Disaster recovery on dissimilar hardware

• US 9,619,340 B1
• Filed: 12/24/2014
• Issued: 04/11/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Western Digital Technologies Incorporated (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Mirkhelkar, Rajesh
• Primary Examiner(s): Ehne, Charles
• Application Number:
  US14/582,983
• Time in Patent Office: 839 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1456 Hardware arrangements for backup
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

A computer-implemented method may comprise performing a disaster recovery restore process on a target computing device; accessing a backup server; and selecting a source backup from the backup server. The source backup may comprise one or more volumes, partitions, files and device drivers of a source computing device from which the source backup was created. The selected source backup may then be installed in an offline partition of the target computing device. One or more target device drivers may then be installed in the offline partition. To complete the disaster recovery restore process on the target computing device, the target computing device may then be rebooted. Both the backup of the source computing device and the active partition of the target device may comprise source computing device-dependent hardware device drivers. When carried out in a Windows® environment, Sysprep need not be used and the kernel need not be modified.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

performing a disaster recovery restore process on a target computing device;

accessing, over a computer network, a backup server;

selecting a source backup from the backup server, the source backup comprising at least one volume, at least one file and at least one device driver of a source computing device from which the source backup was created;

installing the selected source backup in an offline partition of the target computing device;

installing at least one target device driver in the offline partition; and

rebooting the target computing device to complete the disaster recovery restore process on the target computing device.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein rebooting the target computing device configures the offline partition into an active partition.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein installing the at least one target device driver comprises retrieving the at least one target device driver from a predetermined location.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein at least the target computing device comprises a version of Microsoft Windows®

7 or above operating system.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the target computing device, after having rebooted, still comprises the at least one device driver of the source computing device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising leaving the at least one device driver of the source computing device in the selected source backup when the selected source backup is installed in the offline partition of the target computing device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, comprising completing the disaster recovery restore process on the target computing device without executing Microsoft Sysprep.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein rebooting comprises rebooting the target computing device a single time to complete the disaster recovery restore process.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, performed without requiring selection of a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).

10. A computing device restored as a result of a disaster recovery process, comprising:

a processor;

non-volatile memory coupled to the processor;

volatile memory coupled to the processor; and

an active partition loaded into the volatile memory, the active partition having been generated from an offline partition stored in the non-volatile memory and comprising at least one volume, at least one file and at least one hardware device driver originating from a selected backup of a source computing device.

11. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the active partition is created upon rebooting.

12. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the active partition comprises both at least one hardware device driver originating from the selected backup of the source computing device and at least one hardware device driver specific to the computing device.

13. The computing device of claim 10, further comprising an operating system and wherein the operating system is configured as a version of Microsoft Windows®

7 or above.

14. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the active partition is created without having executed Microsoft Sysprep on the selected backup of the source computing device.

15. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the active partition is created following rebooting the computing device a single time.

16. The computing device of claim 10, wherein the active partition is created without having required selection of a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).

17. A machine-readable medium having data stored thereon representing sequences of instructions which, when executed by a computing device, causes the computing device to:

perform a disaster recovery restore process on a target computing device;

access, over a computer network, a backup server;

select a source backup from the backup server, the source backup comprising at least one volume, at least one file and at least one device driver of a source computing device from which the source backup was created;

install the selected source backup in an offline partition of the target computing device;

install at least one target device driver in the offline partition; and

reboot the target computing device to complete the disaster recovery restore process on the target computing device.

18. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

performing a disaster recovery restore process on a target computing device;

accessing, over a computer network, a backup server;

selecting a source backup from the backup server, the source backup comprising at least one volume, at least one file and at least one device driver of a source computing device from which the source backup was created;

installing the selected source backup in an offline partition of the target computing device;

installing at least one target device driver in the offline partition; and

rebooting the target computing device twice to complete the disaster recovery restore process on the target computing device.

19. A computing device restored as a result of a disaster recovery process, comprising:

a processor;

non-volatile memory coupled to the processor;

volatile memory coupled to the processor; and

an active partition loaded into the volatile memory, the active partition having been generated from an offline partition stored in the non-volatile memory and comprising at least one volume, at least one file and at least one hardware device driver originating from a selected backup of a source computing device,

wherein the at least one hardware device driver originating from the selected backup of the source computing device in the active partition is not configured to operate or control any hardware device in the computing device.

20. A computing device restored as a result of a disaster recovery process, comprising:

a processor;

non-volatile memory coupled to the processor;

volatile memory coupled to the processor; and

an active partition, created following rebooting the computing device twice, loaded into the volatile memory, the active partition having been generated from an offline partition stored in the non-volatile memory and comprising at least one volume, at least one file and at least one hardware device driver originating from a selected backup of a source computing device.