BACKUP AND RESTORATION OF FILE SYSTEM

• US 20170075771A1
• Filed: 09/10/2015
• Published: 03/16/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Matsui, Sosuke, Miyamura, Tsuyoshi, Oishi, Yutaka, Tsuda, Takahiro, Yamamoto, Noriko
• Granted Patent: US 10,802,928 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

A method for restoring a target file system in a storage system by a computer system, the computer system being connected to a network, the storage system including a tier of sequential access media, the method includes receiving a backup image including metadata of a file of the target file system, from a remote computer system via the network, the metadata indicating a sequential access medium, and restoring the metadata of the target file system using the backup image, the target file system being restored on the computer system by sharing a resource with a native file system operating on the computer system.

Claims

1. A method for restoring a target file system in a storage system by a computer system, the computer system being connected to a network, the storage system including a tier of sequential access media, the method comprising:

receiving a backup image including metadata of a file of the target file system, from a remote computer system via the network, the metadata indicating a sequential access medium; and

restoring the metadata of the target file system using the backup image, the target file system being restored on the computer system by sharing a resource with a native file system operating on the computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the restoring is performed repeatedly based on a predetermined schedule.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the backup image is a base image of the target file system for a first time and is an incremental or differential image of the target file system for a second time or later.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

updating a status of the file in the metadata of the restored target file system so as to indicate that the file is stored in the tier of the sequential access media and is not stored in an upper tier above the tier of the sequential access media.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

adding the sequential access medium storing the file to the storage system; and

recalling the file from the sequential access medium in response to an access request to the file.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the sequential access medium is a tape medium and the target file system is a clustered file system integrated with the tier of the tape medium.

7. A method for backing up a target file system in a storage system by a computer system, the computer system being connected to a network, the storage system including a tier of sequential access media, the method comprising:

acquiring a backup image including metadata of a file from the target file system, the metadata indicating a sequential access medium; and

transferring the backup image to a remote computer system via the network, the backup image being used to restore the metadata of the target file system by sharing a resource with a remote site file system operating on the remote computer system.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the acquiring and the transferring are performed repeatedly based on a predetermined schedule.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the backup image is a base image of the target file system for a first time and is an incremental or differential image of the target file system for a second time or later.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

copying the file to the sequential access medium and updating the metadata of the file so as to indicate that the file is stored in the tier of the sequential access media; and

removing the sequential access medium from the storage system.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the sequential access medium is a tape medium and the target file system is a clustered file system integrated with the tier of the tape media.

12. A computer system for restoring a target file system in a storage system, the computer system being connected to a network, the storage system including a tier of sequential access media, the computer system comprising:

one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or more computer-readable tangible storage devices, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, wherein the computer system is capable of performing a method comprising;

receiving a backup image including metadata of a file of the target file system, from a remote computer system via a network, the metadata indicating a sequential access medium; and

restoring the metadata of the target file system using the backup image, the target file system being restored on the computer system by sharing a resource with a native file system operating on the computer system.

13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the restoring is performed repeatedly based on a predetermined schedule.

14. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the backup image is a base image of the target file system for a first time and is an incremental or differential image of the target file system for a second time or later.

15. The computer system of claim 12, further comprising:

updating a status of the file in the metadata of the restored target file system so as to indicate that the file is stored in the tier of the sequential access media and is not stored in an upper tier above the tier of the sequential access media.

16. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising:

adding the sequential access medium storing the file to the storage system; and

recalling the file from the sequential access medium in response to an access request to the file.

17. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the sequential access medium is a tape medium and the target file system is a clustered file system integrated with the tier of the tape medium.