Automatic backup/recovery process

• US 20040044707A1
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Published: 03/04/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Richard, Bruno
• Granted Patent: US 6,928,444 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99939 Privileged access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

A backup procedure which performs a systematic analysis of the different elements of the configuration, for the purpose of transforming them into a corresponding set of backup objects. Backup objects include files, directories, volume names or labels, security attributes (Access Control Lists in Windows NT), as well as OS-specific markers which are dependent on a specific file, such as, for instance an entry in the FAT for MS-DOS. Each backup object is being systematically analysed and sent to a remote server with its identification, attributes, signature and content the backup process takes advantage of the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and each backup object is being encapsulated within a HTTP or HTTPS POST or PUT request which is transmitted to a remote server. The backup procedure is associated with a process for automatically creating a bootable CDROM having a bootable partition comprising a set of files systems driver for controlling different file system types, such as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, i-NODE, but also CDFS, and an executable file for carrying out the automatic re-establishment of the backup objects corresponding to a user'"'"'s configuration.

Claims

1. Backup process for a computer system having a connection to an Internet or Intranet network, said process involving:

identifying a set of backup objects which are representative of the configuration of the computer system;

said backup objects having identifier, attributes, contents and signature;

periodically transmitting or upon request of the user said backup objects which are encapsulated in HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or HTTPS POST requests, said POST request including said identifier, said content, said attribute and said signature..

2. Backup process according to claim 1 characterised in that said backup objects are representative of the files, directories, volume names or labels, security attributes (Access Control Lists in Windows NT), as well as OS-specific markers which are dependent on a specific file, and that said process involves the steps of:

getting from said server a remote data set of the objects, including the identifier, attributes and signatures, which are already stored within the data base 4;

computing a local data set of the objects which are representative of the user'"'"'s configuration;

transmitting to said server the objects identified in said local data set which are not identified within said remote data set, or which have not the same signature.

4. process for creating a CDROM for the purpose of re-establishing a user'"'"'s configuration represented by a data set of backup objects as defined in claim 1, characterised in that said process involves the step of:

creating a bootable partition comprising a basic kernel associated with a set of drivers for accessing to CDFS as well as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, i-node or HPFS file systems, or a subset of those file systems;

said bootable partition further comprising an executable file within said bootable partition file operating as the basic shell program,

creating an ISO image which comprises;

a hash file (hash.dat) containing a hash function of a user and a password;

a table (objdat.dat) encrypted with said hash function and containing a data set of backup objects representative of the backup objects of a user'"'"'s configuration, said object involving an identifier, attributes such as Access control Lists;

a sequence of files encrypted with said hash function and representative of the contents of the different objects identified in said data set.

burning said bootable CDROM.

5. Process according to claim 4 characterised in that said executable file prompts the user to enter the user id and the password and computes a hash function for the purpose of comparing it with the hash value contained within said ISO image.

6. CDROM manufactured in accordance with the process of claims 4 to 5.

3. Backup process according to 2 wherein the computing of the signature of an object involves the step of locking said object, making a local copy of said object, un-locking said object, and computing said signature from said copy.

7. Recovery Process for automatically re-establishing a computer configuration by means of a EL TORITO CDROM comprising a bootable partition as well as an ISO image;

said process involving the steps of;

booting said computer of a EL TORITO booting partition which comprises at least a basic kernel operating system as well as a set of drivers allowing the access to CDFS, as well as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, HPFS or i-NODE file systems, or a subset of those;

starting said basic kernel and loading said file systems drivers;

launching an executable file acting as the shell of said basic kernel, said executable file causing;

prompting the user to enter a password and a user id;

computing a hash function from said id and password entered by a user;

comparing said computed hash function with a value loaded within a file (hash.dat) contained within the CDROM, and aborting said reconfiguration procedure is case of mismatch;

decrypting a table (objtab.dat) with said hash function in order to derive a table of backup objects representative of a user'"'"'s configuration, including the identifier, the contents and the attributes, such as the access control lists;

decrypting a set of encrypted backup objects which are loaded on the CDROM for the purpose of installing them onto a hard disk drive by means of the appropriate files system corresponding to said hard disk;

reading on said CDROM the type and release of the operating system to be re-established, and correspondingly resetting some OS specific parameters for the purpose of ensuring a proper starting of the operating system at the next booting of the machine.

10. Process according to claims 7-9 wherein said executable file (rebuild.exe) re-establishes the first, second and fourth entry values of a FAT of a hard disk to be re-established to respectively refers to the io.sys system, to the msdos.sys file and to the config.sys files.

8. Recovery Process for automatically re-establishing a computer'"'"'s configuration containing a hard disk drive by means of a CDROM, said process involving the steps of:

arranging a specific partition of said hard disk drive which comprises at least a basic kernel operating system as well as a set of drivers allowing the access to CDFS, as well as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, HPFS or i-NODE file systems, or a subset of those;

starting said basic kernel and loading said file systems drivers;

launching an executable file acting as the shell of said basic kernel, said executable file causing;

prompting the user to enter a password and a user id;

computing a hash function from said id and password entered by a user;

.

comparing said computed hash function with a value loaded within a file (hash.dat) contained within said CDROM, and aborting said reconfiguration procedure is case of mismatch;

decrypting a table (objtab.dat) with said hash function in order to derive a table of backup objects representative of a user'"'"'s configuration, including the identifier, the contents and the attributes, such as the access control lists;

decrypting a set of encrypted backup objects which are loaded on the CDROM for the purpose of installing them onto a hard disk drive by means of the appropriate files system corresponding to said hard disk;

reading on said CDROM the type and release of the operating system to be reestablished, and correspondingly resetting some parameters for ensuring a proper start at the next booting of the machine.

9. Process for controlling a CDROM writer associated to a personal computer, characterised in that it involves the step of:

decomposing and identifying a set of backup objects which are representative of the configuration of the computer system;

said backup objects having identifier, attributes, contents and signature;

storing at regular intervals or upon request of the user said backup objects into a storage;

arranging a bootable partition comprising at least a basic kernel operating system as well as a set of drivers allowing the access to CDFS, as well as NTFS, FAT, FAT32, HPFS or i-NODE file systems, or a subset of those;

said bootable partition also comprising an executable recovery file which is automatically started after said file systems drivers have been loaded;

arranging a ISO image comprising a ACL, a table and a set of files which are to be stored within at least one CDROM and which contains said backup object;

burning said CDROM.