U.S. patent application number 13/481671 was filed with the patent office on 2012-09-20 for backup and restoration of computer information.
This patent application is currently assigned to STORAGECRAFT TECHNOLOGY CORP.. Invention is credited to Scott Barnes, Nathan S. Bushman.
Application Number | 20120239624 13/481671 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44532175 |
Filed Date | 2012-09-20 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120239624 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Barnes; Scott ; et
al. |
September 20, 2012 |
BACKUP AND RESTORATION OF COMPUTER INFORMATION
Abstract
Backup and restoration of computer information. In one example
embodiment, a method includes modifying a volume boot record of a
restore volume to a first state in which at least a portion of the
restore volume becomes inaccessible to a standard file system,
writing restore data to the inaccessible portion of the restore
volume while the volume boot record is in the first state, and
restoring the volume boot record to a second state in which the
inaccessible portion of the restore volume becomes accessible to
the standard file system.
Inventors: |
Barnes; Scott; (Draper,
UT) ; Bushman; Nathan S.; (Pleasant Grove,
UT) |
Assignee: |
STORAGECRAFT TECHNOLOGY
CORP.
DRAPER
UT
|
Family ID: |
44532175 |
Appl. No.: |
13/481671 |
Filed: |
May 25, 2012 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
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12716043 |
Mar 2, 2010 |
8190574 |
|
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13481671 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
707/645 ;
707/E17.007 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0632 20130101;
G06F 11/1466 20130101; G06F 11/1464 20130101; G06F 11/1004
20130101; G06F 16/119 20190101; G06F 3/0617 20130101; G06F 11/1451
20130101; G06F 3/067 20130101; G06F 3/065 20130101; G06F 11/1469
20130101; G06F 3/0644 20130101; G06F 2201/84 20130101; G06F 3/0619
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
707/645 ;
707/E17.007 |
International
Class: |
G06F 17/30 20060101
G06F017/30 |
Claims
1. A method, comprising: modifying a volume boot record of a
restore volume to a first state in which at least a portion of the
restore volume becomes inaccessible to a standard file system;
writing restore data to the inaccessible portion of the restore
volume while the volume boot record is in the first state; and
restoring the volume boot record to a second state in which the
inaccessible portion of the restore volume becomes accessible to
the standard file system.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: creating the restore
data to include: a base backup file representing a full backup of a
source volume; and at least one incremental backup file; wherein at
least a portion of the at least one incremental backup file is
created after the writing the restore data to the inaccessible
portion of the restore volume.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the modifying the volume boot
record of the restore volume to the first state comprises inserting
a restore structure in at least a portion of the volume boot
record, wherein the restore structure is used by a restore process
and causes the restore volume to become inaccessible to the
standard file system.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein the inserting the restore
structure comprises modifying a signature portion of the volume
boot record.
5. The method of claim 3, wherein the inserting the restore
structure comprises modifying the volume boot record to represent a
file structure with a capacity less than an actual capacity of the
restore volume.
6. The method of claim 3, further comprising: including data
indicating a restore state of the restore process in the restore
structure; and periodically updating the restore state to indicate
a current restore state.
7. The method of claim 3, wherein the writing restore data to the
inaccessible portion of the restore volume while the volume boot
record is in the first state comprises writing restore data to at
least one sector of the restore volume using block accesses while
the restore volume is inaccessible to the standard file system.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the restoring the volume boot
record to the second state comprises restoring at least a portion
of the volume boot record to a state indicating that the restore
volume is valid using the block accesses.
9. The method of claim 8, wherein the using the block accesses
comprises using private block accesses, public block accesses, or
some combination thereof.
10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: preventing the
inaccessible portion of the restore volume from undesired changes
by supplying a block device filter to prevent public block accesses
to the restore volume and allow private block accesses to the
restore volume; and writing restore data to at least one sector of
the restore volume using the private block accesses while the
public block accesses are being prevented.
11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including
computer-executable instructions, which when executed on one or
more computers, cause the one or more computers to: modify a volume
boot record of a restore volume to a first state in which at least
a portion of the restore volume becomes inaccessible to a standard
file system; write restore data to the inaccessible portion of the
restore volume while the volume boot record is in the first state;
and restore the volume boot record to a second state in which the
inaccessible portion of the restore volume becomes accessible to
the standard file system.
12. A method of backing up and restoring computer information,
comprising: at a first computing system: creating a backup set of
files by: creating a base backup file representing a full backup of
a source volume by copying sectors of the source volume to the base
backup file; and creating one or more incremental backup files
including a final incremental backup file, each incremental backup
file created by copying modified sectors of the source volume that
have changed state since a preceding backup, the preceding backup
being the full backup or a preceding incremental backup; at a
second computing system using a block access process for: modifying
a volume boot record of a restore volume to prevent a standard file
system from recognizing the restore volume as having a valid file
system; copying a portion of the backup set of files to the restore
volume after the modifying the volume boot record and before
finalizing the creation of the final incremental backup file;
copying the final incremental backup file to the restore volume
after all other backup files of the backup set of files have been
copied to the restore volume; and finalizing the restore volume by
restoring the volume boot record to a state indicating that the
restore volume has a valid file system.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the finalizing the creation of
the final incremental backup is performed after the base backup
file of the backup set up files has been the copied to the restore
volume.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the finalizing the creation of
the final incremental backup is performed after all other backup
files of the backup set up files have been the copied to the
restore volume.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the modifying the volume boot
record of the restore volume comprises zeroing a portion of a
sector 0.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein the modifying the volume boot
record of the restore volume further comprises including metadata
indicating a restore state of the method of backing up and
restoring computer information.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising communicating the
backup set of files from the first computing system to the second
computing system.
18. The method of claim 12, wherein a private block access process
is performed on the restore volume while the standard file system
is operating on other volumes not including the restore volume.
19. The method of claim 12, wherein the first computing system and
the second computing system are the same system.
20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium including
computer-executable instructions, which when executed on one or
more computers, cause the one or more computers to: at a first
computing system: creating a backup set of files by: creating a
base backup file representing a full backup of a source volume by
copying sectors of the source volume to the base backup file; and
creating one or more incremental backup files including a final
incremental backup file, each incremental backup file created by
copying modified sectors of the source volume that have changed
state since a preceding backup, the preceding backup being the full
backup or a preceding incremental backup; at a second computing
system using a block access process for: modifying a volume boot
record of a restore volume to prevent a standard file system from
recognizing the restore volume as having a valid file system;
copying a portion of the backup set of files to the restore volume
after the modifying the volume boot record and before finalizing
the creation of the final incremental backup file; copying the
final incremental backup file to the restore volume after all other
backup files of the backup set of files have been copied to the
restore volume; and finalizing the restore volume by restoring the
volume boot record to a state indicating that the restore volume
has a valid file system.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 12/716,043, filed Mar. 2, 2010, titled SYSTEMS, METHODS,
AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIA FOR BACKUP AND RESTORATION OF COMPUTER
INFORMATION, issuing on May 29, 2012 as U.S. Pat. No. 8,190,574,
which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The present invention relates to developing, maintaining,
and restoring backups of computer information.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Computers and computer networks face a myriad of threats to
the information they contain and to their smooth and continuous
operation. Backup systems and methods have been proposed for
maintaining snapshots of information on a computer or a computer
system at any given time. With a backup, if the computer system
experiences some type of corruption of its stored information the
state of the computer can be restored to the point in time when the
backup was made.
