Backup Initiator Bitmap Regeneration for Backup Chain Integrity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current backup and recovery processes are inefficient, requiring lengthy times and significant computing resources, and often fail to detect data corruption errors introduced during the backup process, which can lead to issues during restoration.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a system that uses bitmaps embedded into snapshots to track changes on a production host, allowing backup proxies to conduct differential or incremental backups by identifying changed blocks and excluding unchanged ones, thereby reducing backup window times and ensuring data integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If incremental backups are used to reduce backup window times and storage space, then backup efficiency is improved, but backup proxies cannot take advantage of incremental backups because they are outside the production I/O data path
Solution Approach 1:
A backup initiator is introduced as an intermediary component on the production server that acts as a mediator between the production I/O data path and the backup proxy. The backup initiator intercepts I/O operations, identifies changed data blocks using bitmaps, and provides this information to the backup proxy, enabling the proxy to perform incremental backups without being directly in the production I/O path.
Solution Approach 2:
The backup system is segmented into distinct functional components: the backup initiator on the production server that handles I/O interception and bitmap generation, and the backup proxy that performs the actual backup operations. This segmentation allows each component to specialize in its function while working together to achieve incremental backup capability.
2Productivity
If data corruption errors are not detected during the backup process, then backup operations complete faster, but data integrity cannot be ensured and issues are discovered only during restoration
Solution Approach 1:
A feedback mechanism is implemented where the backup initiator continuously monitors backup operations and compares source data with backup data using bitmaps and data blocks. When discrepancies or corruption errors are detected during the backup process, the system generates alerts and can halt operations, providing immediate feedback about data integrity issues rather than discovering them during restoration.
Solution Approach 2:
Data integrity verification is performed preliminarily during the backup operation itself rather than waiting until restoration. The system proactively checks for corruption by comparing data blocks against the bitmap and identifying anomalies before the backup is completed, allowing corrective action to be taken immediately.
Data Source
AI summary
A synthetic full backup of a source volume is retrieved, the synthetic full having been created from merging a backup chain including an incremental backup into a full backup. The full backup corresponds to a state of the source volume at a first time. The synthetic full corresponds to a state of the source volume at a second time, after the first time. A bitmap embedded into a snapshot of the source volume taken at the second time is retrieved. The bitmap identifies data from the source volume copied to secondary storage for the incremental backup. The backup chain is regenerated by copying from the snapshot the data identified by the bitmap to a regenerated incremental backup.