Automatic failover of a storage manager

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11645175-B2
Application number	US-202117175259-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 12, 2021
Priority date	Feb 12, 2021
Publication date	May 9, 2023
Grant date	May 9, 2023

Abstract

An information management system implements a method for determining whether to initiate a failover of a storage manager in the system. Nodes in the system may be assigned as monitoring nodes configured to communicate with a storage manager. Furthermore, each monitoring node may be configured to transmit a status inquiry message to each other monitoring node, and each monitoring node may receive a status inquiry message from each other monitoring node. Each monitoring node may also generate a session message comprising status information, and a plurality of failover nodes may receive the generated session messages. A failover node may then determine whether a failover condition has occurred by applying a plurality of failover rules to the status information of the transmitted session message. Where the failover node determines that a failover condition has occurred, the failover node may activate an offline storage manager to replace the active storage manager.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for determining whether to initiate a failover of a storage manager in an information management system, the method comprising:
assigning selected nodes of a plurality of client computing nodes in an information management system as monitoring nodes, wherein:
each of the plurality of client computing nodes contain primary data protected by an active storage manager,
the active storage manager initiates data protection operations according to an information management policy assigned to the primary data,
the monitoring nodes are configured to communicate with a first storage manager of the information management system, and
each monitoring node is configured to transmit a status message to each other monitoring node;

receiving, at a monitoring node, a plurality of status messages, wherein each status message was transmitted by another monitoring node;
generating, at the monitoring node, a session message comprising status information for each monitoring node, wherein the status information is obtained from the received plurality of status messages;
transmitting the session message to a plurality of failover nodes;
determining, by at least one failover node of the plurality of failover nodes, whether a failover condition has occurred by applying a plurality of failover rules to the status information of the transmitted session message; and
activating another storage manager selected from a plurality of storage managers to be a second storage manager based on a determination that the failover condition has occurred,
wherein the second storage manager performs functionalities of the first storage manager in the information management system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring node instantiates a session handler configured to:
process the received plurality of status messages, and
update a time and status for each monitoring node associated with a corresponding status message of the plurality of status messages.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the status information comprises time and status for each monitoring node.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the monitoring node instantiates a periodic thread to transmit the session message, wherein the periodic thread is configured to transmit the session message at predetermined time intervals.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
each failover node is associated with a corresponding database, wherein the corresponding database is a backup of a database in communication with the first storage manager, and
the method further comprises selecting the at least one failover node to activate based on which database of the corresponding databases is most recent backup of the database in communication with the storage manager relative to other corresponding databases.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:
verifying that the failover condition has occurred by requesting that each failover node of the plurality of failover nodes confirm that the failover condition has occurred.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
sending a configuration file to each selected node of the plurality of client computing nodes that have been selected to be monitoring nodes; and,
automatically configuring each of the selected nodes to be a monitoring node based on the configuration file.

8. A system that determines whether to initiate a failover of a storage manager in an information management system, the system comprising:
one or more processors that, having executed computer-executable instructions, configure the system to perform a plurality of operations comprising:
assigning selected nodes of a plurality of client computing nodes in an information management system as monitoring nodes, wherein:
each of the plurality of client computing nodes contain primary data protected by an active storage manager,
the active storage manager initiates data protection operations according to an information management policy assigned to the primary data,
each of the plurality of client computing nodes is configured to communicate with a first storage manager of the information management system, and
each monitoring node is configured to transmit a status message to each other monitoring node;

receiving, at a monitoring node, a plurality of status messages, wherein each status message was transmitted by another monitoring node;
generating, at the monitoring node, a session message comprising status information for each monitoring node, wherein the status information is obtained from the received plurality of status messages;
transmitting the session message to a plurality of failover nodes;
determining, by at least one failover node of the plurality of failover nodes, whether a failover condition has occurred by applying a plurality of failover rules to the status information of the transmitted session message; and
activating another storage manager selected from a plurality of storage managers to be a second storage manager based on a determination that the failover condition has occurred
, wherein the second storage manager performs functionalities of the first storage manager in the information management system.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the monitoring node instantiates a session handler configured to:
process the received plurality of status messages, and
update a time and status for each monitoring node associated with a corresponding status message of the plurality of status messages.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the status information comprises time and status for each monitoring node.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the monitoring node instantiates a periodic thread to transmit the session message, wherein the periodic thread is configured to transmit the session message at predetermined time intervals.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein:
each failover node is associated with a corresponding database, wherein the corresponding database is a backup of a database in communication with the first storage manager, and
the plurality of operations further comprises selecting the at least one failover node to activate based on which database of the corresponding databases is most recent backup of the database in communication with the storage manager relative to other corresponding databases.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of operations further comprises:
verifying that the failover condition has occurred by requesting that each failover node of the plurality of failover nodes confirm that the failover condition has occurred.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the plurality of operations further comprises:
sending a configuration file to each selected node of the plurality of client computing nodes that have been selected to be monitoring nodes; and,
automatically configuring each of the selected nodes to be a monitoring node based on the configuration file.

15. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a plurality of operations determining whether to initiate a failover of a storage manager in an information management system, the plurality of operations comprising:
assigning selected nodes of a plurality of client computing nodes in an information management system as monitoring nodes, wherein:
each of the plurality of client computing nodes contain primary data protected by an active storage manager,
the active storage manager initiates data protection operations according to an informati

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• Zakharkin Dmitriy Borisovich
• PRADHAN Manoj Kumar
• Vijayan Manoj Kumar

Classifications

• G06F11/1451

  by selection of backup contents · CPC title

• G06F2201/82

  Solving problems relating to consistency · CPC title

• G06F11/2092 Primary

  Techniques of failing over between control units · CPC title