
and the like. As described above, the subclients can be logical
containers, and the data included in the corresponding primary data
112A and 112B may or may not be stored contiguously.
[0243] The exemplary storage policy 148A includes backup copy
preferences or rule set 160, disaster recovery copy preferences or
rule set 162, and compliance copy preferences or rule set 164.
Backup copy rule set 160 specifies that it is associated with file
system subclient 166 and email subclient 168. Each of subclients
166 and 168 are associated with the particular client computing
device 102. Backup copy rule set 160 further specifies that the
backup operation will be written to disk library 108A and
designates a particular media agent 144A to convey the data to disk
library 108A. Finally, backup copy rule set 160 specifies that
backup copies created according to rule set 160 are scheduled to be
generated hourly and are to be retained for 30 days. In some other
embodiments, scheduling information is not included in storage
policy 148A and is instead specified by a separate scheduling
policy.
[0244] Disaster recovery copy rule set 162 is associated with the
same two subclients 166 and 168. However, disaster recovery copy
rule set 162 is associated with tape library 108B, unlike backup
copy rule set 160. Moreover, disaster recovery copy rule set 162
specifies that a different media agent, namely 144B, will convey
data to tape library 108B. Disaster recovery copies created
according to rule set 162 will be retained for 60 days and will be
generated daily. Disaster recovery copies generated according to
disaster recovery copy rule set 162 can provide protection in the
event of a disaster or other catastrophic data loss that would
affect the backup copy 116A maintained on disk library 108A.
[0245] Compliance copy rule set 164 is only associated with the
email subclient 168, and not the file system subclient 166.
Compliance copies generated according to compliance copy rule set
164 will therefore not include primary data 112A from the file
system subclient 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 file
system data. Compliance copy rule set 164 is associated with the
same tape library 108B and media agent 144B as disaster recovery
copy rule set 162, although a different storage device or media
agent could be used in other embodiments. Finally, compliance copy
rule set 164 specifies that the copies it governs will be generated
quarterly and retained for 10 years.
[0246] Secondary Copy Jobs
[0247] A logical grouping of secondary copy operations governed by
a rule set and being initiated at a point in time may be referred
to as a "secondary copy job" (and sometimes may be called a "backup
job," even though it is not necessarily limited to creating only
backup copies). Secondary copy jobs may be initiated on demand as
well. Steps 1-9 below illustrate three secondary copy jobs based on
storage policy 148A.
[0248] Referring to FIG. 1E, at step 1, storage manager 140
initiates a backup job according to the backup copy rule set 160,
which logically comprises all the secondary copy operations
necessary to effectuate rules 160 in storage policy 148A every
hour, including steps 1-4 occurring hourly. For instance, a
scheduling service running on storage manager 140 accesses backup
copy rule set 160 or a separate scheduling policy associated with
client computing device 102 and initiates a backup job on an hourly
basis. Thus, at the scheduled time, storage manager 140 sends
instructions to client computing device 102 (i.e., to both data
agent 142A and data agent 142B) to begin the backup job.
[0249] At step 2, file system data agent 142A and email data agent
142B on client computing device 102 respond to instructions from
storage manager 140 by accessing and processing the respective
subclient primary data 112A and 112B involved in the backup copy
operation, which can be found in primary storage device 104.
Because the secondary copy operation is a backup copy operation,
the data agent(s) 142A, 1426 may format the data into a backup
format or otherwise process the data suitable for a backup
copy.
[0250] At step 3, client computing device 102 communicates the
processed file system data (e.g., using file system data agent
142A) and the processed email data (e.g., using email data agent
142B) to the first media agent 144A according to backup copy rule
set 160, as directed by storage manager 140. Storage manager 140
may further keep a record in management database 146 of the
association between media agent 144A and one or more of: client
computing device 102, file system subclient 112A, file system data
agent 142A, email subclient 112B, email data agent 142B, and/or
backup copy 116A.
[0251] The target media agent 144A receives the
data-agent-processed data from client computing device 102, and at
step 4 generates and conveys backup copy 116A to disk library 108A
to be stored as backup copy 116A, again at the direction of storage
manager 140 and according to backup copy rule set 160. Media agent
144A can also update its index 153 to include data and/or metadata
related to backup copy 116A, such as information indicating where
the backup copy 116A resides on disk library 108A, where the email
copy resides, where the file system copy resides, data and metadata
for cache retrieval, etc. Storage manager 140 may similarly update
its index 150 to include information relating to the secondary copy
operation, such as information relating to the type of operation, a
physical location associated with one or more copies created by the
operation, the time the operation was performed, status information
relating to the operation, the components involved in the
operation, and the like. In some cases, storage manager 140 may
update its index 150 to include some or all of the information
stored in index 153 of media agent 144A. At this point, the backup
job may be considered complete. After the 30-day retention period
expires, storage manager 140 instructs media agent 144A to delete
backup copy 116A from disk library 108A and indexes 150 and/or 153
are updated accordingly.
[0252] At step 5, storage manager 140 initiates another backup job
for a disaster recovery copy according to the disaster recovery
rule set 162. Illustratively this includes steps 5-7 occurring
daily for creating disaster recovery copy 116B. Illustratively, and
by way of illustrating the scalable aspects and off-loading
principles embedded in system 100, disaster recovery copy 116B is
based on backup copy 116A and not on primary data 112A and
112B.
[0253] At step 6, illustratively based on instructions received
from storage manager 140 at step 5, the specified media agent 1446
retrieves the most recent backup copy 116A from disk library
108A.
[0254] At step 7, again at the direction of storage manager 140 and
as specified in disaster recovery copy rule set 162, media agent
144B uses the retrieved data to create a disaster recovery copy
1166 and store it to tape library 1086. In some cases, disaster
recovery copy 116B is a direct, mirror copy of backup copy 116A,
and remains in the backup format. In other embodiments, disaster
recovery copy 116B may be further compressed or encrypted, or may
be generated in some other manner, such as by using primary data
112A and 1126 from primary storage device 104 as sources. The
disaster recovery copy operation is initiated once a day and
disaster recovery copies 1166 are deleted after 60 days; indexes
153 and/or 150 are updated accordingly when/after each information
management operation is executed and/or completed. The present
backup job may be considered completed.
[0255] At step 8, storage manager 140 initiates another backup job
according to compliance rule set 164, which performs steps 8-9
quarterly to create compliance copy 116C. For instance, storage
manager 140 instructs media agent 144B to create compliance copy
116C on tape library 1086, as specified in the compliance copy rule
set 164.
[0256] At step 9 in the example, compliance copy 116C is generated
using disaster recovery copy 1166 as the source. This is efficient,
because disaster recovery copy resides on the same secondary
storage device and thus no network resources are required to move
the data. In other embodiments, compliance copy 116C is instead
generated using primary data 112B corresponding to the email
subclient or using backup copy 116A from disk library 108A as
source data. As specified in the illustrated example, compliance
copies 116C are created quarterly, and are deleted after ten years,
and indexes 153 and/or 150 are kept up-to-date accordingly.
[0257] Exemplary Applications of Storage Policies--Information
Governance Policies and Classification
[0258] Again referring to FIG. 1E, storage manager 140 may permit a
user to specify aspects of 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 management database 146. 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.
[0259] Information governance policies allow administrators to
obtain different perspectives on 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 an index that reflects the
contents of a distributed data set that spans numerous clients and
storage devices, including both primary data 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 view and
manipulate the 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
information management system.
[0260] An information governance policy may comprise a
classification policy, which 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 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
in any combination, without limitation. 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, or (2)
were sent to or received from outside counsel via email, or (3)
contain one of the following keywords: "privileged" or "attorney"
or "counsel," or other like terms. Accordingly, all these documents
or data objects will be classified as "privileged."
[0261] 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. A user may define a classification policy by
indicating criteria, parameters or descriptors of the policy via a
graphical user interface, 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, etc.
For example, a user may define certain entity tags, such as a
particular product number or project ID. 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.
Restore Operations from Secondary Copies
[0262] While not shown in FIG. 1E, at some later point in time, a
restore operation can be initiated involving one or more of
secondary copies 116A, 116B, and 116C. A restore operation
logically takes a selected secondary copy 116, reverses the effects
of the secondary copy operation that created it, and stores the
restored data to primary storage where a client computing device
102 may properly access it as primary data. A media agent 144 and
an appropriate data agent 142 (e.g., executing on the client
computing device 102) perform the tasks needed to complete a
restore operation. For example, data that was encrypted,
compressed, and/or deduplicated in the creation of secondary copy
116 will be correspondingly rehydrated (reversing deduplication),
uncompressed, and unencrypted into a format appropriate to primary
data. Metadata stored within or associated with the secondary copy
116 may be used during the restore operation. In general, restored
data should be indistinguishable from other primary data 112.
Preferably, the restored data has fully regained the native format
that may make it immediately usable by application 110.
[0263] As one example, a user may manually initiate a restore of
backup copy 116A, e.g., by interacting with user interface 158 of
storage manager 140 or with a web-based console with access to
system 100. Storage manager 140 may accesses data in its index 150
and/or management database 146 (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 where the secondary copy resides. The user may be
presented with a representation (e.g., stub, thumbnail, listing,
etc.) and metadata about the selected secondary copy, in order to
determine whether this is the appropriate copy to be restored,
e.g., date that the original primary data was created. Storage
manager 140 will then instruct media agent 144A and an appropriate
data agent 142 on the target client computing device 102 to restore
secondary copy 116A to primary storage device 104. 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, e.g., 144A, retrieves secondary
copy 116A from disk library 108A. For instance, media agent 144A
may access its index 153 to identify a location of backup copy 116A
on disk library 108A, or may access location information residing
on disk library 108A itself.
[0264] In some cases a backup copy 116A that was recently created
or accessed, may be cached to speed up the restore operation. In
such a case, media agent 144A accesses a cached version of backup
copy 116A residing in index 153, without having to access disk
library 108A for some or all of the data. Once it has retrieved
backup copy 116A, the media agent 144A communicates the data to the
requesting client computing device 102. Upon receipt, file system
data agent 142A and email data agent 142B may unpack (e.g., restore
from a backup format to the native application format) the data in
backup copy 116A and restore the unpackaged data to primary storage
device 104. In general, secondary copies 116 may be restored to the
same volume or folder in primary storage device 104 from which the
secondary copy was derived; to another storage location or client
computing device 102; to shared storage, etc. In some cases, the
data may be restored so that it may be used by an application 110
of a different version/vintage from the application that created
the original primary data 112.
Exemplary Secondary Copy Formatting
[0265] 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 one or more secondary storage devices 108. In some cases,
users can select different chunk sizes, e.g., to improve throughput
to tape storage devices. 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, media agent 144, storage manager 140, or
other component may divide files into chunks and generate headers
for each chunk by processing the files. Headers can include a
variety of information such as file and/or volume identifier(s),
offset(s), and/or other information associated with the payload
data items, a chunk sequence number, etc. Importantly, in addition
to being stored with secondary copy 116 on secondary storage device
108, chunk headers can also be stored to index 153 of the
associated media agent(s) 144 and/or to index 150 associated with
storage manager 140. This can be useful for providing faster
processing of secondary copies 116 during browsing, 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 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 media agent 144) according to the
information in the chunk header to reassemble the files.
[0266] Data can also be communicated within system 100 in data
channels that connect client computing devices 102 to 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 other advantages. Example data formatting
techniques including techniques involving data streaming, chunking,
and the use of other data structures in creating secondary copies
are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,315,923, 8,156,086, and
8,578,120.
[0267] FIGS. 1F and 1G are diagrams of example data streams 170 and
171, respectively, which may be employed for performing information
management operations. Referring to FIG. 1F, data agent 142 forms
data stream 170 from source data associated with a client computing
device 102 (e.g., primary data 112). Data stream 170 is composed of
multiple pairs of stream header 172 and stream data (or stream
payload) 174. 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.
[0268] Referring to FIG. 1G, 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 non-SI data.
