Alternating Backup Storage for Independent Recovery Chains
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional backup storage systems fail to maintain a complete recovery chain of data across multiple storage devices, leading to potential data loss if one device fails, as they do not allow alternating backup operations or properly handle incremental backups without a full backup set on each device.
Innovation Solution
A backup storage system that alternates backup operations across multiple devices, performing full and incremental backups to ensure each device has a complete recovery chain, with the ability to switch between devices manually or automatically, using a backup schedule to determine the type and timing of operations, and checking for the presence of full backup sets before performing incremental backups.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If backup operations are performed on a single backup storage device, then the backup process is simple, but the system lacks redundancy and data loss occurs if the device fails
Solution Approach 1:
The backup system segments backup operations across multiple backup storage devices, with each device receiving alternating full and incremental backups. This segmentation provides redundancy while maintaining manageable complexity through structured rotation patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary checks to determine whether a backup storage device has a full backup set before performing incremental backups. This preliminary action prevents data loss by ensuring the necessary foundation for incremental recovery exists.
2Productivity
If incremental backup operations are performed without checking for full backup sets, then the backup process is efficient, but data recovery becomes impossible if the full backup set is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs a preliminary check to determine whether the backup storage device has a full backup set before performing an incremental backup operation. This ensures data recovery reliability while maintaining efficiency by only performing the check when necessary.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the presence or absence of full backup sets to dynamically adjust backup operations. When a full backup set is detected, incremental backups proceed efficiently; when absent, the system adjusts to perform full backups instead, ensuring recovery reliability.
3Reliability
If multiple backup storage devices are used with alternating backup operations, then data redundancy is improved, but the complexity of managing backup chains increases
Solution Approach 1:
The backup system segments full and incremental backup operations across multiple storage devices in a structured rotation pattern. This segmentation achieves data redundancy while managing complexity through predictable, alternating backup chains on each device.
Solution Approach 2:
Each backup storage device maintains a specific local quality of having a complete recovery chain with both full and incremental backup sets. This local completeness ensures that each device can independently recover data without requiring other devices, simplifying management.
4Reliability
If the backup system checks for full backup sets before incremental backups, then data recovery reliability is improved, but the backup operation time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs a preliminary check for full backup sets only when needed to determine backup type, rather than continuously verifying during each backup operation. This minimizes time loss while ensuring recovery reliability through targeted verification.
Data Source
AI summary
A backup storage system and methods implemented by the backup storage system are disclosed. The backup software performs a plurality of backup operations to backup one or more data objects according to a backup schedule. The backup operations may be alternated across a plurality of backup storage devices, and each of the backup operations may operate to store a respective backup data set on one of the backup storage devices. In performing the plurality of backup operations, the backup storage system may create the backup data sets such that each respective backup storage device can be used independently of the other backup storage device(s) to perform a complete recovery of the one or more data objects to any point in time that corresponds to any respective backup data set stored on the respective backup storage device.