Cloning and recovery of data volumes

• US 8,612,396 B1
• Filed: 09/15/2012
• Issued: 12/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Milovanovic, Milovan, McAlister, Grant Alexander MacDonaldr
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matt
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lu, Hua
• Application Number:
  US13/620,962
• Time in Patent Office: 458 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/674
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• 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 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/80 Database-specific techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• 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 2201/875 Monitoring of systems including the internet

Abstract

Aspects of a data environment, such as the cloning, hibernation, and recovery of databases, are managed using a separate control environment. A monitoring component of the control environment can periodically communicate with the data environment to determine any necessary actions to be performed, such as to recover from faults or events for a data instance in the data environment. A workflow can be instantiated that includes tasks necessary to perform actions such as recovery, hibernation, resumption from hibernation, or backup or cloning. Tasks of the workflow can cause certain jobs to be performed by host managers in the data environment to effect calls made to the control environment.

Claims

1. A system for recovering from a failure of a database in a data environment, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

receive, to a control environment, information regarding a first database in a data environment, the control environment being separate from the data environment;

when the information indicates that the first database requires recovery from a failure of the first database,

determine a recovery workflow based at least in part upon the information and an approximate time when the first database failed;

executing the recovery workflow, the recovery workflow comprising tasks to;

determine an identifier of the first database;

cause a second database to be provisioned in the data environment;

cause data from a snapshot of the first database at the approximate time when the first database failed to be copied to the second database; and

cause the identifier of the first database to be associated with the second database;

wherein the snapshot is one of a plurality of snapshots, each of the plurality of snapshots stored at a time based upon determined intervals.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the recovery work flow is executed without user intervention.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein executing the recovery workflow is in response to a request by a user or an authorization by the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the recovery workflow further comprises a task to:

cause the second database to be updated with log data associated with the first database and up to the approximate time when the first database failed.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the information regarding the first database is received from a host manager in the data environment operable to monitor the first database, and the instructions when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to:

send a request for the information regarding the first database at determined intervals.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of snapshots are stored in the at least one of the control environment or the data environment.

7. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions for cloning a database in a data environment, the instructions when executed by at least one processor causing the at least one processor to:

receive a request to clone a first database in a data environment, the control environment being separate from the data environment;

determine a workflow for cloning the first database based at least in part upon the request, the request including a specified time; and

execute the workflow for cloning, the workflow for cloning comprising tasks to;

cause a second database to be provisioned in the data environment;

cause data from a snapshot of the first database approximate to the specified time to be copied to the second database; and

provide an identifier of the second database;

wherein the snapshot is one of a plurality of snapshots, each of the plurality of snapshots stored at a time based upon determined intervals.

8. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the request is made by a user.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein criteria for each of the first database and the second database include at least one of a database engine, a query language, a hardware class, storage requirements, or an availability zone.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the criteria of the second database are based at least in part upon at least one of the request, user preferences, or determined configuration information.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein at least one criterion of the first database is different from at least one corresponding criterion of the second database.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the second database is provisioned using a same number of data volumes each of a same size as the first database.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the workflow for cloning further comprises tasks to:

cause a size of the data from the snapshot of the first database to be determined;

cause an appropriate number of data volumes and an appropriate size for each of the data volumes to be determined based at least in part upon the size of the data from the snapshot,

wherein the second database is provisioned using the appropriate number of data volumes and the appropriate size for each of the data volumes.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the workflow for cloning further comprises a task to:

cause the second database to be updated with log data associated with the first database and up to the specified time.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor further cause the at least one processor to:

prohibit updates to the first database until executing the workflow for cloning is completed.

16. A system for hibernating a database in a data environment, comprising:

at least one processor; and

memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to;

receive, to a control environment, a request for hibernating a first database in a data environment, the control environment being separate from the data environment;

determine a workflow for hibernating the first database; and

execute the workflow for hibernating, the workflow for hibernating comprising tasks to;

determine an identifier of the first database;

cause the identifier of the first database to be stored;

cause data of a snapshot of the first database at an approximate time when the request for hibernating the first database was received to be stored; and

cause remaining resources associated with the first database to be released;

wherein the snapshot is one of a plurality of snapshots, each of the plurality of snapshots stored at a time based upon determined intervals.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the instructions when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to:

receive, to the control environment, a second request to resume the first database;

determine a second workflow for resuming the first database; and

execute the second workflow for resuming, the second workflow for resuming comprising tasks to;

cause a second database to be provisioned in the data environment;

cause the data of the snapshot of the first database at the approximate time when the request for hibernating the first database was received to be copied to the second database; and

cause the identifier of the first database to be associated with the second database.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the workflow for hibernating is executed based at least in part upon determined intervals.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the workflow for resuming is executed based at least in part upon second determined intervals.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the second request is made by a user.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the workflow for hibernating further comprises a task to:

cause log data associated with the first database and up to the approximate time when the request for hibernating the first database was received to be stored.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the second workflow for resuming further comprises a task to:

cause the second database to be updated with the log data.