Techniques for establishing a file system that exposes a virtual file system for backup operations
AssigneeNovell, Inc.
InventorDhairesh Oza
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Techniques for establishing a files system that exposes a virtual file system for backup operations are presented. Changes to files of a file system are maintained separately or collected and presented as a VFS. The VFS is then used to perform backup operations. Moreover, the files identified in the VFS can be customized based on search parameters, criterion, and/or criteria supplied by a user or supplied as parameters to backup and VFS mount operations.
Claims21
A method implemented in a computer-readable storage medium to process on one or more processors and to perform the method, comprising:
- receiving event notifications from a kernel subsystem of an operating system (OS) when changes occur to files managed by a file system (FS) of the OS;
- modifying a File System in User Space (FUSE) module to receive and track the event notifications received from the kernel subsystem;
- and
- exposing just a list of the files having the changes as a Virtual File System (VFS) that is used to perform a backup operation on the list of files that changed, and wherein the FUSE module exposes just the list as the VFS by abstracting the list as a subset of the FS for the OS as its own VFS,
- wherein receiving further includes acquiring with the event notifications a variety of metadata including inodes for the files changed, date of changes to each file, and size increase in bytes or decrease in bytes associated with the changes to each file.
A method implemented in a computer-readable storage medium to process on one or more processors and to perform the method, comprising:
- modifying a file system (FS) to track changes to files as a separate linked list of inodes;
- periodically updating, by the modified FS, the linked list of inodes;
- and
- providing just the linked list of inodes as a mountable virtual file system (VFS) for use in a backup operation, the VFS includes only the linked list of inodes for the files that changed, the VFS is independent and separate from the FS, and processing the backup operation against the VFS as an incremental and differential backup on the files that comprise the VFS.
A system implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and adapted to be executed by one or more processors of a network, comprising:
- a File System in User Space (FUSE) module implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to execute on a processor and within an operating system (OS);
- and
- a Virtual File System (VFS) implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to execute on the processor;
- wherein the FUSE module receives kernel notifications from the OS when changes occur to files being managed by a File System (FS) of the OS, and wherein the FUSE module collects these files and presents just these files as the VFS, the VFS only includes these files and the VFS is a separate and independent FS from the FS and the VFS then processes a backup operation against the files that comprise the VFS, and
- wherein the FUSE module collects metadata with the files that have changed including inodes for the files, dates for changes made to the files, time-of-day changes made to the files, size increases and size decreases for changes made to the files.
A system implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and adapted to be executed by one or more processors of a network, comprising:
- a File System (FS) implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to execute on a processor;
- and
- a Virtual File System (VFS) implemented in a computer-readable storage medium and to execute on the processor;
- wherein the FS is to maintain a linked list of inodes for files that have been changed since a last recorded event within an Operating System (OS), and wherein the FS exposes just the linked list of inodes as the VFS, the VFS includes just the linked list of inodes and the VFS is an independent and separate FS from the FS and a backup operation is then processed to backup the files associated with the inodes defined in the VFS, and process the backup operation against the VFS as an incremental and differential backup on the files that comprise the VFS.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.