[0269] FIG. 1H is a diagram illustrating data structures 180 that
may be used to store blocks of SI data and non-SI data on a storage
device (e.g., secondary storage device 108). According to certain
embodiments, data structures 180 do not form part of a native file
system of the storage device. 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 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. Metadata file
186/187 stores non-SI data blocks as well as links to SI data
blocks stored in container files. Metadata index file 188/189
stores an index to the data in the metadata file 186/187. Container
files 190/191/193 store SI data blocks. Container index file
192/194 stores an index to container files 190/191/193. Among other
things, 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
metadata file 187 in chunk folder 185. Accordingly, the
corresponding index entry in container index file 192 indicates
that data block B2 in container file 190 is referred to. As another
example, data block B1 in container file 191 is referred to by a
link in metadata file 187, and so the corresponding index entry in
container index file 192 indicates that this data block is referred
to.
[0270] As an example, data structures 180 illustrated in FIG. 1H
may have been created as a result of separate secondary copy
operations involving two client computing devices 102. For example,
a first secondary copy operation on a first client computing device
102 could result in the creation of the first chunk folder 184, and
a second secondary copy operation on a second client computing
device 102 could result in the creation of the second chunk folder
185. 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 secondary copy operation on the data of
the second client computing device 102 would result in 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 secondary copy operation may
result in storing nearly all of the data subject to the operation,
subsequent secondary 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.
[0271] If the operating system of the secondary storage computing
device 106 on which media agent 144 operates supports sparse files,
then when media agent 144 creates container files 190/191/193, it
can create them as sparse files. A sparse file is a 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 container files 190/191/193 be sparse
files allows media agent 144 to free up space in container files
190/191/193 when blocks of data in container files 190/191/193 no
longer need to be stored on the storage devices. In some examples,
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, 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 approx. 100 to approx. 1000 blocks or when its
size exceeds approximately 50 MB to 1 GB). In some cases, a file on
which a secondary copy operation is performed may comprise a large
number of data blocks. For example, a 100 MB file may comprise 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. Restoring such files may require accessing
multiple container files, chunk folders, and/or volume folders to
obtain the requisite data blocks.
Using Backup Data for Replication and Disaster Recovery ("Live
Synchronization")
[0272] There is an increased demand to off-load resource intensive
information management tasks (e.g., data replication tasks) away
from production devices (e.g., physical or virtual client computing
devices) in order to maximize production efficiency. At the same
time, enterprises expect access to readily-available up-to-date
recovery copies in the event of failure, with little or no
production downtime.
[0273] FIG. 2A illustrates a system 200 configured to address these
and other issues by using backup or other secondary copy data to
synchronize a source subsystem 201 (e.g., a production site) with a
destination subsystem 203 (e.g., a failover site). Such a technique
can be referred to as "live synchronization" and/or "live
synchronization replication." In the illustrated embodiment, the
source client computing devices 202a include one or more virtual
machines (or "VMs") executing on one or more corresponding VM host
computers 205a, though the source need not be virtualized. The
destination site 203 may be at a location that is remote from the
production site 201, or may be located in the same data center,
without limitation. One or more of the production site 201 and
destination site 203 may reside at data centers at known geographic
locations, or alternatively may operate "in the cloud."
[0274] The synchronization can be achieved by generally applying an
ongoing stream of incremental backups from the source subsystem 201
to the destination subsystem 203, such as according to what can be
referred to as an "incremental forever" approach. FIG. 2A
illustrates an embodiment of a data flow which may be orchestrated
at the direction of one or more storage managers (not shown). At
step 1, the source data agent(s) 242a and source media agent(s)
244a work together to write backup or other secondary copies of the
primary data generated by the source client computing devices 202a
into the source secondary storage device(s) 208a. At step 2, the
backup/secondary copies are retrieved by the source media agent(s)
244a from secondary storage. At step 3, source media agent(s) 244a
communicate the backup/secondary copies across a network to the
destination media agent(s) 244b in destination subsystem 203.
[0275] As shown, the data can be copied from source to destination
in an incremental fashion, such that only changed blocks are
transmitted, and in some cases multiple incremental backups are
consolidated at the source so that only the most current changed
blocks are transmitted to and applied at the destination. An
example of live synchronization of virtual machines using the
"incremental forever" approach is found in U.S. Patent Application
No. 62/265,339 entitled "Live Synchronization and Management of
Virtual Machines across Computing and Virtualization Platforms and
Using Live Synchronization to Support Disaster Recovery." Moreover,
a deduplicated copy can be employed to further reduce network
traffic from source to destination. For instance, the system can
utilize the deduplicated copy techniques described in U.S. Pat. No.
9,239,687, entitled "Systems and Methods for Retaining and Using
Data Block Signatures in Data Protection Operations."
[0276] At step 4, destination media agent(s) 244b write the
received backup/secondary copy data to the destination secondary
storage device(s) 208b. At step 5, the synchronization is completed
when the destination media agent(s) and destination data agent(s)
242b restore the backup/secondary copy data to the destination
client computing device(s) 202b. The destination client computing
device(s) 202b may be kept "warm" awaiting activation in case
failure is detected at the source. This synchronization/replication
process can incorporate the techniques described in U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 14/721,971, entitled "Replication Using
Deduplicated Secondary Copy Data."
[0277] Where the incremental backups are applied on a frequent,
on-going basis, the synchronized copies can be viewed as mirror or
replication copies. Moreover, by applying the incremental backups
to the destination site 203 using backup or other secondary copy
data, the production site 201 is not burdened with the
synchronization operations. Because the destination site 203 can be
maintained in a synchronized "warm" state, the downtime for
switching over from the production site 201 to the destination site
203 is substantially less than with a typical restore from
secondary storage. Thus, the production site 201 may flexibly and
efficiently fail over, with minimal downtime and with relatively
up-to-date data, to a destination site 203, such as a cloud-based
failover site. The destination site 203 can later be reverse
synchronized back to the production site 201, such as after repairs
have been implemented or after the failure has passed.
Integrating with the Cloud Using File System Protocols
[0278] Given the ubiquity of cloud computing, it can be
increasingly useful to provide data protection and other
information management services in a scalable, transparent, and
highly plug-able fashion. FIG. 2B illustrates an information
management system 200 having an architecture that provides such
advantages, and incorporates use of a standard file system protocol
between primary and secondary storage subsystems 217, 218. As
shown, the use of the network file system (NFS) protocol (or any
another appropriate file system protocol such as that of the Common
Internet File System (CIFS)) allows data agent 242 to be moved from
the primary storage subsystem 217 to the secondary storage
subsystem 218. For instance, as indicated by the dashed box 206
around data agent 242 and media agent 244, data agent 242 can
co-reside with media agent 244 on the same server (e.g., a
secondary storage computing device such as component 106), or in
some other location in secondary storage subsystem 218.
[0279] Where NFS is used, for example, secondary storage subsystem
218 allocates an NFS network path to the client computing device
202 or to one or more target applications 210 running on client
computing device 202. During a backup or other secondary copy
operation, the client computing device 202 mounts the designated
NFS path and writes data to that NFS path. The NFS path may be
obtained from NFS path data 215 stored locally at the client
computing device 202, and which may be a copy of or otherwise
derived from NFS path data 219 stored in the secondary storage
subsystem 218.
[0280] Write requests issued by client computing device(s) 202 are
received by data agent 242 in secondary storage subsystem 218,
which translates the requests and works in conjunction with media
agent 244 to process and write data to a secondary storage
device(s) 208, thereby creating a backup or other secondary copy.
Storage manager 240 can include a pseudo-client manager 217, which
coordinates the process by, among other things, communicating
information relating to client computing device 202 and application
210 (e.g., application type, client computing device identifier,
etc.) to data agent 242, obtaining appropriate NFS path data from
the data agent 242 (e.g., NFS path information), and delivering
such data to client computing device 202.
[0281] Conversely, during a restore or recovery operation client
computing device 202 reads from the designated NFS network path,
and the read request is translated by data agent 242. The data
agent 242 then works with media agent 244 to retrieve, re-process
(e.g., re-hydrate, decompress, decrypt), and forward the requested
data to client computing device 202 using NFS.
[0282] By moving specialized software associated with system 200
such as data agent 242 off the client computing devices 202, the
illustrative architecture effectively decouples the client
computing devices 202 from the installed components of system 200,
improving both scalability and plug-ability of system 200. Indeed,
the secondary storage subsystem 218 in such environments can be
treated simply as a read/write NFS target for primary storage
subsystem 217, without the need for information management software
to be installed on client computing devices 202. As one example, an
enterprise implementing a cloud production computing environment
can add VM client computing devices 202 without installing and
configuring specialized information management software on these
VMs. Rather, backups and restores are achieved transparently, where
the new VMs simply write to and read from the designated NFS path.
An example of integrating with the cloud using file system
protocols or so-called "infinite backup" using NFS share is found
in U.S. Patent Application No. 62/294,920, entitled "Data
Protection Operations Based on Network Path Information." Examples
of improved data restoration scenarios based on network-path
information, including using stored backups effectively as primary
data sources, may be found in U.S. Patent Application No.
62/297,057, entitled "Data Restoration Operations Based on Network
Path Information."
Highly Scalable Managed Data Pool Architecture
[0283] Enterprises are seeing explosive data growth in recent
years, often from various applications running in geographically
distributed locations. FIG. 2C shows a block diagram of an example
of a highly scalable, managed data pool architecture useful in
accommodating such data growth. The illustrated system 200, which
may be referred to as a "web-scale" architecture according to
certain embodiments, can be readily incorporated into both open
compute/storage and common-cloud architectures.
[0284] The illustrated system 200 includes a grid 245 of media
agents 244 logically organized into a control tier 231 and a
secondary or storage tier 233. Media agents assigned to the storage
tier 233 can be configured to manage a secondary storage pool 208
as a deduplication store, and be configured to receive client write
and read requests from the primary storage subsystem 217, and
direct those requests to the secondary tier 233 for servicing. For
instance, media agents CMA1-CMA3 in the control tier 231 maintain
and consult one or more deduplication databases 247, which can
include deduplication information (e.g., data block hashes, data
block links, file containers for deduplicated files, etc.)
sufficient to read deduplicated files from secondary storage pool
208 and write deduplicated files to secondary storage pool 208. For
instance, system 200 can incorporate any of the deduplication
systems and methods shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,020,900,
entitled "Distributed Deduplicated Storage System," and U.S. Pat.
Pub. No. 2014/0201170, entitled "High Availability Distributed
Deduplicated Storage System."
[0285] Media agents SMA1-SMA6 assigned to the secondary tier 233
receive write and read requests from media agents CMA1-CMA3 in
control tier 231, and access secondary storage pool 208 to service
those requests. Media agents CMA1-CMA3 in control tier 231 can also
communicate with secondary storage pool 208, and may execute read
and write requests themselves (e.g., in response to requests from
other control media agents CMA1-CMA3) in addition to issuing
requests to media agents in secondary tier 233. Moreover, while
shown as separate from the secondary storage pool 208,
deduplication database(s) 247 can in some cases reside in storage
devices in secondary storage pool 208.
[0286] As shown, each of the media agents 244 (e.g., CMA1-CMA3,
SMA1-SMA6, etc.) in grid 245 can be allocated a corresponding
dedicated partition 251A-2511, respectively, in secondary storage
pool 208. Each partition 251 can include a first portion 253
containing data associated with (e.g., stored by) media agent 244
corresponding to the respective partition 251. System 200 can also
implement a desired level of replication, thereby providing
redundancy in the event of a failure of a media agent 244 in grid
245. Along these lines, each partition 251 can further include a
second portion 255 storing one or more replication copies of the
data associated with one or more other media agents 244 in the
grid.
