Systems and methods for data protection using cloud-based snapshots

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10216583-B1
Application number	US-201615367217-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 2, 2016
Priority date	Dec 2, 2016
Publication date	Feb 26, 2019
Grant date	Feb 26, 2019

Abstract

The disclosed computer-implemented method for data protection using cloud-based snapshots may include (1) identifying a request to back up an information asset hosted by a cloud-based platform, (2) discovering, in response to the request, a plurality of snapshots taken at the cloud-based platform, where at least some of the plurality of snapshots store data underlying the information asset but do not provide a consistent image of the information asset, (3) determining that a snapshot subset of the plurality of snapshots provides data sufficient to produce a consistent image of the information asset by attempting to recover a consistent image of the information asset from the snapshot subset within a rehearsal environment, and (4) performing a backup that provides a consistent image of the information asset from the snapshot subset. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for data protection using cloud-based snapshots, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:
identifying a request to back up an information asset hosted by a cloud-based platform;
discovering, in response to the request, a plurality of snapshots taken at the cloud-based platform, wherein at least some of the plurality of snapshots store data underlying the information asset but do not provide a consistent image of the information asset;
determining that a snapshot subset of the plurality of snapshots provides data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset by iteratively attempting to recover, within a rehearsal environment, the consistent image of the information asset from each snapshot within the plurality of snapshots until encountering at least one snapshot that is sufficient to recover the consistent image;
performing a backup that provides the consistent image of the information asset from the snapshot subset based on a successful attempt to recover the consistent image of the information asset from the snapshot subset within the rehearsal environment.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of snapshots preserve data in a storage arrangement specific to the cloud-based platform.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein the rehearsal environment uses the storage arrangement specific to the cloud-based platform.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , further comprising:
provisioning the rehearsal environment within the cloud-based platform to be isolated from a production environment within the cloud-based platform in which the information asset is in use;
deploying an agent to the rehearsal environment to perform the backup of the information asset from within the rehearsal environment.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the plurality of snapshots store data underlying the information asset but do not provide the consistent image of the information asset at least in part because the plurality of snapshots store data according to a view from a different level of a technology stack than a view from a level of the technology stack used by the information asset.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that a candidate snapshot within the plurality of snapshots does not provide data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset;
deleting the candidate snapshot at least in part in response to determining that the candidate snapshot does not provide data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
deleting at least one snapshot within the plurality of snapshots but outside the snapshot subset based at least in part on determining that the snapshot subset provides data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the information asset comprises an application.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the information asset comprises at least one of:
a file system;
a virtual machine.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying a loss of availability of the information asset due to a failure at the cloud-based platform;
recovering the information asset onto a different platform from the backup in response to identifying the loss of availability of the information asset due to the failure at the cloud-based platform.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein:
the snapshot subset of the plurality of snapshots is of a format consumable by the cloud-based platform but not by the different platform;
the backup is of a format consumable by the different platform.

12. A system for data protection using cloud-based snapshots, the system comprising:
an identification module, stored in memory, that identifies a request to back up an information asset hosted by a cloud-based platform;
a discovery module, stored in memory, that discovers, in response to the request, a plurality of snapshots taken at the cloud-based platform, wherein at least some of the plurality of snapshots store data underlying the information asset but do not provide a consistent image of the information asset;
a determination module, stored in memory, that determines that a snapshot subset of the plurality of snapshots provides data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset by iteratively attempting to recover, within a rehearsal environment, the consistent image of the information asset from the each snapshot within the plurality of snapshots until encountering at least one snapshot that is sufficient to recover the consistent image;
a performance module, stored in memory, that performs a backup that provides the consistent image of the information asset from the snapshot subset based on a successful attempt to recover the consistent image of the information asset from the snapshot subset within the rehearsal environment; and
at least one physical processor configured to execute the identification module, the discovery module, the determination module, and the performance module.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the plurality of snapshots preserve data in a storage arrangement specific to the cloud-based platform.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the rehearsal environment uses the storage arrangement specific to the cloud-based platform.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the determination module further:
provisions the rehearsal environment within the cloud-based platform to be isolated from a production environment within the cloud-based platform in which the information asset is in use;
deploys an agent to the rehearsal environment to perform the backup of the information asset from within the rehearsal environment.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein at least some of the plurality of snapshots store data underlying the information asset but do not provide the consistent image of the information asset at least in part because the plurality of snapshots store data according to a view from a different level of a technology stack than a view from a level of the technology stack used by the information asset.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the determination module further:
determines that a candidate snapshot within the plurality of snapshots does not provide data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset;
deletes the candidate snapshot at least in part in response to determining that the candidate snapshot does not provide data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the determination module further deletes at least one snapshot within the plurality of snapshots but outside the snapshot subset based at least in part on determining that the snapshot subset provides data sufficient to produce the consistent image of the information asset.

19. The system of claim 12 , wherein the information asset comprises an application.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising one or more computer-readable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to:
identify a request to back up an i

Assignees

• Veritas Technologies Llc

Inventors

• Krinke Thomas

Classifications

• G06F16/128

  Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations or in hardware G06F11/14, G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G06F2201/805

  Real-time · CPC title

• G06F2201/84

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

• G06F11/1469

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/1464

  for networked environments · CPC title