RESTORING ARCHIVED OBJECT-LEVEL DATABASE DATA

• US 20160210203A1
• Filed: 05/20/2015
• Published: 07/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: MITKAR, Amit, KUMARASAMY, Paramasivam, VALLABHANENI, Brahmaiah, PAWAR, Rahul S., DORNEMANN, Henry Wallace, AHN, Jun H., KARANDIKAR, Amey Vijaykumar, SENTHILNATHAN, Muthusamy, KILARU, Satish Chandra
• Granted Patent: US 10,223,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1727 Details of free space management performed by the file system saving storage space on storage systems G06F3/0608; management of blocks in storage devices G06F3/064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1827 Management specifically adapted to NAS management of storage area networks [SAN] G06F3/067
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/184 implemented as replicated file system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/214 Database migration support
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2282 Tablespace storage structures; Management thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2358 Change logging, detection, and notification replication G06F16/27
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/275 Synchronous replication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/061 : Improving I/O performance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 : in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 : Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0643 : Management of files
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 : Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 : Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

According to certain aspects, a system may include a data agent configured to: process a database file residing on a primary storage device(s) to identify a subset of data in the database file for archiving, the database file generated by a database application; and extract the subset of the data from the database file and store the subset of the data in an archive file on the primary storage device(s) as a plurality of blocks having a common size; and at least one secondary storage controller computer configured to, as part of a secondary copy operation in which the archive file is copied to a secondary storage device(s): copy the plurality of blocks to the secondary storage devices to create a secondary copy of the archive file; and create a table that provides a mapping between the copied plurality of blocks and corresponding locations in the secondary storage device(s).

Claims

1. An information management system for archiving and restoring database data, the system comprising:

a data agent comprising computer hardware configured to;

process a database file residing on one or more first storage devices to identify a subset of data in the database file for archiving, the database file generated by a database application executing on a client computing device comprising computer hardware;

extract the subset of the data from the database file and store the subset of the data in an archive file on the one or more first storage devices, the archive file contained within a first volume;

delete the subset of the data from the database file;

create a snapshot of the first volume, the snapshot of the first volume being stored on the one or more first storage devices; and

divide the snapshot of the first volume into a plurality of blocks having a common size; and

at least one secondary storage controller computer comprising hardware and residing in a secondary storage subsystem, the secondary storage controller computer configured to, as part of a secondary copy operation in which the snapshot of the first volume is copied to one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem;

receive the plurality of blocks over a network connection;

copy the plurality of blocks to the one or more secondary storage devices to create a secondary copy of the first volume; and

create a table that provides a mapping between the copied plurality of blocks and corresponding locations in the one or more secondary storage devices.

2. An information management system for archiving and restoring database data, the system comprising:

a data agent comprising computer hardware configured to;

process a database file residing on one or more primary storage devices in a primary storage subsystem to identify a subset of data in the database file for archiving, the database file generated by a database application executing on a client computing device comprising computer hardware;

extract the subset of the data from the database file and store the subset of the data in an archive file on one or more of the primary storage devices as a plurality of blocks having a common size; and

delete the subset of the data from the database file; and

at least one secondary storage controller computer comprising hardware and residing in a secondary storage subsystem, the secondary storage controller computer configured to, as part of a secondary copy operation in which the archive file is copied to one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem;

receive the plurality of blocks over a network connection;

copy the plurality of blocks to the one or more secondary storage devices to create a secondary copy of the archive file; and

create a table that provides a mapping between the copied plurality of blocks and corresponding locations in the one or more secondary storage devices;

wherein the archive file is deleted from the primary storage devices subsequent to the creation of the secondary copy of the archive file.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the archive file is organized as one or more database blocks and wherein a block of the plurality blocks includes multiple database blocks.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein:

the data agent is further configured to;

intercept a read operation by the database application to access one or more database blocks in the secondary copy of the archive file;

determine an offset of the one or more database blocks accessed by the read operation;

identify a block that corresponds to the offset; and

send a request to the at least one secondary storage controller computer to restore the identified block from the one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem; and

the at least one secondary storage controller computer is further configured to;

in response to receiving the request to restore the identified block;

access the table to determine the location of the identified block in the one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem; and

restore the requested block from the one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem to the primary storage subsystem.

