Cloud-based data backup and management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9921918-B1
Application number	US-201314015271-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Aug 30, 2013
Priority date	Aug 30, 2013
Publication date	Mar 20, 2018
Grant date	Mar 20, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to manage a storage object in a data backup storage mechanism, which stores multiple versions of a data file received from a data source. To efficiently manage storage in the storage object, determinations may be made as to whether a number of free data blocks (i.e., data blocks available for re-use) of the storage object exceeds a threshold and whether a data block(s) of the data file corresponding to a valid data block(s) of the storage object has not been modified in at least a number of previous versions of the data file. Responsive to a result of one or both of these determinations, data in the valid data block(s) may be copied to unused data block(s) in another storage object, and the status of the valid data block(s) is updated to free data block(s) such that all blocks in the storage object are free data blocks.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method to manage a data backup storage mechanism, the method comprising:
obtaining access to a backup data storage mechanism, wherein:
the data backup storage mechanism is configured to store data related to a plurality of versions of a data file received from a data source,
the data backup storage mechanism is configured to store data in a plurality of storage objects, each storage object being a unit of a separate plurality of data blocks within the data backup storage mechanism, and
the backup storage mechanism is configured to create a metadata record for each version of a data file, the metadata record including file-block allocation information,

determining, by a hardware processor system, whether a number of free data blocks a storage object of the plurality of storage objects exceeds a threshold, wherein the storage object has a storage capacity less than that of the data backup storage mechanism;
determining, by the hardware processor system, whether a data block of the data file at the data source corresponding to a valid data block of the storage object has not been modified in at least two previous versions of the data file;
responsive to determining that the number of free data blocks of the storage object exceeds the threshold and/or determining that the data block of the data file at the data source corresponding to the valid data block of the storage object has not been modified in at least two previous versions of the data file:
copying data in the valid data block of the storage object to an unused data block in another storage object of the plurality of storage objects in the data backup storage mechanism, and
updating a status of the valid data block to free data block such that all data blocks in the storage object are free data blocks;

merging, by the hardware processor system, two consecutive versions of the data file to eliminate one of those two versions and modifying the metadata record corresponding to the one of the two consecutive versions to account for the merging; and
restoring, by the hardware processor system, a given version of the data file by parsing file-block allocation information of a metadata file record of the given version of the data file to determine the data blocks in the storage object corresponding to the given version and the order in which the data blocks are to be accessed for restoration of the given version of the data file.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the storage object comprises a fixed total number of data blocks.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least two versions of the data file comprises a certain number of consecutive previous versions of the data file most-recently stored in the data backup storage mechanism prior to the determining in relation to the at least two previous versions.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the copying and the updating are performed during storing of a next version of the data file in the data backup storage mechanism after the storing of the most recent previous version of the data file prior to the determining in relation to the at least two previous versions.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing a metadata file corresponding to each of a plurality of versions of the data file, the metadata file comprising a total data size of the corresponding version of the data file, a block size of data blocks of the corresponding version, and/or file-block allocation information of the corresponding version,
wherein the file-block allocation information comprises a logical block number of a data block of the data file at the data source, a corresponding block number in the storage object corresponding to the logical block number, and/or a number of data blocks which are contiguously stored in the storage object following the corresponding block number.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the metadata file is received from the data source along with the data of the corresponding version of the data file.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
responsive to the data backup storage mechanism storing data related to a maximum number of versions of the data file, merging two consecutive versions of the data file,
wherein-merging comprises updating a status of valid data blocks of one of the two consecutive versions to free data blocks, and deleting the metadata file corresponding to the one of the two consecutive versions.

8. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
receiving the data blocks in the determined order from the data backup storage mechanism to restore the particular version of the data file.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein free blocks of the storage object are not re-useable to store new data until all the blocks of the storage object are defined as free.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the objects is a data structure stored in the data backup storage mechanism.

11. A system to manage a backup data storage mechanism, the system comprising a hardware processor system configured to:
obtain access to a backup data storage mechanism, wherein:
the data backup storage mechanism is configured to store data related to a plurality of versions of a data file received from a data source,
the data backup storage mechanism is configured to store data in a plurality of storage objects, each storage object being a unit of a separate plurality of data blocks within the data backup storage mechanism, and
the backup storage mechanism is configured to create a metadata record for each version of a data file, the metadata record including file-block allocation information,

determine whether a number of free data blocks of a storage object of the plurality of storage objects exceeds a certain threshold, wherein the storage object has a storage capacity less than of the data backup storage mechanism;
determine whether a data block of the data file at the data source corresponding to a valid data block of the storage object has not been modified in at least two previous versions of the data file; and
responsive to a determination that the number of free data blocks of the storage object exceeds the certain threshold and/or determination that the data block of the data file at the data source corresponding to the valid data block of the storage object has not been modified in at least two previous versions of the data file,
copy data in the valid data block of the storage object to an unused data block in another storage object of the plurality of storage objects in the data backup storage mechanism, and
update a status of the valid data block to free data block such that all data blocks in the storage object are free data blocks

merge two consecutive versions of the data file to eliminate one of those two versions and modifying the metadata record corresponding to the one of the two consecutive versions to account for the merging; and
restore a given version of the data file by parsing file-block allocation information of a metadata file record of the given version of the data file to determine the data blocks in the storage object corresponding to the given version and the order in which the data blocks are to be accessed for restoration of the given version of the data file.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the storage object comprises a fixed total number of data blocks.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least two previous versions of the data file comprises a certain number of consecutive previous versions of the data file most-recently stored in the data backup storage mechanism prior to the determination in relation to the at least two previous versions.

Assignees

• Ca Inc

Inventors

• Yellapragada Venkata Subrahmanya Sarma
• Pothireddy Vijaya Kumar
• Yallamraju Umasankar Raju
• Khinvasara Avi

Classifications

• G06F11/1448 Primary

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

• G06F11/1453

  using de-duplication of the data · CPC title

• G06F16/113

  Details of archiving (lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data G06F11/1446) · CPC title