No touch synthetic full backup

• US 8,442,945 B1
• Filed: 01/03/2012
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Quantum Corporation (Chi Ko Investment Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Quantum Corporation (Chi Ko Investment Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Doerner, Don
• Primary Examiner(s): Hwa, Shyue Jiunn
• Application Number:
  US13/342,753
• Time in Patent Office: 497 Days
• Field of Search: 707/665, 707/609, 707/640, 711/100, 711/154, 711/161
• US Class Current: 707/655
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data

Abstract

Example apparatus and methods concern no touch synthetic full backups where a new backup is created using information about previous backups but without reading data from the existing backups. The no touch synthetic backup can be created by correlating file system information, backup specification information, and dedupe system information. One example method includes accessing a set of target extents associated with a synthetic backup image overlay specification and accessing a set of source extents associated with a file stored in a previous backup image. The set of source extents are selected so that they can provide data sufficient to cover the data described in the set of target extents. The method includes creating a set of correlation extents that bridge the gap between the original specification and the final specification.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

accessing a synthetic backup overlay specification that describes a backup data stream in terms of a first set of extents that may overlap, where the backup data stream can be described in terms of one or more previous backup data streams and where the data for the backup data stream is available in the one or more previous backup data streams;

normalizing the synthetic backup overlay specification into a first normalized overlay specification that describes the backup stream in terms of a second set of extents that do not overlap;

identifying a set of constituent files from which the second set of extents can be satisfied;

creating a constituent file overlay specification from the set of constituent files, where the constituent file overlay specification describes a third set of extents in terms of binary large objects from which the second set of extents can be satisfied;

normalizing the constituent file overlay specification into a second normalized overlay specification, and

creating a third overlay specification from the first normalized overlay specification and the second normalized overlay specification by resolving the second set of extents using the third set of extents, where the third overlay specification has the form of a set of (B_s, P_s, L, P_t), where

B_s refers to a binary large object (BLOB),

P_s refers to a source offset in the BLOB referred to by B_s,

L refers to a length of an extent starting at P_s in B_s, and

P_t refers to a target offset in a target backup image,

where s and t are integers.

2. The method of claim 1, where the synthetic backup overlay specification comprises a set of descriptors of the form (F_i, O_i, L_i, OT_i),

where:

F_i represents an ith file in the set,

O_i represents an offset in the ith file,

L_i represents a length in the ith file, and

OT_i represents an offset in a target image,

where i is an integer.

3. The method of claim 2, where the first normalized overlay specification comprises a set of descriptors of the form (F_j, O_j, L_j, OT_j),

where:

F_j represents a jth file in the set,

O_j represents an offset in the jth file,

L_j represents a length in the jth file, and

OT_j represents an offset in the target image,

where j is an integer.

4. The method of claim 3, where the constituent file overlay specification comprises a set of descriptors of the form (B_k, O_k, L_k),

where:

B_k represents a kth BLOB in the set,

O_k represents an offset in the kth BLOB, and

L_k represents a length in the kth BLOB,

where k is an integer.

5. The method of claim 4, where the second normalized overlay specification comprises a set of descriptors of the form (B_m, O_m, L_m),

where:

B_m represents an mth BLOB in the set,

O_m represents an offset in the mth BLOB, and

L_m represents a length in the mth BLOB,

where m is an integer.

6. The method of claim 1, where resolving the second set of extents using the third set of extents comprises identifying one or more members of the third set of extents from which data in the members of the second set of extents can be acquired.

7. The method of claim 1, where the synthetic backup overlay specification is provided by a backup application associated with a file system, and where the backup application has previously provided one or more backup overlay specifications for which one or more backup images have been created.

8. The method of claim 1, where the target backup image is a no touch dedupe centric backup image from which retrieved data can be provided to satisfy a request from a file system for backed up data, where the retrieved data can be provided from a block pool associated with a dedupe system that stores unique data for the file system.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising creating the target backup image without reading data from the one or more previous backup data streams.

10. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a set of logics; and

an interface to connect the processor, the memory, and the set of logics, the set of logics comprising;

a first logic configured to normalize a synthetic backup overlay specification into a first normalized overlay specification that describes a backup stream in terms of a second set of extents that do not overlap, where the synthetic backup overlay specification describes a backup data stream in terms of a first set of extents that may overlap, where the backup data stream can be described in terms of one or more previous backup data streams and where the data for the backup data stream is available in the one or more previous backup data streams;

a second logic configured to identify a set of constituent files from which the second set of extents can be satisfied, to create a constituent file overlay specification from the set of constituent files, where the constituent file overlay specification describes a third set of extents in terms of binary large objects from which the second set of extents can be satisfied, and to normalize the constituent file overlay specification into a second normalized overlay specification; and

a third logic configured to create a third overlay specification from the first normalized overlay specification and the second normalized overlay specification by resolving the second set of extents using the third set of extents,

where the third overlay specification has the form of a set of B_s, P_s, L, P₁), where

B_s refers to a binary large object (BLOB),

P_s refers to a source offset in the BLOB referred to B_s,

L refers to a length of an extent starting at P_s in B_s and

P_t refers to a tar et offset in a tar et backup image,

where s and t are integers.

11. The apparatus of claim 10:

where the first normalized overlay specification comprises a set of descriptors of the form (F_j, O_j, L_j, OT_j), where;

F_j represents a jth file in the set,

O_j represents an offset in the jth file,

L_j represents a length in the jth file, and

OT_j represents an offset in the target image,

where the constituent file overlay specification comprises a set of descriptors of the form (B_k, O_k, L_k), where;

B_k represents a kth BLOB in the set,

O_k represents an offset in the kth BLOB, and

L_k represents a length in the kth BLOB, and

where the second normalized overlay specification comprises a set of descriptors of the form (B_m, O_m, L_m), where;

B_m represents an mth BLOB in the set,

O_m represents an offset in the mth BLOB, and

L_m represents a length in the mth BLOB,

where j, k, and m are integers.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, where the third logic is configured to resolve the second set of extents using the third set of extents by identifying one or more members of the third set of extents from which data in the members of the second set of extents can be acquired.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, comprising a fourth logic configured to receive a request for backed up data, the request being provided in terms of the synthetic backup image, to access the dedupe based backup image specification, and to provide the backed up data from the block pool using the dedupe based backup image specification.