System and method for creating and maintaining secondary server sites

• US 9,110,837 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2011
• Issued: 08/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: StorSimple, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Patel, Burzin, Wolfe, Steve
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, JIGAR P
• Application Number:
  US12/930,436
• Publication Number:
  US 20120173919A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,687 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4.11
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0808 with cache invalidating means G06F12/0815 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/122 of the least frequently used [LFU] type, e.g. with individual count value
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0608 Saving storage space on storage systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0641 De-duplication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

Disaster Recovery (DR) and High-Availability (HA) are a critical features required by many information technology systems. DR and HA may be accomplished with a remote secondary site that is kept synchronized with a primary site. To reduce the cost of maintaining a secondary site, the data may be split into two subsets wherein only a first subset of data is kept synchronized at the secondary site using a small bandwidth communication link. The second set of data, which is generally much larger, is periodically backed up at a network accessible back-up location. When a disaster occurs, the secondary site may access the most recent back-up of the second set of data. In a maintenance or limited failure situation, the secondary site can directly access the second data set at the primary site.

Claims

1. A method of reliably providing computer services, said method comprising:

providing services from a first server system at a primary site, said server system configured to store data;

splitting the data, by the first server system, into a first subset of data and a second subset of data, wherein the first subset of data and the second subset of data are separate data sets, wherein the first subset of data excludes bulk data and the second subset of data excludes light data, and wherein the light data includes data items that change more frequently than the bulk data;

transmitting changes to said first subset of data to a fail-over secondary site, said fail-over secondary site maintaining an active copy of said first subset of data and excluding the second subset of data;

backing-up said second subset of data by storing a back-up copy of said second subset of data at a network based storage service and excluding the first subset of data from the back-up copy, wherein the network based storage service is separate from the first server system and the fail-over secondary site; and

activating said fail-over secondary site by accessing said back-up copy of said second subset of data stored on the network based storage service from said secondary site such that a second server at said fail-over secondary site has access to said active copy of said first subset of data from the primary site and said back-up copy of said second subset of data from the network based storage service.

2. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein transmitting changes to said first subset of data to a fail-over secondary site comprises database mirroring.

3. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein transmitting changes to said first subset of data to a fail-over secondary site comprises log shipping.

4. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein said first subset of data comprises a relational database.

5. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein said second subset of data comprises a set of large data objects.

6. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein backing-up said second subset of data comprises identifying and eliminating duplicate data in second subset of data.

7. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein backing-up said second subset of data comprises creating incremental back-ups relative to earlier back-ups.

8. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein accessing said back-up copy of said second subset of data from said secondary site comprises creating a new data volume that references said back-up copy of said second subset of data stored on said network based storage service.

9. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, wherein accessing said back-up copy of said second subset of data from said secondary site comprises creating a restored copy at said secondary site of said back-up copy of said second subset of data stored at network based storage service.

10. The method of reliably providing computer services as set forth in claim 1, said method further comprising:

accessing said second subset of data at said primary site from said second server system when said first server system has failed such that said second server system may operate with access to said active copy of said first subset of data and said second subset of data at said primary site.

11. A reliable data service system, said reliable data service system comprising:

a first server disposed at a first site, said first server configured to split data into a first subset of data and a second subset of data, wherein the first subset of data and the second subset of data are separate data sets, wherein the first subset of data excludes bulk data and the second subset of data excludes light data, and wherein the light data includes data items that change more frequently than the bulk data;

a back-up server disposed in a back-up site remotely located with respect to the first site, the back-up server configured to store a back-up copy of said second subset of data and not the first subset of data; and

a second server disposed at a second site remotely located with respect to the first site and the back-up site, said second server configured to store a copy of said first subset of data and not the second subset of data, said second server configured to serve both the first subset of data and the second subset of data in response to failure of the first server.

12. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said copy of said first subset of data is created by transmitting changes to said first subset of data over to said second server site using database mirroring.

13. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said copy of said first subset of data is created by transmitting changes to said first subset of data over to said second server site using log shipping.

14. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said first subset of data comprises a relational database.

15. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said second subset of data comprises a set of large data objects.

16. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said back-up system identifies and eliminates duplicate data in said second subset of data when creating a back-up.

17. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said back-up system creates incremental back-ups relative to earlier back-ups.

18. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein accessing said back-up copy of said second subset of data from said network-accessible back-up location comprises creating a new data volume that references said back-up copy of said second subset of data stored at said network-accessible back-up location.

19. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein accessing said back-up copy of said second subset of data from said network-accessible back-up location comprises creating a restored copy at said second server site of said back-up copy of said second subset of data stored at network-accessible back-up location.

20. The reliable data service system as set forth in claim 11, wherein said reliable data service system further comprises:

a data provider at said second server site, said data provider directly accessing said second subset of data at said first server site when said first server system has failed such that said second server system may operate with access to said copy of said first subset of data and said second subset of data.