Checkpoint restart

• US 8,924,355 B1
• Filed: 03/29/2011
• Issued: 12/30/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: EMC Corporation (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Roche, Michael G., Kundzich, Olga, Majkowski, Tomasz
• Primary Examiner(s): Choi, Yuk Ting
• Application Number:
  US13/075,073
• Time in Patent Office: 1,372 Days
• US Class Current: 707/647
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process

Abstract

A method for restarting backup including receiving an indication of an interruption to a backup process, saving data backed up prior to the interruption as a partial save set, and upon restart of the backup process, saving subsequently backed data in one or more subsequent partial save sets linked to a first partial save set.

Claims

1. A method for restarting backup, comprising:

receiving an indication of an interruption to a backup process, wherein the backup process is performed based at least in part on data objects associated with a save set;

saving data backed up prior to the interruption as a partial save set, wherein saving data backed up includes;

receiving one or more data objects to be written to backup media flushed from a first buffer maintained at a backup source;

determining that the one or more data objects to be written to the backup media associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media;

sending an indication that the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media; and

receiving metadata corresponding to the one or more data objects flushed from a second buffer maintained at the backup source, wherein the metadata corresponding to the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer was flushed from the second buffer in response to the indication that the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media;

storing the metadata associated with the partial save set, wherein the metadata associated with the partial save set includes identifying information associated with the one or more data objects that were saved in the partial save set;

in response to receiving an indication to restart the backup process, determining the metadata associated with the partial save set;

restarting the backup process from a portion of the save set determined based at least in part on the metadata associated with the partial save set; and

saving subsequently backed up data in one or more subsequent partial save sets linked to a first partial save set.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the interruption includes one of:

a crash, a reboot, an abort of the backup process, or a network failure at a data server associated with the backup process.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the save set comprises a set of source data to be backed up.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata associated with the partial save set includes mappings to one or more locations in storage for the one or more data objects identified in the partial save set.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata associated with the partial save set includes a valid data object count associated with a total number of the one or more data objects identified in the metadata associated with the partial save set.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata associated with the partial save set includes a valid data size associated with a total size of the one or more data objects identified in the metadata associated with the partial save set.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more subsequent partial save sets and the first partial save set comprise a sequence of partial save sets.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a subsequent partial save set linked to the first partial save set includes generating metadata associated with the subsequent partial save set identifying a save time associated with the first partial save set.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a subsequent partial save set linked to the first partial save set includes generating metadata associated with the subsequent partial save set identifying that the subsequent partial save set succeeds the first partial save set in the backup process.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating metadata associated with a subsequent partial save set including metadata associated with one or more data objects stored in a previous partial save set.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first buffer is triggered to be flushed based at least in part on a determination that storing metadata corresponding to a subsequent data object to the second buffer will cause the second buffer to be flushed.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising sorting the data objects associated with the save set based at least in part on a first ordering prior to starting the backup process and further comprising sorting the data objects associated with the save set based at least in part on the first ordering prior to restarting the backup process.

13. A system of restarting backup, comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive an indication of an interruption to a backup process, wherein the backup process is performed based at least in part on data objects associated with a save set;

save data backed up prior to the interruption as a partial save set, wherein saving data backed up includes;

receiving one or more data objects to be written to backup media flushed from a first buffer maintained at a backup source;

determining that the one or more data objects to be written to the backup media associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media;

sending an indication that the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media; and

receiving metadata corresponding to the one or more data objects flushed from a second buffer maintained at the backup source, wherein the metadata corresponding to the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer was flushed from the second buffer in response to the indication that the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media;

store the metadata associated with the partial save set, wherein the metadata associated with the partial save set includes identifying information associated with the one or more data objects that were saved in the partial save set;

in response to receiving an indication to restart the backup process, determine the metadata associated with the partial save set;

restart the backup process from a portion of the save set determined based at least in part on the metadata associated with the partial save set; and

save subsequently backed up data in one or more subsequent partial save sets linked to a first partial save set; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to provide the processor with instructions.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the interruption includes one of:

a crash, a reboot, and abort of the backup process, or a network failure at a data server associated with the backup process.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the metadata associated with the partial save set includes mappings to one or more locations in storage for one or more data objects identified in the partial save set.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the first buffer is triggered to be flushed based at least in part on a determination that storing metadata corresponding to a subsequent data object to the second buffer will cause the second buffer to be flushed.

17. The system of claim 13, wherein the processor is further configured to sort the data objects associated with the save set based at least in part on a first ordering prior to starting the backup process and wherein the processor is further configured to sort the data objects associated with the save set based at least in part on the first ordering prior to restarting the backup process.

18. A computer program product for restarting backup, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

receiving an indication of an interruption to a backup process, wherein the backup process is performed based at least in part on data objects associated with a save set;

saving data backed up prior to the interruption as a partial save set, wherein saving data backed up includes;

receiving one or more data objects to be written to backup media flushed from a first buffer maintained at a backup source;

determining that the one or more data objects to be written to the backup media associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media;

sending an indication that the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media; and

receiving metadata corresponding to the one or more data objects flushed from a second buffer maintained at the backup source, wherein the metadata corresponding to the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer was flushed from the second buffer in response to the indication that the one or more data objects associated with the first buffer have been fully written to the backup media;

storing the metadata associated with the partial save set, wherein the metadata associated with the partial save set includes identifying information associated with one or more data objects that were saved in the partial save set;

in response to receiving an indication to restart the backup process, determining the metadata associated with the partial save set;

restarting the backup process from a portion of the save set determined based at least in part on the metadata associated with the partial save set; and

saving subsequently backed up data in one or more subsequent partial save sets linked to a first partial save set.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the first buffer is triggered to be flushed based at least in part on a determination that storing metadata corresponding to a subsequent data object to the second buffer will cause the second buffer to be flushed.

20. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising sorting the data objects associated with the save set based at least in part on a first ordering prior to starting the backup process and further comprising sorting the data objects associated with the save set based at least in part on the first ordering prior to restarting the backup process.