Aperiodic snapshot creation recommendation engine
AssigneeDell Products L.P.
InventorRamesh Doddaiah
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An aperiodic snapshot recommendation engine running in a storage system aperiodically generates hints that a new snapshot should be created. The hints are sent to host servers to prompt snapshot generation commands to be sent to the storage system. The hints may be generated based on current storage system workload conditions using a model of a snapshot scheduler running on a host server for which the storage system maintains data. The model may be created using a machine learning technique. For example, machine learning may be used to model the host's snapshot scheduler in terms of storage system workload conditions existing when the snapshot scheduler commands generation of new snapshots during a training phase.
Claims17
An apparatus comprising:
- a storage system comprising at least one computing node that manages access to a plurality of non-volatile drives, the storage system comprising a snapshot recommendation engine that aperiodically generates a message indicating that a new snapshot should be created, the message being sent to a host server that comprises a periodic snapshot scheduler, wherein the snapshot recommendation engine generates a model of the periodic snapshot scheduler using features associated with storage system workload, thereby prompting the host server to aperiodically send a command to the storage system to cause a new snapshot to be created.
A method comprising:
- using a storage system comprising at least one computing node that manages access to a plurality of non-volatile drives and a host server comprising a periodic snapshot scheduler:
- using a snapshot recommendation engine generating a model of the periodic snapshot scheduler using features associated with storage system workload;
- using the model to determine that a new snapshot should be created aperiodically;
- aperiodically generating a message indicating that the new snapshot should be created;
- sending the message to the host server, thereby prompting the host server to send a command to the storage system to cause the new snapshot to be created;
- and
- responsive to the command, aperiodically creating the new snapshot.
A computer program product on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising:
- instructions that generate a model of a periodic snapshot scheduler of a host server using features associated with storage system workload, wherein the model determines when a new snapshot should be created aperiodically;
- instructions that aperiodically generate a message indicating that the new snapshot should be created, the message being sent to the host server, thereby prompting the host server to return a command to cause the new snapshot to be created;
- and
- instructions responsive to the command to aperiodically create the new snapshot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.