Commvault Assigned Twenty Two Patents

Dynamic triggering of block-level backups based on block change thresholds
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,489,249) developed by Bangalore, Prashanth Nagabhushana, Vullupala, Shankar Reddy, Marlboro, NJ, Bhavanam, Sravanthi, Holmdel, NJ, Pamarthi, Vinay K., Morganville, NJ, and Singireesu, Balaji Teja, Ocean, NJ, for “dynamic triggering of block-level backups based on block change thresholds and corresponding file identities using communication pathways between co-resident data agents.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A data storage management approach is disclosed that performs backup operations flexibly, based on a dynamic scheme of monitoring block changes occurring in production data. The illustrative system monitors block changes based on certain block-change thresholds and triggers block-level backups of the changed blocks when a threshold is passed. Block changes may be monitored in reference to particular files based on a reverse lookup mechanism. The illustrative system also collects and stores historical information on block changes, which may be used for reporting and predictive analysis.”

The patent application was filed on September 20, 2016 (15/270,909).

Replication using deduplicated secondary copy data
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,481,826) developed by Vijayan, Manoj Kumar, Marlboro, NJ, and Job, Joe Sabu Thyvelikkakakth, Hyderabad, India, for a “replication using deduplicated secondary copy data.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information management system according to certain aspects uses backup copies or other secondary copies of production data for the purposes of replicating production data to another client. The secondary copies can be deduplicated copies. By utilizing available secondary copies of the data for replication, the system can reduce the impact on the production machines associated with replication. Utilizing deduplicated copies not only reduces the amount of stored data, but also reduces the amount of data that is communicated between the source and the destination, increasing the speed of the replication process.”

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2016 (15/282,668).

Replication using deduplicated secondary copy data
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,481,825) developed by Vijayan, Manoj Kumar, Marlboro, NJ, and Job, Joe Sabu Thyvelikkakakth, Hyderabad, India, for a “replication using deduplicated secondary copy data.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2016 (15/282,553).

Replication using deduplicated secondary copy data
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,481,824) developed by Vijayan, Manoj Kumar, Marlboro, NJ, and Job, Joe Sabu Thyvelikkakakth, Telengana State, India, for a “replication using deduplicated secondary copy data.“

The patent application was filed on September 30, 2016 (15/282,445).

Accessing file system using tiered deduplication
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,474,638) developed by Mitkar, Amit, Manalapan, NJ, Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Morganville, NJ, and Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Marlboro, NJ, for “accessing a file system using tiered deduplication.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An illustrative pseudo-file-system driver uses deduplication functionality and resources in a storage management system to provide an application and/or a virtual machine with access to a locally-stored file system. From the perspective of the application/virtual machine, the file system appears to be of virtually unlimited capacity. The pseudo-file-system driver instantiates the file system in primary storage, e.g., configured on a local disk. The application/virtual machine requires no configured settings or limits for the file system’s storage capacity, and may thus treat the file system as “infinite.” The pseudo-file-system driver intercepts write requests and may use the deduplication infrastructure in the storage management system to offload excess data from local primary storage to deduplicated secondary storage, based on a deduplication database. The pseudo-file-system driver also intercepts read requests and in response may restore data from deduplicated secondary storage to primary storage, also based on the deduplication database.”

The patent application was filed on February 20, 2018 (15/899,699).

Heartbeat monitoring of virtual machines for initiating failover operations in data storage management
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,474,548) developed by Sanakkayala, Santhosh, Ocean, NJ, Joseph, Sarath Cheriyan, Eatontown, NJ, Venkatesha, Ananda, Manalapan, NJ, Polimera, Rajesh, Freehold, NJ, Pawar, Rahul S., Marlboro, NJ, and Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Eatontown, NJ, for a “heartbeat monitoring of virtual machines for initiating failover operations in a data storage management system, using ping monitoring of target virtual machines.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An illustrative ‘VM heartbeat monitoring network’ of heartbeat monitor nodes monitors target VMs in a data storage management system. Accordingly, target VMs are distributed and re-distributed among illustrative worker monitor nodes according to preferences in an illustrative VM distribution logic. Worker heartbeat monitor nodes use an illustrative ping monitoring logic to transmit special-purpose heartbeat packets to respective target VMs and to track ping responses. If a target VM is ultimately confirmed failed by its worker monitor node, an illustrative master monitor node triggers an enhanced storage manager to initiate failover for the failed VM. The enhanced storage manager communicates with the heartbeat monitor nodes and also manages VM failovers and other storage management operations in the system. Special features for cloud-to-cloud failover scenarios enable a VM in a first region of a public cloud to fail over to a second region.”

The patent application was filed on September 26, 2017 (15/716,386).

