Cloud-based disaster recovery of a storage system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11061786-B1
Application number	US-201916263090-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 31, 2019
Priority date	Dec 11, 2014
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

Systems, methods, and computer readable storage mediums for generating an alert on a failure of a storage subsystem to phone home to the cloud in a replication environment. A dataset is replicated from a first storage subsystem to a second storage subsystem. The first and second storage subsystems also phone home log data to the cloud on a periodic basis. In response to detecting a failure of the first storage subsystem to phone home, the cloud generates and sends an alert to the second storage subsystem. In response to receiving this alert, the second storage subsystem starts disaster recovery operations for the dataset.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
detecting, by a cloud-based service, one or more conditions indicative of an impending failure of a first storage subsystem, wherein the one or more conditions include a failure of the first storage subsystem to send log data for a threshold amount of time; and
initiating, at one or more other storage systems identified as including a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system, disaster recovery operations for the dataset.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more conditions include a health indicator of the first storage subsystem falling below a programmable threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying one or more other storage systems that include a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system further comprises determining if the first storage subsystem is replicating the dataset to a second storage subsystem.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising notifying the second storage subsystem that the first storage subsystem is failing.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising selecting a third storage subsystem to take over as a new secondary storage subsystem in anticipation of the second storage subsystem taking over as a new primary storage subsystem for the dataset.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising replicating the dataset from the second storage subsystem to the third storage subsystem.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising identifying one or more other storage systems that include a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system.

8. An apparatus comprising a computer processor and computer memory, the computer memory including computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the steps of:
detecting, by a cloud-based service, one or more conditions indicative of an impending failure of a first storage subsystem, wherein the one or more conditions include a failure of the first storage subsystem to send log data for a threshold amount of time; and
initiating, at one or more other storage systems identified as including a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system, disaster recovery operations for the dataset.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the one or more conditions include a health indicator of the first storage subsystem falling below a programmable threshold.

10. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein identifying one or more other storage systems that include a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system further comprises determining if the first storage subsystem is replicating the dataset to a second storage subsystem.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the step of notifying the second storage subsystem that the first storage subsystem is failing.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the step of selecting a third storage subsystem to take over as a new secondary storage subsystem in anticipation of the second storage subsystem taking over as a new primary storage subsystem for the dataset.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the step of replicating the dataset from the second storage subsystem to the third storage subsystem.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the apparatus to carry out the step of identifying one or more other storage systems that include a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system.

15. A non-transitory computer program product including computer program instructions that, when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer processor to carry out the steps of:
detecting, by a cloud-based service, one or more conditions indicative of an impending failure of a first storage subsystem, wherein the one or more conditions include a failure of the first storage subsystem to send log data for a threshold amount of time; and
initiating, at one or more other storage systems identified as including a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system, disaster recovery operations for the dataset.

16. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 15 wherein the one or more conditions include a health indicator of the first storage subsystem falling below a programmable threshold.

17. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 15 wherein identifying one or more other storage systems that include a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system further comprises determining if the first storage subsystem is replicating the dataset to a second storage subsystem.

18. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 17 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the computer processor to carry out the step of notifying the second storage subsystem that the first storage subsystem is failing.

19. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 17 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the computer processor to carry out the step of selecting a third storage subsystem to take over as a new secondary storage subsystem in anticipation of the second storage subsystem taking over as a new primary storage subsystem for the dataset.

20. The non-transitory computer program product of claim 17 further comprising computer program instructions that, when executed by the computer processor, cause the computer processor to carry out the step of identifying one or more other storage systems that include a copy of a dataset that is stored on the first storage system.

Assignees

• Pure Storage Inc

Inventors

• Miller Ethan L
• Borowiec Benjamin
• Hodgson Steve

Classifications

• G06F11/2094 Primary

  Redundant storage or storage space (G06F11/2056 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F11/1451 Primary

  by selection of backup contents · CPC title

• G06F3/0619

  in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors · CPC title

• G06F11/0712

  in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems · CPC title

• G06F11/0793

  Remedial or corrective actions (recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40) · CPC title