Block based backup

• US 8,738,870 B1
• Filed: 09/30/2011
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Balasubramanian, Shankar, Mandic, Vladimir, Raj, Anand, Kasargod, Sriprasad Bhat
• Primary Examiner(s): CHOE, YONG J
• Application Number:
  US13/250,637
• Time in Patent Office: 970 Days
• Field of Search: 711/161, 711/162, 711/163, 711/203
• US Class Current: 711/161
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/16 Protection against loss of memory contents contains no material, see G06F11/00
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for protecting data. In some embodiments, this includes taking a snapshot of a physical volume with a native snapshot program, reading the snapshot block by block, creating a blank virtual container on a deduplicated virtual storage device, and populating the blank virtual container block by block based on reading the snapshot.

Claims

1. A method for protecting data, comprising:

taking a snapshot of a physical volume with a native snapshot program;

reading the snapshot block by block;

creating a blank virtual container on a deduplicated virtual storage device;

populating the blank virtual container block by block based on reading the snapshot, wherein the blank virtual container is a parent virtual container;

tracking block changes to identify changed blocks;

creating a child virtual container;

linking the child virtual container to the parent virtual container; and

populating the child virtual container with the changed blocks.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein populating the blank virtual container includes identifying a redundant block of data and not transferring the redundant block.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein identifying a redundant block of data includes determining a hash of the block, and determining whether the deduplicated virtual storage device has the hash.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the blank virtual container is a blank virtual file.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the native snapshot program is Volume Shadow Copy Service.

6. A system for protecting data, comprising a physical volume, a deduplicated virtual storage device, and a processor configured to:

take a snapshot of the physical volume with a native snapshot program;

read the snapshot block by block;

create a blank virtual container on a deduplicated virtual storage device;

populating the blank virtual container block by block based on reading the snapshot, wherein the blank virtual container is a parent virtual container;

tracking block changes to identify changed blocks;

creating a child virtual container;

linking the child virtual container to the parent virtual container; and

populating the child virtual container with the changed blocks.

7. A computer program product for protecting data, comprising a computer readable medium having program instructions embodied therein for:

taking a snapshot of a physical volume with a native snapshot program;

reading the snapshot block by block;

creating a blank virtual container on a deduplicated virtual storage device;

populating the blank virtual container block by block based on reading the snapshot, wherein the blank virtual container is a parent virtual container;

tracking block changes to identify changed blocks;

creating a child virtual container;

linking the child virtual container to the parent virtual container; and

populating the child virtual container with the changed blocks.