Time-based virtual machine reversion
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,474,542) developed by Mitkar, Amit, Manalapan, NJ, Erofeev, Andrei, Marlboro, NJ, Ausarkar, Amit Bhaskar, Ocean, NJ, and Nagrale, Ajay Venkat, Tinton Falls, NJ, for a “time-based virtual machine reversion.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Recovery points can be used for replicating a virtual machine and reverting the virtual machine to a different state. A filter driver can monitor and capture input/output commands between a virtual machine and a virtual machine disk. The captured input/output commands can be used to create a recovery point. The recovery point can be associated with a bitmap that may be used to identify data blocks that have been modified between two versions of the virtual machine. Using this bitmap, a virtual machine may be reverted or restored to a different state by replacing modified data blocks and without replacing the entire virtual machine disk.”

The patent application was filed on March 16, 2018 (15/924,004).

Opportunistic execution of secondary copy operations
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,474,538) developed by Ahn, Jun H., Manalapan, NJ, Ashraf, Waqas, Ocean, NJ, Kumar, Anup, Edison, NJ, and Vallabhaneni, Brahmaiah, Marlboro, NJ, for an “opportunistic execution of secondary copy operations.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Rather than relying on pre-defined scheduling of secondary copy operations such as backup jobs, the illustrative opportunistic approach initiates secondary copy operations based on changing operational conditions in a storage management system. An adaptive backup readiness score is based on a number of backup-readiness operational factors. An illustrative enhanced data agent which is associated with the target database application, (or other executable component) may monitor the operational factors and determine the backup readiness score based on weights assigned to the respective operational factors. The enhanced data agent may evaluate recent backup jobs to determine which of the operational factors that contributed to the backup readiness score may have been most relevant. Based on the most-relevant analysis, the enhanced data agent may adapt the weights assigned to the monitored operational factors, so that the backup readiness score may be more suitable and responsive to ongoing operational conditions in the system.”

The patent application was filed on March 30, 2017 (15/474,077).

Virtual server agent load balancing
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,474,483) developed by Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Pawar, Rahul S., Marlboro, NJ, Sancheti, Ashwin Gautamchand, Deshpande, Sumer Dilip, Ocean, NJ, Bhagi, Sri Karthik, Hyderabad, India, Dornemann, Henry Wallace, and Eatontown, NJ, Venkatesha, Ananda, Manalapan, NJ, for a “virtual server agent load balancing.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Virtual machine, (VM) proliferation may be reduced through the use of Virtual Server Agents, (VSAs) assigned to a group of VM hosts that may determine the availability of a VM to perform a task. Tasks may be assigned to existing VMs instead of creating a new VM to perform the task. Furthermore, a VSA coordinator may determine a grouping of VMs or VM hosts based on one or more factors associated with the VMs or the VM hosts, such as VM type or geographical location of the VM hosts. The VSA coordinator may also assign one or more VSAs to facilitate managing the group of VM hosts. In some embodiments, the VSA coordinators may facilitate load balancing of VSAs during operation, such as during a backup operation, a restore operation, or any other operation between a primary storage system and a secondary storage system.”

The patent application was filed on April 23, 2018 (15/960,401).

Using enhanced data agent to restore backed up data across autonomous storage management
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,474,388) developed by Nara, Prasad, Eatontown, NJ, and Klose, Michael Frank, San Jose, CA, for “using an enhanced data agent to restore backed up data across autonomous storage management system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An exemplary system preserves the autonomy of two or more distinct storage management systems all the while enabling backed up data to be restored from a first storage management system, (the ‘local system’) to a specially-configured client in a second storage management system, (the ‘remote system’). For example, backed up data in the local system, (e.g., a secondary copy of production data) may be transferred, in a restore operation, from secondary storage in the local storage management system, which originated the data, to a client of the remote storage management system, (the ‘remote client’). As a specially-configured ‘restore-only client,’ the remote client is limited to receiving backed up data from the local storage management system, via restore operation(s) managed by the local storage manager. The remote client remains a full-fledged client in its home system, the remote storage management system.”

The patent application was filed on February 22, 2018 (15/902,364).

Image level copy or restore, such as image level restore without knowledge of data object metadata
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,459,882) developed by Lad, Kamleshkumar K., Dublin, CA, for “image level copy or restore, such as image level restore without knowledge of data object metadata.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A system and method for performing an image level restore of data is described. In some examples, the system receives a request to restore a file and transmits the request to an intermediate component. The intermediate component may then retrieve a directory file from an image of a secondary copy of a data set, identify a location of the file from the directory file, and provide the location to the requestor.”

The patent application was filed on May 12, 2014 (14/275,578).

