DIFFERENTIAL FILE AND SYSTEM RESTORES FROM PEERS AND THE CLOUD

• US 20100257142A1
• Filed: 04/03/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Hamilton, James R., Virk, Navjot, Mehr, John D., Sosnosky, Lara M., Murphy, Elissa E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,805,953 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/681
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• 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 11/1458 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/83 the solution involving signatures

Abstract

Provided herein are systems and methodologies for highly efficient restoration in a network-based backup system. As described herein, differential-based analysis can be utilized such that a new complete differential is calculated based on signatures and/or other information relating to a given item to be restored prior to retrieving backup data. Based on the differential, only blocks determined to be unique between the current version of the item and the desired version are transmitted, which can then be merged with non-unique locally present blocks to obtain the fully restored version of the item. Further, a hybrid architecture can be employed, wherein signatures and/or data are stored at a global location within a network as well as one or more local peers. Accordingly, a backup client can obtain information necessary for restoration from either the global location or a nearby peer, thus further reducing latency and bandwidth consumption.

Claims

1. A system for restoring information from a backup system, comprising:

a processor that executes machine-executable components stored on a computer-readable medium, the components comprising;

a differential component that identifies a current version of information to be restored, a desired version of the information to be restored, and respective sets of blocks corresponding thereto and identifies one or more blocks that are different between the current version and the desired version;

a block location component that determines network locations from which respective blocks found to be different between the current version and the desired version are to be retrieved; and

a restore component that retrieves the respective blocks found to be different between the current version and the desired version from the determined network locations and restores the desired version using the retrieved blocks.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the differential component identifies one or more blocks that are different between the current version of information to be restored and a desired version of the information to be restored at least in part by comparing respective signatures associated with the blocks corresponding to the current version and signatures associated with the blocks corresponding to the desired version.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the block location component comprises an index lookup component that looks up network locations from which respective blocks are to be retrieved using an index stored at a predetermined network location

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the index comprises a listing of respective information stored in an associated network and corresponding pointers to respective locations at which the respective information is stored.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the network locations determined by the block location component comprise one or more of peers, super peers, or cloud storage locations.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the block location component determines network locations at which respective blocks are to be retrieved at least in part by applying a higher level of preference to network locations corresponding to peers than to network locations corresponding to cloud storage locations.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the block location component comprises a network analysis component that determines network locations at which respective blocks are to be retrieved based on at least one of network loading, network location uptime, proximity of respective network locations to the block location component, or bandwidth consumption associated with retrieving information at respective network locations.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the network locations determined by the block location component store one or more files or one or more incremental delta updates to one or more files.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the restore component restores the desired version of the information to be restored by merging the retrieved blocks with one or more blocks corresponding to the current version of the information to be restored.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the restore component merges the retrieved blocks with one or more blocks corresponding to the current version of the information to be restored at least in part by subtracting one or more differences in the retrieved blocks from corresponding blocks in the current version of the information to be restored.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the information to be restored comprises at least one of a file or a system image.

12. A method of performing a differential restore of one or more files, comprising:

identifying a locally available version of one or more files stored on at least one memory and a desired version to which the one or more files are to be restored;

identifying respective segments of the desired version of the one or more files that differ from the locally available version thereof at least in part by conducting a differential between the locally available version and the desired version;

obtaining the identified segments of the desired version of the one or more files from one or more data stores; and

restoring the desired version of the one or more files based at least in part on the obtained segments thereof.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifying respective segments comprises comparing respective signatures associated with respective segments of the desired version of the one or more files to signatures associated with corresponding segments of the locally available version of the one or more files.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the obtaining comprises:

selecting network data stores from which respective identified segments of the desired version of the one or more files are to be retrieved using a listing of segments stored in an associated network and corresponding network data stores at which the respective segments reside; and

obtaining the identified segments of the desired version of the one or more files from the selected network data stores.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the network data stores comprise at least one of peer storage locations, super peer storage locations, or cloud storage locations.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the selecting network data stores comprises:

applying a first preference level to peer storage locations and super peer storage locations; and

applying a second preference level to cloud storage locations, wherein the first preference level is indicative of a higher preference than the second preference level.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the selecting network data stores comprises selecting network data stores from which respective identified segments of the desired version of the one or more files are to be retrieved based on at least one of network loading, network data store availability, or bandwidth consumption associated with retrieving information at respective network stores.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the restoring comprises merging the obtained segments of the desired version of the one or more files with respective segments of the locally available version of the one or more files that do not differ from the corresponding segments of the desired version of the one or more files.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more files correspond to a system image.

20. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to act as a system for restoring information from a hybrid peer-to-peer/cloud-based backup system, the system comprising:

means for conducting a signature-based differential between respective blocks of a current, locally available version of one or more files and respective blocks of a desired version to which the one or more files are to be restored;

means for utilizing metadata pointing to respective locations of respective blocks on one or more peers and a cloud storage location to locate at least one unique block that did not match the signature-based differential between the current version and the desired version of the one or more files;

means for obtaining the at least one unique block from at least one of the one or more peers or the cloud storage location, wherein a higher emphasis is applied to obtaining the at least one unique block from the one or more peers than obtaining the at least one unique block from the cloud storage location; and

means for merging the at least one unique block with one or more non-unique blocks present in the current version of the one or more files to create the desired version of the one or more files.