Recovering a volume table and data sets

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9442805-B2
Application number	US-201414484250-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2014
Priority date	Jun 27, 2012
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for recovering a volume table and data sets from a volume. Content from a backup volume table comprising a valid backup of a volume table from backup of the volume is processed to generate a recovery volume table for a recovery volume. The data sets in the volume are processed to determine whether they are valid. The valid data sets are moved to the recovery volume. A data recovery operation is initiated for the data sets determined not to be valid.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product for data recovery of a volume having data sets in a storage device, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein that executes to perform operations, the operations comprising:
processing content from a backup volume table comprising a valid backup of a volume table from a backup of the volume to generate a recovery volume table for a recovery volume;
processing the data sets in the volume to determine whether they are valid;
moving the valid data sets to the recovery volume; and
initiating a data recovery operation for the data sets determined not to be valid.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the processing of the content from the backup volume table to generate the recovery volume table comprises:
determining data sets in the volume;
determining differences between the determined data sets in the volume and information on the data sets indicated in the content from the backup volume table; and
generating the recovery volume table comprising the content from the backup volume table updated with the determined differences.

3. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the determined differences comprise information on data sets that were deleted, updated and/or added since a time of the backup volume, wherein generating the recovery volume table comprises:
deleting, from the content from the backup volume table, information on those data sets that are determined to have been deleted since the time of the backup volume;
adding information to the content from the backup volume table on those data sets that have been added since the time of the backup volume; and
updating information in the content from the backup volume table for those data sets that have been modified to make consistent with the determined data sets.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the processing the data sets in the volume to determine whether they are valid comprises:
comparing the data sets with corresponding backup data sets from the backup of the volume, wherein data sets that do not differ from backup versions of the data sets are valid and wherein differing data sets comprise the data sets that differ from the corresponding backup data sets;
processing the differing data sets to determine whether data in the differing data sets is recoverable; and
moving the differing data sets that are determined to have the data that is recoverable to the recovery volume.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the processing of the differing data sets to determine whether they have data that is recoverable comprises:
determining whether at least one data attribute of data in the differing data sets and the corresponding backup data sets is consistent, wherein the data in the differing data sets is determined to be recoverable in response to determining that the at least one data attribute is consistent.

6. The computer program product of claim 5 , wherein the at least one data attribute comprises a block size of data in the differing data sets, wherein the at least one data attribute of the differing data sets and the corresponding backup data sets are consistent in response to determining that the block size of data in the differing data sets and the corresponding backup data sets match.

7. The computer program product of claim 4 , further comprising:
processing the data records to determine whether the backup data sets corresponding to the differing data sets were updated since a time of the backup volume, wherein the data in the differing data sets is determined to be recoverable in response to determining that the corresponding backup data sets were updated.

8. The computer program product of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining unrecoverable data sets comprising the data sets determined not to be recoverable;
presenting to a user information indicating the unrecoverable data sets with an option to recover from the backup volume;
receiving user selection of at least one unrecoverable data set to recover from the backup volume; and
restoring the at least one selected unrecoverable data set from the corresponding backup data sets to the recovery volume.

9. The computer program product of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining unrecoverable data sets, comprising the data sets determined not to be recoverable, to recover;
determining valid portions of the determined unrecoverable data sets;
moving the determined valid portions of the determined unrecoverable data sets to the recovery volume; and
erasing the unrecoverable data sets not moved to the recovery volume remaining in the volume in response to the moving to the recovery volume all the valid data sets, the differing data sets having data that is recoverable, and the determined valid portions of the unrecoverable data sets to the recovery volume.

10. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein the determining the valid portions comprises:
determining blocks in the determined unrecoverable data sets that have a same block size as indicated in the recovery volume table for the blocks in the data set, wherein the valid portions comprise the blocks in the data sets that have the block size indicated in the recovery volume table.

11. The computer program product of claim 4 , further comprising:
processing the data records to determine whether the backup data sets corresponding to the differing data sets were updated since a time of the backup volume, wherein the data in the differing data sets is determined to be recoverable in response to determining that the corresponding backup data sets were updated.

12. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the volume table includes a volume table of contents (VTOC) that provides allocation information for data sets in the volume.

13. A system in communication with a storage device having a volume with data sets comprising:
a processor; and
a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therein executed by the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
processing content from a backup volume table comprising a valid backup of a volume table from a backup of the volume to generate a recovery volume table for a recovery volume;
processing the data sets in the volume to determine whether they are valid;
moving the valid data sets to the recovery volume; and
initiating a data recovery operation for the data sets determined not to be valid.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the processing of the content from the backup volume table to generate the recovery volume table comprises:
determining data sets in the volume;
determining differences between the determined data sets in the volume and information on the data sets indicated in the content from the backup volume table; and
generating the recovery volume table comprising the content from the backup volume table updated with the determined differences.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the determined differences comprise information on data sets that were deleted, updated and/or added since a time of the backup volume, wherein generating the recovery volume table comprises:
deleting, from the content from the backup volume table, information on those data sets that are determined to have been deleted since the time of the backup volume;
adding information to the content from the backup volume table on those data sets that have been added since the time of the backup volume; and
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Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dudgeon Kyle B
• Mccune Franklin E
• Reed David C
• Smith Max D

Classifications

• G06F11/1469 Primary

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/1448 Primary

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

• G06F2201/805

  Real-time · CPC title

• G06F11/1435 Primary

  using file system or storage system metadata · CPC title

• G06F11/1451

  by selection of backup contents · CPC title