Caching of backup chunks

• US 9,645,888 B1
• Filed: 06/02/2014
• Issued: 05/09/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Panchanathan, Balaji, Sambamoorthy, Arun, Patra, Satchidananda, Ashok Kumar, Pravin Kumar
• Primary Examiner(s): Arjomandi, Noosha
• Application Number:
  US14/293,977
• Time in Patent Office: 1,072 Days
• 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 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques

Abstract

Contents of a plurality of backups that share a common characteristic are profiled. A portion of the plurality of backups is selected as a base backup reference data to be distributed. A first copy of the base backup reference data is stored at a storage of a backup server. A second copy of the base backup reference data is provided for storage at a storage of a client that shares the common characteristic. The client is located remotely from the backup server.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor configured to;

profile contents of a plurality of backups associated with a group of backup sources that share a common characteristic;

select a portion of the plurality of backups as a base backup reference data to be distributed, wherein the selected portion appears a number of times across the plurality of backups associated with the group of backup sources that share the common characteristic;

store a first copy of the base backup reference data at a storage of a backup server, wherein the backup server provides an identifier of a portion of data to be utilized to restore data rather than contents of the portion of data to be utilized to restore data due to a determination that the portion of data to be utilized to restore data is included in the base backup reference data associated with the common characteristic; and

provide a second copy of the base backup reference data for storage at a storage of a client that shares the common characteristic, wherein the client is located remotely from the backup server; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein profiling the contents of the plurality of backups includes dividing at least one backup of the plurality of backups into a plurality of data chunks.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein profiling the contents includes sorting the plurality of data chunks.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein profiling the contents includes determining a number of times a particular data chunk has been utilized in the plurality of backups.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein profiling the contents includes determining a number of times a particular data chunk has been utilized in a single backup of the plurality of backups.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein selecting the portion of the plurality of backups as the base backup reference data includes selecting a specified percentage of the data chunks that have been most frequently utilized in the plurality of backups.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein selecting the portion of the plurality of backups as the base backup reference data includes selecting a most number of data chunks that is less than a maximum total data size and have been most frequently utilized in the plurality of backups.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein selecting the portion of the plurality of backups as the base backup reference data includes indexing the data chunks using a hash function.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the base backup reference data is stored in a hash table.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the client provides an identifier of a portion of data to be backed up rather than contents of the portion of the data to be backed up due to a determination that the portion of the data to be backed up is included in the base backup reference data.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein profiling the contents of the plurality of backups includes performing deduplication of the plurality of backups.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the client provides to the backup server content to be backed up.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the common characteristic includes a common operating system type.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the common characteristic includes a common application installed on devices of the plurality of backups.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the backup server provides data utilized to restore data of the client.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the client is a virtual machine.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage of the backup server is a networked data storage accessible by the backup server via a network.

18. A method, comprising:

using a processor to profile contents of a plurality of backups associated with a group of backup sources that share a common characteristic;

selecting a portion of the plurality of backups as a base backup reference data to be distributed, wherein the selected portion appears a number of times across the plurality of backups associated with the group of backup sources that share the common characteristic;

storing a first copy of the base backup reference data at a storage of a backup server, wherein the backup server provides an identifier of a portion of data to be utilized to restore data rather than contents of the portion of data to be utilized to restore data due to a determination that the portion of data to be utilized to restore data is included in the base backup reference data associated with the common characteristic; and

providing a second copy of the base backup reference data for storage at a storage of a client that shares the common characteristic, wherein the client is located remotely from the backup server.

19. A computer program product, the computer program product being embodied in a tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

profiling contents of a plurality of backups associated with a group of backup sources that share a common characteristic;

selecting a portion of the plurality of backups as a base backup reference data to be distributed, wherein the selected portion appears a number of times across the plurality of backups associated with the group of backup sources that share the common characteristic;

storing a first copy of the base backup reference data at a storage of a backup server, wherein the backup server provides an identifier of a portion of data to be utilized to restore data rather than contents of the portion of data to be utilized to restore data due to a determination that the portion of data to be utilized to restore data is included in the base backup reference data associated with the common characteristic; and

providing a second copy of the base backup reference data for storage at a storage of a client that shares the common characteristic, wherein the client is located remotely from the backup server.