Modifying function pointers to back up application data

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11461014-B1
Application number	US-201514871751-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Sep 30, 2015
Publication date	Oct 4, 2022
Grant date	Oct 4, 2022

Abstract

Techniques to back up data are disclosed. In various embodiments, a function pointer associated with a system call by an application is modified to point to a custom write function. A request to write application data is received at the custom write function. The application data is written to a backup destination based at least in part on a determination that the request is associated with invocation of a backup method of the application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of backing up data, comprising:
modifying a function pointer associated with a system call by an application to point to a custom write function, wherein the custom write function comprises a function for writing corresponding data to a corresponding backup destination, and one or more pre-processing functions associated with backing up the corresponding data, and wherein the custom write function is configured to determine whether a corresponding request to write application data is associated with a backup method, and to perform the function for writing corresponding data to the corresponding data backup destination in response to determining that the corresponding request to write application data is associated with a backup method, and to perform a write function that is different from the function for writing corresponding data to the corresponding data backup destination in response to determining that the corresponding request to write application data is not associated with a backup method;
receiving a request to write application data specified in the request;
determining, using the custom write function, whether the request is associated with an invocation of a backup method of the application, comprising:
obtaining a list of files to be backed up that are associated with a call to the backup method of the application; and
determining whether the request corresponds to a file to be backed-up that is included in the list of files to be backed up;

in response to determining that the request is associated with the invocation of the backup method of the application, using the custom write function in connection with writing the application data specified in the request, wherein the application data is written to the corresponding backup destination, and wherein at least one of the one or more pre-processing functions is performed before the application data is written to the corresponding backup destination; and
in response to determining that the request is not associated with the invocation of the backup method of the application, using the write function that is different from the custom write function in connection with writing the application data specified in the request.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the function pointer is associated with an application process associated with an application runtime environment.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the custom write function comprises a user defined function.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the custom write function is configured to pass through to a standard write function a write request by the application that is not associated with invocation of the backup method of the application, wherein the standard write function corresponds to the write function that is different from the custom write function.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more pre-processing functions include de-duplication processing.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more pre-processing functions include encrypting the application data.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the backup destination comprises a location on backup media.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the modifying the function pointer associated with the system call by the application to point to the custom write function comprises:
replacing, at runtime, one or more function pointers of the application that are associated with one or more system calls with one or more user defined functions.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein at least one of the one or more user-defined functions further comprise the one or more pre-processing functions, the pre-processing functions being configured for performing a pre-processing of the application data associated with the corresponding request to write the application data.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the custom write function writes the corresponding data directly to the corresponding backup destination.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the custom write function determines to write the corresponding data to the corresponding backup destination based at least in part on a mapping of one or more files to backup media.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the determination of whether the request is associated with an invocation of a backup method of the application, and the use of the custom write function in connection with writing the application data specified in the request in response to determining that the request is associated with the invocation of the backup method of the application are performed in a manner that is transparent to the application associated with the system call.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein respective exposed functionalities of the custom write function with respect to writing application data specified in a request associated with the invocation of the backup method and the write function are the same.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the custom write function in connection with writing the application data specified in the request writes the application data directly to the corresponding backup destination in response to the determining that the request is associated with the invocation of the backup method of the application.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the of files to be backed up is provided in connection with a request to write application data specified in the request.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing mapping of files that are to be saved to the corresponding backup destination in response to the receiving the request to write the application data specified in the request,
wherein the determining whether the request is associated with the invocation of the backup method of the application is based at least in part on the mapping of files that are to be saved to the corresponding backup destination.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the list of files to be backed up is based at least in part on a detection of one or more calls to the backup method of the application.

18. A system to back up data, comprising:
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
modify as stored in the memory a function pointer associated with a system call by an application to point to a custom write function, wherein the custom write function comprises a function for writing corresponding data to a corresponding backup destination, and one or more pre-processing functions associated with backing up the corresponding data, and wherein the custom write function is configured to determine whether a corresponding request to write application data is associated with a backup method, and to perform the function for writing corresponding data to the corresponding data backup destination in response to determining that the corresponding request to write application data is associated with a backup method, and to perform a write function that is different from the function for writing corresponding data to the corresponding data backup destination in response to determining that the corresponding request to write application data is not associated with a backup method;
receive a request to write application data specified in the request;
determine, using the custom write function, whether the request is associated with an invocation of a backup method of the application, comprising:
obtain a list of files to be backed up that are associated with a call to the backup method of the application; and
determine whether the request corresponds to a file to be backed-up that is included in the

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Yadav Sunil
• Buchman Matthew
• Mandic Vladimir

Classifications

• G06F3/067

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

• G06F3/065

  Replication mechanisms · CPC title

• G06F3/0619 Primary

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

• G06F3/0683

  Plurality of storage devices · CPC title