Method and system for transporting data content on a storage area network
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsBrian Thomas Berkowitz, Catharine van Ingen, Charles E. Park, Norbert Paul Kusters
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method of transporting volumes of information from one host computer system to another using point-in-time copies of LUNs but wherein the hardware provider does not necessarily understand the volume configuration of the data. The system and method involves an intermediate layer, i.e., a point-in-time copy interface layer that communicates with both a requesting host computer system and a hardware provider to enable the transfer of volumes of information without requiring that the hardware provider understand the volume information.
Claims32
In a distributed computer network, a method of transporting data from a sending host computer system to a receiving host computer system, the data being stored on a plurality of LUNs, the method comprising:
- creating a point-in copy of a volume, the volume having the data to be transported;
- generating a backup components document, wherein the document includes location information related to the data to be transported;
- importing the backup components document to the receiving host computer system;
- and
- accessing transported data using information in the backup components document.
A method as defined in claim 14 wherein the backup component document comprises an XML document.
A system for transporting data across a system area network, the system comprising:
- a storage subsystem module that stores data for at least one host computer system, the data stored in one or more LUNs;
- a requestor module for requesting the transportation of data stored in the storage subsystem, the transportation involving the transfer of information from a first host computer system to a second host computer system, the requesting module requesting the transportation of volume of information stored on a portion of one or more LUNs;
- a point-in-time copy interface module for receiving the request and generating an instruction to create a point-in-time copy, wherein the instruction comprises identification information related to LUNs having portions of the volume to be copied;
- and
- a provider module for receiving the instruction to create a point-in-time copy of the LUNs and for creating the point-in-time copy of those LUNs, the provider providing mapping information to the point-in-time copy interface relating to location information for the point-in-time copy.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.