International Business Machines Corporation

Alan C Skinner

Ramani Ranjan Routray

Yang Song

Mu Qiao

Bernhard Julius Klingenberg

Stanley C Wood

James E Olson

A method and associated systems for identifying and correcting suboptimal storage-reclamation processes. A storage-management system uses information received in system-generated storage-reclamation reports to assign each user a set of reclamation scores. Each score identifies how effectively the user has been able to reclaim lost storage at particular times. These scores are organized into user-specific profiles that each consists of a chronological sequence of one user's scores. If a user's profile is 'good' (that is, if the user's scores are consistently high) or 'improving' (if scores are increasing over time), the system then determines whether that user's reclamation efforts have successfully reduced the amount of reclaimable storage controlled by the user. If not, the system infers that a suboptimal storage-reclamation process interfered with the user's reclamation efforts. The system then undertakes corrective action to identify and resolve the cause of the suboptimal process.

Identifying and correcting suboptimal storage-reclamation processes

A method for scheduling one or more backup jobs among backup clients with a common backup window. The method includes collecting and recording historical information pertaining to the backup clients with the common backup window. An application then estimates the number of open files during the common backup window based on the historical information and infers an impact of skipping a backup of the open files during the common backup window, where the impact is inferred from the historical information according to one or more predetermined criteria. The estimated number of open files and the inferred impact of skipping the backup of the estimated number of open files during the common backup window are then combined according to a predetermined cost function. The order of the backup jobs for the backup clients during the common backup window is then scheduled to reduce the predetermined cost function.

Intelligent data protection system scheduling of open files

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Portsmouth, United Kingdom

Alan C Skinner