Patents by Inventor Duncan Alden LITTLEFIELD
Duncan Alden LITTLEFIELD has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Publication number: 20240118978Abstract: The present inventors devised techniques and technologies that streamline the protection of data stored on shared file storage e.g., on file servers, network-attached storage (NAS), share drives, network shares, etc., in a data storage management system. Some embodiments feature a proxy-less backup configuration in which backup services hosts are assigned to perform a secondary copy job, at job runtime, based on host attributes relative to the data source. Some embodiments are configured to, at job runtime, automatically resolve data paths to the source data, and automatically mount the data paths, rather than requiring data paths to be expressly pre-administered on all possible candidate backup machines. Some embodiments automatically protect data from shared file storage that was not expressly given a backup plan (“undefined” data) by applying default preferences for protecting undefined data.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 14, 2023Publication date: April 11, 2024Applicant: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Duncan Alden LITTLEFIELD, Suhas T. LANDE
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Patent number: 11921591Abstract: An illustrative media agent (MA) in a data storage management system instructs a NAS file server (filer) to restore an MA-created synthesized-copy instead of larger filer-created backup copies. The synthesized-copy is designed only for the particular files to be restored and mimics, and is typically much smaller than, a filer-created backup copy. The synthesized-copy is fed to the filer on restore as a “restore data image.” When receiving a restore request for certain backed-up data files, the MA synthesizes the synthesized-copy on the fly. The MA generates a header mimicking a filer-created backup header; extracts files from filer-created backup copies arranging them within the synthesized-copy as if in filer-created backups; and instructs filer to perform a full-volume restore from the synthesized-copy. The MA serves the synthesized-copy piecemeal as available, rather than waiting to synthesize the entire synthesized-copy. The synthesized-copy is not stored at the MA.Type: GrantFiled: February 16, 2022Date of Patent: March 5, 2024Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Sowdambiga Karthikeyan, Duncan Alden Littlefield
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Patent number: 11886303Abstract: The present inventors devised techniques and technologies that streamline the protection of data stored on shared file storage e.g., on file servers, network-attached storage (NAS), share drives, network shares, etc., in a data storage management system. Some embodiments feature a proxy-less backup configuration in which backup services hosts are assigned to perform a secondary copy job, at job runtime, based on host attributes relative to the data source. Some embodiments are configured to, at job runtime, automatically resolve data paths to the source data, and automatically mount the data paths, rather than requiring data paths to be expressly pre-administered on all possible candidate backup machines. Some embodiments automatically protect data from shared file storage that was not expressly given a backup plan (“undefined” data) by applying default preferences for protecting undefined data.Type: GrantFiled: March 30, 2022Date of Patent: January 30, 2024Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Suhas T. Lande
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Publication number: 20230289266Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein relate to an improved synthetic full backup image generation system. In some embodiments, one or more components in an information management system can identify a file-server-created backup copy in a particular backup format of a plurality of backup formats, determine structure information associated with the particular backup format, and generate a synthetic full backup copy according to the structure information, where the synthetic full backup copy is also in the particular backup format identical to that of the file-server-created backup copy.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 18, 2023Publication date: September 14, 2023Inventors: Duncan Alden LITTLEFIELD, Sowdambiga KARTHIKEYAN
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Publication number: 20230259297Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein relate to an improved selective data backup system. In some embodiments, one or more components in an information management system can determine that a portion of the primary data scheduled for backup was previously backed up or is scheduled to be backed up as part of another backup operation. For example, a data agent performing a cluster-level backup operation for an entire cluster of storage servers may check whether any part of the primary data was previously backed up by a prior server-level backup operation for one of the storage servers in the cluster. If so, the data agent may skip, in the cluster-level backup operation, any portion of the primary data stored in the storage server previously backed up as part of the prior server-level backup operation.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 24, 2023Publication date: August 17, 2023Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Rajiv Kottomtharayil, Kuldeep Kumar, Sri Karthik Bhagi, Jun H. Ahn, Parag Gokhale
