HIGH EFFICIENCY PORTABLE ARCHIVE

• US 20100205393A1
• Filed: 04/19/2010
• Published: 08/12/2010
• 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 8,024,538 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• 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

According to one embodiment, a method is disclosed for storing and archiving point-in-time sets of a raw data set in an environment including at least one server storing the raw data set. The method includes providing a virtualization layer on a computing resources pool. A virtualized storage application is operated on the virtualization layer. The virtualization layer shields the virtualized storage application from actual hardware in the computing resources pool. Storage efficient versions of the raw data set stored on one or more servers are generated. The storage efficient versions of the raw data set include point-in-time versions of the raw data set that are smaller in size than the raw data set.

Claims

1. In an environment including at least one server storing a raw data set, a method for storing and archiving point-in-time sets of the raw data set, the method 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 raw data set.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the storage efficient versions of the raw data set on an archive data mechanism, the archive data mechanism comprising another virtualized storage application.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising recovering the raw data set at a particular point-in-time using a new virtualized storage application on a different virtualization layer.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising recovering the raw data set at a particular point-in-time using the virtualized storage application.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising archiving the virtualized storage application onto the archive data mechanism.

6. The method of claim 5, 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.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein generating storage efficient versions of the raw data set comprises employing one or more of snapshots, file differencing techniques, content addressed storage systems, or continuous data protections systems.

8. The method of claim 1, 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.

9. 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.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first storage application comprises a plurality of storage applications.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the virtualization layer presents a normalized representation of the computer architecture and shields the storage device from the computer architecture.

12. The system of claim 9, 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;

or

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

13. The system of claim 9, further comprising an operating system associated with the first storage application, the second storage application, or both.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the operating system comprises one or more of:

Windows;

Linux;

Novell;

Solaris;

or FreeBSD.