System and method for on-the-fly migration of server from backup

• US 7,937,612 B1
• Filed: 05/14/2010
• Issued: 05/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MidCap Financial Trust
• Original Assignee: Acronis, Inc. (Acronis AG)
• Inventors: Beloussov, Serguei M., Tormasov, Alexander G., Lyadvinsky, Maxim V., Tsypliaev, Maxim V.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wilson; Yolanda L
• Application Number:
  US12/780,679
• Time in Patent Office: 354 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1417 Boot up procedures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484

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 restoration step uses an incremental image of the storage device. A boot loader is started in case of failure of the first server.

Claims

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;

while the first server is hot-migrated on-the-fly and a second server is started during the hot-migration, executing a boot loader on the second server, and restoring, from the image, to the second server, those blocks of an operating system data that are needed to start the second server;

modifying parameters of the second server'"'"'s operating system based on a hardware configuration of the second server, to enable interfacing to hardware of the second server;

using at least some of the image data as a local drive data of the second server;

running the second server using the image data, the restored blocks of the operating system data and the modified operating system parameters; and

while the second server is running, based on the bitmap, restoring unaltered portions of remaining data from the image.

2. The method of claim 1, when a snapshot of the first server is used as the image.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising hibernation of the second server, wherein the snapshot further comprises a hiberfile of the first server.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the second server identification and authentication data stored in the image is updated before the rebooting.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein updating of the operating system is performed using at least one driver substitution.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least partially replacing identification data of the second server with corresponding data stored in the image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the restoring is performed over a network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is created on a computing system connected to the first server over a network.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the image is created on any server in a network, including the first server.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the second server is a virtual server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein a remainder of the image is transferred gradually over time after the second server becomes operational.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the restoration step uses an incremental image of the storage device.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein unused blocks and bad blocks are ignored when the image is created, and are not subsequently restored.

14. A method for improving system stability after failure of a main server, the method comprising:

creating a block-based backup of files of the main server and a corresponding bitmap;

after failure of the main server, repairing the main server;

restoring, from the backup, on a reserve server, operating system data;

updating parameters of an operating system of the reserve server to match a hardware configuration of the reserve server;

running the reserve server using the backup and the updated parameters;

after repairing the main server, hot-migrating contents of the reserve server to the main server, wherein the unaltered portions of remaining data from the image are restored based on marked sections of the bitmap; and

starting the main server during the hot migration process.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein content of the reserve server contains restored portion of the backed up data, altered portion of the backed up data and unrestored portion of the backed up data.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the updating includes at least one driver substitution.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the main server starts up after the restoration using online migration of the reserve server to the main server.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein the main server restoration uses any one of a plurality of restoration points.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein the main server restoration uses snapshot of the reserve server.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the main server is restored from hiberfile of the reserve server.