Shared library in a data storage system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10126949-B2
Application number	US-201715682245-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 21, 2017
Priority date	May 31, 2012
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

The library server according to certain aspects can manage the use of tape drives according to the data requirements of different storage operation cells. The library server according to certain aspects can also facilitate automatic management of tape media in a tape library by allocating the tapes and slots to different cells. For instance, the library server can manage the positioning and placement of the tapes into appropriate slots within the tape library.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of administering access to a tape data storage library that is shared amongst a plurality of data storage cells to manage copies of primary data, the method comprising:
using one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware:
assigning, for each respective data storage cell of a plurality of data storage cells, a subset of a plurality of tapes in a tape data storage library for use by the respective data storage cell the tape data storage library residing in a secondary storage subsystem and including a plurality of tape drives and a plurality of tape slots configured to hold the plurality of tapes, wherein access to the tape data storage library is shared by the data storage cells and each of the data storage cells comprises one or more client computing devices residing in a primary storage subsystem;
receiving from a first data storage cell of the plurality of data storage cells a first tape drive lease request to lease one or more tape drives for accessing the subset of tapes assigned to the first data storage cell to perform a first storage operation, the first storage operation associated with moving data between the primary storage subsystem and the tape data storage library, the first tape drive lease request including priority information associated with the first tape drive lease request;
determining a first priority level of the first tape drive lease request based on a combination of data-storage-cell-specific priority based on a first type of data that the first data storage cell is configured to generate, and lease-request-specific priority based on (i) a type of the data to be moved between the primary storage subsystem and the tape data storage library using the one or more tape drives to be leased, and (ii) a type of the first storage operation to be performed using the one or more tape drives to be leased such that tape drive lease requests to lease tape drives for retrieving data from the tape data storage library are prioritized over tape drive lease requests to lease tape drives for writing data to the tape data storage library;
receiving from a second data storage cell of the plurality of data storage cells a second tape drive lease request to lease one or more tape drives for accessing the subset of tapes assigned to the second data storage cell to perform a second storage operation, the second storage operation associated with moving data between the primary storage subsystem and the tape data storage library, the second tape drive lease request including priority information associated with the second tape drive lease request;
determining a second priority level of the second tape drive lease request based on a combination of data-storage-cell-specific priority based on a second type of data that the second data storage cell is configured to generate, and lease-request-specific priority based on (i) a type of the data to be moved between the primary storage subsystem and the tape data storage library using the one or more tape drives to be leased, and (ii) a type of the second storage operation to be performed using the one or more tape drives to be leased such that tape drive lease requests to lease tape drives for retrieving data from the tape data storage library are prioritized over tape drive lease requests to lease tape drives for writing data to the tape data storage library, wherein the second type of data that the second data storage cell is configured to generate is different from the first type of data that the first data storage cell is configured to generate;
in response to determining that the first priority level is higher than the second priority level, placing the first and second tape drive lease requests in a queue such that the first tape drive lease request is ahead of the second tape drive lease request in the queue; and
granting a first lease of one or more tape drives of the plurality of tape drives to the first data storage cell for providing temporary access to the subset of tapes assigned to the first data storage cell, the first lease associated with a lease duration for which access to the one or more tape drives is to be granted to the first data storage cell under the first lease.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, prior to expiration of the lease duration associated with the first lease, that the first data storage cell is still using the one or more tape drives; and
in response to the determination that the first data storage cell is still using the one or more tape drives, extending the first lease of the one or more tape drives assigned to the first data storage cell.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving from a third data storage cell of the plurality of data storage cells a third request to access the subset of tapes assigned to the third data storage cell for performing a third storage operation, the third storage operation to move data between the primary storage subsystem and the tape data storage library, the third request including priority information associated with the third request; and
in response to determining that the third request has a higher priority than the first request, interrupting the first lease of the one or more tape drives granted to the first data storage cell such that access to the one or more tape drives is withdrawn from the first data storage cell and granted to the third data storage cell.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subset of tapes for the respective data storage cell is dedicated for use by that data storage cell and not by others of the plurality of data storage cells.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the first storage operation and the second storage operation comprises one or more of a retrieval operation, a backup operation, a migration operation, a snapshot operation, or a replication operation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first storage operation is a data retrieval operation comprising retrieving data from the tape data storage library, and the second storage operation is a data backup operation comprising writing data to the tape data storage library, wherein the lease-request-specific priority associated with the first storage operation is higher than the lease-request-specific priority associated with the second storage operation.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining that the data-storage-cell-specific priority associated with the first data storage cell is higher than the data-storage-cell-specific priority associated with the second data storage cell based on the first type of data to be generated by the first data storage cell having a higher priority than the second type of data to be generated by the second data storage cell.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining the first priority level based on a weighted combination of the data-storage-cell-specific priority and the lease-request-specific priority corresponding to the first request, and determining the second priority level based on a weighted combination of the data-storage-cell-specific priority and the lease-request-specific priority corresponding to the second request.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein each tape is associated with a specific tape identifier, the method further comprising:
assigning, based on first data requirement information associated with the first data storage cell, a first range of tape identifiers to the first data storage cell such that tapes corresponding to the first range of tape identifiers are dedicated to performing operations associated with the first data storage cell; and
assigning, based on second data requirement information associated with the second data storage cell, a second range

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• Vijayan Manoj Kumar
• Kottomtharayil Rajiv
• Kochunni Jaidev Oppath

Classifications

• G06F3/0605 Primary

  by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator · CPC title

• G06F3/0644

  Management of space entities, e.g. partitions, extents, pools · CPC title

• G06F3/0608 Primary

  Saving storage space on storage systems · CPC title

• G06F3/0686

  Libraries, e.g. tape libraries, jukebox · CPC title

• G06F3/0659

  Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling · CPC title