[0004] Computer systems typically maintain sets of files that are
stored on various forms of computer media. The locations of the
blocks of data, on the media that contain the files' data, are
stored in special data structures called file system metadata (or
simply metadata) and these metadata, combined with the files' own
data, are collectively called a file system. The blocks of data for
an entire file system are often contained within a logical
construct called a volume, which is a collection of media blocks
that may span across one or more media devices. Formatting a volume
is a process of writing file system metadata structures to blocks
on the underlying volume. File systems generally contain a
recognizable portion called a signature within their metadata that
makes them recognizable, as a file system, to an operating system.
When the operating system recognizes a file system on a volume, the
operating system may mount the volume to expose the volume's file
contents, for use by the system's users and applications. If the
operating system cannot recognize the file system on a volume then
it will typically indicate that the volume is unformatted,
unrecognized, or a combination thereof. When a volume is
unrecognized by the operating system, its contents generally cannot
be altered by the user (unless they format the volume, rendering it
recognizable), or by typical applications.
[0005] To protect computer data, various techniques have been
developed to backup that data. One common backup technique involves
the creation of backup copies of files on a per-file basis. This
technique is often simply called file backup. Many backup
procedures use the file system as a starting point and perform the
backup by writing the files to a backup storage system. Using this
approach, individual files are backed up if they have been modified
since the previous backup. This file system backup procedure may be
useful for finding and restoring a few lost or corrupted files, but
it may include significant overhead in the form of bandwidth and
logical overhead to store information about where each file exists
within the file system. In addition, complete reconstruction of a
storage volume may be difficult using incremental file backups
because files that have been deleted may be put back on the volume
based on the contents of the incremental backups.
[0006] Another technique ignores the individual files and instead
backs up the blocks of data of the media on which the file system
resides. This technique is often called disk image backup (or image
backup, or block backup) because the backup file itself generally
contains or represents an image, or copy, of the entire contents of
the volume (computer users often loosely call their volumes "Disks"
despite the fact that an actual physical media disk may contain
more than one volume, which is often the case when a hard disk
drive contains multiple partitions, each partition hosting a
volume) which may be backed up. In fact, with the disk image backup
technique, the backup itself is generally called a backup image (or
simply image). Because it backs up the blocks on the media
underlying the file system, the disk image backup technique backs
up both the files' data and the file system metadata. File backup
does not generally backup the file system metadata. Because the
disk image backup technique backs up media blocks rather than
files, this technique does not necessarily need to be aware of the
file system structures or the files contained in the file system.
However, in practice, many disk image backup systems may utilize
minimal knowledge of the file system in order to only backup blocks
of data that are actually in use on the media, ignoring unused
blocks.
[0007] A disk image backup can be relatively fast because the file
structure does not need to be examined. Conversely, because there
is no coordination with the file system, no file changes can be
made during the backup copy. In addition, retrieving files from the
backup copy may be difficult or impossible without restoring the
entire volume. Finally, while the data transfer may be fast with
block copies, every block with valid data must be copied, resulting
in a relatively long process for large volumes (e.g., perhaps even
days).
[0008] If a computer or server crashes or fails, or the software
becomes corrupted, it may become necessary to restore the state of
the server to some previously backed-up state. Additionally, if a
user desires to migrate or upgrade from one server to another
server, the new server must be brought up to the same state with
the same information as the server to be replaced. Conventionally,
the restore process consists of three steps: (1) the machine is
usually physically shut down; (2) a backup of the latest data is
created; and (3) the data is copied from the backup storage to the
storage of the new server (e.g., a disk drive used by the server).
During this operation, a dedicated boot procedure can be used (for
example, boot from a floppy disk); and (4) the new server is
started.
[0009] Between the shutdown and start time, neither server performs
any useful functions. Also, the process of restoring all the files
of the server is time consuming. In corporate networks, a typical
server can have many Terabytes of data. With current data transfer
rates over networks and from disks, restoring this much data may
take hours, or even days.
[0010] Also, even an hour of downtime may be considered an
extremely long time, particularly for many mission-critical
applications. For example, if the server in question is a web
server that handles customer requests or sales, a period of 16-20
minutes of downtime can result in substantial lost sales.
[0011] Systems and methods are needed for an effective backup
strategy that is flexible in maintaining multiple, accurate backup
states, and reducing a downtime when both a backup computer and a
restore computer are not operational.
BRIEF SUMMARY
[0012] In general, embodiments of the present invention relate to
backup and restoration of computer information. At least some
example embodiments provide an effective backup and restore
strategy that is flexible in maintaining multiple backup states and
can perform a restore process while the backup process is underway
and reduce a downtime when both a backup computer and a restore
computer are not operational.
[0013] In one example embodiment, a method includes modifying a
volume boot record of a restore volume to a first state in which at
least a portion of the restore volume becomes inaccessible to a
standard file system, writing restore data to the inaccessible
portion of the restore volume while the volume boot record is in
the first state, and restoring the volume boot record to a second
state in which the inaccessible portion of the restore volume
becomes accessible to the standard file system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] In the drawings:
[0015] FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified example of a computing
system for practicing embodiments of the present invention;
[0016] FIG. 2 illustrates segmenting of a target volume and
incremental backups of portions of the target volume;
[0017] FIG. 3 is a simplified flow diagram illustrating backup
procedures for creating synthetic base backups of a target
volume;
[0018] FIG. 4 is a simplified flow diagram illustrating backup
procedures for creating synthetic incremental backups of a target
volume;
[0019] FIG. 5 is a simplified flow diagram illustrating backup
procedures for creating synthetic incremental backups and synthetic
base backups of a target volume;
[0020] FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram of a file control stack
for an operating system;
[0021] FIG. 7 is a simplified diagram of a disk and control
structures thereon;
[0022] FIG. 8 is a simplified diagram of a restore volume with an
invalidated volume boot record;
[0023] FIG. 9 is a simplified diagram of a restore volume defined
with a small file structure thereon;
[0024] FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a software stack
for accessing block media according to embodiments of the present
invention;
[0025] FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a backup and
restore system;
[0026] FIG. 12 is simplified flow diagram of a backup and restore
process; and
[0027] FIG. 13 is a simplified block diagram of a virtual machine
using virtual disks.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0028] In the following description, elements, circuits, and
functions may be shown in block diagram form in order not to
obscure the present invention in unnecessary detail. Conversely,
specific implementations shown and described are exemplary only and
should not be construed as the only way to implement the present
invention unless specified otherwise herein. Additionally, block
definitions and partitioning of logic between various blocks is
exemplary of a specific implementation. It will be readily apparent
to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may
be practiced by numerous other partitioning solutions. For the most
part, details concerning timing considerations, and the like, have
been omitted where such details are not necessary to obtain a
complete understanding of the present invention and are within the
abilities of persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art.
[0029] Furthermore, in this description of embodiments of the
invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which
form a part hereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration,
specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. The
embodiments are intended to describe aspects of the invention in
sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice
the invention. Other embodiments may be utilized and changes may be
made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The
following detailed description is not to be taken in a limiting
sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by
the appended claims.
[0030] Those of skill in the art would understand that information
and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different
technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions,
commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may
be referenced throughout the above description may be represented
by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or
particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.
Some drawings may illustrate signals as a single signal for clarity
of presentation and description. It will be understood by a person
of ordinary skill in the art that the signal may represent a bus of
signals, wherein the bus may have a variety of bit widths and the
present invention may be implemented on any number of data signals
including a single data signal.
[0031] Those of skill would further appreciate that the various
illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm acts
described in connection with embodiments disclosed herein may be
implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or
combinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability
of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks,
modules, circuits, and steps are described generally in terms of
their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as
hardware or software depends upon the particular application and
design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans
may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each
particular application, but such implementation decisions should
not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the
embodiments of the invention described herein.
