Method and apparatus for automated data protection with IT infrastructure visibility

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9736007-B1
Application number	US-201113339420-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 29, 2011
Priority date	Dec 29, 2011
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

IT organizations are challenged with maintaining data application and availability while satisfying service level agreements and compliance requirements. Unprecedented data growth is straining IT resources requiring greater investments, while capital and operational expenses are under scrutiny. Given this tension, IT organizations are seeking efficiency and optimization to regain control and meet business SLAs. Example embodiments of the present invention provide a method, an apparatus, and a computer program product for performing automated data protection with information technology (IT) infrastructure visibility. The method comprises receiving input regarding a desired state of a data protection environment for an IT infrastructure and creating a data protection environment according to the desired state of the data protection environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, for execution on a computer comprising a processor and memory storing program logic, comprising:
receiving an input defining a desired state of a data protection environment;
monitoring a current state of the data protection environment at a first time;
determining whether the current state of the data protection environment at the first time deviates from the desired state of the data protection environment;
generating a service plan automatically upon determining a deviation in the data protection environment according to the differences between the current state of the data protection environment at the first time and the desired state of the data protection environment, wherein the generated service plan, based on the differences, includes one or more commands automatically selected from a group of command sets consisting of a service plan command set, an application command set, a storage command set, a host command set, an entity command set, and a service command set; and
executing the service plan according to the automatically selected commands included in the service plan to affect the current state of the data protection environment from the first time to a second time such that the differences between the current state of the data protection environment at the first time and the desired state of the data protection environment are remedied and the subsequent state of the data protection environment at the second time is equivalent to and does not deviate from the desired state of the data protection environment.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving configuration information regarding storage platforms in the IT infrastructure providing the storage resources; and
receiving configuration information regarding network topology in the IT infrastructure.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein generating a service plan according to the differences between the current state of the data protection environment at the first time and the desired state of the data protection environment comprises:
analyzing the current state of the data protection environment;
determining a selection of commands to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment to conform to the received input; and
configuring the selection of commands.

4. The method of claim 3
wherein analyzing a current state of the data protection environment comprises determining whether the current state of the data protection environment conforms to the desired state of the data protection environment;
wherein determining a selection of commands to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment to conform to the received input comprises determining a selection of commands to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment to conform to the received input if the current state of the data protection environment does not conform to the desired state of the data protection environment; and
wherein configuring the selection of commands comprises configuring the selection of commands to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment to conform to the received input.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein executing the service plan comprises directing a plurality of services according to the service plan to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment, the services selected from a group consisting of: storage array services, virtual storage services, applications services, host services, and entity services.

6. The method of claim 5
wherein determining a selection of commands to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment to conform to the received input if the current state of the data protection environment does not conform to the desired state of the data protection environment comprises determining the selection of commands from a plurality of command sets to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment to conform to the received input if the current state of the data protection environment does not conform to the desired state of the data protection environment; and
wherein directing a plurality of services according to the service plan to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment comprises directing each service of the plurality of services according to respective commands selected from a respective command set to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment.

7. An apparatus comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing computer program code that, when executed on the processor, causes the apparatus to perform the operations of:
receiving an input defining a desired state of a data protection environment;
monitoring a current state of the data protection environment at a first time;
determining whether the current state of the data protection environment at the first time deviates from the desired state of the data protection environment;
generating a service plan automatically upon determining a deviation in the data protection environment according to the differences between the current state of the data protection environment at the first time and the desired state of the data protection environment, wherein the generated service plan, based on the differences, includes one or more commands automatically selected from a group of command sets consisting of a service plan command set, an application command set, a storage command set, a host command set, an entity command set, and a service command set; and
executing the service plan according to the automatically selected commands included in the service plan to affect the current state of the data protection environment from the first time to a second time such that the differences between the current state of the data protection environment at the first time and the desired state of the data protection environment are remedied and the subsequent state of the data protection environment at the second time is equivalent to and does not deviate from the desired state of the data protection environment.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the computer code is further configured to perform the operations of:
receiving configuration information regarding storage platforms in the IT infrastructure providing the storage resources; and
receiving configuration information regarding network topology in the IT infrastructure.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the computer program code is further configured to perform the operations of:
analyzing the current state of the data protection environment;
determining a selection of commands to transform the data protection environment from the current state of the data protection environment to the desired state of the data protection environment to conform to the received input; and
configuring the selection of commands.

Assignees

• Bouchard Peter A
• Dysert David C
• Farshi Hamid R
• Garber Cara P
• Hackett Christopher J
• Lal Puneet B
• Mishra Madhup
• Pillai Ananthan K
• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Bouchard Peter A
• Dysert David C
• Farshi Hamid R
• Garber Cara P
• Hackett Christopher J
• Lal Puneet B
• Mishra Madhup
• Pillai Ananthan K

Classifications

• H04L29/14 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L41/5025 Primary

  by proactively reacting to service quality change, e.g. by reconfiguration after service quality degradation or upgrade · CPC title

• H04L69/40 Primary

  for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection (management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06) · CPC title

• H04L63/00

  Network architectures or network communication protocols for network security (cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00; network architectures or network communication protocols for wireless network security H04W12/00; security arrangements for protecting computers or computer systems against unauthorised activity G06F21/00) · CPC title

• G06F21/552

  involving long-term monitoring or reporting · CPC title