Continuous data protection over intermittent connections, such as continuous data backup for laptops or wireless devices

• US 8,838,923 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2013
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Prahlad, Anand, Agrawal, Vijay H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ruiz, Aracelis
• Application Number:
  US14/102,050
• Publication Number:
  US 20140101399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 711/162, 710/610
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1435 using file system or storage system metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/16 Protection against loss of memory contents contains no material, see G06F11/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

A portable data protection system is described for protecting, transferring or copying data using continuous data protection (CDP) over intermittent or occasional connections between a computer system or mobile device containing the data to be protected, transferred or copied, called a data source, and one or more computer systems that receive the data, called a data target. CDP can be broken down logically into two phases: 1) detecting changes to data on a data source and 2) replicating the changes to a data target. The portable data protection system uses a method that performs the first phase continuously or near continuously on the data source, and the second phase when a connection is available between the data source and the data target.

Claims

1. A system for replicating changes to data stored on a portable device to a data target, the system comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one data store configured to store data and coupled to the at least one processor;

a change detector configured to, when the portable device is not communicatively coupled to the data target;

receive an indication indicating that the portable device is not communicatively coupled to the data target; and

in response to the indication, detect changes to data stored in the data store;

a change logger configured to;

when the change detection component detects a change to data stored in the data store, receive an indication from the change detector indicating the change to the data; and

in response to the indication, store information in a data structure that indicates the detected change to the data; and

a change replicator configured to, when the portable device is communicatively coupled to the data target;

receive an indication indicating that the portable device is communicatively coupled to the data target;

in response to the indication, access the information stored in the data structure; and

copy the change to the data indicated by the information to the data target.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication component configured to communicatively couple the portable device to the data target;

and, an intermediate version cache, wherein the change detector is further configured to, when the portable device is not communicatively coupled to the data target;

determine the data stored in the data store that is to be changed prior to the change to the data; and

provide the data that is to be changed prior to the change to the intermediate version cache,

wherein the intermediate version cache is configured to;

receive the data that is to be changed prior to the change from the change detector; and

store the data that is to be changed prior to the change.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is a portable device selected from the group consisting of a laptop, a cell phone, a pocket computer, a tablet computer, a portable media player, wearable computer, and a handheld game device, and wherein the data store has blocks having sizes and the data structure is a bitmap, and wherein each bit of the bitmap is associated with a block of data stored in the data store, and the size of each block is determined based on a size limit of the bitmap.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein a portion of the data store is available for data storage, and wherein the change logger is further configured to:

access the data store to determine the portion available for data storage; and

when the portion available for data storage exceeds a threshold amount, store additional information associated with the change to the data, wherein the additional information includes at least one of;

the data to which the change was detected;

blocks associated with the change to the data;

an offset within the data to which the change was detected indicating the commencement of the change;

a length of the change; and

metadata associated with the data to which the change was detected.

5. A method for tracking modifications made to data objects stored on a portable data processing device, the method comprising:

determining when the portable device is connected to a data target,

wherein the portable device stores data objects, and

wherein the data target is configured to store copies of data objects from the portable device; and

when it is determined that the portable device is not connected to a data target, then at the portable device performing the operations of;

receiving an indication of a modification made to a data object stored on the portable device,

wherein the data object is a file having blocks of data;

determining information associated with the modification made to the data object; and

storing the associated information in a data structure,

wherein the data structure is configured to enable retrieval of the associated information from the data structure and to enable determination of the modification made to the data object based on the associated information, and,

wherein the data structure is a bitmap, and

further wherein;

receiving an indication of a modification includes receiving an indication of a modification made to a portion of the file;

determining information associated with the modification includes determining certain blocks corresponding to the portion of the file to which the modification was made; and

storing the associated information includes changing bits corresponding to the determined set of blocks in the bitmap.

6. At least one tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by at least one data processing device, tracks modifications made to data objects stored on a portable data processing device, comprising:

upon determining that the portable device is not in communication with a data target, then at the portable device performing the process of;

determining information associated with a modification made to a data object stored on the portable device; and

storing the associated information in a data structure,

wherein the data structure is configured;

to enable retrieval of the associated information from the data structure, and

to enable determination of the modification made to the data object based on the associated information;

wherein the portable device includes a data protection monitor configured to monitor modifications to data objects stored on the portable device, and

further wherein receiving an indication of a modification includes;

monitoring a modification to a data object,

wherein the monitoring is performed by the data protection monitor; and

storing an indication of the modification monitored by the data protection monitor.

7. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising when it is determined that the portable device is in communication with the data target:

retrieving the associated information from the data structure;

determining the modification made to the data object based on the associated information; and

copying the modification to the data target.

8. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising when the portable device is in communication with the data target:

receiving an indication of a modification made to a data object stored on the portable device; and

copying the modification to the data target.

9. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the portable device includes a storage device having blocks, and further wherein determining information associated with the modification includes identifying an offset and a number of blocks changed from the offset.

10. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising when it is determined that the portable device is not in communication with the data target, at the portable device, storing an indication of the state of the data object prior to the modification to the data object.

11. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein the portable device includes a storage device having an available amount of storage, and further wherein storing the associated information includes:

determining the available amount of storage on the storage device of the portable device; and

when the available amount of storage exceeds a threshold amount;

determining additional information associated with the modification made to the data object, wherein the additional information includes at least one of;

the data object to which the modification was made;

an offset within the data object to which the modification was made indicating the commencement of the modification;

a length of the modification; and

metadata associated with the data objection to which the modification was made; and

storing the additional information.

12. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6 wherein determining when the portable device is in communication with the data target includes:

sending a message from the portable device to the data target; and

receiving a response to the message from the data target at the portable device.

13. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 6, further comprising when it is determined that the portable device is not connected to the data target, at the portable device:

storing the associated information in a cache prior to storing the associated information in the data structure; and

upon receiving a second indication of a second modification made to a second data object;

deleting data in the cache;

determining second information associated with the second modification made to the second data object; and

storing the second associated information in the cache.

14. A method for controlling a computer system to replicate changes from a portable computing system to a data storage system, the method comprising:

accessing a data structure storing information identifying portions of data objects stored on a portable computing system,

wherein modifications were made to the portions of the data objects,

wherein the portable computing system includes a data store having blocks, and

wherein the information identifying portions of data objects includes information identifying modified blocks, and

based on information from the data structure, determining the portions of data objects to which modifications were made; and

for each determined portion of a data object, copying the modification made to the portion of the data object from the portable computing system to the data storage system;

wherein determining the portions of data objects to which modifications were made includes determining modified blocks, and at least one of;

offsets within the modified blocks at which the modifications begin and lengths of modified data within the modified blocks; and

for each determined portion of a data object, copying the modification includes copying at least one of;

the data within the modified block at the determined offset and length of modified data from the portable computing system to the data storage system.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the data structure is a first data structure, and further comprising receiving a second data structure storing information identifying each modification to a portion of a data object.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving a portion of a data object to which a modification was made prior to the modification; and

storing the portion of the data object to which a modification was made prior to the modification.