Methods and systems to backup data

• US 7,272,619 B1
• Filed: 10/21/2004
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Veritas Operating Corporation (Gen Digital Inc.)
• Inventors: Bromley, Graham, Lanzatella, Thomas W., Wu, Weibao
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong; Cam Y T
• Application Number:
  US10/970,541
• Time in Patent Office: 1,062 Days
• Field of Search: 707200-205, 711162-163
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99952 Coherency, e.g. same view to multiple users
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99955 Archiving or backup

Abstract

Methods and systems to backup data are provided. A first computing device identifies data to backup and stabilizes a frozen image of that data. Next, the frozen image is decomposed into physical storage addresses housing the data. The decomposed storage addresses are sent to a second computing device. The second computing device uses the storage addresses along with existing operating system I/O operations to backup the data to computer readable media.

Claims

1. A method to backup data, comprising:

initiating, at a first computing device, a backup operation to backup a specified set of target data;

identifying, from the first computing device, one or more physical storage addresses corresponding to the specified set of target data;

transmitting the one or more physical storage addresses to a second computing device; and

completing the backup operation from the second computing device, wherein said completing comprises;

determining, prior to backing up data from a particular physical storage address of the one or more physical storage addresses, whether the particular physical storage address remains valid for the specified set of target data; and

if the particular physical storage address is no longer valid,

obtaining a new physical storage address to access data that was previously accessible at the particular physical storage address;

issuing input/output (I/O) operations to copy data from the new physical storage address to non-volatile storage.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the target data comprises at least one of a file, a set of files, a file system, a set of file systems, a volume, or a set of volumes.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second computing devices are interfaced with a storage area network (SAN).

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the I/O operations include a read operation and a write operation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the non-volatile storage comprises a magnetic tape device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the I/O operations are provided by an operating system in use at the second computing device, wherein the operating system is Unix, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows NT, Linux, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris, Netware, or OS/2.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein in issuing the I/O operations, a read operation requires parameters derived from the one or more physical storage addresses, wherein the parameters include a storage device identifier, a starting block within a storage device identified by the storage device identifier, and a total number of blocks to read within the storage device beginning at the starting block.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said completing further comprises:

if the particular physical storage address remains valid, issuing I/O operations to copy data from the particular physical storage address to non-volatile storage.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining whether the particular physical storage address remains valid for the specified set of target data comprises detecting whether a configuration identifier associated with a version of the specified set of target data has changed.

10. A system for backing up data, comprising:

a first computing device, and

a second computing device;

wherein the first computing device is configured to;

initiate a backup operation to backup a specified set of data;

identify one or more physical storage addresses corresponding to the specified set of data;

provide the one or more physical storage addresses to the second computing device; and

wherein the second computing device is configured to;

complete the backup operation, wherein said completing comprises;

determining, prior to backing up data from a particular physical storage address of the one or more physical storage addresses, whether the particular physical storage address remains valid for the specified set of target data;

if the physical storage address is no longer valid,

obtaining a new physical storage address of data that was previously accessible at the particular physical storage address;

issuing input/output (I/O) operations to copy data from the new physical storage address to non-volatile storage.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said completing further comprises:

if the particular physical storage address remains valid, issuing I/O operations to copy data from the particular physical storage address to non-volatile storage.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said determining whether the particular physical storage address remains valid for the specified set of target data comprises detecting whether a configuration identifier associated with the specified set of target data has changed.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more physical storage addresses correspond to physical storage locations of a transactionally consistent version of the specified set of data.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more physical storage addresses correspond to a frozen image of the specified set of data.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the first computing device incorporates a first operating system, and wherein the second computing device incorporates a second operating system different from the first operating system.

16. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the one or more physical storage addresses comprise at least one absolute extent and at least one relative extent.

17. A computer-readable storage medium comprising program instructions to implement a backup service, wherein the instructions are computer-executable to:

initiate, at a first computing device, a backup operation to backup a specified set of data;

identify, at the first computing device, one or more physical storage addresses corresponding to the specified set of data;

provide the one or more physical storage addresses from the first computing device to a second computing device; and

complete the backup operation from the second computing device, wherein said completing comprises;

determining, prior to backing up data from a particular physical storage address of the one or more physical storage addresses, whether the particular physical storage address remains valid for the specified set of target data;

if the particular physical storage address is no longer valid,

obtaining a new physical storage address of data that was previously accessible at the particular physical storage address;

issuing input/output (I/O) operations to copy data from the new physical storage address to non-volatile storage.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein said completing further comprises:

if the physical storage address remains valid, issuing (I/O) operations to copy data from the particular physical storage address to non-volatile storage.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein said determining whether the physical storage address remains valid for the specified set of target data comprises detecting whether a configuration identifier associated with the specified set of target data has changed.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more physical storage addresses correspond to physical storage locations of a transactionally consistent version of the specified set of data.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the one or more physical storage addresses correspond to a frozen image of the specified set of data.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the physical storage address corresponds to a location at a first storage device linked to a storage area network (SAN), and wherein in completing the backup operation, the second computing device copies the data from the physical storage address to a location at a second storage device linked to the SAN.