RESTORING COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS, SUCH AS AUTORECOVERY OF FILE SYSTEMS AT CERTAIN POINTS IN TIME

• US 20120254119A1
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Mitkar, Amit
• Granted Patent: US 8,849,762 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/646
• 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 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44505 Configuring for program initiating, e.g. using registry, configuration files
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]

Abstract

A method and system for restoring a computing environment from a secondary data store, and facilitating such restoration, is described. In some examples, the system copies the configuration parameters of a computing environment, such as a file system, as well as the data within the file system, and transfers the copies to secondary storage for later restoration. For example, the system may generate an xml file of the configuration parameters of the computing environment when a backup operation of the computing environment is performed, and store the xml file along with copies of the data from the computing environment in secondary storage.

Claims

1. A method for restoring a computing environment to a previous state of the computing environment, the method comprising:

receiving a request to restore the computing environment to a previous state, wherein the received request includes a specified point in time of the computing environment;

running a restoration interface associated with a data restoration system, wherein the restoration interface is configured to automatically retrieve a configuration file associated with the specified point in time of the computing environment;

receiving a request to restore data associated with the computing environment;

retrieving the requested data; and

restoring the previous state of the computing environment using the retrieved configuration file and the retrieved data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the configuration file for the computing environment;

copying data stored within the computing environment;

transferring the generated configuration file and the copied data to a secondary storage location;

wherein the restoration interface is configured to automatically retrieve the configuration file associated with the specified point in time of the computing environment from the secondary storage location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the retrieved configuration file is an xml file containing one or more system parameters of the computing environment.

4. A system for restoring a computing environment, the system comprising:

a request component, wherein the restoration component is configured to receive a request to restore a computing environment at a specified point in time;

a configuration component, wherein the configuration component is configured to configure a restoration interface using a configuration file associated with the computing environment; and

a retrieval component, wherein the retrieval component is configured to retrieve data associated with the computing environment.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the configuration component is configured to configure the restoration interface using an xml file containing system configuration parameters of the computing environment.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the configuration component is configured to configure the restoration interface using an xml file containing system configuration parameters of the computing environment that is stored in a secondary storage location.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the retrieval component is configured to retrieve a secondary copy of the data associated with the computing environment from a secondary storage location.

8. The system of claim 4, wherein the configuration component is configured to configure the restoration interface using an xml file containing system configuration parameters of the computing environment that is stored in a cloud-computing system;

and wherein the retrieval component is configured to retrieve a secondary copy of the data associated with the computing environment from a secondary storage location.

9. A system for recovering a file system to a previous backup state, the system comprising:

a staging component, wherein the staging component is configured to stage a previous state of a file system within a cloud-based computing system accessible by a data storage server via a virtual machine; and

a restoration component, wherein the restoration component is configured to retrieve the staged previous state of the file system from the cloud-based computing system, and restore the file system to a previous backup state.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the staging component is configured to stage the previous state of the file system by:

provisioning a restoration interface; and

configuring the provisioned interface using an xml file containing configuration parameters associated with the previous state of the file system.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the staging component is configured to stage the previous state of the file system by:

booting a live CD within the cloud-based computing system to provision a host machine; and

configuring the host machine using an xml file containing configuration parameters associated with the previous state of the file system.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the staging component is configured to stage the previous state of the file system by:

booting a live CD within the cloud-based computing system to provision a host machine; and

configuring the host machine using an xml file containing a system configuration associated with the previous state of the file system.