Redundant distributed data storage system

Abstract

An improved information management system is provided herein for managing secondary storage computing devices when one or more become unavailable. For example, a first secondary storage computing device in a pool of secondary storage computing devices can run a storage manager virtual machine (VM) that manages secondary copy and restore operations. A second secondary storage computing device in the pool can run a virtualization engine that manages the storage manager VM. The virtualization engine can replicate the storage manager VM data to other secondary storage computing devices in the pool. If the first secondary storage computing devices becomes unavailable, the second secondary storage computing device can instruct a third secondary storage computing device in the pool to launch a replicated storage manager VM using the replicated storage manager VM data stored therein. Thus, the third secondary storage computing device can act as the now unavailable first secondary storage computing device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A networked information management system configured to automatically re-configure data storage computers due to hardware failures, the networked information management system comprising:
 a first data storage computer comprising a first drive of a first type and a first drive of a second type, wherein a storage manager virtual machine (VM) runs in the first drive of the first type, wherein storage manager VM data is stored in the first drive of the first type, and wherein first data managed by the first data storage computer is stored in the first drive of the second type;   a second data storage computer comprising a second drive of the first type and a second drive of the second type, wherein first replicated storage manager VM data is stored in the second drive of the first type, and wherein second data managed by the second data storage computer is stored in the second drive of the second type; and   a third data storage computer comprising a third drive of the first type and a third drive of the second type, wherein a virtualization engine runs in the third drive of the first type, wherein second replicated storage manager VM data is stored in the third drive of the first type, wherein third data managed by the third data storage computer is stored in the third drive of the second type, and wherein the third data storage computer is configured to:
 detect that the first data storage computer is unavailable, 
 instruct the second data storage computer to launch a replicated storage manager VM using the first replicated storage manager VM data, and 
 process a message received from the second data storage computer indicating that the storage manager VM is now running on the second data storage computer instead of the first data storage computer.