Dynamic triggering of block-level backups based on block change thresholds
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,459,801) developed by Bangalore, Prashanth Nagabhushana, Vullupala, Shankar Reddy, Marlboro, NJ, Bhavanam, Sravanthi, Holmdel, NJ, Pamarthi, Vinay K., Morganville, NJ, and Singireesu, Balaji Teja, Ocean, NJ, for “dynamic triggering of block-level backups based on block change thresholds and corresponding file identities using indexing in a data storage management system.“

The patent application was filed on September 20, 2016 (15/271,118).

Automatic identification of storage requirements
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,459,710) developed by Kripalani, Sanjay Harakhchand, Morganville, NJ, for an “automatic identification of storage requirements, such as for use in selling data storage management solutions.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods for demonstrating a replacement information management software for a computing system. The methods may include determining if existing information management software is installed in the computing system. The methods may include identifying computing devices of the computing system using information from the existing information management software. The methods may include simulating the replacement information management software with characteristics of the identified computing devices to enable a user to experience the replacement information management software prior to committing to installing the replacement information management software in the computing system. The methods may include automatically installing the replacement information management software. Other implementations are disclosed.”

The patent application was filed on September 1, 2017 (15/694,026).

Using storage managers in respective data storage management
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,459,666) developed by Kripalani, Sanjay Harakhchand, Morganville, NJ, Dwarampudi, Bheemesh R., Jackson, NJ, and Vallabhaneni, Brahmaiah, Marlboro, NJ, for “using storage managers in respective data storage management systems for license distribution, compliance, and updates.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Storage managers are used in data storage management systems for license distribution, compliance, and updates. A licensed quota is managed at an aggregate level applicable to a collective plurality of storage operation cells and not by licensing each individual storage operation cell. A multi-cell environment belonging to a given customer is licensed by using an enhanced storage manager in each cell. One storage manager is a ‘license server’ to the other storage managers or ‘child licensees.’ A licensor issues a global license to the customer’s designated license server, which distributes child licenses and manages other licensing aspects. Rather than licensing usage for individual storage operation cells, licensed usage is managed at an aggregate level using the license server and child licensees in a ‘self-service’ model.”

The patent application was filed on March 1, 2018 (15/909,774).

Data management and backup of distributed storage
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,452,490) developed by Pradhan, Manoj Kumar, Edison, NJ, Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Morganville, NJ, Zakharkin, Dmitriy Borisovich, Monmouth Junction, NJ, and Duraisamy, Arun Prabu, Hyderabad, India, for “data management and backup of distributed storage environment.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”In certain systems disclosed herein, a distributed data monitoring and management system is provided that can replicate a distributed storage environment. The distributed data monitoring and management system can intelligently and automatically configure data access nodes to form a structure that matches the distributed storage environment. By matching the structure of the distributed storage environment, the distributed structure of the data may be maintained, enabling the data to be backed up from and/or restored to the distributed storage environment and/or migrated to another distributed storage environment without altering the distribution of the data. Further, embodiments herein enable the transfer of data from a non-distributed environment to a distributed storage environment. Thus, in some cases, an entity can migrate data from a local storage structure to a network-based distributed storage structure.”

The patent application was filed on October 20, 2016 (15/299,120).

Live-mount of backed up virtual machine in storage management
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,452,303) developed by Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Eatontown, NJ, Pawar, Rahul S., Marlboro, NJ, Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Morganville, NJ, Kilaru, Satish Chandra, and Venkatesha, Ananda, Manalapan, NJ, for an “efficient live-mount of a backed up virtual machine in a storage management system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including any applications executing thereon, to quickly start executing and servicing users based on pre-staged data blocks supplied from a backup copy in secondary storage. An enhanced media agent may pre-stage certain backed up data blocks which may be needed to launch the virtual machine, based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine’s operational profile. The enhanced media agent may also pre-stage backed up data blocks for a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, based on the operation’s relocation scheme. Servicing read requests to the virtual machine may take priority over ongoing pre-staging of backed up data. Read requests may be tracked so that the media agent may properly maintain the contents of an associated read cache. Some embodiments of the illustrative storage management system may lack, or may simply not require, the relocation operation, and may operate in a ‘live mount’ configuration.”

The patent application was filed on March 5, 2018 (15/911,575).

Automatic file encryption
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,445,518) developed by Erofeev, Andrei, and Pawar, Rahul S., Marlboro, NJ, for an “automatic file encryption.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A method for automatically encrypting files is disclosed. In some cases, the method may be performed by computer hardware comprising one or more processors. The method can include detecting access to a first file, which may be stored in a primary storage system. Further, the method can include determining whether the access comprises a write access. In response to determining that the access comprises a write access, the method can include accessing file metadata associated with the first file and accessing a set of encryption rules. In addition, the method can include determining whether the file metadata satisfies the set of encryption rules. In response to determining that the file metadata satisfies the set of encryption rules, the method can include encrypting the first file to obtain a first encrypted file and modifying an extension of the first encrypted file to include an encryption extension.”

The patent application was filed on August 7, 2017 (15/670,848).

