Methods and systems for managing the scheduling of snapshots on a storage array

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9563378-B2
Application number	US-201615060283-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 3, 2016
Priority date	Jul 14, 2010
Publication date	Feb 7, 2017
Grant date	Feb 7, 2017

Abstract

A storage management application of a storage array is operable to create a new volume on the storage device array, and to automatically configure, responsive to user selection of an application protection profile, data protection services for application data to be stored on the volume, and/or, responsive to user selection of an application performance profile, application specific performance parameters. The application protection profile specifies scheduling and replication of snapshots for application data to be stored on the volume, and the application performance profile specifies performance parameters such as setting a block size, enabling or modifying a data caching algorithm, turning on or modifying data compression, etc. The scheduling, replication and/or application performance may be managed by a daemon associated with the storage management application which communicates with an agent associated with an application server on which the application executes.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for a storage array, the method comprising:
hosting a storage management application on the storage array;
determining, by the storage management application, an application protection profile, the application protection profile specifying a scheduling of snapshots for application data to be stored on a volume on the storage array;
hosting a management daemon on the storage array; and
managing, by the management daemon, the scheduling of snapshots in accordance with instructions provided by the application protection profile,
wherein in the managing of the scheduling of snapshots, the management daemon communicates with a protection manager agent installed on an application server communicatively coupled to the storage array.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application data belongs to an application executing on the application server.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for the application executing on the application server.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for a data type and use case associated with the application executing on the application server.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for one or more of an e-mail server, a database, a virtual machine and a file server.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the management daemon is a logical portion of the storage management application.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application server is communicatively coupled to the storage array via a network.

8. A storage array, comprising:
a processor;
storage media communicatively coupled to the processor;
a set of instructions on the storage media that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to:
instantiate a storage management application on the storage array, the storage management application configured to determine an application protection profile, the application protection profile specifying a scheduling of snapshots for application data to be stored on a volume on the storage array; and
instantiate a management daemon on the storage array, the management daemon configured to manage the scheduling of snapshots in accordance with instructions provided by the application protection profile,
wherein in the management of the scheduling of snapshots, the management daemon communicates with a protection manager agent installed on an application server communicatively coupled to the storage array.

9. The storage array of claim 8 , wherein the application data belongs to an application executing on the application server.

10. The storage array of claim 9 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for the application executing on the application server.

11. The storage array of claim 9 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for a data type and use case associated with the application executing on the application server.

12. The storage array of claim 8 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for one or more of an e-mail server, a database, a virtual machine and a file server.

13. The storage array of claim 8 , wherein the management daemon is a logical portion of the storage management application.

14. The storage array of claim 8 , wherein the application server is communicatively coupled to the storage array via a network.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising software instructions that, when executed by a processor of an storage array, cause the processor to:
instantiate a storage management application on the storage array, the storage management application configured to determine an application protection profile, the application protection profile specifying a scheduling of snapshots for application data to be stored on a volume on the storage array; and
instantiate a management daemon on the storage array, the management daemon configured to manage the scheduling of snapshots in accordance with instructions provided by the application protection profile,
wherein in the management of the scheduling of snapshots, the management daemon communicates with a protection manager agent installed on an application server communicatively coupled to the storage array.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the application data belongs to an application executing on the application server.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for the application executing on the application server.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for a data type and use case associated with the application executing on the application server.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the application protection profile is configured for one or more of an e-mail server, a database, a virtual machine and a file server.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the management daemon is a logical portion of the storage management application.

Assignees

• Nimble Storage Inc

Inventors

• Mehta Varun
• Bagg Rod
• Gupta Vikas
• Leary Dan
• Singh Ajay
• Yuen Hector

Classifications

• G06F3/065

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/0619 Primary

  in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors · CPC title

• G06F3/0689

  Disk arrays, e.g. RAID, JBOD · CPC title

• G06F16/24561

  Intermediate data storage techniques for performance improvement · CPC title

• G06F3/0665

  at area level, e.g. provisioning of virtual or logical volumes · CPC title