Clone Dataset Object Management via Application Plugins
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing storage services across diverse applications and environments is challenging due to varying requirements for data protection, backup, and cloning, with existing systems struggling to provide unified solutions for different application types and platforms.
Innovation Solution
A centralized management system that provides a unified inventory listing of application objects, generates clone dataset objects, and manages clone lifecycles through policy associations, enabling standardized backup, restore, and cloning operations across multiple applications and platforms.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If a centralized management system standardizes clone dataset object format across diverse applications, then management efficiency and consistency are improved, but system complexity increases due to needing to interface with multiple application plugins and diverse data formats
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces application plugins as intermediary components that sit between the centralized management system and diverse applications. These plugins translate application-specific data formats into a standardized clone dataset object format, allowing the management system to handle multiple applications without directly integrating with each one's proprietary format, thus improving efficiency while managing complexity through abstraction
Solution Approach 2:
The centralized management system implements a universal clone dataset object format that can represent multiple application object types (files, directories, databases, virtual machine disks) through a common structure. This universal format allows the same management operations to work across diverse applications and platforms, improving productivity by eliminating the need for application-specific management logic
2Ease of operation
If the system provides unified inventory listing and standardized policy objects for multiple applications, then ease of operation is improved, but the difficulty of detecting and measuring diverse application requirements increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates standardized policy objects that copy and adapt application-specific requirements into a unified format. Instead of directly handling diverse application protocols and requirements, the management system uses policy objects as templates that capture essential parameters (retention periods, backup schedules, cloning rules) in a standardized way, making the system easier to operate while abstracting away the complexity of detecting diverse application needs
3Adaptability or versatility
If the system manages clone lifecycle operations across diverse applications through a single interface, then adaptability is improved, but device complexity increases due to needing to handle different application object types and parameters
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs parameter changes by transforming diverse application-specific parameters into standardized clone dataset object parameters. The system maintains adaptability by allowing the underlying implementation to handle different application object types (files, databases, virtual machine disks) while presenting a consistent parameter interface for clone lifecycle management, thus improving versatility without proportionally increasing complexity
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for storage services is provided. An inventory view listing a plurality of application objects of an application from among a plurality of applications is provided on a display device by a management device that interfaces with a plurality of application plugins executed by one or more host computing devices that interface with the plurality of applications for managing backup, restore and clone operations involving objects that are stored on behalf of the plurality of applications by a storage system. A clone dataset object for an application object is selected from the plurality of application objects of the application. A clone lifecycle option for the clone dataset object is selected for managing lifecycle of a clone of a backup of the selected application object.