[0032] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and
circuits described in connection with the embodiments disclosed
herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose
processor, a special purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processor
(DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field
Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device,
discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or
any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described
herein. A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in
the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor,
controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also
be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a
combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of
microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a
DSP core, or any other such configuration.
[0033] Also, it is noted that the embodiments may be described in
terms of a process that is depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram,
a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may
describe operational acts as a sequential process, many of these
acts can be performed in another sequence, in parallel, or
substantially concurrently. In addition, the order of the acts may
be re-arranged. A process may correspond to a method, a function, a
procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. Furthermore, the
methods disclosed herein may be implemented in hardware, software,
or both. If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or
transmitted as one or more instructions or code on a
computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both
computer storage media and communication media including any medium
that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to
another.
[0034] It should be understood that any reference to an element
herein using a designation such as "first," "second," and so forth
does not limit the quantity or order of those elements, unless such
limitation is explicitly stated. Rather, these designations may be
used herein as a convenient method of distinguishing between two or
more elements or instances of an element. Thus, a reference to
first and second elements does not mean that only two elements may
be employed there or that the first element must precede the second
element in some manner. Also, unless stated otherwise a set of
elements may comprise one or more elements.
[0035] Embodiments of the present invention include methods,
computing systems, and computer-readable media, for providing an
effective backup and restore strategy that is flexible in
maintaining multiple backup states and can perform a restore
process while the backup process is underway and reduce a downtime
when both a backup computer and a restore computer are not
operational.
[0036] The term "boot record" as used herein means metadata on a
storage medium that makes the storage medium recognizable to an
operating system as a storage medium that contains a file structure
accessible by file system software. If the boot record contains
valid information about the file structure, then an operating
system can recognize and expose the file structure. This exposure
of the file structure contained on a volume's storage medium is
called "mounting," and it is this mounting process that enables
users and applications to utilize the files stored on the storage
medium using file system software. Thus, as a non-limiting example,
a Volume Boot Record (VBR) is a boot record on a volume that makes
the volume recognizable by an operating system as containing a file
structure.
[0037] The term "private block access" as used herein means
accessing block storage medium through a private Input/Output (IO)
interface configured for block accesses that is available to
embodiments of the present invention, but is not generally
available to applications or general operating system processes.
Similarly, a private block access process is a process that uses
one or more private block accesses to perform IO operations to the
block storage medium.
[0038] The term "public block access" as used herein means
accessing block storage medium through an IO interface configured
for direct block access to the block storage medium that is exposed
to applications and operating system processes.
[0039] The term "block access" as used herein means a private block
access or a public block access.
[0040] The term "file access" as used herein means accessing block
storage medium through a file system that translates a file access
request from applications or general operating system processes to
one or more public block accesses.
[0041] Embodiments of the present invention deal with disk image
backup techniques. Therefore, unless specified otherwise,
references to backup imply backup using a disk image backup
technique.
[0042] One challenge faced by backup systems is the need to be able
to capture the state of the data for all of the blocks on a volume
at a given moment, without locking or interrupting access to the
volume by applications and users, despite the fact that the volume
may be in use and changes may be in the process of being written to
the volume. Techniques to expose such a volume state (often called
a snapshot state or simply a snapshot), without affecting the
usability of the volume itself, may be referred to as volume
snapshot or volume shadow copy techniques. Both of these backup
techniques often leverage snapshot technology in order to backup
data on in-use volumes without interrupting users and
applications.
[0043] Another challenge faced by backup systems is the need to
make periodic backups in order to capture any changes since prior
backups. The first time a volume is backed up, the resulting backup
is typically a file called a full backup image, which contains all
(or all in-use) blocks on the volume at the time the backup was
created. When the next backup of the volume occurs, only the blocks
of data on the volume that have changed since the prior backup need
to be saved. Such a backup is typically called an incremental
backup and results in a file called an incremental backup image,
which contains just those blocks that have changed since the prior
backup. A first incremental backup, combined with the prior full
backup, contain all of the data for the blocks on the volume at the
time that the first incremental was created. The first incremental
file is therefore only useful if the full image file is also
available. In other words, the first incremental file is dependent
upon the full image file. Subsequent backups may also be
incremental backups, each containing just the data for the blocks
that were changed since the prior backup, and each subsequent
incremental image file is dependent upon the incremental image file
for the prior backup. A full image file, and all of the incremental
image files which depend upon it, can be called a "backup image
file chain" (or simply a "chain"). Each image file in the chain,
combined with the image files upon which it depends, represents the
state of the backed up volume's data at a specific point-in-time,
and therefore sometimes each image file in the chain is called a
"point-in-time" or a "recovery point." Mechanisms may be used to
enable backup systems to actively track the blocks which change
between backups, such that the creation of incremental backups does
not require a time-consuming comparison of the current state of the
volume with a prior state, but rather a list of the changed blocks
is available and is used to determine which blocks are to be saved
in the incremental image file. This list makes it possible for such
periodic incremental backups to be efficient with both time, and
storage space.
[0044] With contemporary image backup systems, when restoring a
backup image file, that image file, and all of the image files upon
which it depends, must be utilized (read from) in order to restore
the target volume to a state where it contains the same set of
blocks as were contained by the source volume at the time the
backup was created. In scenarios where the backup contains many
billions or even trillions of bytes of data, restoring all of that
data to the target volume can take an inordinate amount of time,
potentially many days.
[0045] If the source volume of a backup image chain contains a
recognized file system, then typically when a point-in-time in an
image chain is restored to a target volume, the operating system
will recognize the data on the target volume as being a recognized
file system, and will mount that file system. The mounting is the
exposure of the file system's file contents for use by applications
and users. When the operating system mounts a file system, the
process of mounting alone can results in changes being written to
the volume, such as writes to various logs and file system
journaling structures on the volume. Also, once mounted by the
operating system, the volume's contents can be easily altered by
users and applications. When any such writes occur, the state of
the target volume's data no longer exactly reflects the state of
the point-in-time data that was restored to the target volume. If
the image chain, which was utilized for the restore, contained
points-in-time that are chronologically younger or newer than the
point-in-time which was actually restored, then it is not typically
possible to subsequently restore a younger point-in-time in the
same chain to the same target restore volume, after it has been
mounted by the operating system and altered by writes, without
losing the data for those writes which occurred after the mount. In
other words, when a point-in-time has been restored to a target
volume and the target volume has been mounted by the operating
system, typically it is not possible to then restore additional
points-in-time from the same chain to that restore target volume
without the risk of losing data.
[0046] If a volume fails, ideally the data for that volume's
backup's most-recent point-in-time is made available with minimal
downtime between the volume failure and the exposure of the last
point-in-time's data for use by users and applications. Because new
point-in-time backups are generally being created for the source
volume up until the time that the source volume becomes unavailable
(due to failure, etc.), to restore the latest point-in-time backup
conventional image backup systems cannot even begin their restore
operation until the source volume has actually become unavailable,
at which point they can choose the most-recent point-in-time as
only then is it determined to actually be the most-recent
point-in-time. Conventional image backup systems are not able to
restore, in advance, some of the points-in-time, while the source
volume may still be available, and then later as a separate restore
operation (perhaps separated in time by a system reboot).
Subsequent points-in-time in the same chain cannot be restored
without risking corruption in between such operations due to the
exposure, by the operating system, of the volume's file system
content.
[0047] This limitation has made it difficult to preemptively
prepare a standby restore volume with the contents of the last
point-in-time that was backed up from the source volume prior to
the source volume becoming inaccessible (due to failure or other
events).
