SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DATA BACKUP

• US 20070094533A1
• Filed: 11/13/2006
• Published: 04/26/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: Net Integration Technologies, Inc. (International Business Machines Corporation)
• Inventors: PAPIC, Ozren, COOMBS, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,702,867 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/5.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

A method and system of data backup for a computer system is disclosed. Full and incremental backups of data stored to a first storage device coupled to the computer system are stored to a backup storage device coupled to the computer system. The backup storage device may be remotely located and coupled via a network. Data representative of the relationship of each incremental backup to its respective parent backup is stored in a dependency data structure, preferably a tree-like structure. Different types of incremental backups may be performed to provide different data granularity. When two or more storage media are used in a rotational manner, each medium always contains a complete backup. The backup storage device is automatically managed by paring at least one of a full and incremental backup at the backup storage device automatically in accordance with a plan. The plan is preferably configured to manage an amount of available storage space at the backup storage device. When restoring data from a backup, data to be restored that is stored in a parent backup is automatically located and restored. Stored backups may be encrypted and decrypted when restored.

Claims

1. A method of managing a backup storage media for storing at least one full backup and a plurality of incremental backups of selected data stored on a first storage device, the method comprising steps of:

periodically storing a full backup comprising a copy of the data selected from the first storage device in accordance with a first criteria and attribute data representative of attributes of the selected data, and storing parent information representing attributes of the full backup in a dependency data structure on the backup storage media; and

during each use of the backup storage media between successive full backups;

analyzing the parent information stored in the dependency data structure to identify a parent backup from among backups previously stored on the backup storage media;

storing an incremental backup comprising a copy of the data selected from the first storage device in accordance with the first criteria and a second criteria and attribute data representative of attributes of the selected data, the second criteria being automatically determined in relation to the identified parent backup; and

storing additional parent information representative of a relationship between the further backup and its respective parent backup in the dependency data structure;

wherein the backup storage media can be used to fully restore the data selected from the first storage device in accordance with the first criteria, to the date of the most recently stored backup on the backup storage media, independently of any backups stored on another backup storage media.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dependency data structure is a tree-like data structure.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising verifying the storing of the selected data stored to the backup storage media.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of periodically storing a full backup is performed in accordance with a user-selected schedule.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first criteria comprises a desired granularity of the data stored on the backup storage media.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, further comprising steps of:

analyzing the parent information stored in the dependency data structure to identify a set of related backups which contain sufficient data to enable a full restoration of the data stored on the first storage device, to the data of the most recently stored backup on the backup storage media; and

paring at least one other backup from the backup storage media.

7. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the steps of analyzing the parent information and paring at least one other backup are performed each time a full backup is stored on the backup storage media.

8. The method as claimed in claim 6, further comprising a step of logging a storage space size used for each backup stored to the backup storage media;

and wherein the steps of analyzing the parent information and paring at least one other backup are automatically preformed in response to the logged storage space size.

9. The method as claimed in claim 6, wherein the set of related backups comprise a selected full backup and any incremental backups stored subsequent to the selected full backup.

10. The method as claimed in claim 9, wherein the at least one other backup comprises any one or more of an earlier full backup stored prior to the selected full backup, and an intermediate backup stored in an interval between the earlier full backup and the selected full backup.

11. A method of managing a backup storage media for storing at least one full backup and a plurality of incremental backups of data stored on a first storage device, the method comprising steps of:

maintaining a dependency data structure on the backup storage media, the dependency data structure comprising parent information representing attributes of each full backup stored on the backup storage media, and a relationship between each incremental backup and its respective parent backup; and

at predetermined intervals;

analyzing the parent information stored in the dependency data structure to identify a set of related backups which contain sufficient data to enable a full restoration of the data stored on the first storage device, to the date of the most recently stored backup on the backup storage media; and

deleting at least one other backup from the backup storage media so as to increase a storage space of the backup storage media while ensuring that a full restore can be performed from the backup storage media.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising a step of logging a storage space size used for each backup stored to the backup storage media;

and wherein the steps of analyzing the parent information and paring at least one other backup are automatically preformed in response to the logged storage space size.

13. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the set of related backups comprises a selected full backup and any incremental backups stored subsequent to the selected full backup.

14. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the at least one other backup comprises any one or more of an earlier full backup stored prior to the selected full backup, and an intermediate backup stored in an interval between the earlier full backup and the selected full backup.

15. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the step of maintaining the dependency data structure on the backup storage media comprises a step of deleting parent information representative of either one or both of a deleted to backup and its relationship to a respective parent backup, from the dependency data structure.

16. A method as claimed in claim 11, further comprising steps of:

periodically storing a full backup comprising a copy of the data selected from the first storage device in accordance with a first criteria and attribute data representative of attributes of the selected data; and

during each use of the backup storage media between successive full backups;

analyzing the parent information stored in the dependency data structure to identify a parent backup from among backups previously stored on the backup storage media; and

storing an incremental backup comprising a copy of the data selected from the first storage device in accordance with the first criteria and a second criteria and attribute data representative of attributes of the selected data, the second criteria being automatically determined in relation to the identified parent backup.

17. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the step of maintaining the dependency data structure on the backup storage media comprises steps of:

storing parent information representing attributes of the full backup in the dependency data structure; and

storing additional parent information representative of a relationship between each further backup and its respective parent backup in the dependency data structure.

18. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the dependency data structure is a tree-like data structure.

19. The method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising verifying the storing of the selected data stored to the backup storage media.

20. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the step of periodically storing a full backup is performed in accordance with a user-selected schedule.

21. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein the first criteria comprises a desired granularity of the data stored on the backup storage media.