Storage Manager Power Management for Data Tasks
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Solution Overview
Problem
The increasing volume of data in businesses leads to high costs for storing and maintaining data on secondary storage devices, with cloud storage providers charging based on usage, necessitating efficient methods to manage and reduce these costs.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that delays lower-priority data management tasks until a specified threshold is met, using a storage manager to identify tasks that can be executed when media agents are inactive, and powering them only when necessary, thereby optimizing resource usage and reducing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If media agents are kept continuously powered on to perform data storage operations, then productivity and data management speed are improved, but energy consumption and operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic power management by transitioning media agents between active and inactive states based on workload demands. The storage manager monitors task queues and selectively activates media agents only when tasks are available, rather than maintaining continuous operation. This dynamic state adjustment resolves the contradiction by adapting power consumption to actual productivity needs.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs periodic activation of media agents based on task availability rather than continuous operation. Media agents are cycled between active and inactive states according to the presence of tasks in the queue, creating a rhythmic pattern of operation that reduces overall energy consumption while maintaining productivity when work is available.
2Speed
If virtual machines are powered on continuously to maintain data accessibility, then data access speed is improved, but operational costs and energy usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system prepares media agents for potential activation by maintaining them in an inactive but rapidly activatable state. When tasks are queued, the storage manager can quickly power on the required media agents without prolonged idle operation. This preliminary preparation allows fast activation when needed while avoiding continuous power consumption during low-activity periods.
3Quantity of substance
If cloud storage services are used to manage large data volumes, then storage capacity and data management capability are improved, but utilization-based fees and operational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements self-service power management where the storage manager autonomously monitors task queues and activates media agents only when tasks are present. This eliminates the need for continuous provisioning of cloud resources, allowing the system to scale cloud utilization dynamically based on actual workload, thereby reducing unnecessary utilization-based fees while maintaining adequate storage capacity.
Data Source
AI summary
As the volume of data under management expands rapidly, so do the costs associated with storing and that data on secondary storage devices. The illustrative approach provides an improvement to the information management system by delaying certain tasks that meet a set of criteria until a specified threshold is met. The system receives a request to be performed on a set of data stored on secondary devices. Power management module determines whether the task satisfies a set of criteria for delayed execution, queues the task, and when a specified threshold of the queued tasks is met powers up the necessary components to execute the tasks.