System and method for backing up data in a load-balanced clustered environment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11630741-B2
Application number	US-202117487449-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 28, 2021
Priority date	Oct 2, 2018
Publication date	Apr 18, 2023
Grant date	Apr 18, 2023

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems and method for backing up data in a load-balanced clustered environment. A clustered resource to be backed up is selected, wherein the clustered resource is stored on a common storage system and operated on by a cluster-aware application executing on at least a first node and a second node of a computing cluster. A load-balanced application may migrate the clustered resource from the first node with a high-load consumption to the second node with low-load consumption. A list of changes made by both nodes are received and merged. A backup agent then generates a consistent incremental backup using data retrieved from the common storage system according to the merged list of changes to the clustered resource.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for backing up data in a clustered environment, comprising:
selecting a clustered resource to be backed up, wherein the clustered resource is stored on a common storage system and modifiable by a cluster-aware application executing on at least a first node and a second node of a computing cluster;
migrating, by a load-balanced application of the cluster-aware application, the clustered resource from the first node classified has having high resource consumption at a given time to the second node classified as having low resource consumption at the given time;
determining, by a backup agent executing on the second node, a list of changes to the clustered resource requested by an instance of the cluster-aware application executing on the second node;
receiving another list of changes to the clustered resource requested by a peer instance of the cluster-aware application executing on the first node;
generating a merged list of changes by merging the list of changes to the another list of changes; and
generating a consistent incremental backup using data retrieved from the common storage system according to the merged list of changes to the clustered resource.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing cluster further comprises a third node, further comprising:
determining that another peer instance of the cluster-aware application executing on the third node requested an additional list of changes to the clustered resource; and
in response to determining that the another peer instance requested the additional list of changes, merging the additional list of changes into the merged list of changes.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the common storage system is managed using a clustered file system configured to provide concurrent access to multiple nodes of the computing cluster.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the list of changes to the clustered resource that are tracked by the second node comprises:
intercepting, by the backup agent, one or more file modification operations from the instance of the cluster-aware application to the common storage system for changing data of the clustered resource.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cluster-aware application comprises a failover application configured to automatically migrate the clustered resource from a third node determined to be unavailable.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises:
responsive to determining that the third node is unavailable, declaring that a list of changed block data from the third node is lost; and
wherein the consistent incremental backup is generated further based on a recalculated difference between a previous application-consistent snapshot of the clustered resource.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the method further comprises:
saving file modification information to the common storage system synchronously on each file modification operation;
loading (i) positions of changed parts of the clustered resource and (ii) metadata from common storage; and
merging the loaded positions and metadata with currently tracked changes, wherein the consistent incremental backup is generated further based on the merged loaded positions, metadata, and currently tracked changes.

8. A system for backing up data in a clustered environment, the system comprising:
a hardware processor configured to:
select a clustered resource to be backed up, wherein the clustered resource is stored on a common storage system and modifiable by a cluster-aware application executing on at least a first node and a second node of a computing cluster;
migrate, by a load-balanced application of the cluster-aware application, the clustered resource from the first node classified has having high resource consumption at a given time to the second node classified as having low resource consumption at the given time;
determine, by a backup agent executing on the second node, a list of changes to the clustered resource requested by an instance of the cluster-aware application executing on the second node;
receive another list of changes to the clustered resource requested by a peer instance of the cluster-aware application executing on the first node;
generate a merged list of changes by merging the list of changes to the another list of changes; and
generate a consistent incremental backup using data retrieved from the common storage system according to the merged list of changes to the clustered resource.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the computing cluster further comprises a third node, and wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
determine that another peer instance of the cluster-aware application executing on the third node requested an additional list of changes to the clustered resource; and
in response to determining that the another peer instance requested the additional list of changes, merge the additional list of changes into the merged list of changes.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the common storage system is managed using a clustered file system configured to provide concurrent access to multiple nodes of the computing cluster.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the hardware processor is configured to determine the list of changes to the clustered resource that are tracked by the second node by:
intercepting, by the backup agent, one or more file modification operations from the instance of the cluster-aware application to the common storage system for changing data of the clustered resource.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the cluster-aware application comprises a failover application configured to automatically migrate the clustered resource from a third node determined to be unavailable.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
responsive to determining that the third node is unavailable, declare that a list of changed block data from the third node is lost; and
wherein the consistent incremental backup is generated further based on a recalculated difference between a previous application-consistent snapshot of the clustered resource.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the hardware processor is further configured to:
save file modification information to the common storage system synchronously on each file modification operation;
load (i) positions of changed parts of the clustered resource and (ii) metadata from common storage; and
merge the loaded positions and metadata with currently tracked changes, wherein the consistent incremental backup is generated further based on the merged loaded positions, metadata, and currently tracked changes.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing thereon computer executable instructions for backing up data in a clustered environment, including instructions for:
selecting a clustered resource to be backed up, wherein the clustered resource is stored on a common storage system and modifiable by a cluster-aware application executing on at least a first node and a second node of a computing cluster;
migrating, by a load-balanced application of the cluster-aware application, the clustered resource from the first node classified has having high resource consumption at a given time to the second node classified as having low resource consumption at the given time;
determining, by a backup agent executing on the second node, a list of changes to the clustered resource requested by an instance of the cluster-aware application executing on the second node;
receiving another list of changes to the clustered reso

Assignees

• Acronis Int Gmbh

Inventors

• Stupak Anatoly
• Kogtev Dmitry
• Beloussov Serguei
• Protasov Stanislav

Classifications

• G06F2201/84

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

• G06F11/1464 Primary

  for networked environments · CPC title

• G06F11/203

  using migration · CPC title

• Y10S707/99955

  Archiving or backup · CPC title

• G06F11/2046

  where the redundant components share persistent storage (G06F11/2043 takes precedence) · CPC title