Self-healing data protection system matching system attributes in alert messages to relevant scripts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11994952-B2
Application number	US-202217874868-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 27, 2022
Priority date	Jul 27, 2022
Publication date	May 28, 2024
Grant date	May 28, 2024

Abstract

Embodiments automate the timely remediation of issues by matching failed operations to a script that is configured to fix the problem or problems without causing additional side effects, thus minimizing unavailability of services/data and loss of data. A method detects a backup operation alert message sent from a data manager or storage system that encodes one or more attributes affected by the backup operation. A script library is scanned to identify scripts that match the alert message. A component generates a score for each script, where the score factors the relevance of the script to the backup operation, and executes the script with the highest score, as the script most likely to remediate the issue causing the alert message.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of remediating issues encountered in a data protection system, comprising:
detecting a backup operation alert message sent from one of a data manager or storage system, wherein the alert message encodes one or more attributes affected by the backup operation;
scanning a script library to identify scripts that match the alert message;
generating a score for each script of the identified scripts, wherein the score factors the relevance of the script to the backup operation, wherein each script contains a header listing attributes of backup operations affected by the script;
executing the script with the highest score, as the script most likely to remediate the issue causing the alert message; and
matching the attributes encoded in the alert message with attributes in the headers of each of the identified scripts.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein, for each script, the score calculates a ratio of a total number of attributes in the backup operation over a number of attributes in the script that are also listed in the backup operation.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the script also calculates a penalty value that subtracts from the ratio, a number of attributes in the script that are not listed in the backup operation.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the penalty value reduces the score of a script to avoid a possibility of an additional issue being caused by a penalized script.

5. The method of claim 3 further comprising randomly executing a highest scoring script of a plurality of scripts having an equal highest score.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the attributes comprise at least one of: storage utilization, CPU utilization, device status as online/offline/locked), and storage unit status as non-existent/full/unavailable.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the alert message comprises a text message indicating an action needed and an attribute associated with the issue.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the script library comprises a private library stored in a network file share (NFS) accessible by the data protection system.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein data protection system comprises a deduplicated backup system including a Data Domain file system (DDFS).

10. A method of remediating issues encountered in a data protection system, comprising:
encoding one or more attributes in an alert messages to be generated by one of a data manager or storage system in the event of attempted execution of a failed backup operation, wherein the attributes represent system resources affected by the backup operation;
storing a plurality of scripts, each script encoded with attributes affected by a respective script, wherein each script contains a header listing attributes of backup operations affected by the script followed by executable code processing the listed attributes;
identifying, in the event of a detected alert message, scripts that match the alert message through matching attributes within the alert message and the scripts;
selecting for execution, the script with the highest number of matching attributes and least number of non-matching attributes, as the script most likely to remediate the issue causing the alert message; and
calculating, for each script, a score having a ratio of a total number of attributes in the backup operation over a number of attributes in the script that are also listed in the backup operation, and a penalty value that subtracts from the ratio, a number of attributes in the script that are not listed in the backup operation, wherein the penalty value reduces the score of a script to avoid a possibility of an additional issue being caused by a penalized script.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the attributes comprise at least one of: storage utilization, CPU utilization, device status as one of online/offline/locked), and storage unit status as one of non-existent/full/unavailable, and further wherein the alert message comprises a text message indicating an action needed and an attribute associated with the issue.

12. A system for remediating issues encountered in a data protection system, comprising:
a self-healing service (SHS) component detecting a backup operation alert message sent from one of a data manager or storage system, wherein the alert message encodes one or more attributes affected by the backup operation;
a script library containing scripts that are scanned to identify scripts that match the alert message; and
a further component of the SHS generating a score for each script of the identified scripts, wherein the score factors the relevance of the script to the backup operation, and executing the script with the highest score, as the script most likely to remediate the issue causing the alert message, wherein each script contains a header listing attributes of backup operations affected by the script, and wherein the SHS component matches the attributes encoded in the alert message with attributes in the headers of each of the identified script, and further wherein, for each script, the score calculates a ratio of a total number of attributes in the backup operation over a number of attributes in the script that are also listed in the backup operation, and calculates a penalty value that subtracts from the ratio, a number of attributes in the script that are not listed in the backup operation, wherein the penalty value reduces the score of a script to avoid a possibility of an additional issue being caused by a penalized script.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the attributes comprise at least one of: storage utilization, CPU utilization, device status as one of online/offline/locked), and storage unit status as one of non-existent/full/unavailable, and further wherein the alert message comprises a text message indicating an action needed and an attribute associated with the issue.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the script library comprises a private library stored in a network file share (NFS) accessible by the data protection system, and wherein data protection system comprises a deduplicated backup system including a Data Domain file system (DDFS).

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Malamut Mark
• Brenner Adam
• Murti Arun

Classifications

• G06F11/1458 Primary

  Management of the backup or restore process · CPC title

• G06F11/1453

  using de-duplication of the data · CPC title

• G06F2201/84

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