[0048] When a mission-critical computer system has failed, the
costs of downtime while a restore is being performed with
conventional backup systems to a replacement system can be immense.
Even one hour of lost sales due to a failed web server can result
in substantial losses. With terabytes of data, the downtime can
extend to days.
[0049] FIG. 1 illustrates a computing system 100 for practicing
embodiments of the present invention. The computing system 100 may
be a user-type computer, a file server, a compute server, or other
similar computer including data storage capability. Computer,
computing system, and server are used interchangeably herein to
indicate a system for practicing embodiments of the present
invention. The computing system 100 is configured for executing
software programs containing computing instructions and includes
one or more processors 110, memory 120, one or more communication
elements 150, operational storage 130, and backup storage 140.
[0050] The one or more processors 110 may be configured for
executing a wide variety of operating systems and applications
including the computing instructions for carrying out embodiments
of the present invention.
[0051] The memory 120 may be used to hold computing instructions,
data, and other information for performing a wide variety of tasks
including performing embodiments of the present invention. By way
of example and not limitation, the memory may include Synchronous
Random Access Memory (SRAM), Dynamic RAM (DRAM), Read-Only Memory
(ROM), Flash memory, and the like.
[0052] The communication elements 150 may be configured for
communicating with other devices or communication networks. By way
of example, and not limitation, the communication elements 150 may
include elements for communicating on wired and wireless
communication media, such as, for example, serial ports, parallel
ports, Ethernet connections, universal serial bus (USB)
connections, IEEE 1394 ("firewire") connections, BLUETOOTH.RTM.
wireless connections, 802.1 a/b/g/n type wireless connections, and
other suitable communication interfaces and protocols.
[0053] The operational storage 130 and backup storage 140 may be
used for storing large amounts of non-volatile information for use
in the computing system 100. The operational storage 130 and backup
storage 140 may be configured as one or more storage devices. By
way of example and not limitation, these storage devices may
include computer-readable media (CRM). This CRM may include, but is
not limited to, magnetic and optical storage devices such as disk
drives, magnetic tapes, CDs (compact disks), DVDs (digital
versatile discs or digital video discs), and other equivalent
storage devices. Furthermore, the storage devices may include
Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAIDS) storage systems.
[0054] While illustrated as two discrete blocks in FIG. 1, those of
ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the operational
storage 130 and backup storage 140 may actually be resident on the
same mass storage device such that a portion of the mass storage
device contains operational information for storing software and
data used by the computing system 100 and a portion of the mass
storage device includes backup information. Furthermore, the
operational storage 130 may span multiple devices and the backup
storage 140 may span multiple devices.
[0055] Software processes illustrated herein are intended to
illustrate representative processes that may be performed by the
systems illustrated herein. Unless specified otherwise, the order
in which the process acts are described is not intended to be
construed as a limitation, and acts described as occurring
sequentially may occur in a different sequence, or in one or more
parallel process streams. It will be appreciated by those of
ordinary skill in the art that many steps and processes may occur
in addition to those outlined in the flow charts. Furthermore, the
processes may be implemented in any suitable hardware, software,
firmware, or combinations thereof.
[0056] When executed as firmware or software, the instructions for
performing the processes may be stored on a computer-readable
medium. A computer-readable medium includes, but is not limited to,
magnetic and optical storage devices such as disk drives, magnetic
tape, CDs (compact disks), DVDs (digital versatile discs or digital
video discs), and semiconductor devices such as RAM, DRAM, ROM,
EPROM, and Flash memory.
[0057] By way of non-limiting example, computing instructions for
performing the processes may be stored on the operational storage
130, transferred to the memory 120 for execution, and executed by
the processor 110. The processor 110, when executing computing
instructions configured for performing the processes, constitutes
structure for performing the processes. In addition, some or all
portions of the processes may be performed by hardware specifically
configured for carrying out the processes.
[0058] While some of the discussion herein may be directed toward
MICROSOFT.RTM. operating systems such as WINDOWS NT.RTM. and
WINDOWS XP.RTM., the present invention is not so limited and is
applicable to many operating systems. In addition, the discussion
may relate to managing file and directory structures on storage
volumes. Generally, file movements are referred to as read accesses
and write accesses. It will be understood by those of ordinary
skill in the art that other file accesses are possible within the
scope of the invention, such as, for example, changing dates on a
file, changing privileges on a file, and changing other file status
indicators. Furthermore, the discussion generally refers to files.
However, unless specified otherwise, references to files may
include files, directories, and other similar data structures
associated with mass storage devices. A volume may include a
variety of mass storage devices, such as, by way of example and not
limitation, hard disk drives, flash drives, floppy disks, digital
cameras, music players, and similar devices.
[0059] FIG. 2 illustrates partitioning of a target volume 160 and a
shadowed incremental backup 170 of portions of the target volume
160. In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the target volume 160 is
partitioned as a physical (i.e., sector) layout of the disk or
volume with sectors 160-1 through 160-n. The shaded sectors
illustrate sectors that include information stored thereon at a
given point in time. The shadowed incremental backup 170 is a
storage area that tracks (i.e., shadows) and includes changes in
the information stored on the target volume 160 after the given
point in time. Thus, at time t0, the target volume 160 includes
data at sectors 160-1, 160-3 through 160-6, and 160-n-2. Also at
time t0, the shadowed incremental backup 170 does not include any
information.
[0060] As time progresses after time t0, changes may occur to
specific sectors on the target volume 160. With incremental
sector-type backup systems, when information within a sector is
modified, the incremental backup 170 is written to include the same
information as a corresponding sector on the target volume 160. As
an example, if information within a file at sector 160-4 is
modified, the incremental backup process creates a copy 162 of the
entire sector as structure 170-4 on the incremental backup 170
including the change to the information within the file in
question. If additional changes are made to information within
sector 160-4, the same changes are made to structure 170-4 on the
incremental backup 170.
[0061] As another example, perhaps a new file is created and placed
in sector 160-n-2. The incremental backup process will copy 166 the
contents of the 160-n-2 sector to structure 170-n-2 of the
incremental backup 170. Any subsequent changes to information in
sector 160-n-2 will also be made to structure 170-n-2 of the
incremental backup 170.
[0062] As another example, perhaps information is added to
previously empty segment 160-7 on the target volume 160. The
incremental backup process will add 164 the same information to
structure 170-7 of the incremental backup 170. Any subsequent
changes to information in sector 160-7 will also be made to
structure 170-7 of the incremental backup 170.
[0063] For ease of discussion, the incremental backup 170 is
illustrated as structures (e.g., 170-4, 170-7, 170-n-2) of the
incremental backup 170 corresponding to the sectors (e.g., 160-4,
160-7, 160-n-2) of the target volume 160. However, while the
structures of the incremental backup 170 will have the same data
size as the sectors of the target volume 160, the structures do not
need to be configured on sector boundaries, be contiguous, or be in
the same relative location as the target volume 160. Thus, a
structure, such as, for example, structure 170-4 may include
information at various locations within the incremental backup 170
and may be stored at any location within the incremental backup
170. In other words, FIG. 2 illustrates a physical arrangement of
the target volume 160, but only a logical arrangement of the
incremental backup 170.
[0064] With this sector backup process, sectors may contain a
variety of information, such as, for example, files, portions of
files, and metadata such as directory structures and file pointers.
In addition, it does not matter how many times information in a
sector changes, only the last result at the time that an
incremental backup is created and is stored. Thus, if incremental
backups use a shadowing process, the shadow copy keeps a coherent
image of the changes that are made to the volume as the changes are
made. Then, to create an incremental backup, a time point is
defined. The shadow copy is saved as the incremental backup at that
time point and a new shadow copy is created showing no changes, but
ready to be modified with changes that occur after the time
point.
