AUTOMATED AND SELF-ADJUSTING DATA PROTECTION DRIVEN BY BUSINESS AND DATA ACTIVITY EVENTS

• US 20120089572A1
• Filed: 10/06/2010
• Published: 04/12/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Smith, James P., Tevis, Gregory J., Van Hise, David G., Raichstein, Eran, Wolf, Oren
• Granted Patent: US 9,632,875 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/645
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/174 Redundancy elimination performed by the file system management of the data involved in backup or backup restore using de-duplication of the data G06F11/14

Abstract

Techniques for adjusting the frequency of data backups and initiating event-driven backups in a storage system are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a self-adjusting backup frequency, known as a “Change Rate Objective,” is defined to conduct or delay backups for one or more volumes in the storage system on the basis of an associated policy value. The Change Rate Objective may be tied to one or more business or data activity events, such as the amount and type of data changes since a last backup. The storage system may also be tailored to conduct or delay full or incremental backups on the basis of a Change Rate Objective that measures whether a full or incremental or differential backup is more appropriate. Various data or system failures, or data or business events may also be used to adjust the retention periods of continuous data protection (CDP) data and delay a rollup of CDP data.

Claims

1. A method for performing automated and self-adjusting backup operations, comprising:

establishing a change rate objective used for event-driven backups of a data store in a storage system, the change rate objective measuring changes within the data store resulting from one or more data activity events;

establishing a change rate objective value associated with the change rate objective, the change rate objective value defining a threshold value for performing backup operations of the data store;

monitoring the change rate objective in the data store by comparing the change rate objective value with the changes within the data store resulting from the one or more data activity events; and

performing the backup operations in the storage system responsive to meeting or exceeding the change rate objective value, thereby conducting automated and self-adjusting backup operations in the storage system based on the change rate objective.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

establishing a time schedule used for time-driven backups of the data store at a series of scheduled times; and

performing the backup operations in the storage system at each of the scheduled times;

wherein the time-driven backups of the data store and the event-driven backups of the data store are each performed within the storage system based on time and the data activity events respectively.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the time-driven backup operations of the data store are performed in coordination with event-driven backup operations performed in the storage system, including postponing, delaying, or altering the time-driven backup operations.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the change rate objective is established from multiple values related to data activity events in the data store.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the change rate objective and the associated change rate objective value is based on one or more data activity events including the amount of data changed since a previous defined event, an amount of metadata changed since a previous defined event, a percentage of data changed since a last backup, a percentage of total expected amount of data to be backed up in a time-scheduled backup, a percentage of total amount of data backed up for a client, a specified amount of changed data, a measure of data activity in the storage system, and a number of transactions conducted within the storage system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising establishing a data activity backup policy specifying the sensitivity of backup operations to a plurality of data activity events in the storage system, wherein the data activity backup policy defines the change rate objective value and the change rate objective.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a policy is used in connection with the event-driven backup operations, the policy including policy settings indicating whether to use changed data as a trigger to perform additional backups, whether to perform regularly scheduled time-based backups in conjunction with event-driven backups, and whether to continue with a regularly scheduled time-based backup after an event-driven backup is performed.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data store comprises one or more storage volumes within the storage system, and wherein the method is performed within the storage system as a result of execution of a computer program product on one or more computer hardware components.

9. A method for performing automated and self-adjusting backup operations in connection with full, incremental, and differential backups of a data store in a storage system, comprising:

establishing a first change rate objective and an associated first change rate objective value, the first change rate objective used for conducting a full backup of the data store prior to a scheduled full backup, and the first change rate objective value defining a threshold amount of changed data of the data store requiring the full backup;

establishing a second change rate objective and an associated second change rate objective value, the second change rate objective used for postponing a scheduled full backup and conducting an incremental or differential backup in lieu of the scheduled full backup, and the second change rate objective value defining a maximum amount of changed data of the data store for an incremental or differential backup;

monitoring an amount of changed data backed up for the data store since a last full backup;

conducting a full backup of the data store responsive to determining the amount of changed data backed up since the last full backup is greater than the first change rate objective value during an incremental or differential backup cycle, or the amount of changed data backed up since the last full backup is greater than the second change rate objective value during a full backup cycle; and

conducting an incremental or differential backup of the data store responsive to determining the amount of changed data backed up since the last full backup is less or equal than the first change rate objective value during an incremental or differential backup cycle, or the amount of changed data backed up since the last full backup is less or equal than the second change rate objective value during a full backup cycle.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the first change rate objective and the associated first change rate objective value is evaluated during scheduled incremental or differential backup cycles, and wherein the second change rate objective and the associated second change rate objective value is evaluated during scheduled full backup cycles.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein conducting the full backup of the data store is further controlled responsive to a policy value.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein a plurality of scheduled full backups are defined for the data store.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein a plurality of scheduled incremental or differential backups are defined for the data store.

14. The method of claim 9, wherein the first change rate objective value and the second change rate objective value are each defined as a percentage of changed data in the data store.

15. The method of claim 9, wherein the data store comprises one or more storage volumes within the storage system, and wherein the method is performed within the storage system as a result of execution of a computer program product on one or more computer hardware components.

16. A method for performing automated and self-adjusting data protection for continuous data protection operations of a data store in a storage system, comprising:

providing a policy for extending retention of data produced from the continuous data protection operations, the policy specifying one or more events requiring a retention period extension and a duration of the retention period extension based on the one or more events;

initiating a data rollup for data provided by the continuous data protection operations of the data store;

obtaining a retention period extension from the policy based on occurrence of the one or more events; and

postponing the data rollup for the duration of a new retention period by extending a retention period of the data with the retention period extension.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more events include a business event selected from the group consisting of a business application upgrade, a data movement operation, a new software distribution, a system configuration change, a storage volume defragmentation process, one or more I/O errors, data loss, and a failure of a server, volume, or application.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising evaluating the data store with a monitor for an occurrence of the one or more events requiring the retention period extension.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the retention period of the data is reduced responsive to the one or more events being cleared.

20. The method of claim 16, further comprising providing a set of application programming interfaces within the storage system used for extending the retention period of the data with the retention period extension and clearing the one or more events causing the retention period extension, and receiving calls with the application programming interfaces to extend the retention period extension and clear the one or more events causing the retention period extension.

21. The method of claim 16, further comprising evaluating severity of the one or more events, wherein the retention period of the data is adjusted according to the severity of the one or more events.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein a low, medium, and high severity and corresponding low, medium, and high retention period extension are defined among the one or more events.

23. The method of claim 16, wherein the method is performed within the storage system as a result of execution of a computer program product on one or more computer hardware components.