Exchange server method and system

• US 7,155,633 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2003
• Issued: 12/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kioxia Corporation
• Original Assignee: Solid Data Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Tuma, George B., Tuma, Wade B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): URICK, MATTHEW T
• Application Number:
  US10/731,636
• Publication Number:
  US 20050144520A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,114 Days
• Field of Search: 714/5, 714/6, 711/161, 711/162
• US Class Current: 714/5.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• 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

A method, system and computer program for a computer message storage system such as electronic mail. This involves instancing a software archiver to relocate messages according to age and instancing a software backup subsystem to backup storage groups, to maintain a patch file and to copy to a backup file.

Claims

1. A message storage system comprising:

a network attached storage server;

and

an exchange server coupled to the network attached storage server through a network, the exchange server comprising;

a rotating disk store;

a solid state store comprising an exchange database;

a computing engine coupled to the rotating disk store and the solid state store, the computing engine comprising;

a scheduler having programmed instructions operable to instance an archiver and a software backup to execute alternately,

the archiver having programmed instructions operable to relocate to a queue a first plurality of messages selected from the exchange database according to a criterion of age and further operable to relocate the first plurality of messages from the queue to the network attached storage server,

the software backup having programmed instructions operable to partition the exchange database into a plurality of storage groups, and for each respective storage group comprising a second plurality of messages, to maintain a patch file and to copy a set of images of the second plurality of messages to a backup file, the patch file operable to record a plurality of transactions applied to the respective storage group throughout the period of the copying of the set of images.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the scheduler is further operable to prevent concurrent execution of the archiver and the software backup.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the backup file resides on the rotating disk store.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the backup file resides on the network attached storage server.

5. A method for message storage comprising the acts of:

instancing an archiver having programmed instructions operable to relocate to a queue a first plurality of messages selected from an exchange database located on a solid state store according to a criterion of age and further operable to relocate the first plurality of messages from the queue to a network attached storage server;

instancing a software backup having programmed instructions operable to partition the exchange database into a plurality of storage groups, and for each respective storage group comprising a second plurality of messages, to maintain a patch file and to copy a set of images of the second plurality of messages to a backup file, the patch file operable to record a plurality of transactions applied to the respective storage group throughout the period of the copying of the set of images; and

repeating the instancings periodically, whereby archive and backup activities are performed alternatively and periodically.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

providing a scheduler operable to prevent concurrent execution of the software archiver subsystem and the software backup subsystem.

7. The method of claim 5 wherein the backup file resides on the network attached storage server.

8. A set of computer executable codes embodied on a computer-readable medium for a message storage system comprising:

a first set of instructions operable to instance an archiver having programmed instructions operable to relocate to a queue a first plurality of messages selected from an exchange database located on a solid state store according to a criterion of age and further operable to relocate the first plurality of messages from the queue to a network attached storage server;

a second set of instructions operable to instance a software backup having programmed instructions operable to partition the exchange database into a plurality of storage groups, and for each respective storage group comprising a second plurality of messages, to maintain a patch file and to copy a set of images of the second plurality of messages to a backup file, the patch file operable to record a plurality of transactions applied to the respective storage group through the period of the copy of the set of images; and

a third set of instructions operable to repeat the first set of instructions and second set of instructions periodically.