[0287] System 200 can also be configured to allow for seamless
addition of media agents 244 to grid 245 via automatic
configuration. As one illustrative example, a storage manager (not
shown) or other appropriate component may determine that it is
appropriate to add an additional node to control tier 231, and
perform some or all of the following: (i) assess the capabilities
of a newly added or otherwise available computing device as
satisfying a minimum criteria to be configured as or hosting a
media agent in control tier 231; (ii) confirm that a sufficient
amount of the appropriate type of storage exists to support an
additional node in control tier 231 (e.g., enough disk drive
capacity exists in storage pool 208 to support an additional
deduplication database 247); (iii) install appropriate media agent
software on the computing device and configure the computing device
according to a pre-determined template; (iv) establish a partition
251 in the storage pool 208 dedicated to the newly established
media agent 244; and (v) build any appropriate data structures
(e.g., an instance of deduplication database 247). An example of
highly scalable managed data pool architecture or so-called
web-scale architecture for storage and data management is found in
U.S. Patent Application No. 62/273,286 entitled "Redundant and
Robust Distributed Deduplication Data Storage System."
[0288] The embodiments and components thereof disclosed in FIGS.
2A, 2B, and 2C, as well as those in FIGS. 1A-1H, may be implemented
in any combination and permutation to satisfy data storage
management and information management needs at one or more
locations and/or data centers.
Preparing Containerized Applications for Backup Using a Backup
Services Container
[0289] The illustrative backup services container (e.g., 301)
interoperates with a proprietary data storage management system
(e.g., 302) and/or with third-party backup systems (e.g., 303). The
former configuration provides numerous features and advantages over
the latter configuration. Furthermore, some embodiments include one
or more components of the proprietary data storage management
within the illustrative backup services container. Some embodiments
include one or more components of the proprietary data storage
management system in a backup services pod (e.g., 486) configured
in a Kubernetes node. All configurations and embodiments are
suitable for cloud and non-cloud computing environments, without
limitation.
[0290] Cloud Computing. The National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) provides the following definition of Cloud
Computing characteristics, service models, and deployment
models:
[0291] Cloud Computing [0292] Cloud computing is a model for
enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a
shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks,
servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly
provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service
provider interaction. This cloud model is composed of five
essential characteristics, three service models, and four
deployment models.
[0293] Essential Characteristics: [0294] On-demand self-service. A
consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as
server time and network storage, as needed automatically without
requiring human interaction with each service provider. [0295]
Broad network access. Capabilities are available over the network
and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by
heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones,
tablets, laptops, and workstations). [0296] Resource pooling. The
provider's computing resources are pooled to serve multiple
consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and
virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to
consumer demand. There is a sense of location independence in that
the customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact
location of the provided resources but may be able to specify
location at a higher level of abstraction (e.g., country, state, or
datacenter). Examples of resources include storage, processing,
memory, and network bandwidth. [0297] Rapid elasticity.
Capabilities can be elastically provisioned and released, in some
cases automatically, to scale rapidly outward and inward
commensurate with demand. To the consumer, the capabilities
available for provisioning often appear to be unlimited and can be
appropriated in any quantity at any time. [0298] Measured service.
Cloud systems automatically control and optimize resource use by
leveraging a metering capability.sup.1 at some level of abstraction
appropriate to the type of service (e.g., storage, processing,
bandwidth, and active user accounts). Resource usage can be
monitored, controlled, and reported, providing transparency for
both the provider and consumer of the utilized service.
[0299] Service Models: [0300] Software as a Service (SaaS). The
capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider's
applications running on a cloud infrastructure.sup.2. The
applications are accessible from various client devices through
either a thin client interface, such as a web browser (e.g.,
web-based email), or a program interface. The consumer does not
manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including
network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual
application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited
user-specific application configuration settings. [0301] Platform
as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to
deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired
applications created using programming languages, libraries,
services, and tools supported by the provider..sup.3 The consumer
does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure
including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has
control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration
settings for the application-hosting environment. [0302]
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the
consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other
fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to
deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating
systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control
the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating
systems, storage, and deployed applications; and possibly limited
control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).
[0303] Deployment Models: [0304] Private cloud. The cloud
infrastructure is provisioned for exclusive use by a single
organization comprising multiple consumers (e.g., business units).
It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third
party, or some combination of them, and it may exist on or off
premises. [0305] Community cloud. The cloud infrastructure is
provisioned for exclusive use by a specific community of consumers
from organizations that have shared concerns (e.g., mission,
security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations). It
may be owned, managed, and operated by one or more of the
organizations in the community, a third party, or some combination
of them, and it may exist on or off premises. [0306] Public cloud.
The cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general
public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business,
academic, or government organization, or some combination of them.
It exists on the premises of the cloud provider. [0307] Hybrid
cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more
distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that
remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or
proprietary technology that enables data and application
portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between
clouds). [0308] .sup.1 Typically this is done on a pay-per-use or
charge-per-use basis. [0309] .sup.2 A cloud infrastructure is the
collection of hardware and software that enables the five essential
characteristics of cloud computing. The cloud infrastructure can be
viewed as containing both a physical layer and an abstraction
layer. The physical layer consists of the hardware resources that
are necessary to support the cloud services being provided, and
typically includes server, storage and network components. The
abstraction layer consists of the software deployed across the
physical layer, which manifests the essential cloud
characteristics. Conceptually the abstraction layer sits above the
physical layer. [0310] .sup.3 This capability does not necessarily
preclude the use of compatible programming languages, libraries,
services, and tools from other sources.
[0311] Source: Peter Mell, Timothy Grance (September 2011). The
NIST Definition of Cloud Computing, National Institute of Standards
and Technology: U.S. Department of Commerce. Special publication
800-145.
nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/SP/nistspecialpublication800-145.pdf
(accessed 26 Apr. 2019). Cloud computing aims to allow those who
consume the services (whether individuals or organizations) to
benefit from the available technologies without the need for deep
knowledge about or expertise with each of them. Wikipedia, Cloud
Computing, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud computing (accessed 26 Apr.
2019)."Cloud computing metaphor: the group of networked elements
providing services need not be individually addressed or managed by
users; instead, the entire provider-managed suite of hardware and
software can be thought of as an amorphous cloud." Id.
[0312] Cloud Service Accounts and Variability in Cloud Services.
Cloud service providers such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alibaba, Google,
Salesforce, Cisco, etc. provide access to their particular cloud
services via cloud service accounts, such as corporate accounts,
departmental accounts, individual user accounts, etc. Each cloud
service account typically has authentication features, e.g.,
passwords, certificates, etc., to restrict and control access to
the cloud service. Each account also might have service level
guarantees and/or other terms and conditions between the cloud
service provider and the service subscriber, e.g., a company, a
government agency, an individual user. A subscribing entity might
have multiple accounts with a cloud service provider, such as an
account for the Engineering department, an account for the Finance
department, an account for the Human Resources department, other
accounts for individual company users, etc., without limitation.
Each cloud service account carries different authentication, even
though the services subscriber is the same entity.
[0313] Different cloud service accounts might differ not just in
service level guarantees, but might include different services. For
example, one account might include long-term storage resources,
whereas another account might be limited to ordinary data storage.
For example, some accounts might have access to data processing
functions supplied by the cloud service provider, such as machine
learning algorithms, statistical analysis packages, etc., whereas
other accounts might lack such features. Accordingly, the resources
available to the user(s) of cloud service accounts can vary as
between accounts, even if the accounts have the same subscriber and
the same cloud service provider. Thus, the user experience and the
technologies available as between cloud service accounts can vary
significantly. Thus, when considering cloud computing, the
specifics of cloud service accounts can play a role in the
availability and/or portability of resources. Crossing account
boundaries can pose technological barriers when considering
migration of applications and their cloud services assets.
[0314] Cloud Availability Zones. "Availability zones (AZs) are
isolated locations within . . . regions from which public cloud
services originate and operate. Regions are geographic locations in
which public cloud service providers' data centers reside.
Businesses choose one or multiple worldwide availability zones for
their services depending on business needs. Businesses select
availability zones for a variety of reasons, including compliance
and proximity to end customers. Cloud administrators can also
choose to replicate services across multiple availability zones to
decrease latency or protect resources. Admins can move resources to
another availability zone in the event of an outage. Certain cloud
services may also be limited to particular regions or AZs." Source:
Margaret Rouse, Definition of Availability Zones, TechTarget,
searchaws.techtarget.com/definition/availability-zones (accessed 26
Apr. 2019).
[0315] Here is a vendor-specific example of how cloud service
availability zones are organized in the Google Cloud: "Certain
[Google] Compute Engine resources live in regions or zones. A
region is a specific geographical location where you can run your
resources. Each region has one or more zones; most regions have
three or more zones. For example, the us-central1 region denotes a
region in the Central United States that has zones us-central1-a,
us-central1-b, us-central1-c, and us-central1-f. Resources that
live in a zone, such as instances or persistent disks, are referred
to as zonal resources. Other resources, like static external IP
addresses, are regional. Regional resources can be used by any
resources in that region, regardless of zone, while zonal resources
can only be used by other resources in the same zone. For example,
disks and instances are both zonal resources. To attach a disk to
an instance, both resources must be in the same zone. Similarly, if
you want to assign a static IP address to an instance, the instance
must be in the same region as the static IP. Only certain resources
are region- or zone-specific. Other resources, such as images, are
global resources that can be used by any other resources across any
location. For information on global, regional, and zonal Compute
Engine resources, see Global, Regional, and Zonal Resources."
Source: Google Cloud Regions and Zones,
cloud.google.com/compute/docs/regions-zones/(accessed 26 Apr. 2019)
(emphasis added).
[0316] Accordingly, when considering cloud computing, availability
zones can play a role in the availability and/or portability of
resources. Crossing zone boundaries can pose technological barriers
when considering migration of applications and their cloud service
assets, even when the different availability zones are supplied by
the same cloud service provider.
[0317] Traditional Non-Cloud ("On-Premises") Data Centers are
Distinguishable from Cloud Computing. Traditional data centers
generally do not have cloud computing characteristics. For example,
the user experience is generally different, for example in regard
to the name space(s) used for the storage, computing, and network
resources. Moreover, substantial increases in resources needed by a
user are not provisioned on demand. A traditional data center is
physically located within the enterprise/organization that owns it.
A traditional non-cloud data center might comprise computing
resources such as servers, mainframes, virtual servers/clusters,
etc.; and/or data storage resources, such as network-attached
storage, storage area networks, tape libraries, etc. The owner of
the traditional data center procures hardware, software, and
network infrastructure (including making the associated capital
investments); and manages going-forward planning for the data
center. A traditional data center is staffed by professional
Information Technology (IT) personnel, who are responsible for the
data center's configuration, operation, upgrades, and maintenance.
Thus, a traditional non-cloud data center can be thought of as
self-managed by its owner/operator for the benefit of in-house
users, as compared to cloud computing, which is managed by the
cloud service provider and supplied as a service to outside
subscribers. Clearly, a cloud computing service also has hardware,
software, and networking infrastructure and professionals staffing
it, as well as having an owner responsible for housing and paying
for the infrastructure. However, the cloud computing service is
consumed differently, served differently, and deployed differently
compared to non-cloud data centers. Traditional non-cloud data
centers are sometimes referred to as "on-premises" data centers,
because their facilities are literally within the bounds of the
organization that owns the data center. Cloud service providers'
data centers generally are not within the bounds of the subscriber
organization and are consumed "at a distance" "in the cloud."
[0318] Accordingly, when considering cloud computing versus
non-cloud data center deployment, the choice can play a role in the
availability and/or portability of resources. Crossing boundaries
between non-cloud data centers and cloud computing can pose
technological barriers. For example, storing a database at a
non-cloud data center might require different resources and/or
access features/controls than storing the database at a cloud
computing service. Thus, moving the database from the non-cloud
data center to a cloud service account may require data conversion,
re-configuration, and/or adaptation that go above and beyond merely
copying the database. Likewise for virtual machines (VMs).
Conversely, moving data, applications, VMs, and/or web services
from cloud computing to a non-cloud data center also can involve
data conversion, re-configuration, and/or adaptation to ensure
success.
