Network storage backup using distributed media agents

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11330052-B2
Application number	US-202016855379-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 22, 2020
Priority date	May 2, 2018
Publication date	May 10, 2022
Grant date	May 10, 2022

Abstract

Certain embodiments disclosed herein reduce or eliminate a communication bottleneck at the storage manager by reducing communication with the storage manager while maintaining functionality of an information management system. In some implementations, a client obtains information for enabling a secondary storage job (e.g., a backup or restore) from a storage manager and stores the information (which may be referred to as job metadata) in a local cache. The client may then reuse the job metadata for multiple storage jobs reducing the frequency of communication with the storage manager. When a configuration of the information management system changes, or the availability of resources changes, the storage manager can push updates to the job metadata to the clients. Further, a client can periodically request updated job metadata from the storage manager ensuring that the client does not rely on out-of-date job metadata.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method of backing up a client computing system of an information management system comprising a storage manager; a data agent and a core media agent within a client computing system; and a media agent within a secondary storage system, the computer-implemented method comprising:
detecting by the data agent associated with a job cache, a trigger to perform a first instance of a backup process at a network storage system during a first time period;
receiving by the data agent a first set of job metadata and first job identifier from the storage manager, wherein the first set of job metadata comprises an identity of the network storage system for back up of data comprising data files from a primary storage of the client computing system;
storing the first set of job metadata by the data agent at the job cache of the client computing system, wherein the first set of job metadata is associated with the first job identifier;
determining that the client computing system is capable of interacting with the network storage system during the first time period;
performing a first backup of data comprising data files, from the primary storage of the client computing system using a core media agent at the client computing system as part of the instance of the first backup process, wherein the data is backed up to the network storage system without accessing the media agent at the secondary storage system of the information management system;
providing backup metadata associated with the data from the primary storage by the core media agent to the media agent at the secondary storage system without providing the data files from the primary storage to the media agent;
detecting a trigger by the data agent to perform a second instance of a backup process at a network storage system during a second time period;
performing a second backup process by the core media agent using the first job identifier and at least a portion of the first set of job metadata associated with the first job identifier stored in the job cache and without obtaining a second job identifier from the storage manager for the second backup process; and
processing by the storage manager the first instance of the backup process and the second instance of the backup process associated with the first job identifier as a single backup process.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the client computing system is capable of interacting with the network storage system comprises communicating a test packet to the network storage system.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the client computing system is capable of interacting with the network storage system comprises determining that the client computing system is capable of interacting with the network storage system directly or via an external network without communicating with an intermediary system of the information management system.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a trigger to perform a third instance of the backup process at the network storage system during a third time period that differs from the first time period and second time period;
determining that the client computing system is not capable of interacting with the network storage system during the third time period; and
providing data from the primary storage of the client computing system for backup as part of the third instance of the backup process to the media agent at the secondary storage system.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein determining that the client computing system is not capable of interacting with the network storage system during the third time period comprises determining that the client computing system is not capable of providing data for backup to the network storage system without providing the data to the media agent at the secondary storage system.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the trigger comprises one or more of a scheduled backup, a command, or a threshold amount of new or modified data at the primary storage of the client computing system.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting a trigger to perform an instance of a restore process to restore data from the network storage system;
retrieving a backup index from the media agent at the secondary storage system, the backup index created based at least in part on the backup metadata;
restoring, using the core media agent, the data from the network storage system based at least in part on the backup index without accessing the media agent to obtain the data when it is determined that the client computing system is capable of interacting with the network storage system during a restore time period; and
restoring, using the media agent, the data from the network storage system based at least in part on the backup index to obtain the data when it is determined that the client computing system is not capable of interacting with the network storage system during the restore time period.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein backing up the data from the primary storage using the core media agent comprises writing the data to a memory space of the core media agent, wherein the core media agent provides the data written to the memory space of the core media agent to the network storage system for backup.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data agent assigns a sub-identifier with the first job identifier and associating the second backup process with the sub-identifier.

10. A computer-implemented method of backing up a client computing system of an information management system comprising a storage manager; a data agent and a core media agent within a client computing system; and a media agent within a secondary storage system, the computer-implemented method comprising:
detecting by the data agent associated with a job cache, a first trigger to perform a first instance of a backup process at a network storage system during a first time period;
receiving by a data agent a first set of job metadata and first job identifier from the storage manager, wherein the first set of job metadata comprises an identity of the network storage system for back up of data comprising data files from primary storage of the client computing system;
storing the first set of job metadata by the data agent at the job cache of the client computing system, wherein the first set of job metadata is associated with the first job identifier;
determining that the client computing system is capable of interacting with the network storage system during the first time period;
perform a first backup of data from the primary storage of the client computing system using a core media agent at the client computing system as part of the instance of the backup process, wherein the data is backed up to the network storage system without accessing the media agent at the secondary storage system of the information management system;
providing by the core media agent backup metadata, relating to the data backed up to the network storage system, to the media agent at the secondary storage system without providing the data from the primary storage to the media agent;
detecting a trigger by the data agent to perform a second instance of a backup process at a network storage system during a second time period;
performing a second backup process by the core media agent using the first job identifier and at least a portion of the first set of job metadata associated with the first job identifier stored in the job cache and without obtaining a second job identif

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• PRADHAN Manoj Kumar
• Mishra Hemant
• Zakharkin Dmitriy Borisovich
• Kumar Sanath
• Joshi Hetalkumar N
• Telagamsetti Sunil Babu
• Radhakrishnan Divakar
• Yakkala Jayasree
• Sivadas Rohit
• Bedadala Pavan Kumar Reddy
• Venugopalsamy Gopikannan

Classifications

• H04L41/0895

  Configuration of virtualised networks or elements, e.g. virtualised network function or OpenFlow elements · CPC title

• H04L41/40

  using virtualisation of network functions or resources, e.g. SDN or NFV entities · CPC title

• H04L67/1095 Primary

  Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes · CPC title

• H04L41/046 Primary

  comprising network management agents or mobile agents therefor · CPC title

• H04L67/568

  Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching · CPC title