Data recovery from multiple data backup technologies

• US 9,672,113 B1
• Filed: 03/25/2014
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Rodriques, Manuel, Rokicki, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Lo, Ann J
• Assistant Examiner(s): KHAN, MASUD K
• Application Number:
  US14/225,036
• Time in Patent Office: 1,169 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 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• 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 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0685 Hybrid storage combining heterogeneous device types, e.g. hierarchical storage, hybrid arrays

Abstract

A backup system comprises a tape backup storage storing a set of tape backup data, a snapshot backup storage storing a nearest snapshot, and a processor. The processor is configured to determine the nearest snapshot, wherein a snapshot time of the nearest snapshot is nearest in time to a backup time, and determine the set of tape backup data, wherein the set of tape backup data and the nearest snapshot enable recovery of a backup data.

Claims

1. A backup system, comprising:

a tape backup storage storing a set of tape backup data that includes a set of one or more incremental backups;

a snapshot backup storage storing a nearest snapshot; and

a processor configured to;

receive a request to recover backup data associated with a backup time;

determine whether the nearest snapshot is before or after the backup time;

determine, based at least in part on the determined nearest snapshot, the set of tape backup data that enables recovery of the backup data associated with the backup time;

in the event the nearest snapshot is after the backup time;

determine, for each incremental backup that occurs before the nearest snapshot, one or more changed blocks and version information associated with the one or more changed blocks, wherein the one or more changed blocks are added to a set of changed blocks;

determine, for each of the one or more changed blocks of the set of changed blocks, related changed blocks based on the version information associated with the one or more change blocks;

determine, for each set of related change blocks, a version of a change block of the set of related changed blocks that occurs immediately before the backup time; and

use the determined one or more change blocks and the determined nearest snapshot to recover the backup data to the version of the change block that occurs immediately before the backup time by undoing changes recorded in the one or more incremental backups to the determined nearest snapshot to create a state of a system at the backup time; and

in the event the nearest snapshot is before the backup time, use the one or more incremental backups and the determined nearest snapshot to recover the backup data by applying the one or more incremental backups to the determined nearest snapshot to create the state of the system at the backup time.

2. The backup system of claim 1, wherein the snapshot backup storage stores online backups.

3. The backup system of claim 1, wherein the snapshot backup storage comprises a backup system with fast access.

4. The backup system of claim 1, wherein the snapshot backup storage comprises a disk based backup storage system.

5. The backup system of claim 1, wherein the snapshot backup storage comprises a random access memory based backup storage system.

6. The backup system of claim 1, wherein the snapshot backup storage comprises a deduplicated backup storage system.

7. The backup system of claim 1, further comprising an input interface configured to receive a request to recover the backup data associated with the backup time.

8. The backup system of claim 1, further comprises an output interface configured to provide the backup data.

9. The backup system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine the backup data.

10. The backup system of claim 9, wherein the backup data is determined using the set of tape backup data and the nearest snapshot.

11. The backup system of claim 10, wherein a new snapshot corresponding to the back time is determined.

12. The backup system of claim 10, wherein the nearest snapshot is after the backup time.

13. The backup system of claim 12, wherein in the event the nearest snapshot is after the backup time the backup data is determined using previous incremental backups to the nearest snapshot and determining changed blocks to recover the backup data.

14. The backup system of claim 1, wherein in the event the nearest snapshot is before the backup time the backup data is determined using subsequent incremental backups to the nearest snapshot and determining changed blocks to recover the backup data.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the backup system uses the tape backup storage to store the backup data more frequently than the backup system uses the snapshot backup storage to store the backup data.

15. A method for backup, comprising:

receiving a request to recover backup data associated with a backup time;

determining, using a processor, whether a nearest snapshot is before or after the backup time, wherein the nearest snapshot is stored on a snapshot backup storage;

determining, based at least in part on the determined nearest snapshot a set of tape backup data that enables recovery of the backup data associated with the backup time, wherein the set of tape backup data is stored on a tape backup storage that stores one or more incremental backups;

in the event the nearest snapshot is after the backup time;

determining, for each incremental backup that occurs before the nearest snapshot, one or more changed blocks and version information associated with the one or more changed blocks, wherein the one or more changed blocks are added to a set of changed blocks;

determining, for each of the one or more changed blocks of the set of changed blocks, related changed blocks based on the version information associated with the one or more change blocks;

determining, for each set of related change blocks, a version of a change block of the set of related changed blocks that occurs immediately before the backup time; and

using the determined one or more change blocks and the determined nearest snapshot to recover the backup data to the version of the change block that occurs immediately before the backup time by undoing changes recorded in the one or more incremental backups to the determined nearest snapshot to create a state of a system at the backup time; and

in the event the nearest snapshot is before the backup time, using the one or more incremental backups and the determined nearest snapshot to recover the backup data by applying the one or more incremental backups to the determined nearest snapshot to create the state of the system at the backup time.

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

receiving a request to recover backup data associated with a backup time;

determining whether a nearest snapshot is before or after the backup time, wherein the nearest snapshot is stored on a snapshot backup storage;

determining, based at least in part on the determined nearest snapshot, a set of tape backup data that enables recovery of the backup data associated with the backup time, wherein the set of tape backup data is stored on a tape backup storage that stores one or more incremental backups;

in the event the nearest snapshot is after the backup time;

determining, for each incremental backup that occurs before the nearest snapshot, one or more changed blocks and version information associated with the one or more changed blocks, wherein the one or more changed blocks are added to a set of changed blocks;

determining, for each of the one or more changed blocks of the set of changed blocks, related changed blocks based on the version information associated with the one or more change blocks;

determining, for each set of related change blocks, a version of a change block of the set of related changed blocks that occurs immediately before the backup time; and

using the determined one or more change blocks and the determined nearest snapshot to recover the backup data to the version of the change block that occurs immediately before the backup time by undoing changes recorded in the one or more incremental backups to the determined nearest snapshot to create a state of the system at the backup time; and

in the event the nearest snapshot is before the backup time, use the one or more incremental backups and the determined nearest snapshot to recover the backup data by applying the one or more incremental backups to the determined nearest snapshot to create the state of the system at the backup time.