Data backup and recovery

• US 9,015,527 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2013
• Issued: 04/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Mohanta, Taranisen, Nadagouda, Sameer Madhu, Nayaka B, Govindaraja
• Primary Examiner(s): Iqbal, Nadeem
• Application Number:
  US13/752,646
• Publication Number:
  US 20140215265A1
• Time in Patent Office: 812 Days
• US Class Current: 714/6.3
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

Techniques for data backup and recovery are described. In one implementation, at least one storage device storing original data which has failed is determined. Once the failed storage device is determined, backup related information corresponding to the failed at least one storage device is determined. Based on the backup related information at least one backup of the original data from a storage unit is identified. The backup as identified is eventually used for recovering data corresponding to the original data.

Claims

1. A data backup and recovery system comprising:

a processor; and

a monitoring agent coupled to the processor, the monitoring agent to determine backup related information associated with storage devices storing respective original data, wherein the backup related information specifies priority indexes associated with the storage devices, the priority indexes indicating respective priorities of the storage devices; and

a backup tracking module coupled to the processor, the backup tracking module to;

detect that a plurality of the storage devices have become unavailable;

select a first storage device of the plurality of the storage devices having a highest priority of the priorities indicated by the priority indexes; and

identify, for the first storage device that has become unavailable, at least one backup of the original data of the first storage device from a backup storage unit based on the backup related information, for recovering data corresponding to the original data of the first storage device.

2. The data backup and recovery system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the backup related information includes one or more of source of the original data of each storage device, type of application utilizing the original data of each storage device, and type and identity of storage unit storing the original data of each storage device.

3. The data backup and recovery system as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of the storage devices is identifiable by a logical unit number (LUN).

4. The data backup and recovery system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the monitoring agent is to monitor whether the original data stored on the plurality of the storage devices has become unavailable.

5. The data backup and recovery system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the backup tracking module is to further:

rank the plurality of the storage devices based on the respective priority indexes.

6. The data backup and recovery system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the backup tracking module is to recover data corresponding to the original data of the first storage device from the identified at least one backup.

7. The data backup and recovery system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the backup tracking module is to further identify the at least one backup of the original data of the first storage device from the backup storage unit based on at least one recovery policy associated with the first storage device.

15. The data backup and recovery system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the identifying comprises:

determining available backups corresponding to the first storage device that has become unavailable;

determining a recovery policy associated with the first storage device;

obtaining a recovery policy requirement for the first storage device; and

identifying the at least one backup of the original data of the first storage device from the backup storage unit based on a comparison of the recovery policy and the recovery policy requirement.

8. A method of data recovery and backup, comprising:

determining, by a system including a processor, whether at least one storage device storing original data has failed;

obtaining, by the system, backup related information associated with the at least one failed storage device; and

identifying, by the system, at least one backup of the original data from a backup storage based on the backup related information and at least a recovery policy, for recovering data corresponding to the original data, wherein the identifying comprises;

determining available backups corresponding to the failed storage device;

determining the recovery policy associated with the failed storage device;

obtaining a recovery policy requirement for the failed storage device; and

identifying the at least one backup of the original data from the backup storage based on a comparison of the recovery policy and the recovery policy requirement.

9. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the at least one failed storage device comprises a plurality of failed storage devices, and wherein the determining further comprises:

determining a priority associated with each of the plurality of failed storage devices; and

ranking the plurality of failed storage devices based on an increasing order of the priorities.

10. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the recovery policy is based on one or more of time of backup, time needed for recovering data based on a backup, and nature of backup.

11. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the recovery policy requirements are based on one or more of Recovery Point Objective (RPO) requirements and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) requirements.

12. The method as claimed in claim 8, further comprising checking the at least one backup of the original data prior to recovery of data corresponding to the original data.

16. The method as claimed in claim 8, wherein the at least one storage device that has failed comprises a plurality of storage devices that have failed, the method further comprising:

receiving priority indexes of the plurality of storage devices, the priority indexes indicating respective priorities of the plurality of storage devices; and

selecting a first storage device of the plurality of storage devices having a highest priority of the priorities indicated by the priority indexes, wherein the identifying of the at least one backup of the original data from the backup storage is for the first storage device.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer readable instructions that, when executed, cause a backup and recovery system to:

determine whether at least one storage device storing original data has failed;

obtain backup related information corresponding to the at least one failed storage device;

determine a priority index associated with each of the at least one failed storage device;

rank each of the at least one failed storage device based on the priority index;

identify at least one backup of the original data from a storage unit based on the backup related information, wherein the backup related information includes at least one of recovery policies and recovery policy requirements; and

recover data corresponding to the original data of each of the at least one failed storage device, based on the at least one identified backup, in an order of the ranking of each of the at least one failed storage device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as claimed in claim 13, wherein the at least one identified backup of the original data is selected based on the recovery policies specified by associating a relative priority to a plurality of user-specified parameters.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium as claimed in claim 13, wherein the identifying of the at least one backup of the original data from the storage unit is based on a comparison of a recovery policy of the recovery policies with a corresponding recovery policy requirement of the recovery policy requirements.