System and method for on-the-fly migration of server from backup
First Claim
1. A method of migrating a server, the method comprising:
- creating a block-based image of a storage device of a first server, the image comprising a bitmap;
during execution of a boot loader on a second server, starting an initialization application that restores blocks of an operating system data from the image to a storage device of the second server required to start the second server under the control of the operating system;
analyzing a hardware configuration of the second server;
modifying on the storage device of the second server, hardware support software of the operating system based on the analyzed hardware configuration to enable the operating system to interface to hardware devices of the second server;
partially using the image data as the local drive data of the second server;
running the second server under the control of the operating system using the image data, restored blocks of the operating system data and the modified operating system data; and
restoring unaltered portions of remaining data from the image while running the second server, wherein the unaltered portions of remaining data from the image are restored based on marked sections of the bitmap, and wherein the boot loader is executed while the first server is hot-migrated on-the-fly and the second server is started during the hot-migration.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system, method and computer program product for migrating a server include creating an image of a storage device of a first server; during execution of a boot loader on a second server, starting an initialization application that at least partially restores, to a storage device of the second server, operating system data from the image; analyzing a hardware configuration of the second server; modifying at least one driver of an operating system based on the analyzed hardware to enable the operating system of the second server to interface to the storage device of the second server; rebooting the second server using the at least partially restored operating system data; and restoring unaltered portions of remaining data from the image. The second server identification and/or authentication data stored on the image is updated before the rebooting. Identification data of the second server is at least partially replaced with corresponding data stored on the image. The image is unchanged until completion of the restoring step. The restoring is performed over a network. The image is created on the computing system connected to the server over a network. More than one storage device is restored from the image. The restoration step uses an incremental image of the storage device. A boot loader is started in case of failure of the first server.
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Citations
35 Claims
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1. A method of migrating a server, the method comprising:
- creating a block-based image of a storage device of a first server, the image comprising a bitmap;
during execution of a boot loader on a second server, starting an initialization application that restores blocks of an operating system data from the image to a storage device of the second server required to start the second server under the control of the operating system;
analyzing a hardware configuration of the second server;
modifying on the storage device of the second server, hardware support software of the operating system based on the analyzed hardware configuration to enable the operating system to interface to hardware devices of the second server;
partially using the image data as the local drive data of the second server;
running the second server under the control of the operating system using the image data, restored blocks of the operating system data and the modified operating system data; and
restoring unaltered portions of remaining data from the image while running the second server, wherein the unaltered portions of remaining data from the image are restored based on marked sections of the bitmap, and wherein the boot loader is executed while the first server is hot-migrated on-the-fly and the second server is started during the hot-migration. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
- creating a block-based image of a storage device of a first server, the image comprising a bitmap;
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19. A method for improving system stability after failure of a main server, the method comprising:
- creating backup files of the main server on a storage device using a block-based backup;
after failure of the main server, repairing the main server;
starting on a reserve server an initialization application that at least partially restores operating system data on the reserve server from the backed up data;
analyzing a hardware configuration of the reserve server;
updating the operating system of the main server that is stored on the storage device to match restored operating system to hardware configuration of the reserve server;
running the reserve server using backed up content of the main server and updated operating system;
after repairing the main server, moving content of the reserve server to the main server, wherein the moving of the content includes an on-the-fly hot migration process from the reserve server to the main server, and wherein the unaltered portions of remaining data from the image are restored based on marked sections of a bitmap that represents the block-based backup;
starting the main server during the hot migration process; and
shutting down the reserve server. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
- creating backup files of the main server on a storage device using a block-based backup;
Specification