Clone file backup and restore

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10896157-B2
Application number	US-201816019642-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 27, 2018
Priority date	Mar 30, 2015
Publication date	Jan 19, 2021
Grant date	Jan 19, 2021

Abstract

In an approach to maintain data integrity in a computer data storage system, a clone management table is generated for a clone file tree that includes a relationship between at least one parent file and a clone file. The parent file is restored by: (i) determining that the parent-child relationship exists between the parent file and the clone file based on an entry in the clone management table, (ii) restoring data blocks in the parent file to the file system based on an analysis of an entry in the clone management table for the parent file and an identification of data blocks included in the clone file, and (iii) generating a new instance of the parent file based on the data blocks included in the file system and the entry in the clone management table for the clone file tree.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to maintain data integrity in a computer data storage system, the method comprising:
generating, by one or more processors, a clone management table corresponding to a clone file tree, wherein the clone management table includes at least one clone file parent and at least one clone file child, wherein the clone file tree includes a sequence of files with parent-child relationships in which a given clone child file is generated from a given parent file that immediately preceded the given clone child file in the sequence;
responsive to receiving a request to restore a clone file parent, restoring the clone file parent by: determining, by the one or more processors, that a parent-child relationship exists between the least one clone file parent and the at least one clone file child based on an entry in the clone management table for the clone file tree;
restoring, by the one or more processors, one or more data blocks in the clone the parent to a file system based on an analysis of an entry in the clone management table for the clone file parent and an identification of one or more data blocks included in the at least one clone file child; and
generating, by the one or more processors, a new instance of the clone file parent based on the one or more data blocks included in the file system and the entry in the clone management table for the clone file tree;
responsive to receiving a file expiration request, (i) updating, by the one or more processors, information for the given clone child file, and (ii) deleting, by the one or more processors; one or more data blocks from the clone file tree; and
responsive to receiving a request to check a validity of the clone management table; (i) analyzing, by the one or more processors, an information in the clone management table for coherence; and (ii) generating, by the one or more processors, a list of an invalid information that is in the clone management table.

2. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising: responsive to receiving a backup request, updating, by the one or more processors, an information in the clone management table by storing one or more data blocks of the given clone child file in the clone file tree, wherein updating the information in the clone management table enables backup and the restoration of at least a part of the clone file tree and 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.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the information about the given clone child file includes one or more of; (i) an identifier of the given clone child file, (ii) a size of the given clone child file, (iii) an inode number of the given clone child file, (iv) an inode metadata of the given clone child file, (v) an inode number of given clone file parent of the given clone child file, (vi) a depth level of the given clone child file in the clone file tree relative to the given clone file parent, (vii) a child count of the given clone child file, and (viii) a validity indicator for information pertaining to the given clone child file.

4. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising: responsive to receiving a request to restore the given clone child file; (i) analyzing, by the one or more processors, the information about the given clone child file to identify one or more data that was originally included in the given clone child file at time of creation of the given clone child file; and (ii) restoring, by the one or more processors, one or more data blocks in the given clone child file to the file system based, at least in part, on a result of the analysis.

5. The method of claim 1 , the method further comprising: responsive to a determination that the given clone child file has been created, modifying, by the one or more processors, the given clone file parent to be a read-only file, wherein the given clone file child is created as a read and write file.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the information about the given clone child file includes: (i) a location of one or more data blocks that have been written to in the given clone child file, and (ii) a last backup time for the given clone child file.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein a backup and restore server backs up and restores clone files to and from the file system, wherein the clone management table is located in the backup and restore server, and wherein the backup and restore server and the clone management table are distributed across a plurality of computers in the file system.

8. A computer program product for maintaining data integrity in a computer data storage system, the computer program product comprising:
one or more computer readable storage media and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage media, the program instructions comprising: program instructions to generate a clone management table corresponding to a clone file tree, the clone management table includes at least one clone file parent and at least one clone file child, wherein the clone file tree includes a sequence of files with parent-child relationships in which a given clone child file is generated from a given parent file that immediately preceded the given clone child file in the sequence;
program instructions to respond to receiving a request to restore a clone file parent by restoring the clone file parent by: determining that a parent-child relationship exists between the least one clone file parent and the at least one clone file child based on an entry in the clone management table for the clone file tree;
restoring one or more data blocks in the clone file parent to a file system based on an analysis of an entry in the clone management table for the clone file parent and an identification of one or more data blocks included in the at least one clone file child; and generating a new instance of the clone file parent based on the one or more data blocks included in the file system and the entry in the clone management table for the clone file tree;
program instructions to respond to reception of a file expiration request by (i) updating information for the given clone child file, and (ii) deleting one or more data blocks from the clone file tree; and
program instructions to respond to reception of a request to check a validity of the clone management table by: (i) analyzing an information in the clone management table for coherence; and (ii) generating a list of an invalid information that is in the clone management table.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , the program instructions further comprising: program instructions to respond to reception of a backup request by updating an information in the clone management table by storing one or more data blocks of the given clone child file in the clone file tree, wherein updating the information in the clone management table enables backup and restoration of at least a part of the cone file tree and 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.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the information about the given clone child file includes one or more of: (i) an identifier of the given clone child file, (ii) a size of the given clone child file, (iii) an inode number of the given clone child file, (iv) an inode metadata of the given clone child file, (v) an inode number of the given clone file parent of the given clone child file, (vi) a depth level of the given clone child file in the clone file tree relative to the given clone file parent, (vii) a child count of the given clone child

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G06F11/1435 Primary

  using file system or storage system metadata · CPC title

• 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

• G06F11/1469

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title