Internet protocol based disaster recovery of a server
First Claim
1. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, the secondary virtual file server needing resources including network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, a method comprising:
- a) determining whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing user access at the disaster recovery site; and
b) upon finding that there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, reserving the network interfaces and file system mounts that are needed at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site.
9 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
For disaster recovery of a file server at an active site, the files that define the user environment of the file server are replicated to a virtual server at a disaster recovery site. To switch over user access from the active site to the disaster recovery site, the disaster recovery system determines whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site. If so, the required resources are reserved, and user access is switched over. If not, an operator is given a list of missing resources or discrepancies, and a choice of termination or forced failover. Interruptions during the failover can be avoided by maintaining a copy of user mappings and a copy of session information at the disaster recovery site, and keeping alive client-server connections and re-directing client requests from the active site to the disaster recovery site.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, the secondary virtual file server needing resources including network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, a method comprising:
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a) determining whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing user access at the disaster recovery site; and
b) upon finding that there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, reserving the network interfaces and file system mounts that are needed at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, the secondary virtual file server needing resources including network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, a method comprising:
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a) determining whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site once a configuration change would be made to the primary file server; and
b) upon finding that there are insufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site once the configuration change would be made to the primary file server, providing an operator with a list of missing resources or discrepancies, and receiving from the operator a choice of termination or configuration change; and
c) upon receiving from the operator a choice of configuration change, reserving network interfaces and file system mounts that are available and needed at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site once the configuration change would be made to the primary file server; and
thend) performing the configuration change to the primary file server.
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12. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, the secondary virtual file server needing resources including network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, a method comprising:
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a) determining whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site; and
b) upon finding that there are insufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site, providing an operator with a list of missing resources or discrepancies, and receiving from the operator a choice of termination or forced failover; and
c) upon receiving from the operator a choice of forced failover, reserving network interfaces and file system mounts that are available and needed at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site; and
thend) performing failover of user access from the active site to the disaster recovery site.
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13. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, a method comprising:
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maintaining a primary copy of user mappings at the disaster recovery site and a read-only cache of the user mappings at the active site during user file access at the active site; and
upon failover of user access from the primary file server at the active site to the virtual secondary server at the disaster recovery site, accessing the primary copy of user mappings at the disaster recovery site in order to continue user file access at the disaster recovery site. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, a method comprising:
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maintaining a copy of user session information at the disaster recovery site during user file access at the active site; and
upon failover of user access from the primary file server at the active site to the virtual secondary server at the disaster recovery site, accessing the copy of the user session information at the disaster recovery site so that users accessing files of the primary file server at the active site continue to access copies of the files at the disaster recovery site without a need to log onto the disaster recovery site. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18)
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19. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, a method comprising:
a network client accessing the primary file server at the active site using a CIFS connection and detecting a failure of the primary file server to respond to a file access request in a timely fashion, and upon detecting the failure of the primary file server to respond to the file access request in a timely fashion, the network client redirecting the file access request to the disaster recovery site without terminating the CIFS connection.
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20. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the primary file server storing a collection of user files, and the secondary virtual file server storing secondary copies of the user files, the method comprising:
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replicating changes to the user files from the primary file server to the secondary copies of the user files in the secondary virtual file server during user file access at the active site; and
during the replication of the changes to the user files from the primary file server to the secondary virtual file server, creating at the disaster recovery site a series of snapshot copies of the secondary virtual file server, each of the snapshot copies providing a group consistent state of the user files in the secondary virtual file server.
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21. A disaster recovery system comprising:
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a primary file server at an active site; and
a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files that have been replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, the secondary virtual file server needing resources including network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, wherein the disaster recovery system is programmed for responding to a request from a system administrator by;
a) determining whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing user access at the disaster recovery site; and
b) upon finding that there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, reserving the network interfaces and file system mounts that are needed at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. A disaster recovery system comprising:
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a primary file server at an active site; and
a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files that have been replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, the secondary virtual file server needing resources including network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, wherein the disaster recovery system is programmed for responding to a configuration change request from a system administrator by;
a) determining whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site once a configuration change would be made to the primary file server; and
b) upon finding that there are insufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site once the configuration change would be made to the primary file server, providing the system administrator with a list of missing resources or discrepancies, and receiving from the operator a choice of termination or configuration change; and
c) upon receiving from the operator a choice of configuration change, reserving network interfaces and file system mounts that are available and needed at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site once the configuration change would be made to the primary file server; and
thend) performing the configuration change to the primary file server.
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32. A disaster recovery system comprising:
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a primary file server at an active site; and
a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files that have been replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, the secondary virtual file server needing resources including network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site, wherein the disaster recovery system is programmed for responding to a failover request from a system administrator by;
a) determining whether there are sufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site; and
b) upon finding that there are insufficient network interfaces and file system mounts at the disaster recovery site for the virtual secondary file server for providing unrestricted user access at the disaster recovery site, providing the system administrator with a list of missing resources or discrepancies, and receiving from the operator a choice of termination or forced failover; and
c) upon receiving from the operator a choice of forced failover, reserving network interfaces and file system mounts that are available and needed at the disaster recovery site for providing user access at the disaster recovery site; and
thend) performing failover of user access from the active site to the disaster recovery site.
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33. A disaster recovery system comprising:
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a primary file server at an active site; and
a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site;
wherein the disaster recovery system is programmed for;
maintaining a primary copy of user mappings at the disaster recovery site and a read-only cache of the user mappings at the active site during user file access at the active site; and
upon failover of user access from the primary file server at the active site to the virtual secondary server at the disaster recovery site, for accessing the primary copy of user mappings at the disaster recovery site in order to continue user file access at the disaster recovery site.
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34. A disaster recovery system comprising:
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a primary file server at an active site; and
a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site;
wherein the disaster recovery system is programmed for;
maintaining a copy of user session information at the disaster recovery site during user file access at the active site; and
upon failover of user access from the primary file server at the active site to the virtual secondary server at the disaster recovery site, accessing the copy of the user session information at the disaster recovery site so that users accessing files of the primary file server at the active site continue to access copies of the files at the disaster recovery site without a need to log onto the disaster recovery site. - View Dependent Claims (35, 36, 37)
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38. In a disaster recovery environment including a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site, a system comprising:
a network client accessing the primary file server at the active site using a CIFS connection and detecting a failure of the primary file server to respond to a file access request in a timely fashion, and upon detecting the failure of the primary file server to respond to the file access request in a timely fashion, the network client redirecting the file access request to the disaster recovery site without terminating the CIFS connection.
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39. A disaster recovery system comprising:
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a primary file server at an active site;
a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the secondary virtual file server including a collection of files being replicated from the primary file server to the disaster recovery site; and
at least one network client programmed for accessing the primary file server at the active site using a CIFS connection and detecting a failure of the primary file server to respond to a file access request in a timely fashion, and upon detecting the failure of the primary file server to respond to the file access request in a timely fashion, redirecting the file access request to the disaster recovery site without terminating the CIFS connection. - View Dependent Claims (40)
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41. A disaster recovery system comprising a primary file server at an active site and a secondary virtual file server at a disaster recovery site remote from the active site, the primary file server storing a collection of user files, and the secondary virtual file server storing secondary copies of the user files, wherein the system is programmed for replicating changes to the user files from the primary file server to the secondary copies of the user files in the secondary virtual file server during user file access at the active site, and wherein the disaster recovery site is programmed for creating at the disaster recovery site a series of snapshot copies of the secondary virtual file server during the replication of the changes to the user files from the primary file server to the secondary virtual file server, each of the snapshot copies providing a group consistent state of the user files in the secondary virtual file server.
Specification