Techniques for backup error management

• US 8,117,492 B1
• Filed: 01/29/2010
• Issued: 02/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Searls, Kirk, Dowers, Gregory Robert II
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Jr., Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): MILES, NEIL D
• Application Number:
  US12/696,891
• Time in Patent Office: 746 Days
• Field of Search: 707/654, 714/6.1
• US Class Current: 714/6.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0793 Remedial or corrective actions recovery from an exception in an instruction pipeline G06F9/3861; by retry G06F11/1402; for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity H04L69/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process

Abstract

Techniques for backup error management are disclosed. In one particular exemplary embodiment, the techniques may be realized as a method for backup error management comprising receiving a backup job error from a backup job, providing an error indicator and at least one user selectable option, receiving a user input corresponding to the at least one user selectable option, and modifying a backup policy to address the error based at least in part on the received user input.

Claims

1. A method for backup error management comprising:

receiving a first backup job error from a backup job;

providing an error indicator and at least one user selectable option;

receiving a user input corresponding to the at least one user selectable option; and

modifying a backup policy based at least in part on the received user input and the first backup error, wherein modifying the backup policy comprises at least one of;

ignoring a second backup job error in a subsequent instance of the backup job; and

excluding a resource from a subsequent instance of the backup job; and

providing an option to allow a user to specify an exclusion duration time period of at least one resource.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the error indicator is provided in a backup job log containing contextual information associated with the error.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one user selectable option comprises an option to exclude a resource associated with the error from the backup job.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the resource is excluded from subsequent instances of the backup job.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the resource is excluded from all future backup jobs.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising excluding all resources of a specified category from the backup job.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the specified category comprises at least one of:

resource hardware type, resource owner, resource group, resource location, resource network location, and resource status.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the exclusion duration is specified by at least one of:

a time period, a number of backup jobs run, and a criteria that must be met to end exclusion.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one user selectable option comprises an option to ignore an error for the backup job.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one user selectable option further comprises an option to ignore an error for all future backup jobs.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising ignoring all errors of a specified category from the backup job.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising providing an option allowing a user to specify a duration during which the error is ignored in the backup job.

13. At least one non-transitory processor readable storage medium for storing a computer program of instructions configured to be readable by at least one processor for instructing the at least one processor to execute a computer process for performing the method as recited in claim 1.

14. An article of manufacture for backup error management, the article of manufacture comprising:

at least one non-transitory processor readable storage medium; and

instructions stored on the at least one medium;

wherein the instructions are configured to be readable from the at least one medium by at least one processor and thereby cause the at least one processor to operate so as to;

receive a first backup job error from a backup job;

provide an error indicator and at least one user selectable option;

receive a user input corresponding to the at least one user selectable option;

modify a backup policy based at least in part on the received user input and the first backup error, wherein modifying the backup policy comprises at least one of;

ignoring a second backup error in a subsequent instance of the backup job; and

excluding a resource from a subsequent instance of the backup job; and

providing an option to allow a user to specify an exclusion duration time period of at least one resource.

15. A system for backup error management comprising:

one or more processors communicatively coupled to a network;

wherein the one or more processors are configured to;

receive a first backup job error from a backup job;

provide an error indicator and at least one user selectable option;

receive a user input corresponding to the at least one user selectable option; and

modify a backup policy based at least in part on the received user input and the first backup error, wherein modifying the backup policy comprises at least one of;

ignoring a second backup error in a subsequent instance of the backup job; and

excluding a resource from a subsequent instance of the backup job; and

providing an option to allow a user to specify an exclusion duration time period of at least one resource.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the error indicator is provided in a backup job log containing contextual information associated with the error.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one user selectable option comprises an option to exclude a resource associated with the error from the backup job.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising excluding all resources of a specified category from the backup job.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the at least one user selectable option comprises an option to ignore an error for the backup job.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the exclusion duration is further specified by at least one of:

a number of backup jobs run and a criteria that must be met to end exclusion.