[0319] Service Models. Differences in service models, comparing
non-cloud "on-premises" data centers versus IaaS versus PaaS versus
SaaS, can yield different performance and cost profiles. Different
service models can affect resource availability and/or portability
of distributed/serverless applications, at least because the
management of different resources rests with different providers
and governed by different terms and conditions. See, e.g., Stephen
Watts, SaaS vs PaaS vs IaaS: What's The Difference and How To
Choose, BMC Blogs, BMC Software, Inc.,
www.bmc.com/blods/saas-vs-paas-vs-iaas-whats-the-difference-and-how-to-ch-
oose/(accessed 26 Apr. 2019).
In regard to the figures described herein, other embodiments are
possible within the scope of the present invention, such that the
above-recited components, steps, blocks, operations, messages,
requests, queries, and/or instructions are differently arranged,
sequenced, sub-divided, organized, and/or combined. In some
embodiments, a different component may initiate or execute a given
operation.
[0320] FIG. 3A is a block diagram illustrating some salient
portions of a system 300 comprising backup services container 301
and data storage management system 302, according to an
illustrative embodiment. FIG. 3A depicts: data storage management
system 302; and container-orchestration (Kubernetes) pod 310,
comprising backup services container 301, container 319 comprising
containerized applications 320, and data storage volumes 330. In
some embodiments, pod 310 executes in a cloud computing system that
provides a cloud computing environment. In some embodiments, pod
310 executes in a non-cloud data center. In some embodiments, some
or all components of data storage management system 302 execute in
a cloud computing environment provided by a cloud computing system,
e.g., Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, etc.,
without limitation. In other embodiments, some or all components of
data storage management system 302 execute in a non-cloud computing
environment.
[0321] System 300 is defined as a combination of backup services
container 301 and data storage management system 302. The other
contents pod 310 are not necessarily part of system 300.
[0322] Backup services container 301 is based on an operating
system-virtualization (OS-virtualization) service and is
illustratively embodied as a Docker container. See, e.g.,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docker (software) (accessed Jul. 5,
2019). OS-virtualization enables containers to be isolated from
each other, each container being run by a single operating system
kernel. Container contents include software, libraries, and
configuration files that communicate with each other. In
alternative embodiments, backup services container 301 is based on
an OS-virtualization service, but is not a Docker container,
without limitation. Containers are generally known in the art, but
the novel contents and functionality configured in container 301
will be appreciated by those having ordinary skill in the art after
reading the present disclosure. More details are given in other
figures.
[0323] Data storage management system 302 is analogous to system
100 described in more detail elsewhere herein, and additionally
comprises functionality for interoperating with backup services
container 301 and for offering enhanced features resulting from
this interoperability. Data storage management system 302 is a
proprietary system provided by the present applicant, Commvault
Systems, Inc., of Tinton Falls, N.J., USA. More details are given
in other figures.
[0324] Container-orchestration pod 310 is illustratively embodied
as a Kubernetes pod that operates within a Kubernetes
container-orchestration system. See, e.g.,
http://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/explore/explore-int-
ro/(accessed Jul. 3, 2019); see also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubernetes. "Kubernetes (K8s) is an
open-source system for automating deployment, scaling, and
management of containerized applications. It groups containers that
make up an application into logical units for easy management and
discovery." Kubernetes home page http://kubernetes.io/(accessed
Jul. 10, 2019). See also
http://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/overview/what-is-kubernetes/(acce-
ssed Jul. 10, 2019).
[0325] Pod 310 groups containers whose components are co-located on
the host machine and share resources. Within the pod, containers
reference each other locally. A pod defines one or more data
storage volumes, such as a network disk or local disk directory,
which is exposed to the containers in the pod. In alternative
embodiments, pod 310 is based on a container-orchestration system
other than Kubernetes, without limitation. Illustratively, pod 310
comprises container 301 and container 319 and storage volumes 330-1
and 330-2, though the invention is not limited to any particular
number of containers and/or storage volumes. More details are given
in other figures.
[0326] Container 319 is based on an operating system-virtualization
(OS-virtualization) service and is illustratively embodied by a
Docker container, like backup services container 301. In
alternative embodiments, container 319 is based on an
OS-virtualization service that is not a Docker container, without
limitation. [0327] Application containerization is an OS-level
virtualization method used to deploy and run distributed
applications without launching an entire virtual machine (VM) for
each app [application]. Multiple isolated applications or services
run on a single host and access the same OS kernel. Containers work
on bare-metal systems, cloud instances and virtual machines, across
Linux and select Windows and Mac OSes . . . . Application
containers include the runtime components--such as files,
environment variables and libraries--necessary to run the desired
software. Application containers consume fewer resources than a
comparable deployment on virtual machines because containers share
resources without a full operating system to underpin each app. The
complete set of information to execute in a container is the image.
The container engine deploys these images on hosts. The most common
app [application] containerization technology is Docker,
specifically the open source Docker Engine and containers based on
universal runtime runC." [0328]
http://searchitoperations.techtarget.com/definition/application-container-
ization-app-containerization (accessed Jul. 5, 2019).
[0329] Container 319 illustratively comprises three applications
320, which are referred to as "containerized applications," because
they operate in a container. There is no limit on how many and what
kind of containerized applications 320 are configured in a
container 319. Likewise, there is no limit on how many containers
319 are configured in a pod 310.
[0330] Containerized applications 320 (e.g., MySQL DBMS 320-1,
PostgreSQL DBMS 320-2, Microsoft SQL DBMS 320-3, etc., without
limitation) are applications that are configured to execute within
container 319 within pod 310. Each application comprises executable
software that executes within a running container, such as
container 319. Although the depicted containerized applications 320
are all DBMSs, containerization in general and the present
invention in particular are not limited to DBMS applications. Other
exemplary containerized applications 320 include file managers for
accessing file systems, web servers, etc., without limitation. Any
application can be containerized.
[0331] Data storage volumes 330 are embodied as Kubernetes volumes
when implemented in a Kubernetes pod. "A Kubernetes Volume provides
persistent storage that exists for the lifetime of the pod itself.
This storage can also be used as shared disk space for containers
within the pod. Volumes are mounted at specific mount points within
the container, which are defined by the pod configuration."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubernetes#Volumes (accessed Jul. 5,
2019). Although the present figure depicts two volumes 330
configured in pod 310, the invention is not so limited, and there
is no limit on how many data storage volumes 330 are configured in
given pod 310.
[0332] Although the present figure depicts backup services
container 301 in communication with each of the depicted
containerized applications 320, the communicative couplings may be
indirect, i.e., via container-to-container interfaces, and the
depicted arrows are to be interpreted as logical views.
Furthermore, the communicative couplings are generally not ongoing
or persistent, but instead they occur on demand. For example,
backup services container 301 runs discovery logic as requested by
a storage manager in data storage management system 302; or runs
discovery logic and/or selection logic when receiving notice of a
backup operation. Accordingly, after executing the discovery logic
and/or selection logic, backup services container 301 discontinues
its communicative coupling to the target containerized applications
320. See also FIG. 5.
[0333] FIG. 3B is a block diagram illustrating backup services
container 301 interoperating with a third-party backup system 303,
according to another illustrative embodiment. FIG. 3B is similar to
FIG. 3A, except that it does not show the outline of container 319
to simplify the rendering of the present figure. FIG. 3B is further
similar to FIG. 3A, except that instead of communicating with
proprietary data storage management system 302, backup services
container 301 communicates with a third-party backup system 303. In
some embodiments, pod 310 executes in a cloud computing system that
provides a cloud computing environment. In some embodiments, pod
310 executes in a non-cloud data center. In some embodiments, some
or all components of backup system 303 execute in a cloud computing
environment provided by a cloud computing system, e.g., Microsoft
Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, etc., without limitation.
In other embodiments, some or all components of backup system 303
execute in a non-cloud computing environment.
[0334] Backup system 303 is a system that can perform backup
operations for data generated by containerized applications 320 in
pod 310. An example third-party backup system is Velero (see, e.g.,
http://github.com/heptio/velero) which includes open source
utilities for backing up Kubernetes applications. Backup systems
303 are well known in the art. Backup services container 301 is
configured to communicate with any third-party backup system 303,
e.g., receiving notice of a backup operation; reporting that it has
prepared certain pod contents for backup (e.g., one or more
containerized applications 320); and receiving notice that the
backup operation has completed (e.g., snapshot has been taken).
[0335] FIG. 3C is a block diagram of an illustrative overview of
Kubernetes pods as described in the prior art. An original diagram
was obtained from
http://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/explore/explore-int-
ro/(accessed Jul. 3, 2019) and reference numbers were added to
enhance the reader's understanding of the present disclosure. "A
Pod is a group of one or more application containers (such as
Docker or rkt) and includes shared storage (volumes), IP address
and information about how to run them . . . such as the container
image version or specific ports to use." Id. (accessed May 22,
2020).
[0336] All the depicted components in the present figure are well
known in the art, e.g., pod IP addresses 312, Kubernetes pods 311
(311-1, 311-2, 311-3, 311-4), containerized applications 320, and
volumes 330. As evidenced by the diagram, a pod may comprise one or
more containerized applications 320 and/or one or more data storage
volumes 330, and is associated with a unique pod IP address
312.
[0337] A notable distinction here is that prior art pods 311 do not
comprise the illustrative backup services container 301, which is
configured into container-orchestration (Kubernetes) pods 310, as
shown in other figures herein. For comparison, see, e.g., FIG.
4C.
[0338] FIG. 3D is a block diagram of an illustrative overview of a
Kubernetes node 313 comprising a plurality of Kubernetes pods 311
as described in the prior art. An original diagram was obtained
from
http://kubernetes.io/docs/tutorials/kubernetes-basics/explore/explore-int-
ro/(accessed Jul. 3, 2019) and reference numbers were added to
enhance the reader's understanding of the present disclosure. "A
node is a worker machine in Kubernetes and may be a VM [virtual
machine] or physical machine, depending on the cluster. Multiple
Pods can run on one Node." Id. (accessed May 22, 2020). "The
kubelet is the primary `node agent` that runs on each node. It can
register the node with the apiserver using one of: the hostname; a
flag to override the hostname; or specific logic for a cloud
provider . . . . The kubelet takes a set of PodSpecs [object that
describes a pod] that are provided through various mechanisms
(primarily through the apiserver) and ensures that the containers
described in those PodSpecs are running and healthy. The kubelet
doesn't manage containers which were not created by Kubernetes."
http://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/command-line-tools-reference/kubelet/-
(accessed May 22, 2020).
[0339] All the depicted components in the present figure are well
known in the art, e.g., pod IP addresses 312, Kubernetes node 313,
node processes (Kubelet) 314, Kubernetes pods 311 (311-1, 311-2,
311-3, 311-4), containerized applications 320, and volumes 330. As
in FIG. 3C, a notable distinction here is that pods 311 do not
comprise the illustrative backup services container 301, which is
configured into container-orchestration (Kubernetes) pods 310. For
comparison, see, e.g., FIG. 4C.
[0340] FIG. 4A is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
backup services container 301 and data storage management system
302. FIG. 4A depicts: backup services container 301 comprising
backup preparation toolkits 401, discovery logic 450, selection
logic 460, and backup interface logic 470; data storage management
system 302 comprising secondary copies 116, backup proxy 406,
storage manager 440, and management database 446; and containerized
applications 320. Illustratively, backup services container 301
communicates with storage manager 440 using interface logic 470 as
depicted by the bi-directional arrow therebetween. Again, one or
more containers 319, which host containerized application(s) 320,
are not shown by outlines in the present figure to simplify the
presentation.
[0341] Secondary copies 116 are described in more detail elsewhere
herein. In the present context, each copy 116 is generated by a
secondary copy operation that takes as its source primary data
generated by a containerized application 320 (or a snapshot of the
primary data). The source primary data and/or the snapshot thereof
is located in the container hosting the application 320, in another
data storage resource within the container, in another container,
in other cloud-based data storage, or in non-cloud data storage,
without limitation. Likewise, there is no limitation on where the
secondary copies 116 are stored.