Managing deletions from deduplication database
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,445,293) developed by Attarde, Deepak Raghunath, and Vijayan, Manoj Kumar, Marlboro, NJ, for “managing deletions from a deduplication database.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”An information management system can manage the removal of data block entries in a deduplicated data store using working copies of the data block entries residing in a local data store of a secondary storage computing device. The system can use the working copies to identify data blocks for removal. Once the deduplication database is updated with the changes to the working copies, (e.g., using a transaction based update scheme), the system can query the deduplication database for the database entries identified for removal. Once identified, the system can remove the database entries identified for pruning and/or the corresponding deduplication data blocks from secondary storage.”

The patent application was filed on June 27, 2018 (16/020,900).

Dynamic management of expandable cache storage for multiple network shares
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,437,937) developed by Kilaru, Satish Chandra, Manalapan, NJ, Kottomtharayil, Rajiv, Marlboro, NJ, Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Morganville, NJ, and Katcher, William, Tinton Falls, NJ, for a “dynamic management of expandable cache storage for multiple network shares configured in a file server.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Expandable cache management dynamically manages cache storage for multiple network shares configured in a file server. Once a file is written to a directory or folder on a specially designated network share, such as one that is configured for ‘infinite backup,’ an intermediary pre-backup copy of the file is created in an expandable cache in the file server that hosts the network share. On write operations, cache storage space can be dynamically expanded or freed up by pruning previously backed up data. This advantageously creates flexible storage caches in the file server for each network share, each cache managed independently of other like caches for other network shares on the same file server. On read operations, intermediary file storage in the expandable cache gives client computing devices speedy access to data targeted for backup, which is generally quicker than restoring files from backed up secondary copies.”

The patent application was filed on May 22, 2017 (15/601,834).

Differential health checking of information management
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,437,801) developed by Kripalani, Sanjay Harakhchand, Morganville, NJ, and Gokhale, Parag, Marlboro, NJ, for a “differential health checking of an information management system.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Differential health-check systems and accompanying methods provide health-checking and reporting of one or more information management systems in reference to a first time period before and a second time period after a triggering event. A triggering event may be an upgrade of at least part of the information management system, or a restore operation completed in the information management system for example following a disaster, or any number of other events, etc. The health-checking and reporting may comprise a comparison of one or more performance metrics of one or more components and/or operations of the information management system during the first and second time periods.”

The patent application was filed on February 14, 2018 (15/897,017).

Restoring execution of backed up virtual machine
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,437,505) developed by Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Eatontown, NJ, Pawar, Rahul S., Marlboro, NJ, Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Morganville, NJ, Kilaru, Satish Chandra, and Venkatesha, Ananda, Manalapan, NJ, for an “efficiently restoring execution of a backed up virtual machine based on coordination with virtual-machine-file-relocation operations.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”Systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including applications executing thereon, to quickly start executing and servicing users based on pre-staged data blocks supplied from a backup copy in secondary storage. Substantially concurrently with the ongoing execution of the virtual machine, a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation moves data blocks from backup to a primary storage destination that becomes the virtual machine’s primary data store after relocation completes. An enhanced data agent, operating in conjunction with an enhanced media agent in a storage management system, coordinates restoring the virtual machine and launching the relocation operation. The enhanced media agent pre-stages certain backed up data blocks based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine’s operational profile. The enhanced media agent also pre-stages backed up data blocks for the relocation operation, based on the operation’s relocation scheme. The media agent tracks read requests and maintains the contents of an associated read cache.”

The patent application was filed on February 13, 2018 (15/895,226).

Consolidated processing of storage-array commands by snapshot-control media agent
Commvault Systems, Inc., Tinton Falls, NJ, has been assigned a patent (10,419,536) developed by Nallathambi, Vimal Kumar, Ocean Township, NJ, and Tambe, Unmil Vinay, Somerset, NJ, for a “consolidated processing of storage-array commands by a snapshot-control media agent.“

The abstract of the patent published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states: ”A ‘snapshot-control media agent’, (snap-MA) is configured on a secondary storage computing device that operates apart from client computing devices. A ‘forwarder’ media agent operates on each client computing device that uses a storage array, yet lacks command channels to the storage array. The forwarder media agent forwards commands directed at the storage array to the snap-MA, which receives and processes commands directed at the storage array that were forwarded by the forwarder media agents. Responses from the storage array are transmitted to the respective forwarder media agent. The snap-MA pools storage-array-command devices to avoid capacity limitations in regard to communications channels at the storage array. The snap-MA operating in conjunction with the forwarder media agents enable the illustrative system to consolidate the communication of storage-array commands away from client computing devices and/or proxy media agent hosts and into the secondary storage computing device that hosts the snap-MA.”

The patent application was filed on June 28, 2018 (16/022,401).