Patent attributes
Systems for distributed data storage. A method embodiment commences upon capturing a history of storage I/O activity over a recent time period. A predictive model is derived from the captured storage I/O activity, and the predictive model is then used for predicting future storage I/O activity. A set of snapshot planning parameters comprising objectives (e.g., to minimize costs or to maximize likelihood completing a snapshot activity by a prescribed time) and/or constraints (e.g., don't wait more than one day to start a snapshot) are applied to the predicted storage I/O characteristics to generate a set of feasible snapshot plans. One of the feasible snapshot plans is selected for scheduling so as to begin the planned snapshot activity at a prescribed time. The snapshot planning parameters are normalized based on the predicted storage I/O characteristics.