[0342] Backup preparation toolkits 401 (e.g., 401-a . . . 401-f,
etc.) are groupings of scripts and/or commands accompanied by an
execution environment therefor, e.g., runtime C, python, etc. Each
toolkit is configured for a particular type and/or specific version
of an application that requires preparation for backup, e.g.,
DBMSs, file systems, file managers for accessing a file system,
etc. Different versions of the same kind of DBMS (e.g., MySQL 1.0
vs. MySQL 5.6) might use different commands or APIs for
quiescing/unquiescing, and therefore multiple backup toolkits might
be required to support these differences. Likewise, different file
systems (or file managers for accessing the file systems) also have
specific commands that are not interchangeable with other file
systems and may change from one release to another, thus requiring
distinct backup toolkits. Thus, each toolkit 401 comprises
resources sufficient to prepare a certain kind and version(s) of an
application for backup. For example, if certain scrips are written
in C, a runtime C execution environment is also included in the
backup toolkit 401 to ensure that the scripts can properly execute.
Likewise, if certain commands are written in python, a python
execution environment is needed for and is included in the
particular toolkit 401 to run the commands against the targeted
containerized application 320.
[0343] According to the illustrative embodiments, each backup
services container 301 comprises as many backup preparation
toolkits 401 as feasible without regard to which applications 320
might be present in containers 319. In fact, knowledge of those
applications will be obtained after backup services container 301
is added to Kubernetes pod 310 (e.g., using discovery logic 450).
Therefore, one of the key advantages of the present embodiments is
that each backup services container 301 is "maximally" equipped
with a wide range of toolkits 401 that may or may not be tapped
within the present Kubernetes pod 310. Thus, backup services
container 301 brings wide applicability to a range of containerized
applications 320 that might be configured in the present pod 310 or
in other pods 310. Although FIG. 4A depicts only six backup
toolkits 401, there is no limitation on how many and how many types
of toolkits 401 are configured in a backup services container 301.
Likewise, FIG. 4A depicts only three target containerized
applications 320, each one of a different type than the others, but
the invention has no limitations on numbers and/or types of
containerized applications 320 that can be targeted for backup
preparation by a backup services container 301.
[0344] Backup proxy 406 comprises a computing device of any kind
(e.g., virtualized, non-virtualized, cloud-based, non-cloud, etc.)
that hosts backup components (e.g., data agents, media agents) for
generating secondary copies 116. Illustratively, any combination of
data agents 142/442 and media agents 144/444 can be configured in
backup proxy 406. In some embodiments, data agents 142/442 and
media agents 144/444 execute on distinct computing devices, but
they are shown here on the same computing device as a logical
collection of backup resources collectively referred to as backup
proxy 406.
[0345] Storage manager 440 is analogous to storage manager 140 and
additionally comprises features for interoperating with backup
services container 301, e.g., requesting an inventory of
containerized applications 320, receiving said inventory and
storing it to management database 446, generating storage
management preferences for one or more of the inventoried
applications (e.g., schedule, policies, retention, etc.),
instructing backup services container 301 to track activity at one
or more targeted applications 320, transmitting trigger thresholds
to backup services container 301, communicating with data agent(s)
442 in backup services container 301, etc. Storage manager 440
executes on a computing device comprising one or more hardware
processors and computer memory (e.g., virtualized, non-virtualized,
cloud-based, non-cloud, etc.) without limitation. More details are
given in other figures.
[0346] Management database 446 is analogous to management database
146 and additionally comprises information and data structures
relating to containerized applications 320 and/or backup services
containers 301. Management database 446 is a logical part of
storage manager 440, but is not necessarily physically part of the
computing device that hosts storage manager 440.
[0347] Discovery logic 450, is a functional component of backup
services container 301. Discovery logic 450 determines which
containerized applications 320 are actually present in the
Kubernetes pod 310. In some embodiments, discovery logic 450
reports its findings, including discovered application inventories
and application attributes, to storage manager 440 in the
proprietary data storage management system 302. Storage manager
440, which is generally responsible for controlling storage
operations including backups, stores the information reported by
discovery logic 450 (e.g., to management database 446). Storage
manager 440 further employs the information for generating
preferences that apply to the discovered containerized applications
320, e.g., storage policies, backup schedules, retention policies,
etc. In some embodiments, storage manager 440 also establishes
activity tracking of a targeted containerized application 320 to
help trigger backup operations based on activity by the application
(e.g., more frequent backups for busy applications, more frequent
backups for applications generating large amounts of data, etc.) In
some embodiments, backup services container 301 comprises activity
monitoring logic (e.g., as part of discovery logic 450 and/or as a
separate functional component) that tracks targeted containerized
applications 320 and reports to the external backup system 302/303,
e.g., using pre-defined thresholds that are used for triggering
backups.
[0348] When a backup operation is triggered (e.g., by proprietary
data storage management system 302, by a third-party backup system
303, etc.), backup services container 301 receives notice, e.g., in
the form of a trigger, an instruction, a message, etc. Discovery
logic 450, responsive to the notice of a pending backup, determines
and/or confirms which containerized applications 320 are operating
in the present Kubernetes pod 310. In some embodiments, discovery
logic 450 communicates with external backup systems 302/303 via
distinct interface logic 470. In other embodiments, interface logic
is incorporated into discovery logic 450.
[0349] Examples of information collected by discovery logic 450
include without limitation: container 319 identifiers and
attributes, containerized applications 320 and attributes, storage
volumes 330 and attributes, labels (typically assigned by
users/programmers) for the various applications 320 and/or volumes
330, metadata associated with the various applications 230 and/or
volumes 330, system logs, information inside file system(s), device
entries, kernel representation of hardware resources (e.g., CPU,
main memory/RAM), etc. Discovery logic 450 is designed to be
broadly inclusive in finding configuration data structures (e.g.,
container configuration files/definitions), interpreting their
contents, and discovering assets present within other containers
319 configured within Kubernetes pod 310 (e.g., applications 320,
volumes 330). Discovery logic 450 is further designed to analyze
metadata of assets, e.g., application metadata, to determine a type
or kind and a version of each application 320 discovered in the
pod. For example, an application 320 might be named
"my_beautiful_paintings," which does not readily convey what kind
of application it is. Discovery logic 450 examines metadata (e.g.,
configuration parameters associated with the application) that
indicate that this is an instance of a MySQL DBMS image version
5.6. Thus, discovery logic 450 determines that the application's
label is "my_beautiful_paintings"; the application's type is MySQL
DBMS; and the application's version is 5.6. Discovery logic 450
will collect other attributes, such as a data path to where the
database data is located, i.e., where DBMS "my_beautiful_paintings"
writes to and reads from, and the size of the database.
[0350] Selection logic 460 is a functional component of backup
services container 301. Selection logic 460 selects and applies
suitable backup preparation toolkits 401. First, selection logic
460 determines which of the discovered containerized applications
320 require which of the pre-configured backup preparation toolkits
401, if any. Some containerized applications 320 need not be
expressly prepared for backup, and therefore will not require the
services of a backup toolkit 401. Next, selection logic 460 selects
a backup toolkit 401 that is suitable for a target application 320,
e.g., toolkit 401-b for MySQL DBMS 320-1. Selection logic 460
establishes communications with the target containerized
application 320, e.g., via container 319 comprising application
320, via direct communications with application 320, etc. Selection
320 selects a suitable script/command and executes the
script/command in the toolkit 401, e.g., invoking certain commands
via an API, which causes the target application 320 to be readied
for backup. For example, a backup preparation script issues one or
more API commands to quiesce a target DBMS or file system. In some
embodiments, a file system is quiesced by commands issued to a file
manager application that accesses/manages the file system. When
selection logic 460 discovers that container 301 lacks a suitable
backup toolkit 401 for a discovered application 320 it raises an
alarm to the external backup system 302/303 and/or transmits an
error message to storage manager 440.
[0351] Selection logic 460 reports to the external backup system
302/303 that the target application 320 is ready for backup (e.g.,
quiescent). Selection logic 460 waits for an indication that the
backup operation has completed, e.g., receiving notice from
external backup system 302/303 after a snapshot is taken. Selection
logic 460 then releases application 320 from its backup-ready
(e.g., quiescent) state to resume normal operations (e.g., applies
an unquiesce command). Any number of target containerized
applications 320 can be prepared for backup in this way using
backup toolkits 401 in backup services container 301. With a wide
range of toolkits 401 pre-configured and readily available, backup
services container 301 is capable of preparing a wide range of
target applications 320 for backup without necessitating an upgrade
to backup services container 301 or to containers 319 comprising
containerized applications 320. In some embodiments, selection
logic 460 communicates with external backup systems 302/303 via
distinct interface logic 470. In other embodiments, interface logic
is incorporated into selection logic 460.
[0352] Backup interface logic 470 is a functional component of
backup services container 301. Backup interface logic 470
communicates with one or more of: backup system 303, proprietary
data storage management system 302 (e.g., storage manager 440),
containers 319, containerized applications 320, without limitation.
In some embodiments, interface logic 470 operates as a distinct
component and in other embodiments interface logic 470 is
incorporated into other parts of backup services container 310,
e.g., discovery logic 450, selection logic 460, backup toolkits
401, etc., without limitation.
[0353] FIG. 4B is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
backup services container 301 and data storage management system
302, wherein one or more data agents 442 are deployed in backup
services container 301. FIG. 4B is similar to FIG. 4A, except that
one or more data agents 442 are deployed within backup services
container 301 rather than in backup proxy 406. A virtual server
data agent (VSA) is an example of a data agent 442, which is
generally used for backing up virtual machine data. This data agent
is used for backing up containerized applications 320 running in a
virtualized environment, such as Docket containers. A file system
data agent (e.g., Windows, UNIX/Linux, Macintosh, etc.) is another
example of a data agent 442, which is generally used for file
system backups. Accordingly, storage manager 440, which controls
storage management operations in system 302, communicates with data
agent 442 and media agent 444 to perform a backup or a restore
operation. Data agent 442 is also in communication with media agent
444 for transmitting data thereto in a backup operation or for
receiving data therefrom in a restore operation. The communicative
pathways among storage manager 440, data agent 442, and media agent
444 are depicted by the bi-directional arrows 114, which are
described in more detail elsewhere herein.
[0354] FIG. 4C is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
system 300 in which a backup proxy is configured and deployed as a
container-orchestration (Kubernetes) pod 486 within a Kubernetes
node 413. FIG. 4C is similar to FIG. 3D, except that each of the
other pods in the node here comprises a backup services container
301 (thereby being defined as a pod 310), and Kubernetes node 413
further comprises a specially configured "backup services pod" 486,
which acts as a backup proxy of proprietary data storage management
system 302 and is in communication with storage manager 440. Thus,
Kubernetes node 413 is similar to node 313 and additionally
comprises components such as pod 486 and containers 310.
[0355] In this embodiment, the components ordinarily configured in
backup proxy 406 (see, e.g., FIG. 4A) are containerized and
configured into a Kubernetes pod 486 (the "backup services pod")
that is part of the same Kubernetes node 413 as pods 310 comprising
containerized applications 320 and backup services containers 301.
For example, data agents 442 and media agents 444 are configured in
backup services pod 486. In some embodiments, data storage for
secondary copies 116 also is part of backup services pod 486, but
the invention is not so limited. In some embodiments, storage
manager 440 also is configured within backup services pod 486, thus
deploying proprietary data storage management system 302 within a
Kubernetes node 413. In all these various embodiments of backup
services pod 486, the proprietary features of system 302 are made
portable under the Kubernetes orchestration umbrella of node
413.
[0356] FIG. 4D is a block diagram depicting some details of a
backup services pod 486 deployed in a Kubernetes node 413.
Illustratively, pod 486 comprises any number of data agents 442
(e.g., VSA, Windows file system, UNIX/Linux file system, Macintosh
file system, etc.); any number of media agents 444; and any number
of data storage volumes 330. There is no limitation on how many and
what kinds of data agents 442 are configured in any given backup
services pod 486. Likewise, there is no limitation in how many
media agents 444 and volumes 330 are configured in any backup
services pod 486.