5. The system of claim 4, further comprising a database archive server executing on a second computing device that is different from the client computing device on which the database application executes, the database archive server including a staging memory, wherein the secondary copy of the archive file is accessed through the user interface of the database archive server for the read operation, and wherein the at least one secondary storage controller computer is configured to restore the requested block at least in part by storing the requested block in the staging memory of the database archive server and forwarding the stored block in the staging memory to at least one of the one or more primary storage devices in the primary storage subsystem associated with the client computing device.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the secondary copy of the archive file is provided as a file system in the user interface of the database archive server and the one or more database blocks in the read operation are accessed through the file system.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the secondary copy of the archive file is provided as the file system in the user interface of the database archive server using a Network File System (NFS) protocol.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein a Network File System (NFS) server executing on the at least one secondary storage controller computer is configured to assign, as part of the secondary copy operation in which the archive file is copied to the one or more secondary storage devices, a second filepath for accessing the secondary copy of the archive file using the NFS protocol, wherein the second filepath is different from a filepath of the archive file.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the data agent executes on the at least one secondary storage controller computer on which the NFS server executes.

10. The system of claim 2, wherein the data agent is configured to extract the subset of the data from the database file and store the subset of the data in the archive file at least in part by instructing the database application to extract the subset of the data and create the archive file.

11. A method of archiving and restoring database data, the method comprising:

using a data agent comprising computer hardware;

processing a database file residing on one or more primary storage devices in a primary storage subsystem to identify a subset of the data in the database file for archiving, the database file generated by a database application executing on a client computing device comprising computer hardware;

extracting the subset of the data from the database file and storing the subset of the data in an archive file on one or more of the primary storage devices as a plurality of blocks having a common size; and

deleting the subset of the data from the database file; and

using at least one secondary storage controller computer comprising hardware and residing in a secondary storage subsystem, as part of a secondary copy operation in which the archive file is copied to one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem;

receiving the plurality of blocks over a network connection;

copying the plurality of blocks to the one or more secondary storage devices to create a secondary copy of the archive file; and

creating a table that provides a mapping between the copied plurality of blocks and corresponding locations in the one or more secondary storage devices;

wherein the archive file is deleted from the primary storage devices subsequent to the creation of the secondary copy of the archive file.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the archive file is organized as one or more database blocks and wherein a block of the plurality blocks includes multiple database blocks.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

using the data agent;

intercepting a read operation by the database application to access one or more database blocks in the secondary copy of the archive file;

determining an offset of the one or more database blocks accessed by the read operation;

identifying a block that corresponds to the offset; and

sending a request to the at least one secondary storage controller computer to restore the identified block from the one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem; and

using the at least one secondary storage controller computer;

in response to receiving the request to restore the identified block;

accessing the table to determine the location of the identified block in the one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem; and

restoring the requested block from the one or more secondary storage devices in the secondary storage subsystem to the primary storage subsystem.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein:

the secondary copy of the archive file is accessed through the user interface of a database archive server for the read operation, the database archive server executing on a second computing device comprising hardware that is different from the client computing device on which the database application executes, the database archive server including a staging memory; and

said restoring the requested block comprises storing the requested block in the staging memory of the database archive server and forwarding the stored block in the staging memory to at least one of the one or more primary storage devices in the primary storage subsystem associated with the client computing device.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the secondary copy of the archive file is provided as a file system in the user interface of the database archive server and the one or more database blocks in the read operation are accessed through the file system.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the secondary copy of the archive file is provided as the file system in the user interface of the database archive server using a Network File System (NFS) protocol.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

using a Network File System (NFS) server executing on the at least one secondary storage controller computer;

assigning, as part of the secondary copy operation in which the archive file is copied to the one or more secondary storage devices, a second filepath for accessing the secondary copy of the archive file using the NFS protocol, wherein the second filepath is different from a filepath of the archive file.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the data agent executes on the at least one secondary storage controller computer on which the NFS server executes.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein said extracting the subset of the data from the database file and storing the subset of the data in the archive file comprises, using the data agent, instructing the database application to extract the subset of the data and create the archive file.