Methods and systems for inter plug-in communication

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016012128-A1
Application number	US-201414326320-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 8, 2014
Priority date	Jul 8, 2014
Publication date	Jan 14, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and system for a storage environment are provided. The method generates a first discovery request for a first plug-in associated with a first application executed by a computing system having access to a networked storage system for a storage service operation; acquires metadata by the first plug-in for the storage service operation and storing the metadata at a first location and at a second location, where the second location is at a storage device managed by a storage interface module that co-ordinates completion of the storage service operation; generates a second discovery request for a second plug-in for a second application for the storage service operation; and acquires metadata by the second plug-in using the metadata acquired by the first plug-in for the storage service operation and updating metadata stored at the first location and the second location.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A machine implemented method, comprising:
generating a first discovery request for a first plug-associated with a first application executed by a computing system having access to a networked storage system for a storage service operation; acquiring metadata by the first plug-in for the storage service operation and storing the metadata at a first location and at a second location, where the second location is at a storage device managed by a storage interface module that co-ordinates completion of the storage service operation; generating a second discovery request for a second plug-in for a second application for the storage service operation; acquiring metadata by the second plug-in for the storage service operation using the metadata acquired by the first plug-in and updating metadata stored at the first location and the second location; and using the updated metadata stored at the first location or the second location for completing the storage service operation based on where the first plug-in and the second plug-in application are executed.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when the second application and the second plug-in are executed by the first computing system then metadata for the first location are used for the storage service operation.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein when the second application and the second plug-in are executed by a second computing system then metadata at the second location are used for the storage service operation.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first application is a database application and the first plug-in obtains database data container information for the storage service operation and the second plug-in maps database containers to storage elements.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first application is a database application that obtains database data container information for the storage service operation and the second plug-in associates a storage element for the database data container with a virtual storage element.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein metadata at the first location and the second location are stored as key-value pairs, where a first key-value pair identifies a data container, a second key-value pair associates the data container with a virtual storage element and a third key-value pair associates the virtual storage element with a physical or logical storage element.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage service operation is to replicate data associated with the first application or to restore data associated with the first application.

8 . A non-transitory, machine readable storage medium having stored thereon instructions for performing a method, comprising machine executable code which when executed by at least one machine, causes the machine to:
generate a first discovery request for a first plug-associated with a first application executed by a computing system having access to a networked storage system for a storage service operation; acquire metadata by the first plug-in for the storage service operation and storing the metadata at a first location and at a second location, where the second location is at a storage device managed by a storage interface module that co-ordinates completion of the storage service operation; generate a second discovery request for a second plug-in for a second application for the storage service operation; acquire metadata by the second plug-in for the storage service operation using the metadata acquired by the first plug-in and update metadata stored at the first location and the second location; and use the updated metadata stored at the first location or the second location for completing the storage service operation based on where the first plug-in and the second plug-in application are executed.

9 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein when the second application and the second plug-in are executed by the first computing system then metadata for the first location are used for the storage service operation.

10 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein when the second application and the second plug-in are executed by a second computing system then metadata at the second location are used for the storage service operation.

11 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first application is a database application and the first plug-in obtains database data container information for the storage service operation and the second plug-in maps database containers to storage elements.

12 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the first application is a database application that obtains database data container information for the storage service operation and the second plug-in associates a storage element for the database data container with a virtual storage element.

13 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein metadata at the first location and the second location are stored as key-value pairs, where a first key-value pair identifies a data container, a second key-value pair associates the data container with a virtual storage element and a third key-value pair associates the virtual storage element with a physical or logical storage element.

14 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the storage service operation is to replicate data associated with the first application or to restore data associated with the first application.

15 . A system, comprising:
a memory having machine readable medium comprising machine executable code having instructions stored thereon; and a processor module coupled to the memory configured to execute the machine executable code to:
generate a first discovery request for a first plug-associated with a first application executed by a computing system having access to a networked storage system for a storage service operation;
acquire metadata by the first plug-in for the storage service operation and storing the metadata at a first location and at a second location, where the second location is at a storage device managed by a storage interface module that co-ordinates completion of the storage service operation;
generate a second discovery request for a second plug-in for a second application for the storage service operation;
acquire metadata by the second plug-in for the storage service operation using the metadata acquired by the first plug-in and update metadata stored at the first location and the second location; and
use the updated metadata stored at the first location or the second location for completing the storage service operation based on where the first plug-in and the second plug-in application are executed.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein when the second application and the second plug-in are executed by the first computing system then metadata for the first location are used for the storage service operation.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein when the second application and the second plug-in are executed by a second computing system then metadata at the second location are used for the storage service operation.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the first application is a database application and the first plug-in obtains database data container information for the storage service operation and the second plug-in maps database containers to storage elements.

19 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the first application is a database application that obtains database data container information for the storage service operation and the second plug-in associates a storag

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Siebler Clemens Veit
• Tenzer Keith
• Fouts Charles M

Classifications

• G06F9/545 Primary

  where tasks reside in different layers, e.g. user- and kernel-space · CPC title

• G06F17/302

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30997

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/30864 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic