Methods of consistent data protection for multi-server applications

• US 7,930,359 B2
• Filed: 02/03/2009
• Issued: 04/19/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2009
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Tevis, Gregory John, Elrom, Ofer, Raichstein, Eran
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, VIET DUY
• Application Number:
  US12/365,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20100198949A1
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: 709/213, 709/214, 709/215, 709/216, 709/223, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/214
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/273 Asynchronous replication or reconciliation

Abstract

A method according to one embodiment includes receiving a request to perform a snapshot of data associated with an application running on multiple servers; coordinating I/O Freezers on different servers for freezing data requests from instances of the application running on the servers; and after determining that the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests, requesting initiation of a snapshot operation to take the snapshot of the data.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

automatically discovering servers running instances of an application;

automatically discovering storage devices associated with each instance of the application;

receiving a request to perform a snapshot of data associated with an application running on multiple servers;

instructing I/O Freezers on different servers to freeze data requests from instances of the application running on the servers;

determining whether the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests;

after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests, instructing the I/O Freezers to initiate snapshot processing on the data associated with the application so that the I/O Freezers perform the snapshot processing within the same window of synchronization;

determining whether the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing; and

after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing, instructing the I/O Freezers to no longer freeze the data requests.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining an association of the I/O Freezers with the application.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically discovering operating system and configuration information associated with each instance of the application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein data requests made during the freezing are copied and applied after the I/O Freezers are instructed to no longer freeze the data requests.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data requests from the instances of the application are rejected during the freezing.

6. A method, comprising:

automatically discovering servers running instances of an application;

automatically discovering storage devices associated with each instance of the application;

automatically discovering operating system and configuration information associated with each instance of the application;

receiving a request to perform a snapshot of data associated with an application running on multiple servers;

determining an association of I/O Freezers on the servers with the application;

instructing the I/O Freezers on different servers to freeze data requests from instances of the application running on the servers;

determining whether the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests;

after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests, instructing the I/O Freezers to initiate snapshot processing on the data associated with the application so that the I/O Freezers perform the snapshot processing within the same window of synchronization;

determining whether the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing; and

after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing, instructing the I/O Freezers to no longer freeze the data requests,

wherein data requests made during the freezing are copied and applied after the I/O Freezers are instructed to no longer freeze the data requests.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the discovering is performed at predetermined intervals.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the discovering is performed upon occurrence of a predefined event.