Granted Patent B2

US 8,386,850 · App. 12/893,955 · Granted Feb 26, 2013

Abstract

Claims (52)

1. A computerized method for system monitoring comprising:

receiving, by a emulating computing device, backup set metadata, wherein the backup set metadata comprises information about backup data sets that are received by a backup storage system that stores the backup data sets; and

emulating, by the software monitor computing device, the manner in which the backup data sets flow through a processing flow path of the backup storage system comprising:

executing, by the emulating computing device, one or more processes that process the backup set metadata through an emulated processing flow path, wherein the emulated processing flow path is indicative of the manner in which the backup data sets flow through the processing flow path of the backup storage system when the backup storage system stores the backup data sets; and

calculating, by the emulating computing device, one or more timing statistics based on the flow of the backup set metadata through the emulated processing flow path.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining two or more potential processing states within the emulated processing flow path; and

calculating, for each backup set metadata entry of the backup set metadata that is indicative of a backup data set, a process flow timing statistic indicative of an amount of time the backup set metadata entry took to reach a processing state of the two or more potential processing states within the emulated processing flow path.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

storing, for the backup set metadata entry, data indicative of a time when the backup set metadata entry reached each processing state of the two or more potential processing states; and

calculating the timing statistic based on the stored data.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising calculating, for each backup set metadata entry from the backup set metadata, a process flow timing statistic for each processing state of the two or more potential processing states based on the stored data to generate historical data for the backup set metadata entry.

5. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

determining process flow timing statistics for a processing state of the two or more potential processing states are above a predetermined threshold;

identifying a software agent operating on the backup set metadata entries of the backup set metadata associated with the process flow timing statistics at the processing state; and

generating a fault with the software agent.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising calculating a performance timing statistic for the backup set metadata indicative of whether to process a backup data set through one or more steps of the processing flow path in the backup storage system.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising calculating the performance timing statistic based on how backup data sets are processed by the backup storage system.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising calculating the performance timing statistic based on size information in the backup set metadata, a count of the backup set metadata entries in the backup set metadata, and a performance metric associated with processing the backup set metadata through the one or more steps of the emulated processing flow path.

9. The method of claim 6 further comprising calculating a performance timing statistic indicative of a minimum required size for a backup data set to make processing the backup data set through a deduplication step of the processing flow path at least one of (i) computationally efficient or (ii) efficient to reduce a storage size of the backup data set by the backup storage system.

10. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

calculating a default performance timing statistic;

monitoring the flow of the backup set metadata through the emulated processing flow path using the default performance timing statistic; and

recalculating the default performance timing statistic based on the monitored flow of the backup set metadata.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising calculating the default performance timing statistic based on one or more user configured settings of the backup storage system.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising setting a default performance metric of the backup storage system based on the recalculated performance timing statistic.

13. An apparatus for system monitoring, the apparatus comprising a computing device with a processor and memory configured to:

receive backup set metadata, wherein the backup set metadata comprises information about backup data sets that are received by a backup storage system that stores the backup data sets; and

emulate the manner in which the backup data sets flow through a processing flow path of the backup storage system comprising:

execute one or more processes that process the backup set metadata through an emulated processing flow path, wherein the emulated processing flow path is indicative of the manner in which the backup data sets flow through the processing flow path of the backup storage system when the backup storage system stores the backup data sets; and

calculate one or more timing statistics based on the flow of the backup set metadata through the emulated processing flow path.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the computing device is further configured to:

determine two or more potential processing states within the emulated processing flow path; and

calculate, for each backup set metadata entry of the backup set metadata that is indicative of a backup data set, a process flow timing statistic indicative of an amount of time the backup set metadata entry took to reach a processing state of the two or more potential processing states within the emulated processing flow path.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the computing device is further configured to:

store, for the backup set metadata entry, data indicative of a time when the backup set metadata entry reached each processing state of the two or more potential processing states; and

calculate the timing statistic based on the stored data.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the computing device is further configured to:

determine process flow timing statistics for a processing state of the two or more potential processing states are above a predetermined threshold;

identify a software agent operating on the backup set metadata entries of the backup set metadata associated with the process flow timing statistics at the processing state to determine; and

generate a fault with the software agent.

17. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein the computing device is further configured to calculate a performance timing statistic for the backup set metadata indicative of whether to process a backup data set through one or more steps of the processing flow path in the backup storage system.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein the computing device is further configured to:

calculate a default performance timing statistic;

monitor the flow of the backup set metadata through the emulated processing flow path using the default performance timing statistic; and

recalculate the default performance timing statistic based on the monitored flow of the backup set metadata.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein a fault is indicative of a fault with a user configuration of a backup application.

20. A computer program product, tangibly embodied in a non-transitory computer readable medium, the computer program product including instructions being operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

receive backup set metadata, wherein the backup set metadata comprises information about backup data sets that are received by a backup storage system that stores the backup data sets; and

emulate the manner in which the backup data sets flow through a processing flow path of the backup storage system comprising:

execute one or more processes that process the backup set metadata through an emulated processing flow path, wherein the emulated processing flow path is indicative of the manner in which the backup data sets flow through the processing flow path of the backup storage system when the backup storage system stores the backup data sets; and

calculate one or more timing statistics based on the flow of the backup set metadata through the emulated processing flow path.

Assignments (6)