US 10,705,913 B2Granted

Application recovery in an information management system based on a pseudo-storage-device driver

AssigneeCommvault Systems, Inc.

InventorsAmit Mitkar, Paramasivam Kumarasamy

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Abstract

The disclosed systems and methods enable an application to start operating and servicing users soon after and during the course of its backup data being restored, no matter how long the restore may take. This is referred to as “instant application recovery” in view of the fact that the application may be put back in service soon after the restore operation begins. Any primary data generated by the application during “instant application recovery” is not only retained, but is efficiently updated into restored data. An enhanced data agent and an associated pseudo-storage-device driver, which execute on the same client computing device as the application, enable the application to operate substantially concurrently with a full restore of backed up data. According to the illustrative embodiment, the pseudo-storage-device driver presents a pseudo-volume to the file system associated with the application, such that the pseudo-volume may be used as a store for primary data during the period of “instant application recovery.”

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

initiating a restore operation of backed up data from a second storage device to a destination volume on a first storage device, which is in communication with a computing device;
while the restore operation is proceeding to the destination volume using a first mount point configured on the computing device,
mounting to the first mount point a pseudo-volume presented by a driver executing on the computing device;
while the restore operation is proceeding to the destination volume,
starting an application on the computing device that uses the pseudo-volume for the application's primary data,
thereby starting the application before the restore operation restores all of the backed up data to the destination volume;
in response to a write request comprising first data blocks issued by the application, storing the first data blocks to a first data structure configured in the pseudo-volume;
in response to a read request for second data blocks issued by the application,
(i) the second data blocks are supplied from the first data structure, when the second data blocks are found therein,
(ii) the second data blocks are supplied from a second data structure configured in the pseudo-volume, when the second data blocks were not found in the first data structure and were found in the second data structure, and
(iii) the second data blocks are fetched from the backed up data in the second storage device when the second data blocks were not found in either of the first data structure and the second data structure;
and
after the restore operation restores all of the backed up data to the destination volume:
stopping the application,
updating the destination volume with data blocks stored in the first data structure including the first data blocks,
re-starting the application and using the updated destination volume for the application's primary data, and
wherein the stopping, the updating, and the re-starting operations are performed by a data agent that executes on the computing device.

14 more elements

A method comprising:

executing an application on a computing device while restoring a backup copy, wherein the backup copy represents primary data that was previously generated by the application, based on:
(i) restoring the backup copy to a destination volume configured on a storage device that is mounted to a first mount point of the computing device;
(ii) while the restoring operation is proceeding to the destination volume, executing the application on the computing device, based on using a pseudo-volume as a store for the application's primary data, wherein the pseudo-volume is also mounted to the first mount point of the client computing device after the storage device is mounted;
and
(iii) processing a read request for first data blocks issued by the application by:
(A) supplying the first data blocks from a second data structure in the pseudo-volume when the first data blocks are found therein,
(B) supplying the first data blocks from a first data structure in the pseudo-volume when the first data blocks were not found in the second data structure and were found in the first data structure, and
(C) causing the first data blocks to be fetched from the backup copy when the first data blocks were not found in either of the first data structure or the second data structure;
and
after the restoring of the backup copy to the destination volume is completed, (a) stopping the application, (b) unmounting the pseudo-volume from the first mount point, and (c) updating the destination volume with data blocks stored in the second data structure, including the second data blocks.

7 more elements

A computer-readable medium, excluding transitory propagating signals, storing instructions that, when executed by at least one computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

executing an application while restoring a backup copy that represents primary data that was previously generated by the application, based on:
(i) restoring the backup copy to a destination volume configured on a storage device that is mounted to a first mount point of the computing device;
(ii) while the restoring operation is proceeding to the destination volume, executing the application on the client computing device, based on using a pseudo-volume as a store for the application's primary data, wherein the pseudo-volume is also mounted to the first mount point of the client computing device after the storage device is mounted;
(iii) processing a read request for first data blocks issued by the application by:
(A) supplying the first data blocks from a second data structure in the pseudo-volume when the first data blocks are found therein,
(B) supplying the first data blocks from a first data structure in the pseudo-volume when the first data blocks were not found in the second data structure and were found in the first data structure, and
(C) causing the first data blocks to be fetched from the backup copy when the first data blocks were not found in either of the first data structure or the second data structure;
and
(iv) processing a write request including second data blocks issued by the application by storing the second data blocks to the second data structure in the pseudo-volume;
and
after the restoring of the backup copy to the destination volume is completed, (a) stopping the application, (b) unmounting the pseudo-volume from the first mount point, and (c) updating the destination volume with data blocks stored in the second data structure, including the second data blocks.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/809,776Filed 10 Nov 2017 · continuation
Priority: 6 Aug 2014
Published: US 2018/0089031 A129 Mar 2018
Granted: 7 Jul 2020
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

G06F 11/14
Responding to the occurrence of a fault, e.g. fault tolerance: error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations
G06F 3/06
Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for…: digital…
G06F 11/1451
Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore: by selection of backup contents
G06F 11/1456
Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data: hardware arrangements for backup

Family

Application14/453,045Parent of this continuation · filed 6 Aug 2014
US 2018/0089031 A1Pre-grant publication · published 29 Mar 2018
US 9,852,026 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2016/0041880 A1Published application
US 10,705,913 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.