Time ordered view of backup data on behalf of a host

• US 8,601,225 B2
• Filed: 12/26/2008
• Issued: 12/03/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/16/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: InMage Systems, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Atluri, Rajeev, Tirumala, Anup S.
• Primary Examiner(s): ELMORE, STEPHEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/344,319
• Publication Number:
  US 20100169591A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,803 Days
• Field of Search: 711/162, 711/156, 707/639, 707/648, 707/649, 707/683, 707/684
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

A method and systems of a time ordered view of backup data on behalf of a host are disclosed. In an embodiment, a method to provide a time-ordered snapshot view on behalf of a host of a specified portion of a backup of a first storage system data container stored at a second storage system includes initiating an order at the host to obtain a view of a data container. The order specifies a date and time of the ordered view. The method further includes receiving the order at a server adapted to assemble and enable access to the ordered view, and at the server, accessing the second storage system according to the date and time of the ordered view and accessing an applicable data write representing a data change to the data container.

Claims

1. A method to provide a time-ordered snapshot view on behalf of a host of at least a specified portion of a data container backed up from a first storage system to a second storage system, comprising:

initiating an order at the host to obtain a view of the data container, the order specifying a date and time of the ordered view;

accessing, at a server, the second storage system in accordance with the date and time of the ordered view and accessing an applicable data write representing a data change to the data container upon the receipt of the order at the server; and

assembling the snapshot view appropriate to the date and time specified in the order through logically one of;

rolling up and rolling back data associated with the data container in accordance with an existing time reference adopting the data change, the assembling including replacing, if existent, at least one old data write to the data container with the data change, the server providing a capability to both logically roll up and logically roll back the data associated with the data container in accordance with the existing time reference, and a data write overwritten at a point in time to change to another data write being invisible at the point in time of the another data write in the snapshot view.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

the host is at least one of a plurality of hosts that is Local Area Network (LAN)-connected and the first storage system is a Storage Area Network (SAN)-based storage system.

3. The method of claim 2, comprising ordering the snapshot view through more than one host of the plurality of hosts during a same time period of at least one of a shared data container and a plurality of data containers.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising generating the snapshot view based on the primary storage data and at least one of a transactional log, an SLUN, and a T-LUN.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising the host ordering the snapshot view corresponding to at least one of an event and an application consistent state.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising receiving the order over a TCP/IP enabled network connection, the server being the same server that backed up the data container to the second storage system.

7. The method of claim 1, comprising storing, with respect to the existing time reference, the data change separately from the data associated with the data container.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising the one of:

rolling up and back a complete volume of the data container to complete a full volume view.

9. The method of claim 1, comprising the one of:

rolling up and back a portion of the data container representing one of;

application data and specific files to complete a corresponding one of;

an application level view and a file specific view.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling access to the snapshot view by serving the view, the enabling of the access including mounting the data container to perform data recovery.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising making the snapshot view compatible with a current logical view of the first storage system at the host using at least one of a file system, an application system, and a platform.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising generating the snapshot view by logically rolling up a selected baseline data container to at least one of a prior and a subsequent version using the data change.

13. The method of claim 12, comprising rolling up the selected baseline data container using the data change when the selected baseline data container is overlaid by at least one of a stored data structure and an algorithm.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the data container comprises a snapshot acquired when at least one of a regular time interval has occurred, a predefined event has occurred, and a data write size accumulation threshold has been reached.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the snapshot comprises at least one of a block, a file, a data set, and a volume.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing a write validation by comparing two snapshots of the data container, the snapshots being compared using at least one of compression change, length, and checksum value.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising sampling data of the snapshot view using the host to determine whether to retrieve a specific data container.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a virtual machine to the host in response to a read request to process and present the requested snapshot view in accordance with at least one of an application version and a operating system thereof.

19. A system comprising:

a first storage system;

a second storage system having a data container backed up from the first storage system thereto;

a host to initiate an order to obtain a time-ordered snapshot view of the data container, the order specifying a date and time of the ordered view; and

a server to receive the order, the server being adapted to assemble and enable access to the ordered view, the server being configured to access the second storage system in accordance with the date and time of the ordered view and to access an applicable data write representing a data change to the data container upon the receipt of the order, the server further being configured to assemble the snapshot view appropriate to the date and time specified in the order through logically one of;

rolling up and rolling back data associated with the data container in accordance with an existing time reference adopting the data change, the assembling including replacing, if existent, at least one old data write to the data container with the data change, the server having a capability to both logically roll up and roll back the data associated with the data container in accordance with the existing time reference, and a data write overwritten at a point in time to change to another data write being invisible at the point in time of the another data write in the snapshot view.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein at least one of:

the host is at least one of a plurality of hosts that is LAN-connected and the first storage system is a SAN-based storage system.

21. A non-transitory medium, readable through a computing system and including instructions embodied therein configured to be executable on the computing system, comprising instructions to provide a time-ordered snapshot view on behalf of a host of at least a specified portion of a data container backed up from a first storage system to a second storage system, comprising instructions associated with:

initiating an order at the host to obtain a view of the data container, the order specifying a date and time of the ordered view;

accessing, at a server, the second storage system in accordance with the date and time of the ordered view and accessing an applicable data write representing a data change to the data container upon the receipt of the order at the server; and

assembling the snapshot view appropriate to the date and time specified in the order through logically one of;

rolling up and rolling back data associated with the data container in accordance with an existing time reference adopting the data change, the assembling including replacing, if existent, at least one old data write to the data container with the data change, the instructions providing the server a capability to both logically roll up and logically roll back the data associated with the data container in accordance with the existing time reference, and a data write overwritten at a point in time to change to another data write being invisible at the point in time of the another data write in the snapshot view.

22. A computing system comprising:

a memory; and

a processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to execute instructions associated with providing a time-ordered snapshot view on behalf of a host of at least a specified portion of a data container backed up from a first storage system to a second storage system through;

initiating an order at the host to obtain a view of the data container, the order specifying a date and time of the ordered view;

accessing, at a server, the second storage system in accordance with the date and time of the ordered view and accessing an applicable data write representing a data change to the data container upon the receipt of the order at the server; and

assembling the snapshot view appropriate to the date and time specified in the order through logically one of;

rolling up and rolling back data associated with the data container in accordance with an existing time reference adopting the data change, the assembling including replacing, if existent, at least one old data write to the data container with the data change, the instructions providing the server a capability to both logically roll up and logically roll back the data associated with the data container in accordance with the existing time reference, and a data write overwritten at a point in time to change to another data write being invisible at the point in time of the another data write in the snapshot view.

23. A system to provide secondary data storage and recovery services of at least one networked host node comprising:

a server configured to execute an application to facilitate data backup and recovery services;

a first data storage medium of primary data backup;

a second data storage medium to include secondary data storage of the primary data backup; and

at least one client application to duplicate data write activity of the at least one networked host node to the primary storage medium to a transactional log volume,

wherein the application executing on the server is configured to perform direct data read and data clear operations on the transactional log volume to backup write data from the transactional log volume to the second data storage medium, and

wherein the server is configured to assemble a snapshot view of the transactional log volume in accordance with an order therefor from the at least one networked host node specifying a date and time thereof through logically one of;

rolling up and rolling back data associated with the transactional log volume in accordance with an existing time reference adopting a data change thereto, the assembling including replacing, if existent, at least one old data write to the transactional log volume with the data change, the server providing a capability to both logically roll up and logically roll back the data associated with the transactional log volume in accordance with the existing time reference, and a data write overwritten at a point in time to change to another data write being invisible at the point in time of the another data write.