BACKING UP AND RESTORING SELECTED VERSIONED OBJECTS FROM A MONOLITHIC DATABASE BACKUP

• US 20100082553A1
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Published: 04/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Beatty, Louis, Saraf, Deepak, DeVos, Steven R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,501,368 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/679
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques

Abstract

A mechanism to selectively restore a version of an application object stored in a monolithic backup of a database, while maintaining hierarchical and other metadata relationships of the restored portion of the database, is provided. Embodiments of the present invention provide a method, system and computer-readable storage medium that provide a mechanism for receiving a request to restore a version of a selected object from among a plurality of backed up objects in a database backup, locating information associated with the selected object in the backup, and restoring the version of the selected object to a target storage area using information associated with the selected object. Aspects of the present invention use database table metadata gathered from the backed up database at the time the backup was created in order to locate the information associated with the selected object.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a request to restore a version of a selected object from a backup of a database comprising a plurality of objects, wherein

the plurality of objects comprises a plurality of versions of the selected object;

locating information associated with the selected object in the backup, wherein

said locating comprises using database table metadata gathered from the backed up database at the time the backup of the database was created; and

restoring the version of the selected object using the information associated with the selected object.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said restoring the version of the selected object comprises:

copying a current version of the selected object to a second object, wherein the second object stores versions of objects; and

restoring the requested version of the selected object as the current version of the selected object.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said restoring the version of the selected object comprises:

restoring each version of the selected object, wherein

the received request is to restore all versions of the selected object.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

restoring the current version of the selected object to a first object; and

restoring each previous version of the selected object to a second object, wherein the second object stores versions of objects, and the second object is associated with the first object.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

selecting the version of the selected object using the database table metadata.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said selecting the version of the selected object using the database table metadata comprises:

determining location and structure of a database table in the backup of the database using the database table metadata;

reading the backed up database table; and

if an object associated with the database table is a versioned object, reading a version table associated with the database table, and collecting information associated with each version of the object.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

associating the information associated with each version of the object with the object, wherein

said associating comprises generating a list comprising information about the object and each version of the object in ascending version order.

8. A system comprising:

a processor;

a first storage object coupled to the processor, wherein

the first storage object stores a backup of a database, and

the backed up database comprises a plurality of objects and a plurality of database tables describing the plurality of objects;

a second storage object coupled to the processor, wherein

the second storage object stores a target storage area for objects restored from the backup of the database; and

a memory, coupled to the processor, and storing instructions executable by the processor, said instructions configured to

receive a request to restore a version of a selected object from the backup of the database, wherein

the plurality of objects comprises a plurality of versions of the selected object;

locate information associated with the selected object in the backup, wherein

said locating comprises using database table metadata gathered from the backed up database at the time the backup of the database was created; and

restore the version of the selected object to the target storage area using the information associated with the selected object.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the instructions to restore the version of the selected object comprise further instructions to:

copy a current version of the selected object in the target storage area to a second object stored in the target storage area, wherein the second object stores versions of objects; and

restore the requested version of the selected object as the current version of the selected object in the target storage area.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the instructions to restore the version of the selected object comprise further instructions configured to:

restore each version of the selected object, wherein the received request is to restore all versions of the selected object.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein the instructions to restore the version of the selected object comprise further instructions configured to:

restore the current version of the selected object to a first object stored in the target storage area; and

restore each previous version of the selected object to a second object stored in the target storage area, wherein the second object stores versions of objects, and the second object is associated with the first object.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the memory stores further instructions configured to:

select the version of the selected object using the database table metadata.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the instructions configured to select the version of the selected object using the database table metadata comprise further instructions configured to:

determine location and structure of a database table in the backup of the database using the database table metadata;

read the database table; and

if an object associated with the database table is a versioned object, read a version table associated with the database table, and collect information associated with each version of the object.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the instructions configured to select the version of the selected object using the database table metadata comprise further instructions configured to:

associate the information associated with each version of the object with the object, wherein

the instructions to associate comprise further instructions configured to generate a list comprising information about the object and each version of the object in ascending version order.

15. A computer-readable storage medium comprising:

a first set of instructions, executable by a processor, and configured to receive a request to restore a version of a selected object from a backup of a database comprising a plurality of objects, wherein the plurality of objects comprises a plurality of versions of the selected object;

a second set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to locate information associated with the selected object in the backup, wherein

said locating comprises using database table metadata gathered from the backed up database at the time the backup of the database was created; and

a third set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to restore the version of the selected object using the information associated with the selected object.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the third set of instructions further comprises:

a fourth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to copy a current version of the selected object to a second object, wherein the second object stores versions of objects; and

a fifth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to restore the requested version of the selected object as the current version of the selected object.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 wherein the third set of instructions further comprises:

a fourth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to restore each version of the selected object, wherein the received request is to restore all versions of the selected object.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 further comprising:

a fifth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to restore the current version of the selected object to a first object; and

a sixth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to restore each previous version of the selected object to a second object, wherein the second object stores versions of objects, and the second object is associated with the first object.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 further comprising:

a fourth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to select the version of the selected object using the database table metadata.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 19 wherein the fourth set of instructions further comprises:

a fifth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to determining location and structure of a database table in the backup of the database using the database table metadata;

a sixth set of instructions, executable by the processor, and configured to reading the database table; and

a seventh set of instructions, executable by the processor, and responsive to an object associated with the database table being a versioned object, and configured to read a version table associated with the database table, and collect information associated with each version of the object.