AUTOMATED PRIORITY RESTORES

• US 20070294320A1
• Filed: 05/09/2007
• Published: 12/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Yueh, Jedidiah, Auchmoody, Scott, Olsen, Eric, Crosby, William, Ogata, Scott, Starling, Jennifer, Ramos, Robert, Bolt, Thomas, McVey, Clint
• Granted Patent: US 8,065,273 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

A priority restore agent in a data storage system generates a priority restore data set for a client computer system or device by identifying a set of active data sets and/or a set of key data sets within client system data generated by the client computer system. The priority restore agent looks at or processes file system attributes for the client system data and compares these attributes with predefined restore parameters. The restore parameters may indicate that any file that has been accessed, modified, or created within a particular period of time be included in the priority restore data set. The key data sets may be identified in a set of automated restore rules. A data protection application within the data storage system can restore data in the priority restore data set onto the client computer system after a disaster or system crash.

Claims

1. A method for restoring data sets on a client computer system, comprising:

providing a priority restore agent on a client system;

operating the priority restore agent to access file system attributes for data associated with the client system;

based on the file system attributes, generating a priority restore data set for the client system; and

storing the priority restore data set at a location remote to the client system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the priority restore data set comprises identifying portions of the client system data that have been accessed, modified, or created within a predetermined time period.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising performing a restore process on the client system, wherein the restore process comprises restoring data in the priority data set onto the client system.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising identifying a portion of the client system data for inclusion in all priority restore data sets and wherein the generating of the priority restore data set includes merging the portion of the client system data for inclusion in all priority restore data sets and the portions of the client system data that have been accessed, modified, or created within the predetermined time period.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising receiving user input defining the predetermined time period and an attribute for performing the identifying of the portion of the data for inclusion in all priority restore data sets.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the client system data comprises a plurality of files and the portion of the client system data for inclusion in all priority restore data sets and the portions of the client system data that have been accessed, modified, or created within the predetermined time period comprise files of client data.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the second priority restore data set generated after a refresh period expires differs from the priority restore data set generated before the refresh period expires.

7. In a client computer system wherein client system data is stored, a method for using restore data sets to perform a priority restore of the client system data, the method comprising:

accessing memory to identify a predetermined time period for which data should be retained and to identify one or more attributes that are used in identifying data sets;

generating a priority restore data set based on the predetermined time period and on the one or more attributes, wherein the priority restore data set identifies data to be restored; and

storing the priority restore data set in a memory location.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more attributes comprise one or more of:

the date and time the client system data was last accessed;

the date and time the client system data was last modified; and

the date and time the client system data was created.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising accessing memory to identify a portion of the client system data for inclusion in the priority restore data set and wherein generating the priority restore data set is additionally based on the identified portion.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the memory location comprises one or more of a memory location remote to the client system;

and a memory location within the client system, wherein the method further comprises

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

determining that a refresh period has expired; and

in response to the expiration of the refresh period, re-accessing memory to identify the predetermined time period and the one or more attributes;

re-accessing file system attributes for the client system data;

generating a second priority restore data set based on the predetermined time period, the one or more attributes and the file system attributes; and

storing the second priority restore data set in a memory location.

13. The method of claim 7, restoring a portion of the client data from archived client data using the priority restore data set.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein further comprising restoring data to multiple clients based on multiple priority restore data sets received from the multiple clients.

15. The method of claim 7, wherein generating a priority restore data set further comprises one or more of:

determining which data sets are active based on restore parameters and the predetermined time period;

identifying data sets for inclusion in the priority restore data set based on one or more of the predetermined time period, or attributes of data that are deemed key by default or by user input.

16. In a data storage system comprising a client computer system and a remote memory location, wherein client system data is stored in a local memory location of the client computer system and archive backup data is stored in the remote memory location, a method of restoring the client computer system using one or more priority data sets, the method comprising:

receiving a restore request for the client computer system;

accessing a priority restore data set in a memory location, the priority restore data set generated by a priority restore agent of the data storage system based at least on file system attributes for the client system data that are deemed key either by default or by a user; and

performing a restore process on the client system, wherein the restore process comprises restoring data identified in the priority restore data set onto the client system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the priority restore data set is generated by identifying portions of the client system data that have been accessed, modified, or created within a predetermined time period.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising one of either refreshing the priority restore data set after the predetermined time period expires or generating a second priority restore data set and storing the priority restore data set locally and/or remotely.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising generating the priority restore data set, the priority restore data set identifying a portion of the client data based on at least one of the predetermined time period or attributes of the client data, the attributes including rules that identify data included in the priority restore set that do not depend on when data was accessed or used.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the priority restore data set is independent of any data protection application used to generate archive data backups and can be used to restore the client data identified therein.