DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING BACKUP AND RECOVERY SYSTEM

• US 20130085999A1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Published: 04/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: TUNG, TERESA, RICHTER, OWEN E., FAROOQUI, SAMEER
• Granted Patent: US 8,930,320 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/654
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/27 Replication, distribution or synchronisation of data between databases or within a distributed database system; Distributed database system architectures therefor

Abstract

The distributed computing backup and recovery (DCBR) system and method provide backup and recovery for distributed computing models (e.g., NoSQL). The DCBR system extends the protections from server node-level failure and introduces persistence in time so that the evolving data set may be stored and recovered to a past point in time. The DCBR system, instead of performing backup and recovery for an entire dataset, may be configured to apply to a subset of data. Instead of keeping or recovering snapshots of the entire dataset which requires the entire cluster, the DCBR system identifies the particular nodes and/or archive files where the dataset resides so that backup or recovery may be done with a much smaller number of nodes.

Claims

1. A method for distributed computing backup and recovery, comprising:

receiving, into a memory via an interface controlled by a processor connected to a network in a computing environment, a data object request that identifies a data object to store or retrieve;

evaluating, using the processor, a hash function stored in the memory to determine network storage locations or network retrieval locations, or both for the data object;

storing, at each of the network storage locations, the data object according to the data object request, when the data object request comprises a request to store the data object, where the stored data object is identified as a replica of the data object stored at each of the network storage locations;

retrieving from one of the network retrieval locations from a backup of the computing environment, using the processor connected to the network, the stored data object identified by the one of the network retrieval locations, when the data object request comprises a request to retrieve the data object, where the stored data object is one of a plurality of data objects stored of a dataset identified as the backup of the computing environment.

2. The method of claim 1, when the data object request comprises a request to retrieve the data object, the method further comprising:

retrieving a backup record identifier from a backup log file corresponding to the data object request;

applying the hash function to the backup record identifier, where the hash function identifies the network retrieval locations in the computing environment the data object is stored; and

retrieving, using the processor connected to the network, the stored data object from the network retrieval locations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein retrieving from the backup of the computing environment further comprises:

retrieving one of the replica of the data object from a node where the hash function determines where the stored data object is located of the network retrieval locations; and

returning the data object responsive to the request.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

applying the hash function to determine, according to selection criteria, a preferred replica among the replica of the data object retrieved from nodes in the computing environment.

5. The method of claim 4, where the selection criteria comprises data freshness, data correctness of the data object, or a combination of both.

6. The method of claim 1, when the data object request comprises a request to store the data object, recording write accesses that occur in the computing environment until the data object is stored;

and

when the data object request comprises a request to retrieve the data object, playing back the recording of write accesses until a restore completes.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein retrieving further comprises determining a plurality of configurable restore options, the restore options including:

a sequence of a plurality of nodes to restore including one or more nodes from which to retrieve a copy of the data object;

or

restore nodes to use to restore a plurality of data objects concurrently;

or

a combination thereof.

8. A product for distributed computing backup and recovery, comprising:

a computer readable memory with processor executable instructions stored thereon, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor cause the processor to;

receive, into a memory via an interface controlled by a processor connected to a network in a computing environment, a data object request that identifies a data object to store or retrieve;

evaluate, using the processor, a hash function stored in the memory to determine network storage locations or network retrieval locations, or both for the data object;

store, at each of the network storage locations, the data object according to the data object request, when the data object request comprises a request to store the data object, where the stored data object is identified as a replica of the data object at each of the network storage locations;

retrieve, from one of the network retrieval locations from a backup of the computing environment, using the processor connected to the network, the data object identified by the one of the network retrieval locations, when the data object request comprises a request to recover or retrieve the data object, where the stored data object is one of a plurality of data objects stored of a dataset identified as the backup of the computing environment.

9. The product of claim 8, wherein when the data object request is a request to retrieve the data object, the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

retrieve a backup record identifier from a backup log file corresponding to the data object request;

apply the hash function to the backup record identifier, where the hash function identifies the network retrieval locations in the computing environment the data object is stored; and

retrieve, using the processor connected to the network, the stored data object data from the network retrieval locations.

10. The product of claim 9, wherein the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

retrieve the replicas of the data object from nodes where the hash function determines where the stored data object is located of the network retrieval locations; and

return the data object responsive to the request.

11. The product of claim 8, further comprising analyzing the replicas of the data object retrieved from nodes in the computing environment to determine a preferred replica from the retrieved replicas.

12. The product of claim 11, wherein the preferred replica comprises selection criteria that includes:

data freshness, or data correctness of the data object, or a combination of both.

13. The product of claim 8, the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

record write accesses that occur in the computing environment until the data object is stored, when the data object request is a request to store the data object; and

play back the recording of write accesses until a restore completes, when the data object request is a request to retrieve the data object.

14. The product of claim 8, the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to determine a plurality of configurable restore options, the restore options including:

a sequence of a plurality of nodes to restore including one or more nodes from which to retrieve a copy of the data object;

or

restore nodes to use to restore the plurality of data objects concurrently;

or

a combination thereof.

15. A system for distributed computing backup and recovery (DCBR), comprising:

a processor;

a cluster of computing nodes in a computing environment;

an interface controlled by the processor connected to a network in the computing environment;

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises;

a data object request received through the interface for a data object of a data set;

a hash function that is evaluated by the processor to determine network storage locations or network retrieval locations, or both for the data object;

instructions executable by the processor that cause the processor to;

retrieve from one of the network retrieval locations the data object from a backup of the computing environment, when the request is a request to retrieve the data object, where the stored data object retrieved is identified by the one of the network retrieval locations, where the stored data object is one of a plurality of data objects stored of a dataset identified as the backup of the computing environment;

store the data object, when the request is a request to store the data object;

where a copy of the data object is located on one or more of the nodes, where the stored data object is identified as a replica of the data object at each of the network storage locations.

16. The system of claim 15, where the instructions further cause the processor to retrieve one of the replica of the data object from a node where the hash function determines where the stored data object is located of the network retrieval locations.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprises a preferred replica determined according to selection criteria that includes:

data freshness, or data correctness of the data object, or a combination of both.

18. The system of claim 15, further comprises:

a backup log file that includes a backup record identifier corresponding to the data object request that the hash function uses to identify where in the computing environment the data object is stored.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to determine the preferred replica by applying the hash function to the retrieved one of the replica.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprises:

a preferred replica from the replicas, the preferred replica comprising the most recent of the data object, or the most correct copy of the data object, or a combination of both.

21. The system of claim 15, where the instructions further cause the processor to execute restore options, the restore options including:

a sequence of a plurality of nodes to restore including the one or more nodes from which to retrieve the copy of the data object;

or

restore nodes to use to restore a plurality of data objects concurrently;

or

a combination thereof.