Snapshot backup with unified restore information

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10176052-B2
Application number	US-201715495711-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 24, 2017
Priority date	Apr 24, 2017
Publication date	Jan 8, 2019
Grant date	Jan 8, 2019

Abstract

An apparatus, method and computer program product are disclosed. The apparatus includes a strategy module that determines restore information, writes the restore information into a restore information file, and writes the restore information file to a master volume containing target data; a snapshot module that creates a snapshot backup of the master volume; and a restoration module that restores the target data and restore information file, and restores application consistency of the target data. The method includes determining restore information, writing restore information to a file, writing the file to a volume containing data, backing up data by a snapshot backup of the volume, restoring data and the file, and restoring application consistency of the data. The computer program product comprises a computer readable storage medium that stores code to perform determining a backup strategy, backing up data, and restoring data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
a strategy module that
determines restore information based upon a backup type,
writes the restore information into a restore information file, and
writes the restore information file to a master volume containing target data;

a snapshot module that creates a snapshot backup of the master volume; and
a restoration module that
restores the target data and the restore information file from the snapshot backup to a destination volume, and
restores application consistency of the target data based on the restore information;

wherein at least a portion of the information module, the backup module and the restoration module comprise one or more of hardware and executable code, the executable code stored on one or more computer readable storage media.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising
an information module that
queries a system for system information;

wherein the strategy module determines the backup type based on the system information.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein
the system information comprises
information identifying a type of application used,
information identifying a type of operating system used, and
information identifying a type of hypervisor software used.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the restore information comprises information about the system, the backup type and the target data needed to restore application consistency of the target data.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein
the restore information comprises recovery instructions.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein
the restore information file comprises a self-executing script that executes the recovery instructions.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein
the restoration module restores application consistency of the target data based on the restore information by running the self-executing script.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising
a cleanup module that deletes the restore information file from the master volume after creating the snapshot backup of the master volume.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising
a cleanup module that deletes the restore information file from the destination volume after restoring application consistency of the target data.

10. A method for backup and restoration of data, comprising:
determining restore information based on a backup type,
writing the restore information into a restore information file,
writing the restore information file to a master volume containing target data;
backing up data by creating a snapshot backup of the master volume;
restoring the target data and the restore information file from the snapshot backup to a destination volume, and
restoring application consistency of the target data based on the restore information.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising
querying a system for system information; and
determining a backup type based on the system information.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein
the system information comprises
information identifying a type of application used,
information identifying a type of operating system used, and
information identifying a type of hypervisor software used.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein
the restore information comprises information about the system, the backup type and the target data needed to restore application consistency of the target data.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein
the restore information comprises recovery instructions.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein
the restore information file comprises a self-executing script that executes the recovery instructions.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein
restoring application consistency of the target data based on the restore information comprises running the self-executing script.

17. The method of claim 10 , wherein backing up data further comprises
deleting the restore information file from the master volume after creating the snapshot backup of the master volume.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein restoring data further comprises
deleting the restore information file from the destination volume after restoring application consistency of the target data.

19. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium that stores code executable by a processor, the executable code comprising code to perform
determining restore information based on a backup type;
writing the restore information into a restore information file on a master volume containing target data;
backing up data by creating a snapshot backup of the master volume, wherein the snapshot backup comprises the target data and the restore information file;
restoring the target data and the restore information file from the snapshot backup; and
restoring application consistency of the target data based on the restore information.

20. The computer program product of claim 19 , wherein
the restore information comprises recovery instructions,
the restore information file comprises a self-executing script; and
restoring application consistency of the target data based on the restore information comprises running the self-executing script.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Nugyen Lu
• Smith James P
• Zaremba Christopher

Classifications

• G06F3/0619

  in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors · CPC title

• G06F11/1435

  using file system or storage system metadata · CPC title

• G06F2201/84

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

• G06F3/065

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F11/1464

  for networked environments · CPC title