Storage Manager VM Replication for Secondary Storage Failover
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Solution Overview
Problem
Storage systems face challenges in maintaining processing power and memory efficiency, requiring frequent hardware additions and reconfigurations due to finite resources, and face burdensome processes when hardware fails, disrupting secondary copy and restore operations.
Innovation Solution
An improved information management system that includes a networked configuration with a storage manager virtual machine and virtualization engine, allowing for automatic reconfiguration and replication of data across secondary storage devices, ensuring continuous operations even when hardware becomes unavailable.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If hardware is added to the storage system, then processing power and memory capacity are improved, but device complexity and configuration burden increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates virtual copies of storage manager virtual machines and replicates them across multiple secondary storage computing devices. When hardware is added or fails, these pre-replicated virtual machines can be automatically activated on alternative devices without requiring manual configuration, thus improving processing power while avoiding configuration complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The storage system implements automatic failover and load balancing mechanisms where the virtualization engine automatically detects hardware status, reconfigures virtual machine assignments, and activates replicated storage managers without human intervention. This self-service capability allows the system to scale processing power dynamically without increasing operational complexity
2Quantity of substance
If hardware is added to the storage system, then memory capacity is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system replicates storage manager virtual machine data across multiple secondary storage computing devices in advance. When new hardware is added or existing hardware fails, the replicated data can be immediately utilized without manual configuration, thereby increasing memory capacity while maintaining ease of operation
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary replication of virtual machine data to multiple devices before any hardware failure or addition occurs. This advance preparation ensures that when capacity needs to be increased or hardware changes occur, the system can immediately utilize the pre-replicated data without requiring operators to perform complex configuration tasks
3Reliability
If the storage system uses virtual machine replication, then reliability is improved during hardware failure, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates and maintains replicated copies of storage manager virtual machines across multiple secondary storage computing devices. When hardware failure occurs, these pre-existing copies enable immediate failover to alternative devices, ensuring operational continuity. The replication architecture, while adding some complexity, uses standardized virtualization layers that simplify management compared to traditional 1:1 hardware configurations
Solution Approach 2:
The virtualization engine acts as an intermediary layer between the physical hardware and the storage manager virtual machines. This abstraction layer automatically handles the complexity of hardware-failure responses by monitoring device status, managing virtual machine lifecycles, and coordinating failover operations, thereby improving reliability while containing architecture complexity within a manageable intermediary component
4Reliability
If manual reconfiguration is performed when hardware fails, then data re-routing is achieved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements automatic failover mechanisms where the virtualization engine continuously monitors the availability of secondary storage computing devices. When hardware failure is detected, the system automatically reconfigures data routing, activates replicated storage manager virtual machines on alternative devices, and restores operations without human intervention, thereby maintaining data availability while eliminating reconfiguration time
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary replication of storage manager virtual machine data to multiple devices in advance of any hardware failure. This advance preparation ensures that when failure occurs, the data is already positioned on alternative devices and can be immediately activated through automated failover processes, achieving rapid data availability recovery without manual reconfiguration delays
Data Source
AI summary
An improved information management system is provided herein for managing secondary storage computing devices when one or more become unavailable. For example, a first secondary storage computing device in a pool of secondary storage computing devices can run a storage manager virtual machine (VM) that manages secondary copy and restore operations. A second secondary storage computing device in the pool can run a virtualization engine that manages the storage manager VM. The virtualization engine can replicate the storage manager VM data to other secondary storage computing devices in the pool. If the first secondary storage computing devices becomes unavailable, the second secondary storage computing device can instruct a third secondary storage computing device in the pool to launch a replicated storage manager VM using the replicated storage manager VM data stored therein. Thus, the third secondary storage computing device can act as the now unavailable first secondary storage computing device.