GENERIC FILE LEVEL RESTORE FROM A BLOCK-LEVEL SECONDARY COPY
First Claim
1. A method for performing a file level restore of a block level secondary copy in a data storage system, comprising:
- instantiating a device node on a first computing device, the device node providing an interface for a file system driver executing on the first computing device to access a block-level secondary copy of file system data which resides in secondary storage;
with the file system driver,interfacing with the device node to obtain file system metadata corresponding to the block-level secondary copy;
processing the obtained file system metadata to mount the block-level secondary copy onto the first computing device;
in response to a request to access at least one file of the mounted secondary copy, interfacing with the device node to request a read of the at least one file;
with the device node and in response to the read request, initiating retrieval of the at least one file from secondary storage; and
copying the retrieved at least one file to primary storage associated with the first computing device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Systems and methods are provided which perform a file level restore by utilizing existing operating system components (e.g., file system drivers) that are natively installed on the target computing device. These components can be used to mount and/or interpret a secondary copy of the file system. For instance, the system can instantiate an interface object (e.g., a device node such as a pseudo device, device file or special file) on the target client which includes file system metadata corresponding to the backed up version of the file system. The interface provides a mechanism for the operating system to mount the secondary copy and perform file level access on the secondary copy, e.g., to restore one or more selected files.
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Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method for performing a file level restore of a block level secondary copy in a data storage system, comprising:
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instantiating a device node on a first computing device, the device node providing an interface for a file system driver executing on the first computing device to access a block-level secondary copy of file system data which resides in secondary storage; with the file system driver, interfacing with the device node to obtain file system metadata corresponding to the block-level secondary copy; processing the obtained file system metadata to mount the block-level secondary copy onto the first computing device; in response to a request to access at least one file of the mounted secondary copy, interfacing with the device node to request a read of the at least one file; with the device node and in response to the read request, initiating retrieval of the at least one file from secondary storage; and copying the retrieved at least one file to primary storage associated with the first computing device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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10. A data storage system, comprising:
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a first computing device; a data agent module executing on the first computing device, the data agent module configured to instantiate a device node on the first computing device, the device node providing a file system driver executing on the first computing device with an interface to access a block-level secondary copy of file system data which resides in secondary storage, wherein the file system driver is configured to interface with the device node obtain file system metadata corresponding to the block-level secondary copy and to process the obtained file system metadata to mount the block-level secondary copy onto the first computing device; wherein the data agent module is further configured to; in response to instructions from the device node to retrieve at least one file of the mounted block-level secondary copy from secondary storage, request the at least one file from secondary storage; and receive the at least one file from secondary storage; and wherein the received at least one file is copied to primary storage associated with the first computing device.
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Specification