Systems and methods for continuous data protection

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11106545-B2
Application number	US-201916398583-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 30, 2019
Priority date	Apr 30, 2019
Publication date	Aug 31, 2021
Grant date	Aug 31, 2021

Abstract

Example embodiments relate generally to systems and methods for continuous data protection (CDP) and more specifically to an input and output (I/O) filtering framework and log management system to seek a near-zero recovery point objective (RPO).

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for continuous data protection for a virtual machine (VM) having a virtual disk, the method comprising at least the following operations:
identifying a base snapshot of the virtual disk;
intercepting, at an interception point in an I/O path, a virtual disk I/O stream between the VM and a virtualization server, the I/O stream including an I/O start, an I/O completion, and an I/O cancellation;
establishing a filter framework at the interception point, the filter framework including an I/O stack and a configurable I/O filter, the configurable I/O filter being configurable to provide a selectable touchpoint for interception and replication of the I/O stream;
based on a selected touchpoint, filtering out from interception and replication, an I/O cancellation occurring between the I/O start and the I/O completion;
replicating the I/O stream at a backup site;
storing the replicated I/O stream at the backup site in I/O logs;
forming a recoverable snapshot-log chain by applying the replicated I/O stream stored in the I/O logs on top of the base snapshot;
receiving a request for recoverable data from a replication target; and
sending data to the replication target based at least on a portion of the recoverable snapshot-log chain.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtualization server is an ESX hypervisor server and the operations further comprise including a filter driver for the filter framework within the ESX hypervisor server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the I/O cancellation is a distributed I/O cancellation and wherein the operations further comprise managing the distributed I/O cancellation at the I/O stack and not at the I/O filter of the filter framework.

4. A system for continuous data protection for a virtual machine (VM) having a virtual disk, the system comprising:
at least one processor for executing machine-readable instructions; and
a memory storing instructions configured to cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising, at least:
identifying a base snapshot of the virtual disk;
intercepting, at an interception point in an I/O path, a virtual disk I/O stream between the VM and a virtualization server, the I/O stream including an I/O start, an I/O completion, and an I/O cancellation;
establishing a filter framework at the interception point, the filter framework including an I/O stack and a configurable I/O filter, the configurable I/O filter being configurable to provide a selectable touchpoint for interception and replication of the I/O stream;
based on a selected touchpoint, filtering out from interception and replication, an I/O cancellation occurring between the I/O start and the I/O completion;
replicating the I/O stream at a backup site;
storing the replicated I/O stream at the backup site in I/O logs;
forming a recoverable snapshot-log chain by applying the replicated I/O stream stored in the VO logs on top of the base snapshot;
receiving a request for recoverable data from a replication target; and
sending data to the replication target based at least on a portion of the recoverable snapshot-log chain.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein the virtualization server is an ESX hypervisor server and the operations further comprise including a filter driver for the filter framework within the ESX hypervisor server.

6. The system of claim 3 , wherein the I/O cancellation is a distributed I/O cancellation and wherein the operations further comprise managing the distributed I/O cancellation at the I/O stack and not at the I/O filter of the filter framework.

7. A non-transitory, machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when read by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations in a method for continuous data protection for a virtual machine (VM) having a virtual disk, the operations comprising, at least:
identifying a base snapshot of the virtual disk;
intercepting, at an interception point in an I/O path, a virtual disk I/O stream between the VM and a virtualization server, the I/O stream including an I/O start, an I/O completion, and an I/O cancellation;
establishing a filter framework at the interception point, the filter framework including an I/O stack and a configurable I/O filter, the configurable I/O filter being configurable to provide a selectable touchpoint for interception and replication of the I/O stream;
based on a selected touchpoint, filtering out from interception and replication, an I/O cancellation occurring between the I/O start and the I/O completion;
replicating the I/O stream at a backup site;
storing the replicated I/O stream at the backup site in I/O logs;
forming a recoverable snapshot-log chain by applying the replicated I/O stream stored in the I/O logs on top of the base snapshot;
receiving a request for recoverable data from a replication target; and
sending data to the replication target based at least on a portion of the recoverable snapshot-log chain.

8. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the virtualization server is an ESX hypervisor server and the operations further comprise including a filter driver for the filter framework within the ESX hypervisor server.

9. The medium of claim 7 , wherein the I/O cancellation is a distributed I/O cancellation and wherein the operations further comprise managing the distributed I/O cancellation at the I/O stack and not at the I/O filter of the filter framework.

Assignees

• Rubrik Inc

Inventors

• Meadowcroft Benjamin Travis
• Ding Li
• Chen Shaomin
• Vohra Hardik
• Banerjee Arijit
• Mitra Abhay
• Goyal Kushaagra
• Mishra Arnav Gautum
• Chaudhry Samir Rishi
• Swaroop Suman
• Munshani Kunal Sean
• Malpani Mudit

Classifications

• G06F2201/815

  Virtual · CPC title

• G06F3/0656

  Data buffering arrangements · CPC title

• G06F2009/45587

  Isolation or security of virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F3/067

  Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS] · CPC title

• G06F2009/45583

  Memory management, e.g. access or allocation · CPC title