Method, electronic device and computer program product for backup

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11853167-B2
Application number	US-202016917851-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 30, 2020
Priority date	May 29, 2020
Publication date	Dec 26, 2023
Grant date	Dec 26, 2023

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, an electronic device, and a computer program product for backup. The method includes: determining a plurality of buffer periods associated with a plurality of pending backup operations of a plurality of objects, each buffer period being a preprocessing period for a corresponding pending backup operation. The method further includes: determining a plurality of predicted execution durations of the plurality of pending backup operations based on historical execution durations of respective historical backup operations of the plurality of objects. The method further includes: determining priorities of the plurality of pending backup operations based on the plurality of predicted execution durations and the plurality of buffer periods. The method further includes: executing the plurality of pending backup operations based on the priorities.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A backup method, comprising:
determining a plurality of buffer periods associated with a plurality of pending backup operations of a plurality of objects, each buffer period of the plurality of buffer periods being a preprocessing period for a corresponding pending backup operation (CPBO) for one of the plurality of objects,
wherein each of the plurality of buffer periods is determined by:
before a user manages a backup operation of a corresponding object of the plurality of objects at a first time, setting, by the user, a threshold backup duration of the corresponding object and a corresponding buffer period of the plurality of buffer periods to meet the threshold backup duration;
determining a difference between the threshold backup duration and the corresponding buffer period to set execution of the CPBO at a second time that is after the first time,
wherein the corresponding buffer period is a period during which the CPBO is set to be executed before the CPBO's scheduled backup time,
wherein the CPBO specifies backing up a snapshot of a virtual machine to a storage device;

storing the corresponding buffer period in metadata of the corresponding object;

determining a plurality of predicted execution durations of the plurality of pending backup operations based on weighted average of historical execution durations of respective historical backup operations of the plurality of objects,
wherein when determining the plurality of predicted execution durations, a Holt-Winters seasonal prediction model is used;

determining priorities of the plurality of pending backup operations based on the plurality of predicted execution durations and the plurality of buffer periods
wherein when the plurality of buffer periods are the same, the priorities of the plurality of pending backup operations are determined based only on the plurality of predicted execution durations, and

executing the plurality of pending backup operations based on the priorities,
wherein a high-priority pending backup operation is executed before executing a low-priority pending backup operation,
wherein the high-priority pending backup operation and the low-priority pending backup operation are queued based on each backup operation's priority.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determining the plurality of pending backup operations of the plurality of objects expected to be executed at a predetermined time.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of predicted execution durations comprises:
acquiring a plurality of historical execution durations of a plurality of historical backup operations of a first object among the plurality of objects within a predetermined time window; and
determining a predicted execution duration of a pending backup operation of the first object based on the plurality of historical execution durations.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein executing the plurality of pending backup operations comprises:
determining an execution sequence of the plurality of pending backup operations based on the priorities; and
executing the plurality of pending backup operations based on the execution sequence.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the priorities comprises:
determining a first weight for the plurality of predicted execution durations, the first weight identifying an importance of the plurality of predicted execution durations in determining priorities;
determining a second weight for the plurality of buffer periods, the second weight identifying an importance of the plurality of buffer periods in determining priorities; and
determining priorities of the plurality of pending backup operations being executed based on the first weight, the second weight, the plurality of predicted execution durations, and the plurality of buffer periods.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the priorities comprises:
determining a plurality of first weights for the plurality of predicted execution durations, each first weight identifying an importance of a predicted execution duration corresponding to each object in determining priorities;
determining a plurality of second weights for the plurality of buffer periods, each second weight identifying an importance of a buffer period corresponding to each object in determining priorities; and
determining priorities of the plurality of pending backup operations being executed based on the plurality of first weights, the plurality of second weights, the plurality of predicted execution durations, and the plurality of buffer periods.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determining an interval between a third time when a new backup is generated after a pending backup operation of a first object among the plurality of objects is executed and a fourth time when a previous backup of the first object is generated; and
determining that an error of the pending backup operation for the first object occurs in response to a duration of the interval being greater than a second threshold duration.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein determining the plurality of buffer periods comprises:
acquiring the plurality of buffer periods from respective metadata of the plurality of objects.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of objects comprises at least one of a second virtual machine, a database, a file set, and a mail set.

10. An electronic device, comprising:
at least one processor; and
a memory, coupled to the at least one processor and having instructions stored thereon, wherein when executed by the at least one processor, the instructions cause the electronic device to perform a method, the method comprising:
determining a plurality of buffer periods associated with a plurality of pending backup operations of a plurality of objects, each buffer period of the plurality of buffer periods being a preprocessing period for a corresponding pending backup operation (CPBO) for one of the plurality of objects,
wherein each of the plurality of buffer periods is determined by:
before a user manages a backup operation of a corresponding object of the plurality of objects at a first time, setting, by the user, a threshold backup duration of the corresponding object and a corresponding buffer period of the plurality of buffer periods to meet the threshold backup duration;
determining a difference between the threshold backup duration and the corresponding buffer period to set execution of the CPBO at a second time that is after the first time,
 wherein the corresponding buffer period is a period during which the CPBO is set to be executed before the CPBO's scheduled backup time,
 wherein the CPBO specifies backing up a snapshot of a virtual machine to a storage device;
storing the corresponding buffer period in metadata of the corresponding object;

determining a plurality of predicted execution durations of the plurality of pending backup operations based on weighted average of historical execution durations of respective historical backup operations of the plurality of objects,
wherein when determining the plurality of predicted execution durations, a Holt-Winters seasonal prediction model is used;

determining priorities of the plurality of pending backup operations based on the plurality of predicted execution durations and the plurality of buffer periods
wherein when the plurality of buffer periods are the same, the priorities of the plurality of pending backup operations are determined based only on the plurality of predicted execution durations, and

executing the plurality of pending backup o

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Yan Jinru
• Liao mengze
• Liu Min
• Zhu Xiaoliang
• Zhu Zheyi

Classifications

• G06F11/1451 Primary

  by selection of backup contents · CPC title

• G06N5/04

  Inference or reasoning models · CPC title

• G06F2201/80

  Database-specific techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/1464 Primary

  for networked environments · CPC title

• G06F11/1448

  Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore · CPC title