Archiving applications in information management systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11824932-B2
Application number	US-202217891909-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2022
Priority date	Nov 13, 2014
Publication date	Nov 21, 2023
Grant date	Nov 21, 2023

Abstract

An information management system according to certain aspects can implement application archiving. The system may archive one or more applications on computing devices to make more storage space available on these devices. The system can determine which applications on client computing device to archive based on various factors. Some examples of factors can include frequency of use, application type, amount of application data and/or storage, user and/or device location, etc. The data to be archived can include one or more executable file(s), metadata, actual data, etc. After an application is archived, the system can generate a placeholder for the application; a placeholder can include information for restoring the archived application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information management system configured to archive one or more applications residing on a virtual machine, the information management system comprising:
one or more computing devices including computer hardware, the one or more computing devices residing in a cloud computing environment, the one or more computing devices configured to:
receive or identify a request to perform a data management operation on data associated with a virtual machine,
wherein the virtual machine is hosted in the cloud computing environment,
wherein the data management operation was initiated according to an information management policy associated with the virtual machine,
wherein the information management policy comprises a data structure comprising one or more settings or preferences for performing data management operations on production data associated with the information management policy and for performing the data management operations on secondary copies of the production data;

according to the information management policy, identify a first application to archive to one or more secondary storage devices, the first application residing on the virtual machine,
wherein the one or more secondary storage devices stores the secondary copies of the production data;

identify, in one or more data stores, one or more files associated with execution of the first application;
transmit the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application to the one or more secondary storage devices;
delete the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application from the one or more data stores;
receive or identify a request to apply an update to the first application stored at the one or more secondary storage devices;
cause the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application to be restored to the one or more secondary storage devices;
apply the update to the restored first application; and
cause the updated first application to be archived to the one or more secondary storage devices.

2. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more files comprise a binary file.

3. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to identify the first application based at least in part on a geographic area associated with the one or more computing devices.

4. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the information management system further comprises the one or more secondary storage devices, wherein the one or more secondary storage devices is further configured to receive and store the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application.

5. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the first application to archive is performed by a storage manager.

6. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the identifying the first application to archive is performed by a computing device not associated with the first application.

7. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more computing devices is a client computing device residing on a primary storage subsystem and uses an application archiving agent installed on the client computing device to identify the first application for archiving.

8. The information management system of claim 7 , wherein the application archiving agent uses application type of the first application to identify the first application for archiving.

9. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more data stores are separate from the one or more computing devices.

10. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein the data management operations are executed in the information management system between a primary storage subsystem and the one or more secondary storage devices residing in a secondary storage subsystem.

11. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein at least some data associated with the first application is also transmitted and removed from one or more primary storage devices.

12. The information management system of claim 1 , wherein data associated with the first application is not deleted from one or more primary storage devices.

13. A method of archiving an application residing on a virtual machine, the method comprising:
by one or more computing devices including computer hardware, the one or more computing devices residing in a cloud computing environment:
receiving or identifying a request to perform a data management operation on data associated with a virtual machine,
wherein the virtual machine is hosted in the cloud computing environment,
wherein the data management operation was initiated according to an information management policy associated with the virtual machine,
wherein the information management policy comprises a data structure comprising one or more settings or preferences for performing data management operations on production data associated with the information management policy and for performing the data management operations on secondary copies of the production data;

according to the information management policy, identifying a first application to archive to one or more secondary storage devices, the first application residing on the virtual machine,
wherein the one or more secondary storage devices stores the secondary copies of the production data;

identifying, in one or more data stores, one or more files associated with execution of the first application;
transmitting the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application to the one or more secondary storage devices;
deleting the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application from the one or more data stores;
receiving or identifying a request to apply an update to the first application stored at the one or more secondary storage devices;
causing the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application to be restored to the one or more secondary storage devices;
applying the update to the restored first application; and
causing the updated first application to be archived to the one or more secondary storage devices.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more files comprise a binary file.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to identify the first application based at least in part on a geographic area associated with the one or more computing devices.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein the method further comprises: receiving and storing, at the one or more secondary storage devices, the one or more files associated with the execution of the first application.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein the identifying the first application to archive is performed by a storage manager.

18. The method of claim 13 , wherein the identifying the first application to archive is performed by a computing device not associated with the first application.

19. The method of claim 13 , wherein the one or more computing devices comprises a primary storage subsystem and uses an application archiving agent installed on the primary storage subsystem to identify the first application for archiving.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the application archiving agent uses application type of the first application to identify the first application for archiving.

21. The method

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• Mehta Bhavyan Bharatkumar
• Kottomtharayil Rajiv
• Chatterjee Tirthankar
• Ahn Jun H

Classifications

• G06F16/27

  Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor · CPC title

• H04L67/1097 Primary

  for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F8/61

  Installation · CPC title

• G06F8/65

  Updates (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57) · CPC title

• H04L43/16

  Threshold monitoring · CPC title