Commvault Systems, Inc.
ACCESS ARBITRATION TO A SHARED CACHE STORAGE AREA IN A DATA STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR LIVE BROWSE, FILE INDEXING, BACKUP AND/OR RESTORE OPERATIONS

Abstract:

A cache storage area stores key data blocks, usually metadata, used in live browse, file indexing, and/or file restore operations, which can avoid retrieving data on demand from backup copies. An illustrative shared data storage resource hosts the cache storage area, which is subdivided into virtual disk-specific caches, each one accompanied by a respective cache-specific index. A media agent acting as cache arbitrator manages access to the various caches. The cache arbitrator grants to other media agents in the system temporary ownership of particular caches, thereby facilitating parallel usage among the caches by different media agents. By enabling parallelism and a shared cache storage environment, these embodiments improve overall operational performance and add resiliency to the system as a whole. The cache arbitrator media agent is specially appointed to the role by a storage manager that generally manages storage operations throughout the illustrative data storage management system.