Systems and methods for remote monitoring in a computer network and reporting a failed migration operation without accessing the data being moved

1. A method of problem reporting in a computer network, the method comprising:

monitoring, with an agent module executing in one or more computer processors, a plurality of elements that perform data migration operations that move data stored within a computer network;

detecting, with one or more computer processors, one or more problems that occur during a failed data migration operation within the computer network wherein the agent module fails to acknowledge the completion of one of the data migration operations;

obtaining information about the one or more problems associated with a failed data migration operation, wherein the information comprises an identifier that identifies the failed data migration operation, log files associated with the failed data migration operation, and hardware and software configurations of the plurality elements associated with the failed data migration operation;

automatically sending a problem report based on user selection criteria pertaining to the plurality of elements involved in the failed data migration operation, wherein the problem report does not include the data being moved within the computer network by the failed data migration operation;

electronically sending the problem report about the one or more problems to a remote listener, wherein the remote listener does not have access privileges to the data being moved within the computer network,

wherein the remote listener comprises a data structure that contains instructions regarding courses of action for the one or more problems occurring during the failed data migration operation, and

wherein the remote listener automatically cross-references the one or more problems with the data structure to determine whether a trouble report should be assembled without accessing the data being moved within the computer network;

if the trouble report is to be assembled, automatically assembling the information about the one or more problems into the trouble report that includes the identifier of the failed data migration operation and instructions regarding courses of action; and

providing the trouble report to an entity with access privileges to the local computer network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data migration operations comprise at least one of storage resource management operations and hierarchical storage management operations.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the problem is detected by discovery of at least one error message issued by the plurality of elements.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising analyzing the at least one error message to determine information to be requested.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising analyzing the information in the problem report.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the problem report is provided by communication with a remote listener.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the problem report is prioritized according to a selected severity of the problem to provide the monitor an ordered queue of reports.

8. A method of remotely monitoring data migration operations within a computer network, the method comprising:

providing a plurality of elements comprising at least one of hardware, software, and firmware components, which perform data migration operations;

monitoring, with one or more computer processors, at least one of log files generated by the plurality of elements, communications links between the plurality of elements, and configurations of the plurality of elements during the data migration operations to detect errors in a failed data migration a failed operation;

automatically gathering and analyzing selected information from the monitored elements in response to the detection of an error in the failed data migration operation, wherein the information comprises an identifier that identifies the failed data migration operation, log files associated with the failed data migration operation, and hardware and software configurations of the plurality elements associated with the failed data migration operation;

automatically generating a first report based on user selection criteria pertaining to the plurality of elements involved in the failed data migration operation, wherein the problem report does not include the data being moved within the computer network by the failed data migration operation; and

communicating the first report electronically to a remote monitor, wherein the remote monitor does not have access privileges to the data being moved within the computer network,

wherein the remote monitor comprises a data structure that contains instructions regarding courses of action for the one or more problems occurring during the failed data migration operation, and

wherein the remote monitor automatically cross-references the one or more problems with the data structure to determine whether a second report should be assembled without accessing the data being moved within the computer network.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the remote monitor does not possess access privileges to the plurality of elements.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the information communicated to the remote monitor comprises information based upon selection criteria provided by an administrator of the plurality of elements.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first report is provided by communication with a remote listener.

12. A system for remote monitoring of a data migration operation occurring within a computer network, comprising:

a plurality of computing elements that perform data migration operations that move data stored within a computer network; and

a monitor agent executing in one or more computer processors that communicates with the plurality of computing elements to detect problems occurring within a first data migration operation,

wherein the monitor agent gathers information from the plurality of computing elements in response to a detected problem associated with the first data migration operation, wherein the information comprises an identifier that identifies the failed data migration operation, log files associated with the failed data migration operation, and hardware and software configurations of the plurality elements associated with the failed data migration operation and generating a first report about based on user selection criteria pertaining to the plurality of elements involved in the failed data migration, wherein the first report does not include the data being moved within the computer network by the failed data migration operation, and wherein the first report is provided to a remote monitor that does not possess access privileges to the plurality of computing elements,

wherein the remote monitor comprises a data structure that contains instructions regarding courses of action for one or more problems occurring during the first data migration operation, and

wherein the remote monitor automatically cross-references the one or more problems with the data structure to determine whether a second report should be assembled without accessing the data being moved within the computer network.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein errors occurring in a data migration operation are communicated to the monitor agent to provide detection of a problem within the data migration operation.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first report is generated without human intervention.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the first report is provided to the remote monitor by communication with a remote listener.

16. An automated problem reporting data migration system, the system comprising:

a client computer containing data;

a plurality of storage media for storing the data;

a storage manager that coordinates data migration operations between the client computer and at least one of the storage media;

a media agent that performs data migration operations in response to instructions from the storage manager to move data from the client computer to the storage media;

a monitor agent that monitors the data migration operations and communicates information about errors occurring during the data migration operations, wherein the information comprises an identifier that identifies at least a first data migration operation associated with the errors, associated log files, and hardware and software configurations of the plurality elements associated with the errors, wherein the monitor agent further generates a first report based on user selection criteria pertaining to the plurality of elements involved in the failed data migration operation, wherein the first report does not include the data being moved from the client computer to the storage media; and

a remote listener which receives the first report communicated by the monitor agent and generates a second report containing information about the one or more errors, wherein the remote listener does not have access privileges to the data associated with the failed data migration operation;

wherein the remote listener further comprises a data structure that contains instructions regarding courses of action for at least some of the errors occurring during the data migration operations, and

wherein the remote listener automatically references the errors with the data structure to determine whether a second report should be provided to the remote monitor without accessing the data being moved within the computer network,

if the second report is to be provided, the second report is communicated to an entity with access privileges.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the information monitored during the data migration operations comprises at least one of file type distribution, file size distribution, distribution of access time, distribution of modification time, distribution by owner, capacity of storage media, asset reporting by host, disk, or partition, and availability of resources, disks, hosts, and applications.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the storage manager monitors a capacity of the plurality of storage media and alerts the monitor agent when the level of available storage media is less than a selected level.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the first report comprises at least one of log files generated by a data migration software application, hardware configuration, software configuration, firmware configuration, operating system log files, crash dumps, and registries.