Centralized management center for managing storage services

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016188417-A1
Application number	US-201514695349-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 24, 2015
Priority date	Dec 31, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods and systems for providing storage services in a networked environment are provided. A management device interfaces with a plurality of management layers that communicates with a plurality of application plugins executed by a plurality of computing devices. Each application plugin is associated with an application for providing storage services for stored objects managed by a storage system. A same request and response format is used by the management device to obtain information from the plurality of management layers regarding storage space used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects and the management device maintains storage space information as a storage resource object for virtual storage resources and physical storage resources used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A machine implemented method, comprising:
interfacing by a management device with a plurality of management layers that communicate with a plurality of application plugins executed by a plurality of computing devices, where each application plugin is associated with an application for providing storage services for stored objects managed by a storage system for the plurality of applications; using a same request and response format by the management device to obtain information from the plurality of management layers regarding storage space used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects; maintaining storage space information as a storage resource object by the management device for virtual storage resources and physical storage resources used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects; and using a base backup policy for different stored object types and application specific policy for each application associated with different stored object types for providing storage services by the management device for the different stored objects.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage space information includes information for a Common Internet File System (CIFS) share, a Network File System (NFS) share and a virtual disk, all stored by the management device in the same format.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the application specific policy identifies a verification policy defining a verification of a backup for a stored object.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the management device identifies an application used by the computing device and installs a plugin for the application type.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein for providing storage services, the management device initiates a discovery operation and the management layer of each computing device obtains computing device information, application information and storage resource information for storage resources used by each application and provides the obtained information in a same format, regardless of information type.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein for any stored object, a same format dataset is used to manage backup, clone and restore operations for stored objects stored for the plurality of applications.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the management device provides a graphical user interface for creating a dataset for any stored object and associating a policy for managing backup, clone and restore operations for the stored object.

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:
interface by a management device with a plurality of management layers that communicates with a plurality of application plugins executed by a plurality of computing devices, where each application plugin is associated with an application for providing storage services for stored objects managed by a storage system for the plurality of applications; use a same request and response format by the management device to obtain information from the plurality of management layers regarding storage space used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects; maintain storage space information as a storage resource object by the management device for virtual storage resources and physical storage resources used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects; and use a base backup policy for different stored object types and application specific policy for each application associated with different stored object types for providing storage services by the management device for the different stored objects.

9 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the storage space information includes information for a Common Internet File System (CIFS) share, a Network File System (NFS) share and a virtual disk, all stored by the management device in the same format.

10 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the application specific policy identifies a verification policy defining a verification of a backup for a stored object.

11 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein the management device identifies an application used by the computing device and installs a plugin for the application type.

12 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein for providing storage services, the management device initiates a discovery operation and the management layer of each computing device obtains computing device information, application information and storage resource information for storage resources used by each application and provides the obtained information in a same format, regardless of information type.

13 . The storage medium of claim 8 , wherein for any stored object, a same format dataset is used to manage backup, clone and restore operations for stored objects stored for the plurality of applications.

14 . The storage medium of claim 13 , wherein the management device provides a graphical user interface for creating a dataset for any stored object and associating a policy for managing backup, clone and restore operations for the stored object.

15 . A system, comprising:
a memory containing machine readable medium comprising machine executable code having stored thereon instructions; and a processor module of a management device coupled to the memory, the processor module configured to execute the machine executable code to: interface with a plurality of management layers that communicate with a plurality of application plugins executed by a plurality of computing devices, where each application plugin is associated with an application for providing storage services for stored objects managed by a storage system for the plurality of applications; use a same request and response format by the management device to obtain information from the plurality of management layers regarding storage space used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects; maintain storage space information as a storage resource object by the management device for virtual storage resources and physical storage resources used by the plurality of applications for storing the stored objects; and use a base backup policy for different stored object types and application specific policy based for each application associated with different stored object types for providing storage services by the management device for the different stored objects.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the storage space information includes information for a Common Internet File System (CIFS) share, a Network File System (NFS) share and a virtual disk, all stored by the management device in the same format.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the application specific policy identifies a verification policy defining a verification of a backup for a stored object.

18 . The system of claim 15 , wherein for providing storage services, the management device initiates a discovery operation and the management layer of each computing device obtains computing device information, application information and storage resource information for storage resources used by each application and provides the obtained information in a same format, regardless of information type.

19 . The system of claim 15 , wherein for any stored object, a same format dataset is used to manage backup, clone and restore operations for stored objects stored for the plurality of ap

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Karinta Vineeth
• Lolayekar Santosh C
• Thorat Vrishali Namdeo
• Somanathan Ramanathan Padinjarel
• Pillai Jayakrishnan Ramakrishna
• Balakrishnan Rajaram

Classifications

• G06F21/6218 Primary

  to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database · CPC title

• G06F16/172

  Caching, prefetching or hoarding of files · CPC title

• G06F16/183

  Provision of network file services by network file servers, e.g. by using NFS, CIFS (network file access protocols H04L67/1097) · CPC title

• G06F2201/815

  Virtual · CPC title

• G06F16/188

  Virtual file systems · CPC title