Pseudosnapshot creation and implementation using continuous data protection

• US 7,765,190 B1
• Filed: 05/02/2006
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Buchman, Matthew D., Murthy, Venkatesha, Bingham, Scott Forrest, Rokicki, John C., Singhal, Upanshu
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Don
• Assistant Examiner(s): XUE, BIN
• Application Number:
  US11/381,339
• Time in Patent Office: 1,547 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/649
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/184 implemented as replicated file system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

Systems and methods for performing replication operations on a continuous data protection system. In one embodiment, a method includes identifying at least a portion of the series of transactions on the continuous data protection system to be included in the pseudosnapshot, identifying an initial time at which the pseudosnapshot begins, identifying a final time at which the pseudosnapshot ends, identifying a last transaction before the final time at which the pseudosnapshot ends, and creating an event marker identifying a particular point in time that the last transaction was saved on the continuous data protection system.

Claims

1. A system for performing replication operations comprising:

one or more computing devices having computer readable media storing executable instructions that when processed by the one or more computing devices cause the one or more computing devices to execute;

a continuous data protection system configured to save a series of transactions of a production application, the continuous data protection system configured to allow a point in time view of the series of transactions; and

a replication application communicating with the continuous data protection system, the replication application configured to initiate generation of at least one pseudosnapshot corresponding to the series of transactions saved on the continuous data protection system, wherein the replication application is configured to cause the production application to quiesce during the generation of the at least one pseudosnapshot, wherein each of the at least one pseudosnapshot includes an event marker that identifies a particular point in time of the series of transactions and corresponds to a quiescent state of the series of transactions at the particular point in time and wherein the at least one pseudosnapshot identifies a dataset corresponding to the particular point in time of the series of transactions, wherein data actually corresponding to the at least one psuedosnapshot is surfaced when the at least one pseudosnapshot is selected; and

a data tap configured to intercept the series of transactions of the production application and to communicate each of the series of transactions to the continuous data protection system.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the continuous data protection system further comprises a write journal configured to save the series of transactions.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one pseudosnapshot is generated by creating the event marker identifying the particular point in time after one of the transactions in the series of transactions is saved on the continuous data protection system.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the replication application is further configured to control the timing and frequency of the generation of the at least one pseudosnapshot.

5. The system as recited in claim 4, further comprising a graphical user interface communicating with at least one of the continuous data protection system or the replication application, the graphical user interface configured to allow a user to select the timing and frequency of the generation of the at least one pseudosnapshot.

6. A system for performing replication operations comprising:

one or more computing devices having computer readable media storing executable instructions that when processed by the one or more computing devices cause the one or more computing devices to execute;

a continuous data protection system configured to save a series of transactions of a production application, the continuous data protection system configured to allow a point in time view of the series of transactions;

a replication application communicating with the continuous data protection system, the replication application configured to initiate generation of at least one pseudosnapshot of the series of transactions saved on the continuous data protection system such that the pseudosnapshot appears as a snapshot in a graphical user interface, wherein the replication application is configured to cause the production application to quiesce during the generation of the at least one pseudosnapshot wherein each of the at least one pseudosnapshot includes an event marker that identifies a particular point in time of the series of transactions and that identifies a quiescent state of the series of transaction at the particular point in time and wherein the at least one pseudosnapshot identifies a dataset corresponding to the particular point in time of the series of transactions for surfacing when the at least one pseudosnapshot is selected, wherein a selection of the at least one pseudosnapshot is translated into a request to surface a copy of the dataset actually corresponding to the at least one pseudosnapshot; and

a configuration utility for maintaining configuration data for the continuous data protection system; and

a data tap configured to intercept the series of transactions of the production application and to communicate each of the series of transactions to the continuous data protection system.

7. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the configuration utility further comprises a configuration application program interface for allowing outside resources to communicate with the continuous data protection system.

8. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the configuration utility further comprises a configuration database for storing protection set data for defining the data to be protected by the continuous data protection system

9. The system as recited in claim 6, wherein the replication application further comprises a snapshot manager configured to manage the generation of the at least one pseudosnapshot.

10. The system as recited in claim 9, wherein the replication application further comprises a snapshot control manager configured to provide an interface between the snapshot manager and the continuous data protection system.

11. The system as recited in claim 10, wherein the snapshot control manager is further configured to access the configuration data from the configuration utility for customizing the generation of the at least one pseudosnapshot in accordance with the configuration data.

12. The system as recited in claim 6, further comprising a graphical user interface communicating with the configuration utility, the graphical user interface configured to receive at least a portion of the configuration data from a user and communicating the configuration data received from the user to the configuration utility.

13. In a system environment for performing replication operations using a continuous data protection system configured to save a series of transactions of a production application, a method for generating a pseudosnapshot, the method comprising:

identifying at least a portion of the series of transactions on the continuous data protection system to correspond to the pseudosnapshot;

identifying an initial time at which the pseudosnapshot begins;

identifying a final time at which the pseudosnapshot ends;

identifying a last transaction before the final time at which the pseudosnapshot ends and a last transaction before the initial time at which the pseudosnapshot begins;

quiescing the production application before creating an event marker;

creating an event marker identifying a particular point in time that the last transaction before the final time was saved on the continuous data protection system and a particular point in time that a last transaction before the initial time was saved on the continuous data protection system, wherein the event marker is included in the pseudosnapshot to identify a dataset in the continuous data protection system that can be reliably surfaced as a copy; and

storing the pseudosnapshot in a storage device.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the initial time at which the pseudosnapshot begins is a time at which the continuous data protection system began saving the series of transactions.

15. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising maintaining a record of the event marker in an index of event markers.