GENERATING A RECOVERY SNAPSHOT AND CREATING A VIRTUAL VIEW OF THE RECOVERY SNAPSHOT

• US 20100169592A1
• Filed: 12/26/2008
• Published: 07/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/26/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: InMage Systems, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kumar, Satish, Shah, Jayesh, Pannnerselvam, Sudhakar, Atluri, Rajeev, Kumar, Srin
• Granted Patent: US 8,527,721 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

Methods, software suites, and systems of generating a recovery snapshot and creating a virtual view of the recovery snapshot are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method includes generating a recovery snapshot at a predetermined interval to retain an ability to position forward and backward when a delayed roll back algorithm is applied and creating a virtual view of the recovery snapshot using an algorithm tied to an original data, a change log data, and a consistency data related to an event. The method may include redirecting an access request to the original data based on a meta-data information provided in the virtual view. The method may further include substantially retaining a timestamp data, a location of a change, and a time offset of the change as compared with the original data.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating a recovery snapshot at a predetermined interval to retain an ability to position forward and backward when a delayed roll back algorithm is applied; and

creating a virtual view of the recovery snapshot using an algorithm tied to an original data, a change log data, and a consistency data related to an event.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising redirecting an access request to the original data based on a meta-data information provided in the virtual view.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising substantially retaining a timestamp data, a location of a change, and a time offset of the change as compared with the original data.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising utilizing a relational database to process the change log data in a meta-data format, and to process other on-disk data using a binary-tree format.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the virtual view is specific to a volume object in a kernel that imitates another volume having the original data.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the virtual view is managed by a kernel space that processes an access request through at least one table using a meta-data created in a retention log.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising exporting the virtual view as a virtual volume using at least one of an iSCSI and a fiber channel transport to an external processing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the change log data is applied when the virtual view is unfrozen after a user session reaches a level state.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating a series of indexes of the virtual view to enable a linking to an event description of the virtual view rather than to an actual data in the original data; and

automatically creating the virtual view in at least one of a scheduled and an event driven manner.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically exporting the virtual view to a physical storage medium.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a machine is caused to perform the method of claim 1 when a machine-readable medium embodying a set of instructions is executed by the machine using a processor and a physical memory.

12. A software suite, comprising:

a portion to generate a recovery snapshot at a predetermined interval to retain an ability to position forward and backward when a delayed roll back algorithm is applied; and

a portion to create a virtual view of the recovery snapshot using a processor and a physical memory to execute an algorithm tied to an original data, a change log data, and a consistency data related to an event.

13. The software suite of claim 12 further comprising a portion to redirect an access request to the original data based on a meta-data information provided in the virtual view.

14. The software suite of claim 13 further comprising a portion to substantially retain a timestamp data, a location of a change, and a time offset of the change as compared with the original data.

15. The software suite of claim 12 further comprising a portion to utilize a relational database to process the change log data in a meta-data format, and to process other on-disk data using a binary-tree format.

16. The software suite of claim 12, wherein the virtual view is specific to a volume object in a kernel that imitates another volume having the original data.

17. The software suite of claim 16, wherein the virtual view is managed by a kernel space that processes an access request through at least one table using a meta-data created in a retention log.

18. A system, comprising:

a recovery module to generate a recovery snapshot at a predetermined interval to retain an ability to position forward and backward when a delayed roll back algorithm is applied; and

a virtualization module to create a virtual view of the recovery snapshot using an algorithm tied to an original data, a change log data, and a consistency data related to an event.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the virtualization module redirects an access request to the original data based on a meta-data information provided in the virtual view.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the virtualization module substantially retains a timestamp data, a location of a change, and a time offset of the change as compared with the original data.