[0065] FIG. 3 is a flow diagram 200 illustrating backup procedures
for creating synthetic base backups of a target volume. First, a
base image 210 is created at time t0. This base image is a backup
of the entire volume. As stated earlier, a base image 210 may be
very large depending on the size of the volume being backed up and
the amount of information on the volume at the time the base image
210 is made. As a result, a base image may take a relatively long
time to create and consume considerable storage space.
[0066] After the base image 210 has been created, incremental
images may be created. As shown in FIG. 2, an incremental image
includes changes to a volume that occur after a specific point in
time. Thus, incremental backup 1 includes all sectors that have
changes after time t0 and up to the time t1 of incremental backup
1.
[0067] Similarly, incremental backup 2 includes all changes made to
sectors of the volume after the point in time that incremental
backup 1 was created and up to the time t2 of incremental backup 2.
The process of creating incremental backups may be repeated
indefinitely, up to incremental backup N.
[0068] FIG. 3 illustrates additional incremental backups 3, 4, 5,
and up to N in a backup procedure 200. These incremental backups
are sector based. As a result, to restore any given file, or the
entire volume, a restoration process must take into account the
most recent incremental backup, the base image 210, and all
intervening incremental backups. Of course, a sector may have
changed for each incremental backup. Thus, only the most recent
backup includes the most recent information for that sector. For
example, to get a true picture of the volume at time t4, the
restoration process would take into account: the base image 210;
changes made between time t1 and t0 and reflected in incremental
backup 1; changes made between time t2 and t1 and reflected in
incremental backup 2; changes made between time t2 and t3 and
reflected in incremental backup 3; and changes made between time t4
and t3 and reflected in incremental backup 4.
[0069] Consequently, one of the problems with creating long backup
chains is that the base image 210 must be combined with a large
number of intervening incremental backups to get a true picture of
the volume. As a non-limiting example, suppose a base-image is
created on a first day. Then each subsequent day, two incremental
backups are made at different times. After a couple of weeks, there
would be 28 or more incremental backups that would need to be
combined with the base image 210 to create a full picture of the
target volume after those 14 days.
[0070] On the other hand, because of the large size of a base image
and the relatively long time to create a base image, creating base
images more often also may be difficult. In addition, for security
and redundancy reasons, many organizations maintain a copy of
backups at remote sites. With remote site storage, the target
volume can still be recovered if the base image or the incremental
backup images are removed from the local site. For example, backup
information at local sites may be removed periodically to allow for
more storage space at the local site. In addition, a hardware or
software failure may corrupt data on the local volume or otherwise
prevent access to the local data. In these cases, the backup
information can be retrieved from the remote site to restore the
state of the local volume.
[0071] Thus, a balance must be struck between the time, storage,
and communication issues associated with a base image relative to
the processing time associated with long incremental backup
chains.
[0072] Embodiments of the present invention can reduce the length
of the incremental backup chain by creating synthetic base images.
As a non-limiting example, in FIG. 3 synthetic base image 3 may be
created by combining all the information from base image 210,
incremental backup 1, incremental backup 2, and incremental backup
3. Thus, synthetic base image 3 becomes a complete base image at
time t3. Now, to get a true picture of the volume at time t4, the
restoration process could use synthetic base image 3 as a starting
point rather than the base image 210. As a result, a true picture
of the target volume at time t4 may be obtained by combining
synthetic base image 3, with the changes made between time t4 and
t3 that are reflected in incremental backup 4.
[0073] Similar to synthetic base image 3, synthetic base image 5
may be created by combining the base image 210 with all of the
incremental backups 1-5. As a result, synthetic base image 5
represents a base image (e.g., a full backup) at time t5. While not
illustrated in FIG. 3, those of ordinary skill in the art will
recognize that synthetic base image 5 also may be created by
combining the information from synthetic base image 3 with
incremental backup 4 and incremental backup 5. In the end,
synthetic base image 5 should contain the same information through
either combination process.
[0074] FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating backup procedures 220
for creating synthetic incremental backups (also referred to as
differential backups) of a target volume. Another way to reduce the
length of chains of incremental backups is to create synthetic
incremental backups at intermediate stages in the chain. As with
FIG. 3, FIG. 4 includes base image 210, incremental backups 1-6,
and up to incremental backup N at times t0 through tN. In a manner
similar to the process for creating a synthetic base image, a
synthetic incremental backup may be created by combining one or
more contiguous incremental backups.
[0075] As a non-limiting example, synthetic incremental backup 1-3
may be created by reflecting all the changes made between
incremental backup 1 and incremental backup 3. Thus, incremental
backup 1, incremental backup 2, and incremental backup 3 are
combined to create synthetic incremental backup 1-3. Similarly,
synthetic incremental backup 4-5 may be created by combining the
information from incremental backup 4 and incremental backup 5.
[0076] Many combinations are possible for creating synthetic
incremental backups. Furthermore, synthetic incremental backups may
be used to create other synthetic incremental backups. As
non-limiting examples, synthetic incremental backup 1-5 may be
created by combining the information from synthetic incremental
backup 1-3 and synthetic incremental backup 4-5.
[0077] As additional non-limiting examples, synthetic incremental
backups may be combined with individual incremental backups. In
FIG. 4, synthetic incremental backup 4-6 may be created by
combining the information from synthetic incremental backup 4-5 and
incremental backup 6. Thus, synthetic incremental backup 4-6
includes all the information on changes made to the volume between
times t4 and t6. Similarly, synthetic incremental backup 1-6 may be
created by combining the information from synthetic incremental
backup 1-5 and incremental backup 6.
[0078] With synthetic incremental backups created, the backup and
restoration process may be configured to delete intermediate
incremental backups or may keep the intermediate incremental
backups. For example, with synthetic incremental backup 1-3
created, incremental backups 1 through 3 could be deleted. However,
if they are deleted, some time granularity may be lost. In other
words, if information is to be restored, information could be
obtained at time t3 or at time t0, but information at times t1 and
t2 is no longer available.
[0079] On the other hand, if the original incremental backups are
retained along with the synthetic incremental backups, full time
granularity can be maintained, and the incremental chain used to
restore information at a point in time can also be reduced.
[0080] As a non-limiting example, if information is to be restored
for time t6, a number of optional chains are available based on the
synthetic incremental backups created in FIG. 4. One chain could be
using base image 210 in combination with incremental backups 1-6.
Another chain could use base image 210 in combination with
synthetic incremental backup 1-3 and incremental backups 4-6.
Another chain could use base image 210 and the combination of
synthetic incremental backup 1-3, synthetic incremental backup 4-5,
and incremental backup 6. Still another chain could use base image
210 in combination with synthetic incremental backup 1-5 and
incremental backups 6. Those of ordinary skill in the art will
recognize that many other combinations of incremental backups and
synthetic incremental backups may be used.
[0081] FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating backup procedures 240
for creating synthetic incremental backups and synthetic base
backups of a target volume. The process of creating synthetic
incremental backups may be combined with the process to create
synthetic base images to reduce processing time and allow for more
granularity in accessing base images. As with FIGS. 3 and 4, FIG. 5
includes base image 210, incremental backups 1-6, and up to
incremental backup N at time t0 through tN. As explained earlier,
synthetic incremental backups 1-3 and 4-5 may be created. As a
non-limiting example, synthetic base image 3 may be created by
combining the information from base image 210 and synthetic
incremental backup 1-3. As another non-limiting example, synthetic
base image 5A may be created by combining the information from base
image 210, synthetic incremental backup 1-3, incremental backup 4,
and incremental backup 5. As another option for a base image at
time t5, synthetic base image 5B may be created by combining
information from synthetic base image 3 and synthetic incremental
backup 4-5. Those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that
many other combinations of incremental backups, synthetic
incremental backups, and synthetic base images may be used.
