Method and apparatus for restoring a corrupted data volume

• US 7,293,146 B1
• Filed: 05/23/2005
• Issued: 11/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kiselev, Oleg, Colgrove, John A., Karr, Ronald S., Kekre, Anand A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore; Reba I.
• Application Number:
  US11/134,932
• Time in Patent Office: 897 Days
• Field of Search: 711/105, 711/111, 711/162, 711/165
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for restoring a corrupted data volume. In one embodiment, the method includes creating a backup copy of the data volume before the data volume is corrupted. Data transactions that modify the contents of the data volume are stored in a transaction log. After detection of the data corruption, a virtual copy of the backup copy is created. Thereafter, select data transactions stored in the transaction log, are applied to the virtual copy. Data of the corrupted data volume is then overwritten with data of the backup copy and data of the virtual copy after applying data transactions to the virtual copy.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

creating a backup copy of a data volume before the data volume is corrupted;

creating a virtual copy of the backup copy after the data volume is corrupted;

modifying data of the virtual copy according to one or more transactions stored in a transaction log;

overwriting data of the corrupted data volume with modified data of the virtual copy.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the corrupted data volume is overwritten modified data of the virtual copy until the data volume is in a data state that existed between a time the backup copy was created and a time the data volume was corrupted.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising overwriting data of the corrupted data volume with data of the backup copy.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the corrupted data volume is overwritten with data of the backup copy and modified data of the virtual copy until the data volume is in a data state that existed just before the data volume was corrupted.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the corrupted data volume is overwritten with data of the backup copy and modified data of the virtual copy until the data volume is in a data state that existed between a time the backup copy was created and a time the data volume was corrupted.

6. A method comprising:

creating copies of first and second data portions of a data volume;

modifying data of the first and second data portions of the data volume according to first and second transactions, respectively, wherein the copies of the first and second data portions are created before modifying data of the first and second data portions of the data volume according to the first and second transactions, respectively;

creating a copy of the first data portion copy;

modifying data of the copy of the first data portion copy according to the first transaction;

overwriting the modified first data portion of the data volume with the modified data of the copy of the first data portion copy.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising overwriting the second volume portion with the second data volume portion copy after the modification of data of the second data portion of the volume in accordance with the second transaction.

8. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

generating a third transaction for modifying data of the first data portion of the data volume, wherein the modified first data portion of the volume is overwritten with the modified data of the copy of the first data portion copy in response to generation of the third transaction;

modifying data of the first data portion of the volume in accordance with the third transaction after overwriting the modified first data portion of the data volume with the modified copy of the first data portion copy.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

generating a fourth transaction to modify data of the second data portion of the volume, wherein the second data portion of the volume is overwritten with the second data portion copy stored response to generation of the fourth transaction;

wherein data of the second data portion of the volume is modified according to the fourth instruction, wherein the second data portion of the volume is overwritten with the second data portion copy before data of the second data portion of the volume is modified according to the fourth instruction.

10. A method comprising:

storing a plurality of data transactions in memory;

copying data from a plurality of volume blocks to a plurality of memory blocks, respectively;

modifying data in each of the plurality of volume blocks according to the plurality of data transactions, respectively, wherein data in each of the volume blocks is copied to a respective memory block before modification;

switching the state of a plurality of first bits in memory, wherein the plurality of first bits corresponds to the plurality of volume blocks, respectively;

switching the state of a plurality of second bits in memory, wherein the plurality of second bits corresponds to the plurality of memory blocks, respectively.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

creating a copy of one of the plurality of memory blocks;

modifying data in the copy according to one of the plurality of data transactions.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

overwriting data of one of the plurality of volume blocks with data of a respective memory block, and;

overwriting data of another of the plurality of volume blocks with data of the copy after data of the copy is modified according to one of the plurality of data transactions.

13. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

creating respective copies of data from a subset of the plurality of memory blocks;

modifying data in the copies in accordance with a subset of the plurality of data transactions, respectively.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

overwriting data of a first subset of the plurality of volume blocks with data of respective memory blocks, and;

overwriting data of a second subset of the plurality of volume blocks with data of respective copies after modifying data in the respective copies in accordance with the subset of the plurality of data transactions, respectively.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

switching the state of third bits in memory, wherein the third bits correspond to the copies, respectively.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising:

overwriting data in volume blocks with data of respective copies if third bits corresponding to the respective copies were switched from one state to the other.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

overwriting data of volume blocks with data of respective memory blocks for each volume block having (1) data which is not overwritten by data of a respective copy and (2) a corresponding first bit with a switched state.