Enhanced network attached storage (NAS) services interfacing to cloud storage

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12375560-B2
Application number	US-202418646043-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 25, 2024
Priority date	Dec 12, 2017
Publication date	Jul 29, 2025
Grant date	Jul 29, 2025

Abstract

An illustrative storage management appliance is interposed between client computing devices and one or more cloud storage resources. The appliance uses cloud storage resources in conjunction with a network attached storage device configured within the appliance to provide to the client computing devices seemingly unlimited network attached storage on respective network shares. The storage management appliance monitors data objects on the network shares and when a data object meets one or more criteria for archiving, the storage management appliance archives the data object to a cloud storage resource and replaces it with a stub and preview image on the network share. When access to the stub and/or preview image is detected, the storage management appliance restores the data object from the cloud storage resource. The criteria for archiving flexibly allow individual data objects to be archived to cloud storage without archiving frequently-accessed “neighboring” data objects on the same network share.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system comprising:
a first computing device comprising one or more hardware processors,
wherein the first computing device is in communication with a network attached storage, and
is further in communication with one or more cloud storage resources configured in one or more cloud services, and
is further in communication with a second computing device, which is configured to store data objects that the network attached storage;
wherein the first computing device is configured to:
make a determination that a second data object at the network attached storage exceeds a threshold count of data objects within the second data object, wherein the threshold count is defined at the system as a criterion for archiving data objects,
wherein the second data object comprises a first data object that was previously stored by the second computing device, in a primary data format, at the network attached storage,
based on the determination, generate a secondary copy of the first data object,
wherein the secondary copy is in a secondary copy format that is distinct from the primary data format of the first data object,
cause the secondary copy to be stored at a first cloud storage resource among the one or more cloud storage resources,
replace the first data object on the network attached storage with a stub, wherein the stub represents the first data object in a file system that is associated with the second computing device,
in an index that is maintained by the first computing device, associate the stub with the secondary copy of the first data object, and
based on a read request for the first data object, use the index to determine that the secondary copy is stored at the first cloud storage resource,
restore the secondary copy to a primary data object at the network attached storage, wherein the primary data object is in the primary data format, and
serve the primary data object from the network attached storage responsive to the read request.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein one of:
the stub comprises a preview image of the first data object, and
the preview image of the first data object is stored on the network attached storage and is associated with the stub.

3. The system of claim 1 further comprising: a storage management appliance apparatus that comprises the first computing device and the network attached storage, wherein the second computing device is distinct from the storage management appliance apparatus.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein the storage management appliance apparatus uses the one or more cloud storage resources in conjunction with the network attached storage to provide, to the second computing device, data storage capacity on the network attached storage without a configured capacity limit.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the storage management appliance apparatus further comprises a storage manager that is configured to, based on the determination, instruct the first computing device to generate the secondary copy of the first data object.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the first computing device is further configured to:
execute a data agent and a media agent,
use the data agent to make the determination whether the criterion for archiving has been satisfied, and
use the media agent to generate the secondary copy of the first data object.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the first computing device is further configured to: use the media agent to generate the stub.

8. A storage management appliance apparatus comprising:
a network attached storage; and
a first computing device comprising one or more hardware processors, wherein the first computing device is in communication with the network attached storage, and
is further in communication with one or more cloud storage resources configured in one or more cloud services, and
is further in communication with a second computing device, which is distinct from the storage management appliance apparatus, and which is configured to store data objects at the network attached storage;
wherein the storage management appliance apparatus is configured to:
make a determination that a first data object, which is stored at the network attached storage, has been accessed less frequently than a threshold frequency, wherein the threshold frequency is defined at the storage management appliance apparatus as a criterion for archiving data objects,
wherein the first data object was previously stored by the second computing device, in a primary data format, at the network attached storage,
based on the determination, generate a secondary copy of the first data object, wherein the secondary copy is in a secondary copy format that is distinct from the primary data format of the first data object,
cause the secondary copy to be stored at a first cloud storage resource among the one or more cloud storage resources,
replace the first data object on the network attached storage with a stub, wherein the stub represents the first data object in a file system that is associated with the second computing device,
in an index that is maintained by the first computing device, associate the stub with the secondary copy of the first data object, and
receive a read request for the first data object,
based on the read request, use the index to identify the secondary copy stored at the first cloud storage resource,
restore the secondary copy to a primary data object at the network attached storage, wherein the primary data object is in the primary data format, and
serve the primary data object from the network attached storage responsive to the read request.

9. The storage management appliance apparatus of claim 8 , wherein one of:
the stub comprises a preview image of the first data object, and
the preview image of the first data object is stored on the network attached storage and is associated with the stub.

10. The storage management appliance apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the storage management appliance apparatus uses the one or more cloud storage resources in conjunction with the network attached storage to provide, to the second computing device, data storage capacity on the network attached storage without a configured capacity limit.

11. The storage management appliance apparatus of claim 9 further comprising: a storage manager that, based on the determination, instructs the first computing device to generate the secondary copy of the first data object.

12. The storage management appliance apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the first computing device is further configured to:
execute a data agent and a media agent,
use the data agent to make the determination whether the criterion for archiving has been satisfied, and
use the media agent to generate the secondary copy of the first data object.

13. The storage management appliance apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the first computing device is further configured to: use the media agent to generate the stub.

14. A computer-implemented method comprising:
by a first computing device that comprises one or more hardware processors,
wherein the first computing device is in communication with a network attached storage, and
is further in communication with one or more cloud storage resources configured in one or more cloud services, and
is further in communication with a second computing device, which is configured to store data objects that the network attached storage:

making a determination that a first data object, which is stored at the network attached storage, satisfies a criterion for archiving, wherein the criterion comprises one or more of: a thresho

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• Kumar Kuldeep
• Bantwal Pramukh Shenoy
• Nuthakki Jagadeesh B
• Polimera Rajesh

Classifications

• H04L67/1095

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

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0638

  Organizing or formatting or addressing of data · CPC title

• G06F3/0647

  Migration mechanisms · CPC title