Intelligent application optimized backups

• US 9,842,027 B1
• Filed: 12/27/2013
• Issued: 12/12/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Chopra, Shelesh, Palkhade, Rajkumar Madhukar
• Primary Examiner(s): Burke, Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vu, Thong
• Application Number:
  US14/142,578
• Time in Patent Office: 1,446 Days
• Field of Search: 707661, 707100, 707827, 707624, 707770, 707652, 707651, 705 739, 711162, 709238, 709219, 709221, 709224
• 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 11/3409 for performance assessment

Abstract

A method by a backup application server for data backup. The method includes profiling a performance capability of a host that is to execute backup of data, profiling a property of the data, and sending the performance capability of the host and the property of the data to a rule engine module to determine a backup configuration parameter. The rule engine module includes pre-defined rules for determining a backup configuration parameter based on host performance capability and data property. The method further includes receiving the determined backup configuration parameter from the rule engine module and instructing the host to execute backup of the data to a backup storage using the determined backup configuration parameter.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method by a backup application server comprising:

profiling by an analyzer module running within the backup application server a performance capability of a host that is to back up data, wherein the host is a source storage system that backs up data to a target storage system, and wherein the performance capability of the host includes one or more static or dynamic properties of the host machine that is related to computing performance, and wherein the performance capability of the host further includes a size of data that can be backed up by the host and an amount of memory that can be allocated by the host to back up the data;

profiling by the analyzer module a property of the data, wherein the property of the data includes the size of the data to be backed up and a type of data to be backed up;

sending the performance capability of the host and the property of the data to a rule engine module to determine a backup configuration parameter, the rule engine module including pre-defined rules for determining a backup configuration parameter based on host performance capability and data property, wherein the pre-defined rules of the rule engine module are stored in a lookup table having a plurality of mapping entries, each mapping entry mapping host performance capability and data property of each host to a recommended backup configuration parameter, and the lookup table can be modified by a backup administrator to create custom rules and/or to modify existing rules, wherein the backup configuration parameter includes a number of stripes to be used to back up data, whether compression should be applied to back up data, or whether deduplication should be performed on the data;

receiving by a backup module the determined backup configuration parameter from the rule engine module; and

transmitting by the backup module the backup configuration parameter to the host to instruct the host to back up the data from the host to a backup storage over a network using the determined backup configuration parameter.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the performance capability of the host includes any one of CPU speed of the host, a number of processor cores of the host, an amount of physical memory of the host, CPU utilization of the host, or an amount of available physical memory of the host.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data is data in a SQL database.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the property of the data is a number of SQL databases to be backed up.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the backup configuration parameter is a number of stripes to use for data backup.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the backup configuration parameter is an indicator of whether deduplication should be performed for data backup.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the backup configuration parameter is an indicator of whether compression should be used for data backup.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed cause a computer to perform a set of operations for data backup comprising:

profiling a performance capability of a host that is to execute backup of a data set, wherein the host is a source storage system that backs up data to a target storage system, and wherein the performance capability of the host includes one or more static or dynamic properties of the host machine that is related to computing performance, and wherein the performance capability of the host further includes a size of data that can be backed up by the host and an amount of memory that can be allocated by the host to back up the data;

profiling a property of the data set, wherein the property of the data set includes the size of the data set to be backed up and a type of data set to be backed up;

determining a backup configuration parameter to use for data backup based on the performance capability of the host and the property of the data set, wherein the backup configuration parameter to be used for data backup is determined by querying a lookup table having a plurality of mapping entries, each mapping entry mapping host performance capability and data property of each host to a recommended backup configuration parameter, and the lookup table can be modified by a backup administrator to create custom rules and/or to modify existing rules, wherein the backup configuration parameter includes a number of stripes to be used to back up data, whether compression should be applied to back up data, or whether deduplication should be performed on the data; and

transmitting the backup configuration parameter to the host to instruct the host to execute backup of the data set by backing up the data set from the host to a backup storage over a network using the determined backup configuration parameter.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the performance capability of the host includes any one of CPU speed of the host, a number of processor cores of the host, an amount of physical memory of the host, CPU utilization of the host, or an amount of available physical memory of the host.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the data set is data in a SQL database.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the property of the data set is a number of SQL databases to be backed up.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the backup configuration parameter is a number of stripes to use for data backup.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the backup configuration parameter is an indicator of whether deduplication should be performed for data backup.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the backup configuration parameter is an indicator of whether compression should be used for data backup.

15. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

an analyzer module executed by the processor to determine a performance capability of a host that is to perform backup of data and to determine a property of the data to be backed up, wherein the host is a source storage system that backs up data to a target storage system, wherein the performance capability of the host includes one or more static or dynamic properties of the host machine that is related to computing performance, and wherein the property of the data includes the size of the data to be backed up and a type of data to be backed up, and wherein the performance capability of the host further includes a size of data that can be backed up by the host and an amount of memory that can be allocated by the host to back up the data;

a rule engine module executed by the processor to determine a backup configuration parameter to use for data backup, the rule engine module including pre-defined rules for determining the backup configuration parameter based on host performance capability and data property, wherein the pre-defined rules of the rule engine module are stored in a lookup table having a plurality of mapping entries, each mapping entry mapping host performance capability and data property of each host to a recommended backup configuration parameter, and the lookup table can be modified by a backup administrator to create custom rules and/or to modify existing rules, wherein the backup configuration parameter includes a number of stripes to be used to back up data, whether compression should be applied to back up data, or whether deduplication should be performed on the data; and

a backup module executed by the processor to transmit the backup configuration parameter to the host to cause the host to execute backup of the data by backing up the data from the host to a backup storage over a network using the determined backup configuration parameter.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the performance capability of the host includes any one of CPU utilization of the host or available physical memory of the host.