TECHNIQUES FOR ESTABLISHING A FILE SYSTEM THAT EXPOSES A VIRTUAL FILE SYSTEM FOR BACKUP OPERATIONS

• US 20130013565A1
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Published: 01/10/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Micro Focus Software, Inc. (Open Text Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dhairesh Oza
• Inventors: Oza, Dhairesh
• Granted Patent: US 8,935,209 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/640
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1466 to make the backup process non-disruptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/542 Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications

Abstract

Techniques for establishing a files system that exposes a virtual file system for backup operations are presented. Changes to files of a file system are maintained separately or collected and presented as a VFS. The VFS is then used to perform backup operations. Moreover, the files identified in the VFS can be customized based on search parameters, criterion, and/or criteria supplied by a user or supplied as parameters to backup and VFS mount operations.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as executable instructions that process on one or more processors to perform the method, comprising:

exposing, by the processors, a list of the files having changes in a file system as an independent Virtual File System (VFS) that is used to perform a backup operation on the list of files that changed; and

acquire, by the processors, metadata including inodes for the files, data changes of each file, and an increase or decrease in file size for each file after the changes.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein exposing further includes detecting event notifications at a kernel level of the OS for each of the changes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein detecting further includes using a File System in User Space (FUSE) module to track the event notifications from the kernel level.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein using further includes acquiring the VFS from the FUSE module.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein exposing further includes identifying some of the changes to some of the files as one or more changes to:

security, ownership, and name descriptors.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein exposing further includes identifying some of the changes to some of the files as one or more changes to primary data associated with those files.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein exposing further includes identifying some of the changes to some of the files as specific changes to specific metadata associated with those files and primary data associated with those files.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein exposing further includes selectively modifying the list and the VFS.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, backing up, by the processors, the list by mounting the VFS.

10. A method implemented in a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as executable instructions that process on one or more processors to perform the method, comprising:

modifying, by the processors, a file system (FS) to track changes to files as a separate linked list of inodes that form a virtual file system (VFS); and

backing up, by the processors, the VFS incrementally and differentially for the linked list of inodes.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising, regularly receiving, by the processors, updates to the linked list of inodes from the FS.

12. The method of claim 10 further comprising, mounting, by the processors, the VFS for performing the backing up.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein modifying further includes configuring the FS to track the changes as modifications to metadata for the files or as modifications to primary data for the files.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein backing up further includes presenting the VFS as a read-only restricted view VFS.

15. The method of claim 10 further comprising, providing copy-on-write operations for the backup operation processed on the VFS.

16. A system, comprising:

a processor having memory configured with a Virtual File System (VFS) implemented as executable instructions that process on the processor;

wherein the VFS is configured to record changes to files as detected by a native file system (FS) and the VFS is configured for performing incremental and differential backups for the changes.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the VFS is a linked list of inodes assembled by the FS.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the changes are modifications to metadata for the files or modifications to primary data for the files.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the VFS is further configured to be exposed as a read only file for viewing.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the VFS is mounted for performing the backups.