[0082] FIG. 6 is a simplified block diagram of a file control stack
for an operating system. Software organization of a computing
system is generally divided between a user mode 300 and a kernel
mode 350. The user mode 300 includes many operating system 310 (OS)
functions and user applications 320 configured for operation with
the operating system 310. The OS 310 may include operating system
processes 312 and Application Program Interfaces (APIs) 314 for
providing a general interface between user applications 320 and
lower level kernel software modules.
[0083] The kernel mode 350 includes lower level operating system
functions, such as a computing file system 360, logical volume
control 370 and device drivers for the various hardware devices in
a system. The operating system 310 and user applications 320 may
make file Input/Output (I/O) requests in the form of read accesses
and write accesses (also referred to as access requests) to the
computing file system 360.
[0084] The computing file system 360 passes these access requests
on to the logical volume control 370 to determine what disk(s) 380,
and what sector(s) on the disk(s) 380 should be accessed to perform
the access request. Local disk requests are made to a port module
385 that converts the disk request into the necessary hardware
controls to retrieve or store the desired data. Of course, as
stated earlier, a disk 380 may include multiple logical volumes on
different partitions of the disk.
[0085] The disks 380 may be a variety of devices, such as magnetic
disks, optical disks, solid state disks, Universal Serial Bus (USB)
drives, and the like.
[0086] FIG. 7 is a simplified diagram of an example of one type of
disk 380 and control structures thereon. The disk 380 includes a
master boot record 410 and one or more partitions, such as, for
example, partition 420A, 420B, and unused sector 382. The master
boot record (MBR) 410 may include bootstrap code, a partitioning
table, and other information related to partitioning of the disk
into one or more partitions, volumes, or combinations thereof.
Volumes 420A and 420B may be referred to generically herein as 420.
For some operating systems, and disk structures, the MBR may be
between 1 and 63 sectors on the disk 380 and generally starts at
sector 0 of the disk 380. When a computer boots, the OS examines
the MBR 410, which includes a jump instruction to another portion
of the disk 380 for performing the boot process. The MBR 410 also
includes disk layout and partition information so the OS can
determine size and location of logical volumes on the disk.
[0087] Each volume 420 includes a volume boot record 422 and a data
segment 450. The volume boot record 422 of a volume 420 may include
a jump instruction to code that may be used in determining
information about the volume 420. The volume boot record 422 of a
volume 420 may also include a Basic Input Output System (BIOS)
parameter block to give details about how to perform input/output
operations for the volume 420. The volume boot record 422 also
gives information about the volume 420 such as size and file system
type, such as, for example, Linux, FAT16, FAT12, FAT32, NTFS, and
the like. When an OS recognizes valid information in the volume
boot record 422 the OS can mount the volume 420, which makes the
data segment 450 available to IO accesses from other OS processes
and user applications.
[0088] If the volume 420 is an active boot volume 420A, after
processing the MBR 410, the OS jumps to the beginning of the volume
boot record 422 of the boot volume 420A. The OS uses the jump
instruction at the beginning of the volume boot record 422 of the
boot volume 420A to jump to a process for completing the boot
process and loading of the OS. As part of the process, the OS uses
the MBR 410 to find data volumes 420B, determine if they are valid,
and mount them if they are valid.
[0089] Some embodiments of the present invention may invalidate the
volume boot record 422 of a volume 420 and create a private
structure 425 for the volume boot record 422. With an invalid
volume boot record 422, the OS may still know that the volume 420
is present (using the information in the MBR 410), but it cannot
get information about the file system on the volume 420 and will
therefore not mount the volume 420. With the volume 420 unmounted,
no file accesses to the volume 420 can be made by the standard file
system of the OS. As a result, no writes can be made to the volume
420 under normal file access control and writes to the volume 420
may be limited to embodiments of the present invention.
[0090] FIG. 8 is a simplified diagram of a volume 420 (also
referred to herein as a restore volume) with an invalidated volume
boot record 422 for the private structure 425 (FIG. 7). The volume
420 is divided up into a number of sectors 440. For simplicity and
clarity in the drawings, only some of the sectors are shown and the
others are implied as filling in the blank spaces of the volume
420. As shown in the drawings, the volume boot record 422 is
illustrated as sector 0 of the volume 420. For most conventional
operating systems the volume boot record is defined as sector 0.
However, embodiments of the present invention can include the
volume boot record 422 as any sector or sectors on the volume
420.
[0091] The volume boot record 422 is shown in an exploded view
showing various bytes 424 of the volume boot record 422 to show
details of the volume boot record 422. A boot segment 430 of the
volume boot record 422 includes the information necessary for the
OS to recognize the volume 420 as including a valid file system. In
FIG. 8, this boot segment 424 is set to all zeros, which
invalidates the volume 420 from the perspective of the OS. In other
words, the OS may view the volume 420 as an unformatted volume. The
volume boot record 422 may include other information useful to the
OS, which may or may not be set to zeros, as indicated by the "X"
in some of the bytes.
[0092] While zeros in the boot segment 430 cause the volume 420 to
be unrecognizable to the standard file system of the OS, the volume
boot record 422 also includes a special boot identifier (SBI) 435.
This special boot identifier 435 can be read by a private block
access in a special OS or a special file system within the standard
OS as is explained more fully below with reference to FIG. 10. This
special access path is generally referred to herein as a private
block access. However, other special systems, not necessarily
performing a restore operation, may be defined to use the special
boot identifier 435 as described herein.
[0093] The private block access can read the volume boot record 422
and even though it sees zeros in the volume boot record 422, it can
look at another area of the volume boot record 422 in an attempt to
find the special boot identifier 435. In the example shown in FIG.
8, the special boot identifier 435 is shown in the last few bytes
of the volume boot record 422. Of course, the special boot
identifier 435 may be different sizes and at different locations
with the volume boot record 422 as long as the private block access
knows where to find it within the volume boot record 422. The
private block access then knows that the balance of the restore
volume 420 is available for a restore process as explained below
with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.
[0094] Also shown in FIG. 8 is a restore information block 460. The
combination of the special boot identifier 435 and the restore
information block 460 comprise a set of restore metadata that may
be used by a restore process. The restore metadata may include a
variety of information, such as, for example, information related
to a restore process for the volume 420.
[0095] As a non-limiting example, the restore metadata may include:
1) the special boot identifier 435; 2) a volume identifier; 3)
checkpoint information; and 3) a validation block. The special boot
identifier 435 has been discussed above.
[0096] The volume identifier may be included to indicate for which
volume the restore metadata is being used. In volumes where the
restore metadata is stored on the volume, the volume identifier is
implicit. However, the restore metadata may be stored in a file on
another volume, with only a pointer to the restore metadata
existing in the special boot identifier. In the case of a file, the
volume identifier explicitly identifies which volume the restore
metadata is for.
[0097] The checkpoint information may include various information
about where in the restore process the current restore volume is,
as will become more apparent from the discussion of the restore
process with reference to FIG. 12. Non-limiting examples of
checkpoint information include: a most recently applied image file
(e.g., point in time, such as base image or incremental backup
image), progress within the current image file, time stamps
including data and time, bytes within the current image applied so
far, and total bytes within the current image.