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Patent number: 11693744Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein relate to an improved synthetic full backup image generation system. In some embodiments, one or more components in an information management system can identify a file-server-created backup copy in a particular backup format of a plurality of backup formats, determine structure information associated with the particular backup format, and generate a synthetic full backup copy according to the structure information, where the synthetic full backup copy is also in the particular backup format identical to that of the file-server-created backup copy.Type: GrantFiled: May 10, 2019Date of Patent: July 4, 2023Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Sowdambiga Karthikeyan
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Patent number: 11669261Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein relate to an improved selective data backup system. In some embodiments, one or more components in an information management system can determine that a portion of the primary data scheduled for backup was previously backed up or is scheduled to be backed up as part of another backup operation. For example, a data agent performing a cluster-level backup operation for an entire cluster of storage servers may check whether any part of the primary data was previously backed up by a prior server-level backup operation for one of the storage servers in the cluster. If so, the data agent may skip, in the cluster-level backup operation, any portion of the primary data stored in the storage server previously backed up as part of the prior server-level backup operation.Type: GrantFiled: August 23, 2021Date of Patent: June 6, 2023Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Rajiv Kottomtharayil, Kuldeep Kumar, Sri Karthik Bhagi, Jun H. Ahn, Parag Gokhale
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Patent number: 11640338Abstract: The systems and methods herein permit storage systems to correctly perform data recovery, such as direct access recovery, of Network Data Management Protocol (“NDMP”) backup data that was modified prior to being stored in secondary storage media, such as tape. The systems and methods permit NDMP backup data to be encrypted, compressed, deduplicated, and/or otherwise modified prior to storage. The systems and methods herein also permit a user to perform a precautionary snapshot of the current state of data (e.g., primary data) prior to reverting data to a previous state using point-in-time data.Type: GrantFiled: March 10, 2021Date of Patent: May 2, 2023Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Vimal Kumar Nallathambi, Girish Chanchlani
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Patent number: 11550680Abstract: An illustrative data storage management system is aware that certain data storage resources for storing/serving primary data operate in a partnered configuration. Illustrative components of the data storage management system analyze the failover status of the partnered primary data storage resources to determine which is currently serving/storing primary data and/or snapshots targeted for backup. When detecting that a first partnered primary data storage resource has failed over to a second primary data storage resource, the example storage manager changes the assignment of backup resources that are pre-administered for the targeted data. Accordingly, the example storage manager assigns backup resources, including at least one media agent, that are associated with the second primary data storage resource, and which are “closer” thereto from a geography and/or network topology perspective, even if the pre-administered backup resources are available for backup.Type: GrantFiled: October 26, 2021Date of Patent: January 10, 2023Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Pawan Natwarlal Rathi, Duncan Alden Littlefield, Manoj Kumar Vijayan
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Patent number: 11470152Abstract: Multiple substantially concurrent data streams with NDMP protocol improve robustness, performance, and granularity of backup and restore operations from/to a filer. NDMP data streams are initially allocated based on inventorying the root level of each filer volume. A best effort to balance the multiple NDMP data streams allocates them based on data amounts used in each volume. Orphaned files are also collected and backed up. Subsequent full backup jobs leverage a proprietary index generated in preceding full backup jobs to obtain better performance and to better balance the NDMP data streams by creating substantially co-equal groupings of source data. The index comprises granular information which is not available from querying the filer. The size of each individual backup copy from a preceding full backup job and/or the size of subtending subdirectories or individual backed up files therein is used by later backup jobs to fine tune NDMP data stream allocation.Type: GrantFiled: March 29, 2021Date of Patent: October 11, 2022Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Sowdambiga Karthikeyan, Chiranjeevi Marella
