DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING BACKUP AND RECOVERY SYSTEM

• US 20150127982A1
• Filed: 11/25/2014
• Published: 05/07/2015
• 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, Farooqui, Sameer, Richter, Owen
• Granted Patent: US 10,102,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/19
• 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

1-20. -20. (canceled)

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

retrieving at least one user selectable preference;

identifying a first subset of data from within a data set according to the at least one user selectable preference, the first subset of data containing less than all of the data in the data set wherein the first subset is selectable by using the user selectable preference;

intercepting the first subset of data at an application programming interface (API);

encrypting the first subset of data by using the API;

receiving, into a memory via an interface controlled by a processor connected to a network in a computing environment wherein the encrypted first subset of data objects are within a second subset of data, the second subset of data containing less than all of the data in the first subset of data;

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 objects;

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

identifying the data objects within the second subset of data;

retrieving at a granular level from one of the network retrieval locations from a backup of the computing environment, using the processor connected to the network, the stored data objects identified by the one of the network retrieval locations, when the data object request comprises a request to retrieve the data objects, where the stored data objects are retrieved from the second subset of data.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

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

23. The method of claim 22, where the selection criteria comprises data freshness, data correctness of the data objects, or a combination of both.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising:

determining a hash seed used to recreate the hash function for an identified time and storing the hash seed for a identified time, at one or more of the network storage locations,

where the hash seed for the identified time is used to recreate the hash function for the identified time,

where the hash seed is a random function based on an initial seed; and

when the data object request comprises a request to store the data objects, recording write accesses that occur in the computing environment until the data objects are stored; and

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

25. The method of claim 21, 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 objects;

or

restore nodes to use to restore the data objects concurrently;

or

a combination thereof.

26. The method of claim 21, wherein the hash function uses a hash ring to map a first namespace into an evenly distributed second namespace using a hashing function wherein the evenly distributed second namespace is smaller than the first namespace.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the second namespace is used to distribute the first namespace across nodes in the computing environment.

28. The method of claim 21, wherein, after intercepting the first subset of data at the API, the method further comprises:

controlling distribution of the first subset of data through the API by interfacing with a database.

29. The method of claim 21, wherein encrypting the first subset of data by using the API further comprises:

backing up a portion of the encrypted first subset of data.

30. 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;

retrieve at least one user selectable preference;

identify a first subset of data from within a data set according to the at least one user selectable preference, the first subset of data containing less than all of the data in the data set wherein the first subset is selectable by using the user selectable preference;

intercept the first subset of data at an application programming interface (API);

encrypting the first subset of data by using the API;

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 data objects to store or retrieve, wherein the identified data objects are encrypted and are within a second subset of data, the second subset of data containing less than all of the data in the first subset of data;

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 objects, wherein the hash function uses a hash ring to map a first namespace into an evenly distributed second namespace using a hashing function wherein the evenly distributed second namespace is smaller than the first namespace;

identify the data objects within the second subset of data;

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

retrieve at a granular level, from one of the network retrieval locations from a backup of the computing environment, using the processor connected to the network, the data objects identified by the one of the network retrieval locations, when the data object request comprises a request to recover or retrieve the data objects, where the stored data objects are retrieved from the second subset of data.

31. The product of claim 30, further comprising instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to

analyze the replicas of the data objects retrieved from nodes in the computing environment to determine a preferred replica from the retrieved replicas.

32. The product of claim 31, wherein the preferred replica comprises selection criteria that includes:

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

33. The product of claim 30, the instructions when executed by the processor further cause the processor to:

determine a hash seed used to recreate the hash function for an identified time and store the hash seed for a identified time, at one or more of the network storage locations,

where the hash seed for the identified time is used to recreate the hash function for the identified time, where the hash seed is a random function based on an initial seed;

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

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

34. The product of claim 30, 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 objects;

or

restore nodes to use to restore the data objects concurrently;

or

a combination thereof.

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

a processor to retrieve at least one user selectable preference, identify a first subset of data from within a data set according to the at least one user selectable preference, the first subset of data containing less than all of the data in the data set wherein the first subset is selectable by using the user selectable preference;

an application programming interface (API) to intercept the first subset of data, and encrypt the first subset of data;

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 data objects wherein the data objects are encrypted and are within a second subset of data, the second subset of data containing less than all of the data in the first subset of data;

a hash function that is evaluated by the processor to determine network storage locations or network retrieval locations, or both for the data object, wherein the hash function uses a hash ring to map a first namespace into an evenly distributed second namespace using a hashing function wherein the evenly distributed second namespace is smaller than the first namespace;

instructions executable by the processor that cause the processor to;

identify the data objects within the second subset of data;

retrieve at a granular level from one of the network retrieval locations the data objects from a backup of the computing environment, when the request is a request to retrieve the data objects, where the stored data objects retrieved are identified by the one of the network retrieval locations, where the stored data objects are retrieved from the second subset of data;

store at a granular level the data objects, when the request is a request to store the data object;

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

36. The system of claim 35, where the instructions further cause the processor to retrieve one of the replica of the data objects from a node where the hash function determines where the stored data objects are located of the network retrieval locations.

37. The system of claim 36, further comprises a preferred replica determined according to selection criteria that includes:

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

38. The system of claim 35, 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 objects are stored.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to determine the preferred replica by applying the hash function to the retrieved one of the replica.

40. The system of claim 35, further comprises:

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

41. The system of claim 35, 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 objects;

or

restore nodes to use to restore the data objects concurrently;

or a combination thereof.