[0098] The validation block may include information to verify that
the restore metadata has not been corrupted using, for example, a
checksum or a hash function. A hash function provides a small
digital "fingerprint" from any kind of data input. By chopping and
mixing the original data, the hash algorithm can create a small
hash value that is unique to the data run through the hash
algorithm. The resulting fingerprint is often called a "hash
value." One property of a hash value is that if two hash values
generated with the same hash algorithm are different, then the two
inputs are different in some way. As a result, a hash function can
be used as a checksum such that the relatively small hash value can
be used to verify that a data file of any size has not been
altered.
[0099] FIG. 9 is a simplified diagram of a restore volume 420
defined with a small file structure 437 thereon. In some
embodiments, rather than invalidating the restore volume 420, the
restore volume 420 may be defined as a small file structure (e.g.,
FAT12) using the proper information for the small file structure
437 as represented in FIG. 9 by the Small File Identifier (SFID).
The volume boot record 422 is shown in an exploded view showing
various bytes 424 of the volume boot record 422 to show details of
the volume boot record 422. A boot segment 430 of the volume boot
record 422 includes the information necessary for the OS to
recognize the restore volume 420 as a valid volume.
[0100] In FIG. 9, this boot segment 430 is set to represent the
small file structure 437. Thus, when the OS examines the volume
420, it will determine that the volume is small and, as a result
the sectors 440 of the volume 420 not occupied by the small file
structure 437 will be inaccessible by the OS and other
applications.
[0101] However, as with the embodiments of FIG. 8, the volume boot
record 422 (or a file within the small file structure) also
includes a special boot identifier (SBI) 435. This special boot
identifier 435 can be read by a private block access in a special
OS or a special file system within the standard OS as is explained
more fully below with reference to FIG. 10. This special access
path is generally referred to herein as a private block access.
However, other special systems, not necessarily performing a
restore operation, may be defined to use the special boot
identifier 435 as described herein.
[0102] The private block access can read the volume boot record 422
and even though it sees a small file structure 437, it can look at
another area of the volume boot record 422, or a file on the small
file structure, in an attempt to find the special boot identifier
435. In the example shown in FIG. 9, the special boot identifier
435 is shown in the last few bytes of the volume boot record 422
and as a file at the end of the small file structure. Of course,
the special boot identifier 435 may be different sizes and at
different locations as long as the private block access knows where
to find it. The private block access then knows that the balance of
the restore volume 420 not taken up by the small file structure 437
is available for a restore process as explained below with
reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.
[0103] Also shown in FIG. 9 is a restore information block 460. The
combination of the special boot identifier 435 and the restore
information block 460 comprise a set of restore metadata that may
be used by a restore process. The restore metadata may include a
variety of information, as explained above with reference to FIG.
8.
[0104] FIG. 10 is a simplified block diagram of a software stack
for accessing block media according to embodiments of the present
invention. FIG. 10 illustrates, from a process perspective, block
level accesses to block media 399. Block media 399 are generally
accessed in block level units. The operating system and
applications running on the operating system may perform block
media accesses as illustrated by block 321.
[0105] Access to block media 399 may be in the form of public
accesses, which are generally exposed to applications through
software processes within the operating system, file system, or
combinations thereof. Accesses to block media may also be through
private channels set up by specialized software processes that are
not exposed to other applications. These private and public access
channels may also be referred to as IO control interfaces
(IOCTLs).
[0106] The private channels may be set up as a software process
operating at an application level to perform direct block access in
a manner that is private from other applications by a private block
access process 322. The private accesses may also be set up using a
software process operating as a block device filter 390 below the
file system 360.
[0107] Due to these many channels, there may be many ways to access
the block media 399. Each of the channels shown in FIG. 10 is
discussed below. Operations to block media 399 are generally
referred to as accesses and may be understood to include both read
and write operations. From a file centric perspective, file
accesses 394 are generally considered public. The file system 360
may convert a public file access 394 to one or more public block
accesses 392C to access the block media 399 and collect the
necessary information to assemble the contents of a file, which is
then passed back to the application making the access request.
[0108] In some embodiments of the invention, the block device
filter 390 may reside below the file system 360 and filter out, or
pass through, the public block accesses 392C from the file system
360. If a public block access 392C is allowed to pass through it is
presented to the block media 399 as a public block access 396A.
[0109] From a block access perspective, an application may directly
access block media 399 (in block form rather than file form)
through software processes exposed by the operating system as
indicated by public block access (392A and 392B). An application
may also set up its own private block access process 322 to perform
private block access 392D and 392E.
[0110] In embodiments that include a block device filter 390, the
public block accesses 392B may be blocked, or may be passed on as
public block accesses 396A. Similarly, private block accesses 392D
may be blocked, or may be passed on as private block accesses 396B.
In describing embodiments that use the block device filter 390,
public block accesses 392B are performed, rather than public block
accesses 392A, because the block device filter 390 can filter all
accesses to the block media 399 and public block accesses 392A
would not be available. Similarly, private block accesses 392D are
performed, rather than private block accesses 392E, because the
block device filter 390 can filter all accesses to the block media
399 and private block accesses 392E would not be available.
[0111] In embodiments that do not use a block device filter 390,
public block accesses 392A and private block accesses 392E are
available, whereas public block accesses 392B and private block
accesses 392D are not available. Public file accesses 394 will
generate block accesses 392C directly (not shown) to the block
media 399.
[0112] In embodiments that invalidate a volume boot record, as
discussed above, a block device filter 390 is not needed, however,
some embodiments may use both invalidation of the volume boot
record and the block device filter 390 to prevent undesired
accesses to the block media 399. Thus, when using an invalidated
boot record, a restore process may prevent a restore volume, or a
portion thereof, from being recognized by a standard file system by
inserting a restore structure in at least a portion of the volume
boot record of the restore volume using a block access (392A or
392E), which may be through a public channel 392A or a private
channel 392E. The restore structure may be used by the restore
process to hold various metadata related to the restore process and
at the same time causes the restore volume to be unrecognizable by
the file system 360.
[0113] After the restore structure is present in the volume boot
record of the restore volume, the restore process may use public
block accesses 392A or private block accesses 392E to write restore
data to restore volume. Normal public file accesses 394 are
prevented to the restore volume because the volume boot record is
unrecognizable so the restore volume cannot be mounted. After all
the restore data is written to the restore volume, the block
accesses (392A or 392E) are used to the restore volume to finalize
it by restoring the volume boot record to a state indicating that
the restore volume is valid.
[0114] In embodiments that use a block device filter 390, the
volume boot record may not need to be invalidated, however, some
embodiments use both invalidation of the volume boot record and the
block device filter 390 to prevent undesired accesses to the block
media 399. The block device filter 390 prevents public block
accesses 392B from applications and public block accesses 392C from
reaching the block media 399 as public block accesses 396A. Only
private block accesses 392D (passed through the block device filter
390 as private block accesses 396B) and private block accesses 392E
are allowed to access the block media 399. Thus, the block media
399 is effectively prevented from being modified, except through
the block device filter 390 or private block control 322, which are
used by the restore process.
[0115] To perform the restore process, the restore volume, or a
portion thereof, is prevented from undesired changes by the block
device filter 390 preventing public media accesses (e.g., public
file accesses 394, public block accesses 392B and public block
accesses 392C) to the restore volume and allow private block
accesses (392D and 392E) to the restore volume. The restore process
may use private block accesses (392D and 392E) to write restore
data to the restore volume while the public media accesses (394,
392B, and 392C) are being prevented. After all the restore data is
written to the restore volume, the block device filter 390 may be
removed or reconfigured to allow public media accesses (394, 392B,
and 392C) to finalize the restore volume.