[0357] In some embodiments (not shown here), storage manager 440
and management database 446 are also configured within backup
services pod 486, without limitation, thus deploying proprietary
data storage management system 302 within a Kubernetes node
413.
[0358] FIG. 5 is a block diagram depicting some salient details of
and logical information paths to/from backup services container 301
and storage manager 440. The present figure depicts: backup
services container 301 comprising backup toolkits 401, discovery
logic 450, selection logic 460, and interface logic 470; storage
manager 440 comprising backup preparation logic 541, administration
logic 543, management database 446, and container interface logic
545; execution resources 501; and backup preparation scripts 502.
The dotted bi-directional arrows indicate logical communication
pathways between depicted components to enhance the reader's
understanding of the present disclosure. The dotted unidirectional
arrows indicate logical pathways connecting sources 501/502 with
backup toolkits 401.
[0359] Execution resources 501 include any execution environment
utilities needed to enable scripts 502 to run. Execution resources
501 are also referred to herein as "enabling utilities". Example
resources 501 include the Python programming language and its
standard library. Python and python resources are well known in the
art. Another example of resources 501 is the C standard library for
the C programming language, sometimes referred to colloquially as
"C Runtime" or "Runtime C." Runtime C is well known in the art.
There is no limitation on execution resources 501 and sources for
such enabling utilities, whether the sources are proprietary, open
source, or any combination thereof. The dotted unidirectional
arrows from resources 501 to one or more backup toolkits 401 depict
a logical flow of resources (enabling utilities) into toolkits 401.
It will be up to the implementers of an embodiment to equip each
backup toolkit 401 with appropriate execution resources 501
sufficient to enable execution of the scripts 502 needed to run
pre-backup and post-backup. For example, backup preparation scripts
written in the C programming language would require Runtime C
within toolkit 401 in order to guarantee that the C scripts will
run as needed. On the other hand, backup preparation scripts
written in python would require the python execution environment
within toolkit 401 in order to guarantee that the python scripts
will run as needed. And so on in regard to other programming
languages and corresponding execution resources (enabling
utilities) therefor.
[0360] Backup preparation scripts 502 are programs that cause
certain target applications to become quiescent and/or to
unquiesce. Typically, a script 502 will access an application 320,
for example by using an API, and the script 502 will issue one or
more commands to the application 320 to make it quiesce. The same
or a different script 502 within toolkit 401 will issue one or more
commands to the application 320 to unquiesce it and resume
operations after the backup operation completes. Implementation of
script or scripts 502 for a given target application 320 will vary
from one application to another and will be up to the implementers
of an embodiment to ensure that scripts 502 are compatible with the
target application's API and operational for the quiescing and
unquiescing functions. There is no limitation on backup preparation
scripts 502 and sources of such scripts, whether proprietary, open
source, or any combination thereof. The dotted unidirectional
arrows from scripts 502 to one or more backup toolkits 401 depict a
logical flow of scripts into toolkits 401. It will be up to the
implementers of an embodiment to equip each backup toolkit 401 with
appropriate scripts 502 accompanied by appropriate execution
resources (enabling utilities) 501.
[0361] Some scripts 502 are not directed to quiescing and
unquiescing and are instead used for discovery functions (see
discovery logic 450). Such discovery functions collect information
about containerized assets (e.g., applications 320, volumes 330)
and/or extract information from those assets (e.g., logs,
configuration files, transaction history, etc.). These scripts also
use the targeted application's API as appropriate and are also part
of toolkit 401.
[0362] Backup preparation logic 541 is a functional component of
storage manager 440. Backup preparation logic 541 comprises
routines for processing information obtained from discovery logic
450. For example, logic 541 catalogues application inventories and
attributes into a master catalog (not shown) that indexes all
containerized applications 320, their containers 319, and
respective Kubernetes pods 310. The catalog comprises a list of
applications 320, whether they need preparation for backup or not.
For example, logic 541 devises a backup schedule for the
inventoried applications 320, based on one or more backup criteria,
e.g., time of day/week, amount of data to be backed up, type of
application, etc. In some embodiments, logic 541 causes the
criteria for backup to be stored in schedule preferences in
management database 446. In some embodiments, thresholds for
triggering backups of certain applications 320 are transmitted by
backup preparation logic 541 to discovery logic 450 for monitoring
activity at the target application 320, e.g., determining when a
certain amount of data storage has been reached, determining when a
certain amount of data has changed from a previous backup, etc. In
some embodiments the catalog is stored in management database
446.
[0363] Administration logic 543 is a functional component of
storage manager 440. Backup preparation logic 541 illustratively
implements administrative changes via administrative logic 543,
which stores catalogs, preferences, etc., to management database
446. For example, for each discovered containerized application
320, backup preparation logic 541 causes administrative logic 543
to create a "subclient" entity on management database 446. Once the
subclient entity is created, preferences are further created for
it, e.g., backup schedules/triggers, media agents to use for
backup, destination storage for secondary copies 116, retention
preferences for the secondary copies 116, etc. These administrative
actions are illustratively orchestrated by backup preparation logic
541 and implemented by administrative logic 543, though the
invention is not so limited.
[0364] Container interface logic 545 is a functional component of
storage manager 440 that is responsible for establishing and
maintaining communications with container-based interface logic
470. Notices of pending backup operations are transmitted by
storage manager to container 301 using interface logic 545 and
received by interface logic 470 at the container. Conversely,
communications from backup services container 301 are transmitted
by interface logic 470 and received by interface logic 545 at
storage manager 440. In alternative embodiments, communications
between storage manager 440 and container 301 are maintained
through other modules and means, without limitation.
[0365] Functional logic modules 541, 543, and 545 are depicted as
distinct modules here to enhance the reader's understanding of the
present disclosure but the invention is not limited to having
distinct functional modules and the features described herein can
be implemented within one or more other parts of storage manager
440, without limitation.
[0366] FIG. 6 depicts some salient operations of a method 600
according to an illustrative embodiment.
[0367] At block 602, a backup services container 301 is configured,
e.g., by storage manager 440. Each backup services container 301
comprises wide-ranging content, including backup preparation
toolkits 401 (e.g., scripts 502 comprising commands and enabling
execution resources 501). See also FIGS. 4A, 4B, 5.
[0368] At block 604, backup services container 301 is installed in
container-orchestration pod (e.g., Kubernetes pod) 310 comprising
one or more containers 319 comprising containerized applications
320. The installation is performed by one or more of storage
manager 440 (e.g., using backup preparation logic 541), by other
programming tools, by manual intervention, etc., without
limitation. Notably, installing backup services container 301 into
a pod 310 does not affect the content or configurations of other
containers in the pod (e.g., 319).
[0369] At block 606, method 600 forks depending on whether backup
services container 301 interoperates with a third-party backup
system 303 (control passes to block 610) or with proprietary data
storage management system 302 (control passes to block 608). Thus,
depending on the nature of the system that initiates backups,
certain additional features (e.g., proprietary services in block
608) are provided.
[0370] At block 608, backup services container 301 in conjunction
with proprietary data storage management system 302 performs
certain enhanced services, e.g., discovery operations and
reporting. More details are given in another figure. This block is
skipped when a third-party backup system 303 is the backup
initiator.
[0371] At block 610, on receiving notice of a pending backup
operation, backup services container 301 prepares for backup
selected containerized application(s) 320 in pod 310. More details
are given in another figure.
[0372] At block 612, the system that initiated the backup operation
(e.g., 302, 303) executes the backup operation. In the present
context and for purposes of the present disclosure, the backup
operation is typically a snapshot taken of the targeted
application's data, though the invention is not so limited. Taking
of the snapshot, whether hardware snapshot or software snapshot, is
generally very fast. Once the snapshot has been taken, backup
services container 301 is notified to that effect (e.g., by storage
manager 440, by third-party system 303, etc.). Storage manager 440
is specially configured to communicate with backup services
container 301 (e.g., using container interface 545, backup
preparation logic 541, and/or administrative logic 543, without
limitation). Subsequent backup processing of the snapshot in order
to generate secondary copies 116 does not require the targeted
containerized applications 320 to be in a quiescent state. In some
embodiments, the backup operation is not snapshot-based and backup
services container 301 is notified of backup completion at a
suitable time.
[0373] At block 614, backup services container 301, having received
notice of the completion of the backup operation, releases the
selected containerized application(s) 320, after which control
passes back to block 610. Releasing the application(s) from their
backup-ready state comprises causing application(s) 320 to resume
ordinary operations, e.g., by sending an unquiesce command using
selected toolkit 401. Accordingly, selection logic 460 causes the
selected backup toolkit 401 to run a post-backup script or scripts
502 that will cause application 320 to resume normal operations
(i.e., to be unquiesced). To execute successfully, script or
scripts 502 use the execution resources 501 provided in toolkit
401.
[0374] Backup processing of the snapshot in order to generate
secondary copies 116 is described in more detail elsewhere herein.
In proprietary data storage management system 302, as in system
100, a data agent 442/142 and a media agent 444/144 operate under
direction of storage manager 440 to use the snapshot as a data
source, process it according to preferences (e.g., identifying
changed data for an incremental backup, compressing, encrypting,
deduplicating, etc.), arrange the resulting data into a suitable
secondary copy format, and store the secondary copy or copies 116
to prescribed storage resources, e.g., 108, as well as performing
any indexing operations.
[0375] In embodiments wherein data agents 142/442 and media agents
144/444 operate in backup proxy 406 (see, e.g., FIG. 4A), the
snapshot taken during the backup operation is preferably stored
(not shown) at the backup proxy 406 in order to optimize snapshot
processing performance for backup, though the invention is not so
limited. Illustratively, data agent 142/442 transmits data
processed from the snapshot to media agent 444, which ultimately
generates the secondary copy 116, indexes it, and stores it to one
or more storage resources (e.g., on-premises storage, remote data
center storage, cloud storage, etc.)
[0376] In embodiments that include a data agent 442 within backup
services container 301 (see, e.g., FIG. 4B), storage manager 440
and media agent 444 continue to maintain communications with backup
services container 301 throughout data agent's 442 being active in
the making of a secondary copy 116, as data agent 442 processes
source data from a snapshot, which is illustratively captured (not
shown) into backup services container 301. Performance efficiencies
are realized by storing the snapshot within the same container 301
as data agent 442 appointed to process the snapshot, though the
invention is not so limited. Illustratively, data agent 442
transmits data processed from the snapshot to media agent 444,
which ultimately generates the secondary copy 116, indexes it, and
stores it to one or more storage resources (e.g., on-premises
storage, remote data center storage, cloud storage, etc.)
[0377] In embodiments that include a backup services pod 486 (see,
e.g., FIG. 4C, FIG. 4D), the snapshot taken during the backup
operation is illustratively stored in the backup services pod 486,
e.g., in a storage volume 330, and processed therein by data agent
442 and media agent 444. Performance efficiencies are realized by
storing the snapshot within the same pod 486 as the data agent 442
appointed to process the snapshot, though the invention is not so
limited. Illustratively, within backup services pod 486, data agent
442 transmits data processed from the snapshot to media agent 444,
which ultimately generates the secondary copy 116, indexes it, and
stores it to one or more storage resources within pod 486 and/or
outside pod 486, without limitation.
[0378] Method 600 operates with one or more arrangements of
proprietary data storage management system 302, including data
agents, media agents, and storage manager, as shown in FIGS. 4A,
4B, 4C, and/or 4D. Method 600 also or alternatively operates with
third-party backup systems 303 as shown in FIG. 3B, without
limitation.
[0379] FIG. 7 depicts some salient details of block 608 in method
600. Block 608 is generally directed to performing enhanced
services made possible by interoperating with proprietary data
storage management system 302.
[0380] At block 702, discovery logic 450 is initiated (launched,
started, triggered, etc.) within backup services pod 301.
