Clone file backup and restore

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10049121-B2
Application number	US-201514672936-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 30, 2015
Priority date	Mar 30, 2015
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

In an approach to backup and restore one or more clone file trees, one or more processors generate a clone management table. One or more processors record a clone management information in the clone management table about each clone file. To backup a clone file, one or more processors update the clone management information, and store one or more data blocks that are in the clone file trees. To restore a clone file, one or more processors analyze a clone management information and restore one or more data blocks in the clone file. To restore a clone file parent, one or more processors analyze a clone management information and restore one or more data blocks in the clone file parent. To restore a clone file tree, one or more processors analyze a clone management information and restore one or more data blocks in the clone file tree.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product for maintaining data integrity in a computer data storage system by backing up and restoring one or more clone file trees in the computer data storage system, the computer program product comprising:
one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media and program instructions stored in the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media, the program instructions that are executed by at least one or more computer processors comprising:
program instructions to generate a clone management table that includes at least one clone file parent and at least one clone file child;
program instructions to record, in the clone management table, a clone management information about each clone file in one or more clone file trees in a file system of a computing device, wherein (i) the clone file tree includes metadata specifying a sequence of files with parent-child relationships in which a given clone file child is generated from a given clone file parent that immediately preceded the given clone file child in the sequence (ii) the given clone file parent is modified to be a read-only file when a given clone child file is created and (iii) the given clone file child is a read and write file;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a backup request, update the clone management information and store one or more data blocks that are in one or more clone file trees;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to restore a clone file, analyze, the clone management information about the clone file and restore one or more data blocks in the clone file to the file system;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to restore a clone file parent, analyze the clone management information about the clone file parent and restore one or more data blocks in the clone file parent to the file system, wherein a given clone parent the contains all data blocks that were originally in a file when a clone of the given clone parent file was created;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to restore a clone file tree, (i) analyze the clone management information about the clone file tree and (ii) restore one or more data blocks in the clone file tree to the file system of the computing device; and
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to check a validity of the clone management table, analyze the clone management information in the clone management table for coherence, and generate a list of an invalid information that is in the clone management table, wherein the updating the clone management information in the clone management table enables the backup and the restoration of at least a part of the clone file tree precludes one or more data redundancies and restores the clone file tree to a form that the clone file tree had when the clone file tree was backed up.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising program instructions, stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media, to:
include in a clone management information on a clone file: file information on the clone file, a location of one or more data blocks that have been written in the clone file, and a last backup time of the clone file.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 , further comprising program instructions, stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media, to:
include in the file information: an identifier of the clone file, a size of the clone file, an inode number of the clone file, an inode metadata of the clone file, an inode number of a parent of the clone file, a depth level of the clone file in a clone file tree, a child count of the clone file, and a valid indicator for the clone management information.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising program instructions, stored on the one or more non-transitory computer readable storage media, to:
backup clone files from the file system using a backup and restore server; and restore clone files to the file system using a backup and restore server.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the clone management table is located in the backup and restore server.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the backup and restore server and the clone management table are distributed across a plurality of computers in the file system.

7. A computer system for maintaining data integrity in a computer data storage system by backing up and restoring one or more clone file trees in the computer data storage system, the computer system comprising:
one or more computer processors, one or more computer readable storage media, and program instructions stored in the one or more computer readable storage media for execution by at least one of the one or more computer processors, the program instructions comprising:
program instructions to generate a clone management table that includes at least one clone file parent and at least one clone file child;
program instructions to record, in the clone management table, a clone management information about each clone file in one or more clone file trees in a file system of a computing device, wherein (i) the clone file tree includes metadata specifying a sequence of files with parent-child relationships in which a given clone file child is generated from a clone file parent that immediately preceded the given clone file child in the sequence (ii) the given clone file parent is modified to be a read-only file when a given clone child file is created and (iii) the given clone file child is a read and write file;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a backup request, update the clone management information and store one or more data blocks that are in one or more clone file trees;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to restore a clone file, analyze, the clone management information about the clone file and restore one or more data blocks in the clone file to the file system;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to restore a clone file parent, analyze the clone management information about the clone file parent and restore one or more data blocks in the clone file parent to the file system, wherein the given clone parent file contains all data blocks that were originally in a file when a clone of the given clone parent file was created;
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to restore a clone file tree, (i) analyze the clone management information about the clone file tree and (ii) restore one or more data blocks in the clone file tree to the file system of the computing device; and
program instructions to, in response to receiving a request to check a validity of the clone management table, analyzing, by the one or more computer processors, an information in the clone management table for coherence, and generating a list of an invalid information that is in the clone management table, wherein the updating the clone management information in the clone management table enables the backup and the restoration of at least a part of the clone file tree precludes one or more redundancies and restores the clone file tree to a form that the clone file tree had when the clone file tree was backed up.

8. The computer system of claim 7 , further comprising program instructions, stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, to:
include in the clone management information on a clone file: file information on the clone file, a location of one or more data blocks that have been written to in the clone file, and a last backup time of the clone file.

9. The computer system of clai

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Bender Stefan
• Haustein Nils
• Mueller-Wicke Dominic
• Sawdon Wayne A
• Smith James P

Classifications

• G06F11/1458

  Management of the backup or restore process · CPC title

• G06F2201/84

  Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data · CPC title

• G06F11/1453

  using de-duplication of the data · CPC title

• G06F11/1435 Primary

  using file system or storage system metadata · CPC title

• G06F11/1469

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title