Synthetic full copies of data and dynamic bulk-to-brick transformation

• US 8,543,542 B2
• Filed: 10/02/2006
• Issued: 09/24/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Mimosa Systems Incorporated (Iron Mountain Incorporated)
• Inventors: D'Souza, Roy P., Ravi, Thirumalai Muppur
• Primary Examiner(s): Trujillo, James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Black, Linh
• Application Number:
  US11/541,856
• Publication Number:
  US 20070143365A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,549 Days
• Field of Search: 707/100, 707/102, 707/104.1, 707634-639, 707/651, 707/778, 707/786, 707/829, 707/610, 707615-616, 707/626
• US Class Current: 707/634
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2056 by mirroring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2071 using a plurality of controllers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2082 Data synchronisation

Abstract

Multi-dimensional surrogation systems and methods are provided that generate at least one up-to-date data surrogate using information of data and numerous data changes received from at least one data source, including a production system. Embodiments described further perform bulk-to-brick transformation of the up-to-date data surrogate. Brick-level data, or item data, is further indexed and stored in an application-aware manner. The stored item data is easily accessible by many data management applications for integrated item search and recovery functions, audit functions, monitoring and supervision functions, legal discovery functions, compliance functions, archival functions, backup functions, disaster recovery functions, and more. Bulk-to-brick transformation and access of the stored item data occur off of the production system, thus contributing no performance degradation to the production system.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of near-line server computers coupled to one or more servers that include original data, the plurality of near-line server computers comprising a first near-line server coupled to a second near-line server; and

an information system coupled to the plurality of near-line server computers and configured to execute under processor control and receive a copy of original data and delta data that includes data of at least one of an incremental difference and a differential difference between the original data at a plurality of instances, wherein the information system is application aware, the information system configured to continuously generate and maintain in computer storage associated with the first near-line server an updated version of the copy by applying the delta data to the copy as the delta data is received, the information system generating and maintaining a replica of the updated version in computer storage associated with the second near-line server, the information system configured to dynamically transform the updated version from a first structure by organizing items of the data into a second structure that preserves the hierarchy of the first structure including indexing difference information corresponding to modified items of data.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein configured to generate and maintain is asynchronous with the receiving.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein configured to apply includes applying according to an interval, wherein the interval is based on one or more of time and events.

4. The system of claim 1, configured to control the applying using modified information of a component.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the original data is stored at a first server and the copy is stored at a second server, wherein the component is a component of the second server.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the first server includes a near-line server.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the second server includes one or more of local servers, remote servers, database servers, messaging servers, electronic mail servers, instant messaging servers, voice-over Internet Protocol servers, collaboration servers, messaging and collaboration servers, Exchange Servers, portals, customer relationship management (CRM) servers, enterprise resource planning (ERP) servers, business-to-business servers, and content management servers.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the component includes structural metadata of the copy.

9. The system of claim 4, wherein the component includes a log file of the delta data.

10. The system of claim 4, configured to modify the component.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the component is structural metadata of the copy.

12. The system of claim 10, configured to modify by detecting a first state of the copy, wherein the first state indicates the delta data has been applied to the copy.

13. The system of claim 12, configured to modify by changing the first state to a second state, wherein the second state is a state from which another updated version can be generated by applying additional delta data to the updated version.

14. The system of claim 12, configured to change the first state to the second state by modifying the structural metadata of the copy.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the delta data is a plurality of log files, wherein the component is a log file of the plurality of log files.

16. The system of claim 15, configured to apply by invoking an engine of a first server hosting the original data and the controlling includes stalling the engine.

17. The system of claim 1, configured to determine the first structure, wherein the first structure is a proprietary structure.

18. The system of claim 17, configured to parse items of the data using information of the first structure.

19. The system of claim 18, configured to parse by systematically reading information of the data, the information including one or more of tables and items.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the tables include one or more of a mailbox table, a folder table, a message table, and an attachment table.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the items include one or more of a folder, a mailbox, an electronic mail body, an electronic mail header, and an electronic mail attachment.

22. The system of claim 1, configured to organize by indexing items of the data into the second structure.

23. The system of claim 22, configured to organize by traversing the first structure and locating information of the items.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the information of the items includes one or more of type and content of the items.

25. The system of claim 23, configured to index by:

generating indices corresponding to the items; and

associating the items with the indices using the information of the items.

26. The system of claim 23, configured to:

compare modification information of each item with modification information of a previous instance of the item; and

terminate the traversing at a current node of the first structure when the modification information shows the item is unmodified since the previous instance.

27. The system of claim 23, configured to:

determine whether an item is a previously-encountered item that has previously been stored in the second structure;

generate a pointer to the previously-encountered item.

28. The system of claim 23, configured to:

compare modification information of each item with modification information of a previous instance of the item; and

index difference information of the item when the modification information shows the item is modified since the previous instance.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the difference information includes information of changes between a current version and at least one previously-modified version of the item.

30. The system of claim 23, configured to organize by hashing information of each instance of the item by generating a checksum.

31. The system of claim 30, configured to determine if the item has been altered since the organizing by comparing checksums of different instances of the item in the second structure, the determining performed in response to a request to retrieve the item from the second structure.

32. The system of claim 30, configured to transfer the checksum to a hash table.

33. The system of claim 23, configured to decompose the item into at least one component.

34. The system of claim 22, configured to index by transferring the items into an indexed object repository.

35. The system of claim 22, configured to index by transferring metadata of the items into a metadata repository.

36. The system of claim 1, configured to provide access to at least a portion of the items in the second structure via a plurality of applications.

37. The system of claim 36, configured to provide access by providing access using a second protocol that is different from a first protocol used to access the data of the first structure.

38. The system of claim 1, configured to transfer the updated version to an indexed object repository.

39. The system of claim 1, configured to generate in near real-time and maintain complete integrity and consistency of the original data.

40. The system of claim 1, wherein the original data includes one or more of application data, databases, storage groups, mailbox data, and server data.

41. The system of claim 1, configured to maintain the updated version by generating another updated version by applying at least one set of log files to the updated version, the at least one set of log files received later in time than a plurality of log files.

42. A system comprising:

a plurality of near-line server computers coupled to one or more server computers that include original data, the plurality of near-line server computers comprising a first near-line server coupled to a second near-line server; and

an information system coupled to the plurality of near-line server computers and configured to execute under processor control and receive a plurality of delta data, the delta data including data of at least one of an incremental difference and a differential difference between the original data at a plurality of instances, wherein the information system is application aware, the information system configured to dynamically generate and maintain in computer storage associated with the first near-line server an updated version of a copy of the original data by applying at least one of the plurality of delta data to the copy and controlling the applying using modified information of a component of the first near-line server, the information system generating and maintaining a replica of the updated version in computer storage associated with the second near-line server, the information system configured to dynamically transform the data from a first structure by organizing items of the data into a second structure that preserves the hierarchy of the first structure including indexing difference information corresponding to modified items of data.