BACKGROUND

Businesses worldwide recognize the commercial value of their data and seek reliable, cost-effective ways to protect the information stored on their computer networks while minimizing impact on productivity. Protecting information is often part of a routine process that is performed within an organization. A company might back up critical computing systems such as databases, file servers, web servers, and so on as part of a daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance schedule. The company may similarly protect computing systems used by each of its employees, such as those used by an accounting department, marketing department, engineering department, and so forth.

Given the rapidly expanding volume of data under management, companies also continue to seek innovative techniques for managing data growth, in addition to protecting data. For instance, companies often implement migration techniques for moving data to lower cost storage over time and data reduction techniques for reducing redundant data, pruning lower priority data, etc. Enterprises also increasingly view their stored data as a valuable asset. Along these lines, customers are looking for solutions that not only protect and manage, but also leverage their data. For instance, solutions providing data analysis capabilities, information management, improved data presentation and access features, and the like, are in increasing demand.

SUMMARY

Protecting data, even in a properly designed information management system, is challenging when the key storage manager component becomes unavailable, whether due to poor connectivity or because of a catastrophic failure at the storage manager. In such a scenario, the management database comprising system-level information upon which the storage manager relies to manage the information management system, is also unavailable. For example, unreliable and/or intermittent connections between a storage manager and certain other components (e.g., client and media agent) may disrupt the ability of an information management system to protect data, e.g., to timely generate and properly store secondary copies of production data. Furthermore, large sprawling information management systems comprising scores of dispersed clients and associated media agents tend to burden a storage manager's processing capacity when it must retry and/or resend to overcome unreliable infrastructure and spotty connectivity. To properly protect data under such conditions, the present inventor devised systems and methods for pro-actively protecting information while the client and associated media agent are disconnected from (or otherwise out of communication with) the storage manager. For example, in case the storage manager is not reachable, backups for certain clients and subclients may continue and complete and even new backups may kick off without any connectivity to the storage manager at all.

Accordingly, an illustrative media agent performs substantially autonomously to protect primary data (or other data) so that the results may be seamlessly integrated by the storage manager into its management information infrastructure. The media agent enjoys substantial autonomy, when the media agent and the client are out of communication with the storage manager, to initiate information management operations (e.g., a backup job of a certain client's primary data), continue ongoing operations that were initiated by the storage manager, manage the operations, and generate and store resultant system-level metadata from the operations, etc. Because the media agent generates “system-level” metadata and reports it to the storage manager, the information management operations that occurred absent the storage manager may be seamlessly integrated, e.g., into the management database associated with the storage manager. For example, job completion/failure statistics, which are generally tracked by the storage manager, may now include these new media-agent-managed operations. Unlike prior art solutions that rely on redundant componentry (e.g., a standby storage manager) or redundant connectivity (e.g., alternate routing), the illustrative solution efficiently leverages the installed media agent component. Also, unlike prior art solutions where restore operations or disaster recovery may be possible without involving the storage manager, the illustrative solutions are directed at pro-actively protecting data in the first place, i.e., initiating, continuing, and managing information management jobs such as backups, including key features such as content indexing, encryption, compression, deduplication, etc. Accordingly, the illustrative information management system is more robust and better able to protect portions of primary data (or other data) in whole or in part even under relatively adverse conditions.

The illustrative media agent, comprising specialized executable logic, comprises management parameters, which may be received from the storage manager. The management parameters may include, for example, information management policies, e.g., storage policies, that govern the media agent's autonomous information management operations. For example, in the case of a storage policy governing backup for one or more subclients, the illustrative media agent generates and stores secondary copies of the client's production data, and also generates metadata to be transmitted to, and integrated by, the storage manager (e.g., metadata identifying the client/subclient and the primary data that was protected by the backup job). Secondary copies of non-primary data also may be generated, e.g., auxiliary copies, tertiary copies, etc., as specified in the management parameters. When communications are restored, the media agent reports the relevant metadata to the storage manager. The storage manager comprises corresponding enhancements, including specialized logic for identifying the media agent as an intelligent media agent capable of some autonomous functionality, for transmitting management parameters thereto, and for seamlessly integrating the received metadata into the storage manager's associated management infrastructure such as a management database.