[0116] FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a backup and
restore system. The system illustrates a backup computer 480 with
operational storage 482 and backup storage 484 controlled by one or
more processors 486, memory 488, and communication elements 489. A
restore computer 490 includes operational storage 492 and restore
storage 494 controlled by one or more processors 496, memory 498,
and communication elements 499. In embodiments of the disclosure
the backup computer 480 and the restore computer 490 may be
physically near each other or may be in vastly different physical
locations. In addition, in some embodiments, the backup computer
480 and restore computer 490 may be the same computer with backup
storage 484, operational storage 482, and restore storage 494. In
such embodiments, it will be understood that the processes
described herein as occurring on two different computers may all
occur on the same computer.
[0117] Backup images may be communicated between the backup
computer 480 and the restore computer 490 via a communication link
460. This communication may be accomplished in a number of ways. As
non-limiting examples, the backup images may be communicated
electronically across a wide-area network (WAN) or a local-area
network (LAN).
[0118] As stated earlier, base images may be quite large.
Therefore, as other non-limiting communication examples, the base
image, incremental images, and combinations thereof may be placed
on media such as a magnetic media or an optical media and
physically transported by any appropriate transportation element
from the local site to the remote site. Furthermore, prior to
communication (either electronically or by transport), the base
image may be compressed to reduce the size of the image or
encrypted for security.
[0119] As mentioned earlier performing a restore process when a
computer has failed may be an extremely long process when terabytes
of data are involved. In addition, when migrating data from one
computer to another (e.g., in an upgrade) it may be difficult to
have both the old computer and the upgrade computer down for the
entire time required to perform a restore process.
[0120] In conventional restore systems, a final backup would need
to be made on the old computer and then access to that old computer
prevented so that the new computer can be restored to a same and
coherent state with the old computer. Thus, conventionally, restore
processes have been performed over night or on weekends to minimize
the impact of down time on the users. For example, a server with
terabytes of data may take 18 to 24 hours (or even longer) to
restore if the restore process can restore 1 GB per minute. In
addition, restore processes are generally not completely automated
and must be monitored by a system administrator. If any problems
with the restore occur, the entire restore process may need to be
started from the beginning, creating even more down time.
[0121] Embodiments of the present invention use the invalidated
volumes discussed above to perform a headstart restore process,
wherein a restore may begin on a new machine while the old machine
is still operating in its normal mode performing its usual
functions and incremental backup functions as explained above.
[0122] By marking a volume as invalid to the operating system, the
OS and user applications cannot modify that volume. However, a
private block access operating separate from or in combination with
the OS can recognize the invalid volume and begin restoring backup
files from the old computer on the new computer while the old
computer is still running.
[0123] The restore process can continue with incremental backups
until the new computer is restored to the same state as the old
computer was at the last incremental backup. Then, a final
incremental backup can be performed on the old computer and the old
computer is shut down to prevent any further changes. Then, only
the final incremental backup needs to be restored on the new
computer and the invalidated volume can be finalized and exposed to
the operating system.
[0124] FIG. 12 is simplified flow diagram of a process for
restoring data including a backup process 500 and a restore process
600. As mentioned earlier, the backup process may be performed on a
backup computer 480 (FIG. 11) and the restore process may be
performed on a restore computer 490. Alternatively, the backup
process and restore process may be performed on a single computer.
In addition, both the backup process 500 and the restore process
600, except where noted, may be performed in the background and
concurrently, such that the respective computers can continue on
with their normal operations.
[0125] In operation 502 of the backup process 500, a base image of
the volume to be backed up is created. Decision block 504
determines if a restore process should be started on this or
another computer. If so, operation 506 sends 507 any backup files
that have not yet been sent to the computer performing the restore
process 600. If it is the same computer, the sending may simply be
pointers to the backup files. If no incremental images have been
created, only the base image would be sent. On subsequent cycles
through the loop of backup process 500 incremental images may be
sent from the backup process 500 to the restore process 600 as they
become available.
[0126] Decision block 508 tests to see if it is time to create a
new incremental backup at a new point in time. If not, the backup
process 500 loops back to decision block 504. If it is time for a
new incremental backup, operation 510 performs the incremental
backup.
[0127] Operation block 512 creates a synthetic incremental backup
if desired and as discussed above with reference to FIGS. 2-5.
Operation block 514 creates a synthetic base backup if desired and
as discussed above with reference to FIGS. 2-5.
[0128] Decision block 516 tests to see if completion of a restore
process is desired. In the case of a migration, this test may occur
at any user-defined time based on when it may be convenient to have
both the backup computer and restore computer unavailable while a
final incremental backup is restored. In the case of a catastrophic
failure, that failure would prompt the decision to complete the
restore process.
[0129] If a completion of the restore process is not desired, the
backup process 500 loops back to decision block 504. If a
completion of the restore process is desired, operation 518 sends
520 the final backup to the restore process 600. Of course, in the
case of a catastrophic failure, the final backup may not be made
and the last completed incremental would have to be used as the
restore point. After a final incremental is sent, the backup
process ends.
[0130] The restore process 600 may begin concurrently with the
backup process 500 any time after the base image has been received
by the restore process 600. To begin, operation 602 invalidates the
volume to be restored as discussed above with reference to FIGS.
7-10. As stated above, since the volume is inaccessible and
unrecognized by the standard file system, the volume may be a boot
volume or a data volume. Operation 604 copies the available backup
images that have been sent from the backup process 500 to the
invalidated volume. Decision block 606 tests to see if it is time
to complete the restore process 600. As stated above, this may be a
user selected time or a forced time due to a catastrophic failure.
If the restore is not to be completed at this time, the restore
process 600 loops to operation 604 to restore more backup images if
they are available. If the restore is to be completed, operation
608 finalizes the volume to make it recognizable by the standard
file system.
[0131] Optionally, operation 610 may mount the restored volume so
that the standard file system can access it. Optionally, operation
612 may reboot the system if the restored volume is a boot volume.
Upon rebooting, the MBR may point to a now valid volume boot record
on the newly restored boot volume so the system can boot up from
the restored boot volume.
[0132] Alternatively, operations 608, 610, and 612 may be
postponed. As a non-limiting example, the restore system may have
multiple volumes that need to be restored. It may be desirable to
wait until all the volumes have been restored before exposing the
restored volumes to the standard file system, mounting the volumes,
or a combination thereof.
[0133] In many modern systems a disk, a volume, or a combination
thereof may be virtually represented by a file that appears to the
system (through APIs or other means) as a conventional physical
volume. Embodiments of the present invention may be used on such
virtual volumes as explained above. In addition, the file that
emulates the virtual volume may be write protected or hidden from
the standard file system as a way to invalidate the virtual volume
from the perspective of the standard file system.
[0134] FIG. 13 illustrates one non-limiting example for using
virtual disks by using them in a virtual machine (VM) host system
700. Multiple virtual machines 710 may run as processes on the VM
host system 700. Through the VM host system 700, these virtual
machines 710 may have access to one or more virtual disks 720 (and
virtual volumes). The VM host system 700 may maintain these virtual
disks 720 as files for the VM host system 700, but they would
appear as volumes to the virtual machines 710. A backup and restore
system 750 running alongside, or within, the VM host system would
be able to read, write, and invalidate the virtual disks 720 to
perform restore processes as discussed above simply by locking or
hiding the file representing the virtual disk 720.
[0135] Of course, the backup and restore processes may also operate
as discussed above with reference FIGS. 7-10 by operating within
one of the virtual machines 710 to access the virtual disks
720.
[0136] Although this invention has been described with reference to
particular embodiments, the invention is not limited to these
described embodiments. Rather, the invention is limited only by the
appended claims, which include within their scope all equivalent
devices or methods that operate according to the principles of the
invention as described.
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