Maintaining point-in-time granularity for backup snapshots

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9846698-B1
Application number	US-201314108053-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 16, 2013
Priority date	Dec 16, 2013
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

A method and system for maintaining granular backups is discussed. Backup windows may be defined, and policies may be associated with those windows. Journal and backup files may be retained or deleted in accordance with those policies.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for maintaining point-in-time recovery granularity, the method comprising:
initializing a plurality of backup snapshots on a deduplicated storage;
initializing a plurality of journals on the deduplicated storage, wherein the journals maintain IOs occurring between the backup snapshots;
allowing the IOs to be written to the journals;
after the allowing the IOs to be written to the journals, storing the journals on non-volatile storage of the deduplicated storage;
defining a first backup protection window, wherein the first backup protection window comprises a first time range for maintaining, on the deduplicated storage, the backup snapshots and journals;
associating a first policy to the first backup protection window, the first policy comprising first and second actions, wherein the first action specifies maintaining the backup snapshots on the de-duplicated storage, and the second action specifies maintaining the journals on the de-duplicated storage;
applying the first backup protection window to the backup snapshots and journals;
defining a second backup protection window comprising a second time range for maintaining, on the de-duplicated storage, only the backup snapshots;
associating a second policy to the second backup protection window, the second policy comprising the first action, and a third action, wherein the third action specifies deleting the journals on the de-duplicated storage;
applying the second backup protection window to the journals; and
after the allowing the IOs to be written to the journals and the storing the journals on the non-volatile storage of the deduplicated storage, deleting all the journals inside the second time range according to the third action in the second policy, wherein the deleted journals comprise IOs previously written to a journal.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
defining a third backup window comprising a third time range;
applying the third backup window to the backup snapshots; and
deleting a number of snapshots inside the third time range.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the number is defined by a policy.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the number is defined by a user.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the number is equal to the total number of snapshots inside the third time range.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the first time range, the second time range, and the third time range are defined based on an amount on available storage on the deduplicated storage device.

7. A computer program product for maintaining point-in-time recovery granularity, the computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with computer executable program, the code enabling:
initializing a plurality of backup snapshots on a deduplicated storage;
initializing a plurality of journals on the deduplicated storage, wherein the journals maintain IOs occurring between the backup snapshots;
allowing the IOs to be written to the journals;
after the allowing the IOs to be written to the journals, storing the journals on non-volatile storage of the deduplicated storage;
defining a first backup protection window, wherein the first backup protection window comprises a first time range for maintaining, on the de-duplicated storage, the backup snapshots and journals;
associating a first policy to the first backup protection window, the first policy comprising first and second actions, wherein the first action specifies maintaining the backup snapshots on the de-duplicated storage, and the second action specifies maintaining the journals on the de-duplicated storage;
applying the first backup protection window to the backup snapshots and journals;
defining a second backup protection window comprising a second time range for maintaining, on the non-volatile storage, only the backup snapshots;
associating a second policy to the second backup protection window, the second policy comprising the first action, and a third action, wherein the third action specifies deleting the journals on the de-duplicated storage;
applying the second backup protection window to the journals; and
after the allowing the IOs to be written to the journals and the storing the journals on the non-volatile storage of the deduplicated storage, deleting all the journals inside the second time range according to the third action in the second policy, wherein the deleted journals comprise IOs previously written to a journal.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising:
defining a third backup window comprising a third time range;
applying the third backup window to the backup snapshots; and
deleting a number of snapshots created inside the third time range.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the number is defined by a policy.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the number is defined by a user.

11. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the number is equal to the total number of snapshots created inside the third time range.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein the first time range, the second time range, and the third time range are defined based on an amount on available storage on the deduplicated storage device.

13. A system for maintaining point-in-time recovery granularity, the system comprising a computer processor configured to execute instructions comprising:
initializing a plurality of backup snapshots on a deduplicated storage;
initializing a plurality of journals on the deduplicated storage, wherein the journals maintain IOs occurring between the backup snapshots;
allowing the IOs to be written to the journals;
after the allowing the IOs to be written to the journals, storing the journals on non-volatile storage of the deduplicated storage;
defining a first backup protection window, wherein the first backup protection window comprises a first time range for maintaining, on the de-duplicated storage, the backup snapshots and journals;
associating a first policy to the first backup protection window, the first policy comprising first and second actions, wherein the first action specifies maintaining the backup snapshots on the de-duplicated storage, and the second action specifies maintaining the journals on the de-duplicated storage;
applying the first backup protection window to the backup snapshots and journals;
defining a second backup protection window comprising a second time range for maintaining, on the de-duplicated storage, only the backup snapshots;
associating a second policy to the second backup protection window, the second policy comprising the first action, and a third action, wherein the third action specifies deleting the journals on the de-duplicated storage;
applying the second backup protection window to the journals; and
after the allowing the IOs to be written to the journals and the storing the journals on the non-volatile storage of the deduplicated storage, deleting all the journals inside the second time range according to the third action in the second policy, wherein the deleted journals comprise IOs previously written to a journal.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 , further comprising:
defining a third backup window comprising a third time range;
applying the third backup window to the backup snapshots; and
deleting a number of snapshots created inside the third time range.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the number is defined by a policy.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the number is defined by a user.

Assignees

• Emc Corp

Inventors

• Panidis Anestis
• Natanzon Assaf
• Cohen Saar

Classifications

• G06F17/30088 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F11/2028

  eliminating a faulty processor or activating a spare · CPC title

• G06F2201/855

  Details of asynchronous mirroring using a journal to transfer not-yet-mirrored changes · CPC title

• G06F11/1453

  using de-duplication of the data · CPC title

• G06F11/2035

  without idle spare hardware · CPC title