Enhanced backup job scheduling

1. A method of enhanced backup job scheduling, comprising in a computing device:

determining a number of jobs (n) in a backup set;

determining a number of tape drives (m) in the backup device;

determining a number of concurrent disk agents (maxDA) configured for each tape drive;

defining a scheduling problem based on n, m, and maxDA;

solving the scheduling problem using an integer programming (IP) formulation to derive a bin-packing schedule that minimizes makespan (S) for the backup set;

determining a width for the maxDA of jobs processed in parallel, the width within a capacity (maxTput) of the tape drive; and

starting backup processing.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising estimating a lower bound (Mlow) and an upper bound (Mup) of S.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein Mlow and Mup are based on:

D 1 defined as a duration of the longest backup job in the set,

D 2 defined as a shortest possible time to process the entire set at maxTput, and

D 3 defined as shortest possible time to process the entire set at maxDA.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein Mlow=[max(D 1 ,D 2 ,D 3 )].

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein Mup=[max(D 1 , D 2 , D 3 )/x], and a starting value for x is between about 0.85 and 0.95.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein S is greater than a longest backup job in the backup set.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein S is greater than a shortest possible time to process entire set.

8. A system for enhancing scheduling of backup jobs, comprising:

a solver stored on non-transitory computer-readable program code and executed by a processor to derive a bin-packing schedule based on a number of jobs (n) in a backup set, a number of tape drives (m) in the backup device, and a number of concurrent disk agents (maxDA) configured for each tape drive;

the solver further executed by the processor to determine a width for the maxDA of jobs processed in parallel, wherein the width is within a capacity (maxTput) of the tape drives; and

wherein the bin-packing schedule is derived by the solver by solving a scheduling problem with an integer programming (IP) formulation, the bin-packing schedule minimizing makespan (S) for the backup set.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising approximating a low bound on the makespan S.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the bin-packing schedule is tailored based on available historical information and workload profile.

11. The system of claim 8 , further comprising a scheduler configured to order the jobs in the backup set by assigning “start” timestamps based on the bin-packing schedule.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the bin-packing schedule is determined for a single tape drive configuration.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the bin-packing schedule is determined for a multiple tape drive configuration.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the tape drives are virtual storage locations.

15. The system of claim 8 , wherein the solver estimates a lower bound (Mlow) and an upper bound (Mup) of S.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein Mlow and Mup are based on:

D 1 defined as a duration of the longest backup job in the set,

D 2 defined as a shortest possible time to process the entire set at maxTput, and

D 3 defined as shortest possible time to process the entire set at maxDA.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein Mlow=[max(D 1 ,D 2 ,D 3 )].

18. The system of claim 8 , wherein Mup=[max(D 1 , D 2 , D 3 )/x], wherein a starting value for x is between about 0.85 and 0.95.

19. The system of claim 8 , wherein S is greater than a longest backup job in the backup set and S is greater than a shortest possible time to process entire set.