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Publication number: 20220229736Abstract: An illustrative media agent (MA) in a data storage management system instructs a NAS file server (filer) to restore an MA-created synthesized-copy instead of larger filer-created backup copies. The synthesized-copy is designed only for the particular files to be restored and mimics, and is typically much smaller than, a filer-created backup copy. The synthesized-copy is fed to the filer on restore as a “restore data image.” When receiving a restore request for certain backed-up data files, the MA synthesizes the synthesized-copy on the fly. The MA generates a header mimicking a filer-created backup header; extracts files from filer-created backup copies arranging them within the synthesized-copy as if in filer-created backups; and instructs filer to perform a full-volume restore from the synthesized-copy. The MA serves the synthesized-copy piecemeal as available, rather than waiting to synthesize the entire synthesized-copy. The synthesized-copy is not stored at the MA.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 16, 2022Publication date: July 21, 2022Inventors: Sowdambiga KARTHIKEYAN, Duncan Alden LITTLEFIELD
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Publication number: 20220222151Abstract: The present inventors devised techniques and technologies that streamline the protection of data stored on shared file storage e.g., on file servers, network-attached storage (NAS), share drives, network shares, etc., in a data storage management system. Some embodiments feature a proxy-less backup configuration in which backup services hosts are assigned to perform a secondary copy job, at job runtime, based on host attributes relative to the data source. Some embodiments are configured to, at job runtime, automatically resolve data paths to the source data, and automatically mount the data paths, rather than requiring data paths to be expressly pre-administered on all possible candidate backup machines. Some embodiments automatically protect data from shared file storage that was not expressly given a backup plan (“undefined” data) by applying default preferences for protecting undefined data.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 30, 2022Publication date: July 14, 2022Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Suhas T. Lande
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Patent number: 11321184Abstract: The present inventors devised techniques and technologies that streamline the protection of data stored on shared file storage e.g., on file servers, network-attached storage (NAS), share drives, network shares, etc., in a data storage management system. Some embodiments feature a proxy-less backup configuration in which backup services hosts are assigned to perform a secondary copy job, at job runtime, based on host attributes relative to the data source. Some embodiments are configured to, at job runtime, automatically resolve data paths to the source data, and automatically mount the data paths, rather than requiring data paths to be expressly pre-administered on all possible candidate backup machines. Some embodiments automatically protect data from shared file storage that was not expressly given a backup plan (“undefined” data) by applying default preferences for protecting undefined data.Type: GrantFiled: April 5, 2019Date of Patent: May 3, 2022Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Suhas T. Lande
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Publication number: 20220113873Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein relate to an improved selective data backup system. In some embodiments, one or more components in an information management system can determine that a portion of the primary data scheduled for backup was previously backed up or is scheduled to be backed up as part of another backup operation. For example, a data agent performing a cluster-level backup operation for an entire cluster of storage servers may check whether any part of the primary data was previously backed up by a prior server-level backup operation for one of the storage servers in the cluster. If so, the data agent may skip, in the cluster-level backup operation, any portion of the primary data stored in the storage server previously backed up as part of the prior server-level backup operation.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 23, 2021Publication date: April 14, 2022Inventors: Duncan Alden LITTLEFIELD, Rajiv KOTTOMTHARAYIL, Kuldeep KUMAR, Sri Karthik BHAGI, Jun H. AHN, Parag GOKHALE
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Patent number: 11288135Abstract: An illustrative media agent (MA) in a data storage management system instructs a NAS file server (filer) to restore an MA-created synthesized-copy instead of larger filer-created backup copies. The synthesized-copy is designed only for the particular files to be restored and mimics, and is typically much smaller than, a filer-created backup copy. The synthesized-copy is fed to the filer on restore as a “restore data image.” When receiving a restore request for certain backed-up data files, the MA synthesizes the synthesized-copy on the fly. The MA generates a header mimicking a filer-created backup header; extracts files from filer-created backup copies arranging them within the synthesized-copy as if in filer-created backups; and instructs filer to perform a full-volume restore from the synthesized-copy. The MA serves the synthesized-copy piecemeal as available, rather than waiting to synthesize the entire synthesized-copy. The synthesized-copy is not stored at the MA.Type: GrantFiled: March 10, 2020Date of Patent: March 29, 2022Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Sowdambiga Karthikeyan, Duncan Alden Littlefield
