HIGH EFFICIENCY PORTABLE ARCHIVE

• US 20080013365A1
• Filed: 03/19/2007
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Yueh, Jedidiah
• Granted Patent: US 7,747,831 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 365/149
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0623 in relation to content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0662 Virtualisation aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45541 Bare-metal, i.e. hypervisor runs directly on hardware

Abstract

A high efficiency portable archive implements a storage system running on a virtualization layer to archive point-in-time versions of a raw data set and the storage system itself as a virtual system on archive media. The high efficiency portable archive can be implemented in a variety of computer architectures. The virtualization layer presents to the storage system a normalized representation of a set of hardware based on components of the computer architecture, shielding the storage system from the actual hardware components of the computer architecture. The storage system and point-in-time versions of the raw data set can be restored to any hardware subsystem that supports the virtual system.

Claims

1. A method for providing data protection, comprising:

providing a virtualization layer on a computer architecture comprising a storage device storing a raw data set, an archive storage mechanism, and a hardware subsystem;

running a storage application on the virtualization layer, wherein the virtualization layer presents a representation of a set of hardware based on components of the computer architecture to the storage application;

operating the storage application to store a plurality of versions of the raw data set in the archive storage mechanism; and

using a recovery module of the storage application to generate a recovered version on the hardware subsystem of the raw data set based on the plurality of versions of the raw data set stored in the archive storage mechanism.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the raw data set has a size and wherein a size of the plurality of versions of the raw data set is less than the size of the raw data set multiplied by the number of versions stored in the archive storage mechanism.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising porting the storage application to another hardware subsystem.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware subsystem differs at least partially from hardware components of the computer architecture used in the operating of the storage application to store the plurality of versions of the raw data set in the archive storage mechanism.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of versions is associated data existing at a differing point in time in the raw data set.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the hardware subsystem, hardware components of the computer architecture, or both include one or more of:

a server;

a network interface controller;

a central processing unit;

a memory device;

a storage device; and

a network.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to using a recovery module of the storage application to generate a recovered version of the raw data set, receiving a recovery request from a user.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtualization layer is provided by one or more of:

VMware ESX;

VMware GSX; and

XEN 3.0.

9. In an environment including at least one server that are storing a raw data set, a method for storing and archiving point-in-time sets of the raw data set, the system comprising:

providing a virtualization layer on a computing resources pool;

operating a virtualized storage application on the virtualization layer, the virtualization layer shielding the virtualized storage application from actual hardware in the computing resources pool; and

generating storage efficient versions of a raw data set that is stored on one or more servers, wherein the storage efficient versions include point-in-time versions of the raw data set that are smaller in size than the original raw data set being backed up or archived.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising storing the storage efficient versions of a raw data set on an archive data mechanism, the archive data mechanism comprising another virtualized storage application.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising recovering the raw data set at a particular point-in-time using a new virtualized storage application on a different virtualization layer.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising recovering the raw data set at a particular point-in-time using the virtualized storage application.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising archiving the virtualized storage application onto the archive data mechanism.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising porting the virtualized storage application onto a new hardware subsystem, wherein the new hardware subsystem does not match a hardware system of the computing resources pool.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein generating storage efficient versions of a raw data set further comprises employing one or more of snapshots, file differencing techniques, content addressed storage systems, or continuous data protections systems.

16. The method of claim 9, further comprising encapsulating the virtualized storage application into a file such that a full system including fully configured applications, operating system, BIOS and virtual hardware can be moved from one physical server to another.

17. A high efficiency portable archive, comprising:

a storage application implemented in a computer architecture for generating and storing a plurality of versions of a raw data set in an archive storage mechanism, the raw data set being stored on a storage device of the computer architecture,

wherein;

the storage application is run on a virtualization layer, the virtualization layer presenting a representation of a set of hardware based on components of the computer architecture to the storage application; and

the storage application can be ported to a hardware subsystem even though hardware components of the computer architecture used in the operating of the storage application differ from the hardware subsystem.

18. The archive of claim 17, wherein the raw data set has a size and wherein a size of the plurality of versions of the raw data set is less than the size of the raw data set multiplied by the number of versions stored in the archive storage mechanism.

19. The archive of claim 18, wherein the storage application reduces the size of the plurality of versions by implementing one or more of:

snapshots;

file differencing;

content addressed storage;

continuous data protection; and

commonality factoring.

20. The archive of claim 17, wherein the storage application includes a recovery module for generating a recovered version on the hardware subsystem of the raw data set based on the plurality of versions of the raw data set stored in the archive storage mechanism.

21. The archive of claim 17, wherein the storage application and versions of the raw data set are copied to the archive storage mechanism as a virtual machine.

22. The archive of claim 17, wherein the computer architecture comprises a x86 computer architecture.

23. A system for archiving data, the system comprising:

a storage device storing a raw data set;

a computer architecture communicably coupled to the storage device, upon which a first storage application runs and generates a plurality of versions of the raw data set, the first storage application being run on a virtualization layer on the computer architecture;

a virtualized archive storage mechanism communicably coupled to the computer architecture for storing the plurality of versions of the raw data set; and

a hardware subsystem communicably coupled to the virtualized archive storage mechanism, wherein a recovered version of the raw data set based on the plurality of versions of the raw data set is generated by a second storage application on the hardware subsystem.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the first storage application comprises a plurality of storage applications.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the virtualization layer presents a normalized representation of the computer architecture and shields the storage device from the computer architecture.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the first storage application, the second storage application, or both include one or more of:

a storage module for generating versions of the raw data set that are reduced in size; and

a recovery module for generating a recovered version of the raw data set.

27. The system of claim 23, further comprising an operating system associated with the first storage application, the second storage application, or both.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the operating system comprises one or more of:

Windows;

Linux;

Novell;

Solaris; and

FreeBSD.