Initiation of discovery logic 450 illustratively is started in
response to a request (command, instruction, message, etc.)
received from storage manager 440. In other embodiments, discovery
logic 450 launches itself upon establishing communications with
proprietary data storage management system 302, e.g., with storage
manager 440.
[0381] At block 704, which executes discovery logic 450,
information about contents of Kubernetes pod 310 is collected.
Examples of information collected by discovery logic 450 includes,
container 319 identifiers and attributes, containerized
applications 320 and attributes, storage volumes 330 and
attributes, labels (typically assigned by users/programmers) for
the various applications 320 and/or volumes 330, metadata
associated with the various applications 230 and/or volumes 330,
system logs, information inside file system(s), device entries,
kernel representation of hardware resources (e.g., CPU, main
memory/RAM), etc. Discovery logic 450 is designed to be broadly
inclusive in finding configuration data structures (e.g., container
configuration files/definitions), interpreting their contents, and
discovering assets present within other containers 319 configured
within Kubernetes pod 310 (e.g., applications 320, volumes 330).
Discovery logic 450 is further designed to analyze metadata of
assets, e.g., application metadata, to determine a type or kind and
a version of each application 320 discovered in the pod.
[0382] At block 706, discovery logic 450 reports discovery results
to storage manager 440, e.g., using interface logic 470. There is
no limitation on the form in which discovery logic 450 reports
information to storage manager 440. For example, in some
embodiments, discovery logic 450 generates a catalog of discovered
applications 320 accompanied by their respective attributes and/or
metadata, and likewise generates a catalog of discovered storage
volumes 330, their respective attributes, and their associations
with applications 320.
[0383] At block 708, storage manager 440 stores discovery results
to management database 446. In some embodiments, storage manager
440 stores the catalogs as received from discovery logic 450; in
some embodiments, storage manager 440 pre-processes information
received from discovery logic 450 before storing it to management
database 446; and/or any combination thereof without
limitation.
[0384] At block 710, based on discovery results, storage manager
440 takes administrative action (e.g., using backup preparation
logic 541, administrative logic 543, etc.). Accordingly, storage
manager analyzes the discovered information obtained from discovery
logic 450 and formulates one or more action plans relating to the
discovered entities, e.g., generates clients corresponding to
containers 319; generates subclients corresponding to applications
320 and/or volumes 330; generates backup and/or retention
preferences for each subclient (e.g., appropriate data agent,
appropriate media agent; destination storage for secondary copies,
retention duration for secondary copies, etc.); generates backup
schedules for subclients (e.g., time schedules, dynamic triggers,
etc.); etc. without limitation. Thus, storage manager 440
pro-actively processes information gathered by discovery logic 450
to ensure that data discovered in the Kubernetes pod 310 is
protected in a streamlined fashion going forward.
[0385] Thus, block 710, and more generally block 608, represent a
way of integrating the data (including applications 320 generating
the data) discovered in a Kubernetes pod 310 into the larger data
protection umbrella of proprietary data storage management system
302. Notably, as evidenced by the operations in the present figure,
applications 320 discovered by discovery logic 450 need not be of a
kind that requires pre-backup preparation (e.g., quiescing). Thus,
any and all data-related assets that discovery logic 450 reports to
storage manager 440 can be protected by proprietary data storage
management system 302. Thus, discovery logic 450 is leveraged here
for broader data protection purposes than preparing certain kinds
of applications for backup.
[0386] FIG. 8 depicts some salient details of block 610 in method
600. Block 610 is generally directed to preparing application(s)
320 in Kubernetes pod 310 for backup on receiving notice of a
backup operation.
[0387] At block 802, backup services container 301 receives notice
of an impending backup operation. Notice is received from
proprietary data storage management system 302 (e.g., from storage
manager 440), or from a third-party backup system, e.g., 303.
Illustratively, notice is received by backup system interface logic
470, which triggers discovery logic 450, but the invention is not
so limited.
[0388] At block 804, discovery logic 450 executes in backup
services container 301. Discovery logic 450 discovers contents
(assets) of Kubernetes pod 310, e.g., by analyzing container
definitions and other configuration data structures. Discovery
logic 450 identifies containerized applications 320 configured in
pod 310.
[0389] At block 806, discovery logic 450 illustratively reports its
findings to selection logic 460, though the invention is not so
limited. See also FIG. 4A and block 704 in FIG. 7. Selection logic
460 is thus triggered to execute by reporting received from
discovery logic 450. Selection logic 460 analyzes each
containerized application 320. For each application 320, selection
logic 460 determines whether the application 320 needs to be
prepared for backup (e.g., quiesced). On determining that a given
containerized application is of a type that does not need
pre-backup preparation, control passes to block 810, because no
further preparation is needed.
[0390] On determining that a given containerized application is of
a type that needs pre-backup preparation, selection logic 460
determines which of the backup toolkits 401 in backup services
container 301 is suitable for performing the preparation. For
example, selection logic 460 determines that an application 320 is
of a type MySQL DBMS version 5.6 and finds a MySQL backup toolkit
(e.g., 401-b) that is suitable therefor. Selection logic 460 is
specially configured to match the target application 320 to a
suitable backup toolkit 401 that is suitable not just for the
target application's type (e.g., MySQL) but also for its version
(e.g., 5.6), because APIs change over time and can become outdated.
Thus, having the intelligence to properly discover applications'
attributes, and match applications 320 to backup toolkits 401 is
one of the key features provided by backup services container
301.
[0391] At block 808, selection logic 460 causes the selected backup
toolkit 401 to establish communications with the target
containerized application 320 and to run the pre-backup script or
scripts 502 that will cause the application 320 to be ready for
backup (e.g., quiesced). The script or scripts 502 will use the
execution resources 501 provided in toolkit 401 to execute
successfully.
[0392] At block 810, selection logic 460 (e.g., using interface
logic 470) reports to the initiating backup system (e.g., 302 using
storage manager 440, 303) that the targeted application 320 is
ready for the backup operation. Control passes to block 806 for
processing another containerized application 320.
[0393] It should be noted here that information in the notice of
backup operation received at block 802 may indicate one or more
specific containers 319 or applications 320 or volumes 330 that are
to be backed up, though that level of specificity is not always
provided in every notice. When the notice provides no specific
backup targets, backup services container 301 will proceed through
all discovered containerized applications 320 found in pod 310.
When the notice indicates a specific container 319, discovery logic
450 and selection logic 460 limit themselves to assets in that
particular container in order to save time and unnecessary
processing. When the backup notice indicates a specific target
application 320 (e.g., based on a backup policy at storage manager
440 triggering a backup for a particular client/subclient),
discovery logic 450 limits itself to the container 319 that
comprises the targeted application 320 and selection logic 460
analyzes only the specified application 320 targeted for backup.
Likewise in regard to specified containers 330. Thus, the
illustrative backup services container 301 flexibly addresses only
those backup operations pending from the initiating backup system
302/303. In alternative embodiments, backup services container 301
runs discovery logic 450 through all assets in pod 301 and likewise
runs selection logic 460, thus taking the opportunity to confirm
and update any previously collected information.
[0394] In regard to the figures described herein, other embodiments
are possible within the scope of the present invention, such that
the above-recited components, steps, blocks, operations, messages,
requests, queries, and/or instructions are differently arranged,
sequenced, sub-divided, organized, and/or combined. In some
embodiments, a different component may initiate or execute a given
operation.
EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS
[0395] Some example enumerated embodiments of the present invention
are recited in this section in the form of computer-implemented
methods, computer-based (or computer-enabled) systems, and
non-transitory computer-readable media, without limitation.
[0396] According to an illustrative embodiment, a
computer-implemented method comprises: generating a first container
that is based on an operating system-level virtualization service,
wherein the first container comprises: (i) executable discovery
logic, (ii) a plurality of executable scripts and enabling
utilities for executing the scripts, wherein each script is
configured to prepare for backup one or more corresponding
applications, and (iii) executable selection logic; adding the
first container to a container-orchestration pod that comprises one
or more other containers comprising one or more containerized
applications, wherein components of the container-orchestration
pod, including the first container and the one or more other
containers, run on a computing environment comprising at least one
hardware processor and computer memory; by the discovery logic that
executes in the first container, based on an indication that a
backup operation has been triggered, identifying at least a first
containerized application among the one or more containerized
applications; by the selection logic that executes in the first
container, determining a first executable script that is suitable
for preparing the first containerized application for backup; by
the selection logic, causing the first executable script to: (a)
use enabling utilities to execute in the first container, (b)
access the first containerized application, and (c) prepare the
first containerized application for the backup operation; by the
selection logic, indicating that the first containerized
application is ready for the backup operation; and by the selection
logic, on receiving an indication that the backup operation has
completed, releasing the first containerized application from a
backup-ready state.
[0397] The above-recited embodiment wherein the adding of the first
container does not change configurations of the one or more other
containers. The above-recited embodiment wherein the discovery
logic, the plurality of scripts, the enabling utilities, and the
selection logic, have visibility to computing resources allocated
to the first container and lack visibility to computing resources
allocated outside the first container. The above-recited embodiment
wherein the indication that the backup operation has been triggered
indicates that the container-orchestration pod is to be backed up.
The above-recited embodiment wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered indicates that a second container in
the container-orchestration pod is to be backed up. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the indication that the backup
operation has been triggered indicates that the first containerized
application in the container-orchestration pod is to be backed up.
The above-recited embodiment wherein the selection logic identifies
the first containerized application as a target for the backup
operation based on a backup indicator configured within the
container-orchestration pod and associated with the first
containerized application. The above-recited embodiment wherein to
prepare the first containerized application for backup, the first
executable script quiesces the first containerized application. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the first containerized
application is a database management system. The above-recited
embodiment wherein the first containerized application is a file
manager associated with a file system. The above-recited embodiment
wherein the indication that the backup operation has completed is
received after a snapshot is taken of data associated with the
first containerized application. The above-recited embodiment
wherein the container-orchestration pod is part of a node that
executes as a service in a cloud computing account. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the container-orchestration pod is
part of a node that executes on a computing device comprising one
or more hardware processors and computer memory. The above-recited
embodiment wherein the container-orchestration pod is based on
Kubernetes technology.
[0398] The above-recited embodiment wherein the first container is
a Docker container. The above-recited embodiment wherein the first
container and the one or more other containers are Docker
containers. The above-recited embodiment wherein the indication
that the backup operation has been triggered is received from a
data storage management system, and wherein the backup operation
generates one or more secondary copies of data associated with the
first containerized application. The above-recited embodiment
wherein the indication that the backup operation has been triggered
is received from a storage manager component of a data storage
management system, wherein the storage manager controls storage
operations including the backup operation, and wherein the backup
operation generates one or more secondary copies of data associated
with the first containerized application. The above-recited
embodiment wherein the indication that the backup operation has
been triggered is received from a backup system that operates
outside the container-orchestration pod. The above-recited
embodiment wherein the container-orchestration pod operates in a
cloud computing environment. The above-recited embodiment wherein
the container-orchestration pod operates in a computing environment
that comprises one or more hardware processors and computer memory.
The above-recited embodiment further comprising: by the discovery
logic, collecting a plurality of attributes about the first
containerized application in the container-orchestration pod; and
transmitting the plurality of attributes about the first
containerized application to a data storage management system that
performs the backup operation. The above-recited embodiment further
comprising: by the discovery logic, collecting a plurality of
attributes about the first containerized application in the
container-orchestration pod; transmitting the plurality of
attributes about the first containerized application to a data
storage management system that performs the backup operation; and
based on the plurality of attributes, generating one or more
preferences at the data storage management system for protecting
data associated with the first containerized application. The
above-recited embodiment further comprising: by the discovery
logic, collecting information associated with a second container
among the one or more other containers in the
container-orchestration pod; and transmitting the information to a
data storage management system that performs the backup operation.