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Publication number: 20220091742Abstract: An information management system implements a media agent that communicates with a network area storage (NAS) device to receive secondary copy data that has been backed-up by the NAS. The secondary copy data may include primary data managed or maintained by the NAS. The secondary copy data may be in a proprietary format or other data format specific to the NAS. The NAS may prepare metadata or other information about the secondary copy data that informs the media agent as to the contents of the secondary copy data. The media agent may segment the secondary copy data into one or more backup chunks for storing in a secondary storage device. In addition, each of the backup chunks may be associated with backup chunk metadata, where the backup chunk metadata includes information that describes certain information stored by a corresponding backup chunk.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 18, 2020Publication date: March 24, 2022Inventors: Duncan Alden LITTLEFIELD, Shali Sidharthan ARAKKAL, Mounika BANGARU, Ravinder Reddy NANNURI, Chiranjeevi MARELLA, Satya Narayan MOHANTY, Suhas T. LANDE, Hetalkumar N. JOSHI
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Publication number: 20220043727Abstract: An illustrative data storage management system is aware that certain data storage resources for storing/serving primary data operate in a partnered configuration. Illustrative components of the data storage management system analyze the failover status of the partnered primary data storage resources to determine which is currently serving/storing primary data and/or snapshots targeted for backup. When detecting that a first partnered primary data storage resource has failed over to a second primary data storage resource, the example storage manager changes the assignment of backup resources that are pre-administered for the targeted data. Accordingly, the example storage manager assigns backup resources, including at least one media agent, that are associated with the second primary data storage resource, and which are “closer” thereto from a geography and/or network topology perspective, even if the pre-administered backup resources are available for backup.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 26, 2021Publication date: February 10, 2022Inventors: Pawan Natwarlal Rathi, Duncan Alden Littlefield, Manoj Kumar Vijayan
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Patent number: 11238173Abstract: A data storage management system comprises enhanced capabilities for automatically discovering operational characteristics of data storage devices installed in the system. A user interface enables end-users to submit requests for storage resources ranging from a simple request for a certain amount of storage space to more complex requests that specify the type of storage technology, the manufacturer, the I/O speed of the storage device, etc. The end-user also may include an expiration timeframe for the requested storage space. The system identifies storage devices that are suitable to the end-user's request, automatically provisions the storage space (e.g., LUN), and assigns it to the requestor. The assigned storage space may automatically expire, based on user-requested or system-provided expiration timeframes. Expired storage space is returned to a logical pool of available resources so that it may be assigned in response to other requests.Type: GrantFiled: December 6, 2018Date of Patent: February 1, 2022Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Sudha Krishnan Iyer, Duncan Alden Littlefield
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Patent number: 11200124Abstract: An illustrative data storage management system is aware that certain data storage resources for storing/serving primary data operate in a partnered configuration. Illustrative components of the data storage management system analyze the failover status of the partnered primary data storage resources to determine which is currently serving/storing primary data and/or snapshots targeted for backup. When detecting that a first partnered primary data storage resource has failed over to a second primary data storage resource, the example storage manager changes the assignment of backup resources that are pre-administered for the targeted data. Accordingly, the example storage manager assigns backup resources, including at least one media agent, that are associated with the second primary data storage resource, and which are “closer” thereto from a geography and/or network topology perspective, even if the pre-administered backup resources are available for backup.Type: GrantFiled: December 6, 2018Date of Patent: December 14, 2021Assignee: Commvault Systems, Inc.Inventors: Pawan Natwarlal Rathi, Duncan Alden Littlefield, Manoj Kumar Vijayan
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Patent number: 11126365Abstract: Certain embodiments described herein relate to an improved selective data backup system. In some embodiments, one or more components in an information management system can determine that a portion of the primary data scheduled for backup was previously backed up or is scheduled to be backed up as part of another backup operation. For example, a data agent performing a cluster-level backup operation for an entire cluster of storage servers may check whether any part of the primary data was previously backed up by a prior server-level backup operation for one of the storage servers in the cluster. If so, the data agent may skip, in the cluster-level backup operation, any portion of the primary data stored in the storage server previously backed up as part of the prior server-level backup operation.Type: GrantFiled: March 11, 2019Date of Patent: September 21, 2021Assignee: COMMVAULT SYSTEMS, INC.Inventors: Duncan Alden Littlefield, Rajiv Kottomtharayil, Kuldeep Kumar, Sri Karthik Bhagi, Jun H. Ahn, Parag Gokhale