Managing snapshots stored locally in a storage system and in cloud storage utilizing policy-based snapshot lineages

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11537553-B2
Application number	US-202016814431-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 10, 2020
Priority date	Mar 10, 2020
Publication date	Dec 27, 2022
Grant date	Dec 27, 2022

Abstract

An apparatus includes a processing device configured to identify a snapshot policy for creating a snapshot lineage comprising snapshots of a storage volume comprising data stored on a storage system, the snapshot lineage comprising (i) a local snapshot lineage stored on the storage system and (ii) at least one cloud snapshot lineage stored on cloud storage. The processing device is also configured to generate snapshots of the storage volume in accordance with the snapshot policy, to store the snapshots in the local snapshot lineage, and to copy snapshots from the local snapshot lineage to the at least one cloud snapshot lineage in accordance with the at least one snapshot policy. The processing device is further configured to provide an interface for managing the snapshot lineage by accessing, from the storage system, snapshots of the storage volume in the local snapshot lineage and the at least one cloud snapshot lineage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
at least one processing device comprising a processor coupled to a memory;
the at least one processing device being configured:
to identify at least one snapshot policy for creating a snapshot lineage comprising two or more snapshots of a storage volume comprising data stored on one or more storage devices of a storage system, the snapshot lineage comprising (i) a local snapshot lineage stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices of the storage system and (ii) two or more cloud snapshot lineages stored on cloud storage of two or more clouds external to the storage system;
to generate a given one of the two or more snapshots of the storage volume in accordance with the at least one snapshot policy;
to store the given snapshot of the storage volume in the local snapshot lineage stored on the at least one storage device of the storage system;
to copy the given snapshot of the storage volume from the local snapshot lineage stored on the at least one storage device of the storage system to first and second ones of the two or more cloud snapshot lineages stored on first and second cloud storage of first and second clouds external to the storage system in accordance with the at least one snapshot policy; and
to provide an interface for managing the snapshot lineage by accessing the given snapshot of the storage volume from at least one of the local snapshot lineage, the first cloud snapshot lineage, and the second cloud snapshot lineage;

wherein the at least one snapshot policy specifies at least one of:
a first age at which the given snapshot is to be copied to the first cloud snapshot lineage and a second age at which the given snapshot is to be copied to the second cloud snapshot lineage, the second age being different than the first age;
a first type of compression to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the first cloud snapshot lineage and a second type of compression to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the second cloud snapshot lineage, the second type of compression being different than the first type of compression; and
a first type of encryption to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the first cloud snapshot lineage and a second type of encryption to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the second cloud snapshot lineage, the second type of encryption being different than the first type of encryption.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the storage volume comprises one of:
at least one of the one or more storage devices of the storage system;
a given logical unit provided by at least one of the one or more storage devices;
a consistency group comprising a set of two or more logical units provided by at least one of the one or more storage devices; and
an access-restricted storage group comprising a set of two or more logical units provided by at least one of the one or more storage devices where access to the storage group is limited to one or more designated host devices.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one snapshot policy specifies ages at which different snapshots residing in the local snapshot lineage are to be copied to different ones of the two or more cloud snapshot lineages.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one snapshot policy specifies:
one or more conditions for removing snapshots from the local snapshot lineage subsequent to copying the snapshots to at least one of the two or more cloud snapshot lineages; and
a retention period for snapshots copied to said at least one of the two or more cloud snapshot lineages.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one snapshot policy specifies the first and second types of encryption to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the first and second cloud snapshot lineages.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one snapshot policy specifies the first and second types of compression to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the first and second cloud snapshot lineages.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one snapshot policy specifies a first destination cloud provider for the first cloud snapshot lineage and a second destination cloud provider for the second cloud snapshot lineage, the second destination cloud provider being different than the first destination cloud provider.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein identifying the at least one snapshot policy for creating the snapshot lineage of the storage volume comprises identifying a first snapshot policy and at least a second snapshot policy.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the first snapshot policy specifies a first destination cloud provider for the first cloud snapshot lineage and the second snapshot policy specifies a second destination cloud provider for the second cloud snapshot lineage.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein:
the first snapshot policy further specifies: the first age at which the given snapshot is to be copied to the first cloud snapshot lineage; the first type of encryption to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the first cloud snapshot lineage; and the first type of compression to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the first cloud snapshot lineage; and
the second snapshot policy further specifies: the second age at which the given snapshot is to be copied to the second cloud snapshot lineage; the second type of encryption to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the second cloud snapshot lineage; and the second type of compression to be applied when copying the given snapshot to the second cloud snapshot lineage.

11. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein the first snapshot policy specifies a first destination cloud of a given cloud provider for the first cloud snapshot lineage and the second snapshot policy specifies a second destination cloud of the given cloud provider for the second cloud snapshot lineage.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interface for managing the given snapshot lineage enables modification of the at least one snapshot policy for the storage volume.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one processing device is part of the storage system.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interface for managing the snapshot lineage is provided to at least one additional storage system different than the storage system from which the given snapshot originated.

15. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory processor-readable storage medium having stored therein program code of one or more software programs, wherein the program code when executed by at least one processing device causes the at least one processing device to perform steps of:
identifying at least one snapshot policy for creating a snapshot lineage comprising two or more snapshots of a storage volume comprising data stored on one or more storage devices of a storage system, the snapshot lineage comprising (i) a local snapshot lineage stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices of the storage system and (ii) two or more cloud snapshot lineages stored on cloud storage of two or more clouds external to the storage system;
generating a given one of the two or more snapshots of the storage volume in accordance with the at least one snapshot policy;
storing the given snapshot of the storage volume in the local snapshot lineage stored on the at least one storage device of the storage system;
copying the given snapshot of the storage volume from the local snapshot lineage stored on the at least one storage device of the storage system to first and

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Aldred Mark
• Anthony Michael
• Gunasekaran Shanmuga Anand
• Sullivan Shane
• Varma Mithun Mahendra
• Bhatnagar Anurag

Classifications

• G06F2201/84

  Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data · CPC title

• G06F11/1464

  for networked environments · CPC title

• G06F2201/82

  Solving problems relating to consistency · CPC title

• G06F16/162

  Delete operations (erasing in storage systems G06F3/0652) · CPC title

• G06F16/128 Primary

  Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations or in hardware G06F11/14, G06F11/16) · CPC title