The above-recited embodiment wherein a storage manager that
controls storage operations in the data storage management system,
including the backup operation, uses the information collected by
the discovery logic in the first container to administer
preferences within the data storage management system for
protecting data in the container-orchestration pod. The
above-recited embodiment wherein a storage manager that controls
storage operations in the data storage management system, including
the backup operation, uses the information collected by the
discovery logic, including an inventory of containerized
applications, to administer preferences within the data storage
management system for protecting data associated with the
containerized applications in the inventory. The above-recited
embodiment wherein a storage manager that controls storage
operations in the data storage management system, including the
backup operation, uses the information collected by the discovery
logic in the first container to administer entities within the data
storage management system corresponding to data stored in the
container-orchestration pod, and to control backup operations for
the entities. The above-recited embodiment wherein a storage
manager that controls storage operations in the data storage
management system, including the backup operation, uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
to administer backup schedules within the data storage management
system for protecting data in the container-orchestration pod. The
above-recited embodiment wherein a storage manager that controls
storage operations in the data storage management system, including
the backup operation, uses the information collected by the
discovery logic in the first container to perform live browse
operations upon one or more secondary copies generated by the
backup operation. The above-recited embodiment wherein a storage
manager that controls storage operations in the data storage
management system, including the backup operation, uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first
container, including information about data storage volumes
attached to the first containerized application, to perform live
browse operations upon one or more secondary copies of data stored
in the data storage volumes that were generated by the backup
operation.
[0399] The above-recited embodiment further comprising: by the
discovery logic, collecting information associated with a second
container among the one or more other containers in the
container-orchestration pod; and transmitting the information to a
data storage management system that performs the backup operation,
wherein the information comprises one or more of: information about
applications in the second container, information about data
storage in the second volume, metadata associated with the second
container, system logs in the second container, information about
kernel representations of hardware allocated to the second
container.
[0400] According to another embodiment a computer-based system
comprises: a backup services container that is based on an
operating system-level virtualization service, wherein the first
container comprises: (i) executable discovery logic, (ii) a
plurality of executable scripts and enabling utilities for
executing the scripts, wherein each script is configured to prepare
for backup one or more corresponding applications, and (iii)
executable selection logic; wherein the backup services container
is configured within a container-orchestration pod that comprises
one or more other containers comprising one or more containerized
applications; wherein components of the container-orchestration
pod, including the backup services container and the one or more
other containers, run on a computing environment comprising at
least one hardware processor and computer memory; wherein the
backup services container is configured to: based on an indication
that a backup operation has been triggered, use the discovery logic
to identify at least a first containerized application among the
one or more containerized applications, use the selection logic to
determine a first executable script that is suitable for preparing
the first containerized application for backup, use the selection
logic to cause the first executable script to: (a) use enabling
utilities to execute in the backup services container, (b) access
the first containerized application, and (c) prepare the first
containerized application for the backup operation, use the
selection logic to indicate that the first containerized
application is ready for the backup operation, and on receiving an
indication that the backup operation has completed, use the
selection logic to release the first containerized application from
a backup-ready state.
[0401] The above-recited embodiment further comprising a data
storage management system comprising a storage manager that
controls storage operations in the data storage management system,
including the backup operation; and wherein the storage manager
executes on one of: a computing device comprising one or more
hardware processors, a virtual machine executing on a computing
device comprising one or more hardware processors. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the backup services container is
further configured to: use the discovery logic to collect
information associated with a second container among the one or
more other containers in the container-orchestration pod; and
transmit the information to the data storage management system that
performs the backup operation. The above-recited embodiment wherein
the storage manager uses the information collected by the discovery
logic to administer preferences within the data storage management
system for protecting data in the container-orchestration pod. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic, including an
inventory of containerized applications, to administer preferences
within the data storage management system for protecting data
associated with the containerized applications in the inventory.
The above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
to administer entities within the data storage management system
corresponding to data stored in the container-orchestration pod,
and to control backup operations for the entities. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
to administer backup schedules within the data storage management
system for protecting data in the container-orchestration pod. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
to perform live browse operations upon one or more secondary copies
generated by the backup operation. The above-recited embodiment
wherein the storage manager uses the information collected by the
discovery logic in the first container, including information about
data storage volumes attached to the first containerized
application, to perform live browse operations upon one or more
secondary copies of data stored in the data storage volumes that
were generated by the backup operation. The above-recited
embodiment wherein the backup services container is further
configured to use the discovery logic to collect information
associated with a second container among the one or more other
containers in the container-orchestration pod; and wherein the
information comprises one or more of: information about
applications in the second container, information about data
storage in the second volume, metadata associated with the second
container, system logs in the second container, information about
kernel representations of hardware allocated to the second
container.
[0402] According to yet another exemplary embodiment, a method
comprises: generating a first container that is based on an
operating system-level virtualization service, wherein the first
container comprises: (i) executable discovery logic, (ii) a
plurality of executable scripts and enabling utilities for
executing the scripts, wherein each script is configured to prepare
for backup one or more corresponding applications, and (iii)
executable selection logic; adding the first container to a first
container-orchestration pod that comprises one or more other
containers comprising one or more containerized applications,
wherein components of the container-orchestration pod, including
the first container and the one or more other containers, run on a
computing environment comprising at least one hardware processor
and computer memory, and wherein the adding of the first container
does not change configurations of the one or more other containers;
generating a second container-orchestration pod (backup services
pod) comprising one or more data agents and one or more media
agents for generating secondary copies of data from the one or more
containerized applications; by the discovery logic that executes in
the first container, based on an indication that a backup operation
has been triggered, identifying at least a first containerized
application among the one or more containerized applications; by
the selection logic that executes in the first container,
determining a first executable script that is suitable for
preparing the first containerized application for backup; by the
selection logic, causing the first executable script to: (a) use
enabling utilities to execute in the first container, (b) access
the first containerized application, and (c) prepare the first
containerized application for the backup operation; by the
selection logic, indicating that the first containerized
application is ready for the backup operation; and by the selection
logic, on receiving an indication that the backup operation has
completed, releasing the first containerized application from a
backup-ready state; and by one of the data agents and one of the
media agents, generating a secondary copy of data generated by the
first containerized application.
[0403] The above-recited embodiment wherein a data storage
management system comprises a storage manager that controls storage
operations in the data storage management system, including the
backup operation; and wherein the storage manager executes on one
of: the second container-orchestration pod (backup services pod), a
computing device comprising one or more hardware processors, and a
virtual machine executing on a computing device comprising one or
more hardware processors. The above-recited embodiment wherein the
backup services container is further configured to: use the
discovery logic to collect information associated with a second
container among the one or more other containers in the
container-orchestration pod; and transmit the information to the
data storage management system that performs the backup operation.
The above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic to administer
preferences within the data storage management system for
protecting data in the container-orchestration pod. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic, including an
inventory of containerized applications, to administer preferences
within the data storage management system for protecting data
associated with the containerized applications in the inventory.
The above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
to administer entities within the data storage management system
corresponding to data stored in the container-orchestration pod,
and to control backup operations for the entities. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
to administer backup schedules within the data storage management
system for protecting data in the container-orchestration pod. The
above-recited embodiment wherein the storage manager uses the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
to perform live browse operations upon one or more secondary copies
generated by the backup operation. The above-recited embodiment
wherein the storage manager uses the information collected by the
discovery logic in the first container, including information about
data storage volumes attached to the first containerized
application, to perform live browse operations upon one or more
secondary copies of data stored in the data storage volumes that
were generated by the backup operation. The above-recited
embodiment wherein the backup services container is further
configured to use the discovery logic to collect information
associated with a second container among the one or more other
containers in the container-orchestration pod; and wherein the
information comprises one or more of: information about
applications in the second container, information about data
storage in the second volume, metadata associated with the second
container, system logs in the second container, information about
kernel representations of hardware allocated to the second
container.
[0404] According to another illustrative embodiment, a method
comprises: generating a first container that is based on an
operating system-level virtualization service, wherein the first
container comprises: (i) executable discovery logic, (ii) a
plurality of executable scripts and enabling utilities for
executing the scripts, wherein each script is configured to prepare
for backup one or more corresponding applications, and (iii)
executable selection logic; adding the first container to a first
container-orchestration pod that comprises one or more other
containers comprising one or more containerized applications,
wherein components of the container-orchestration pod, including
the first container and the one or more other containers, run on a
computing environment comprising at least one hardware processor
and computer memory; generating a second container-orchestration
pod (backup services pod) comprising components of a data storage
management system for generating secondary copies of data generated
by the one or more containerized applications, wherein the
components include: a storage manager, one or more data agents, and
one or more media agents; by the discovery logic that executes in
the first container, based on an indication from the storage
manager that a backup operation has been triggered, identifying at
least a first containerized application among the one or more
containerized applications; by the selection logic that executes in
the first container, determining a first executable script that is
suitable for preparing the first containerized application for
backup; by the selection logic, causing the first executable script
to: (a) use enabling utilities to execute in the first container,
(b) access the first containerized application, and (c) prepare the
first containerized application for the backup operation; by the
selection logic, indicating that the first containerized
application is ready for the backup operation; and by the selection
logic, on receiving an indication that the backup operation has
completed, releasing the first containerized application from a
backup-ready state; and by the storage manager, instructing one of
the data agents and one of the media agents to generate a secondary
copy of data generated by the first containerized application,
wherein the secondary copy of data is based on a snapshot taken by
the backup operation.
[0405] The above-recited embodiment wherein the adding of the first
container does not change configurations of the one or more other
containers. The above-recited embodiment wherein the one of the
media agents stores the secondary copy to a data storage volume in
the second container-orchestration pod (backup services pod). The
above-recited embodiment wherein the one of the media agents stores
the secondary copy to a data storage volume outside the second
container-orchestration pod (backup services pod). The
above-recited embodiment wherein at least some of the information
collected by the discovery logic in the first container is used in
a live browse operation of the secondary copy. The above-recited
embodiment wherein at least some of the information collected by
the discovery logic in the first container is used for viewing a
data file generated by the first containerized application in a
live browse operation of the secondary copy. The above-recited
embodiment wherein at least some of the information collected by
the discovery logic in the first container is used for mounting a
data storage volume in a live browse operation of the secondary
copy. The above-recited embodiment wherein at least some of the
information collected by the discovery logic in the first container
is used for content indexing of the secondary copy.
[0406] In other embodiments, a system or systems operates according
to one or more of the methods and/or computer-readable media
recited in the preceding paragraphs. In yet other embodiments, a
method or methods operates according to one or more of the systems
and/or computer-readable media recited in the preceding paragraphs.
In yet more embodiments, a non-transitory computer-readable medium
or media causes one or more computing devices having one or more
processors and computer-readable memory to operate according to one
or more of the systems and/or methods recited in the preceding
paragraphs.
Terminology
[0407] 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.
[0408] 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, i.e., 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 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.
[0409] In some embodiments, certain operations, 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 are necessary for the practice of the
algorithms). In certain embodiments, operations, acts, functions,
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.
[0410] Systems and modules described herein may comprise software,
firmware, hardware, or any combination(s) of software, firmware, or
hardware suitable for the purposes described. Software and other
modules may reside and execute on servers, workstations, personal
computers, computerized tablets, PDAs, and other computing devices
suitable for the purposes described herein. Software and other
modules may be accessible via local computer 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, interactive voice
response, command line interfaces, and other suitable
interfaces.
[0411] Further, processing of the various components of the
illustrated systems can be distributed across multiple machines,
networks, and other computing resources. 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 and/or computing devices. Likewise, the data repositories
shown can represent physical and/or logical data storage,
including, e.g., 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.
[0412] 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, specially-equipped computer (e.g.,
comprising a high-performance database server, a graphics
subsystem, etc.) or other programmable data processing apparatus to
produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via
the processor(s) 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.
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 to a computing device or
other programmable data processing apparatus to cause operations to
be performed on the computing device or other programmable
apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the
instructions which execute on the computing device or other
programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the acts
specified in the flow chart and/or block diagram block or
blocks.
[0413] 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. 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.
[0414] To reduce the number of claims, certain aspects of the
invention are presented below in certain claim forms, but the
applicant contemplates other 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.
* * * * *
References