Method and system for virtual on-demand recovery

• US 8,375,248 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2012
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Quest Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Sim-Tang, Siew Yong
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, KAMINI B
• Application Number:
  US13/436,624
• Publication Number:
  US 20120254659A1
• Time in Patent Office: 319 Days
• Field of Search: 714/20
• US Class Current: 714/20
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency ensuring consistency in mirrored systems G06F11/2064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

A data management system (“DMS”) provides an automated, continuous, real-time, substantially no downtime data protection service to one or more data sources. A host driver embedded in an application server captures real-time data transactions, preferably in the form of an event journal. The driver functions to translate traditional file/database/block I/O and the like into a continuous, application-aware, output data stream. The host driver includes an event processor that can perform a recovery operation to an entire data source or a subset of the data source using former point-in-time data in the DMS. The recovery operation may have two phases. First, the structure of the host data in primary storage is recovered to the intended recovering point-in-time. Thereafter, the actual data itself is recovered. The event processor enables such data recovery in an on-demand manner, by allowing recovery to happen simultaneously while an application accesses and updates the recovering data.

Claims

1. A method of data recovery in a first computer processing environment, where data has been stored in a data store different from a data source in the first processing environment, the method comprising:

initiating a data recovery operation;

recovering given data to a former state as reflected in a data store, wherein the recovery comprises;

presenting a structure of the given data to an application associated with a data source so that, from a point-of-view of the application, the data source is recovered prior to fully recovering the given data; and

continuing to recover the given data; and

enabling the application to continue accessing or updating the given data during the recovery.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein enabling the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery comprises capturing application events.

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

4. The method of claim 3, wherein enabling the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery comprises capturing database events.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising updating the data store with the database events.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the data source is an email server.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the application is an operating system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the data source comprises at least a directory of files and a subdirectory of files.

9. An apparatus for providing a data recovery service in a first processing environment, where data has been stored in a data store different from a data source in the first processing environment, comprising:

a processor; and

code executable by the processor to;

initiate a data recovery operation;

recover given data to a former state as reflected in a data store, wherein the recovery comprises;

presenting a structure of the given data to an application associated with a data source so that, from a point-of-view of the application, the data source is recovered prior to fully recovering the given data; and

continuing to recover the given data; and

enable the application to continue accessing or updating the given data during the recovery.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a host driver that captures application events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising a filter driver, wherein the filter driver captures application events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the data source is a database.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a host driver that captures database events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, further comprising a filter driver that captures database events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.

15. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the code executable by the processor further comprises updating the data store with the database events.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the code executable by the processor further comprises updating the data store with the database events.

17. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the data source is an email server.

18. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the application is an operating system.

19. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the data source comprises at least a directory of files and a subdirectory of files.