Techniques for backing up application-consistent data using asynchronous replication

• US 10,152,415 B1
• Filed: 07/05/2011
• Issued: 12/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Rajaa, Subash, Gawali, Ashish L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Talukdar, Arvind
• Application Number:
  US13/176,004
• Time in Patent Office: 2,716 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1466 to make the backup process non-disruptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2069 Management of state, configuration or failover
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0804 with main memory updating G06F12/0806 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency ensuring consistency in mirrored systems G06F11/2064

Abstract

Techniques for backing up application-consistent data using asynchronous replication are disclosed. In one particular embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for backing up application-consistent data comprising receiving a backup request to backup application data and storing the application data in a volume of storage space. The method may also comprise taking a snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space and quiescing, via a quiescing module comprising at least one computer processor, the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space. The method further comprise transmitting application-consistent data, wherein the application-consistent data may comprise the application data stored in the volume of storage space and the quiesced snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space.

Claims

1. A method for backing up application-consistent data comprising:

receiving a backup request to backup application data;

storing the application data in a volume of storage space at a first site;

taking a snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space;

quiescing, via a quiescing module comprising at least one computer processor, the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space, wherein quiescing the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space comprises flushing one or more pending operations in a buffer;

transmitting application-consistent data to a second site via asynchronous replication, wherein the application-consistent data comprises the application data stored in the volume of storage space and the quiesced snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space, wherein the application data and the quiesced snapshot are transmitted together;

polling for an arrival of a volume of the applicant-consistent data at the second site;

taking a snapshot of the volume of the application-consistent data based at least in part on the arrival of the volume of the application-consistent data at the second site;

deleting the quiesced snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space after receiving an acknowledgement message indicating successful transmission of the application-consistent data;

associating a tag with the quiesced snapshot;

monitoring the tag for updates;

triggering a fire drill operation in response to detecting an update to the tag; and

in response to a fire drill operation being triggered, taking a snapshot of the application-consistent data at the second site in order to recover the application data at the first site.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving a backup request comprises automatically generating the backup request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein storing the application data in a volume of storage space comprises dividing the volume of storage space into a plurality of logical volume partitions.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the application data is stored in at least one of the plurality of logical volume partitions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space is a state of the application data stored in the volume of storage space at a particular time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein quiescing the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space comprises associating a volume of data change object (DCO) with the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the volume of data change object enables a dirty region logging (DRL) to facilitate recovery after a crash event.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the dirty region logging tracks changes to the application data stored in the volume of storage space since taking the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space due to operations performed to the application data stored in the volume of storage space.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the snap shot is at a hardware array level.

9. A system for backing up application-consistent data comprising:

at least one processor configured to execute instructions for;

a user interface module configured to receive a backup request to backup application data;

a data volume managing module comprising at least one database configured to store the application data in a volume of storage space at a first site;

a volume snapshot module configured to take a snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space;

a quiescing module comprising at least one computer processor configured to quiesce the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space, wherein the quiescing module is further configured to flush one or more pending operations in a buffer;

a communication module configured to transmit application-consistent data to a second site via asynchronous replication, wherein the application-consistent data comprises the application data stored in the volume of storage space and the quiesced snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space, wherein the application data and the quiesced snapshot are transmitted together, wherein the communication module is further configured to poll for an arrival of a volume of the applicant-consistent data at the second site;

wherein the communication module is further configured to take a snapshot of the volume of the application-consistent data based at least in part on the arrival of the volume of the application-consistent data at the second site, wherein the communication module is further configured to delete the quiesced snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space after receiving an acknowledgement message indicating successful transmission of the application-consistent data, wherein the communication module is further configured to associate a tag with the quiesced snapshot, wherein the tag is monitored for updates, wherein a fire drill operation is triggered in response to detecting an update to the tag; and

in response to a fire drill operation being triggered, taking a snapshot of the application-consistent data at the second site in order to recover the application data at the first site.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the data volume managing module is further configured to divide the volume of storage spaces into a plurality of logical volume partitions.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the data volume managing module is configured to store the application data in at least one of the plurality of logical volume partitions.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space is a state of the application data stored in the volume of storage space at a particular time.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the quiescing module is further configured to associate a volume of data change object (DCO) with the snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space.

14. A method for retrieving backed up application-consistent data comprising:

receiving, from a user interface module, via a communication module at a first site, a volume of application-consistent data from a second site, wherein the volume of application-consistent data comprises application data associated with the one or more applications and a quiesced snapshot of the application data, wherein the application data and the quiesced snapshot are transmitted together from the second site via asynchronous replication, wherein the quiesced snapshot is associated with a tag;

sending an acknowledgement message indicating successful transmission such that the quiesced snapshot of the application data stored in the volume of storage space is deleted in response to the acknowledgement message;

polling for an arrival of the volume of the applicant-consistent data;

taking, via a volume snapshot module comprising at least one computer processor, a snapshot of the volume of application-consistent data based at least in part on the arrival of the volume of the application-consistent data;

mounting, via a data managing module, the snapshot of the volume of application-consistent data;

monitoring the tag for updates; and

triggering a fire drill operation in response to detecting an update to the tag; and

in response to a fire drill operation being triggered, taking a snapshot of the application-consistent data at the second site in order to recover the application data at the first site.