Incremental Backup Reference Map for Fast Restoration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Incremental backups in deduplication systems complicate restoration operations due to the lack of complete data items, requiring processing of multiple incremental backups, which is inefficient compared to full backups.
Innovation Solution
The method involves initiating an incremental backup, sending new or changed data items to a deduplication engine, generating fingerprints, and creating a reference map that includes references to unchanged data items, allowing for efficient data retrieval and restoration by referencing a single extents catalog and reference map, regardless of the number of incremental backups since the last full backup.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If incremental backups are performed to reduce storage space and backup time, then storage utilization decreases and backup processing time reduces, but restoration operations become more complex and less efficient
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by creating a complete extents catalog during the incremental backup process that maps all data items (both changed and unchanged) to their locations. This pre-established catalog enables efficient restoration without requiring complex processing of multiple incremental backup chains, thus resolving the contradiction between reduced storage and increased restoration complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - the extents catalog and reference map system - that mediates between the incremental backup storage structure and the restoration process. This intermediary contains complete references to all data items across incremental backups, allowing simple restoration operations that function as if restoring from a full backup, thereby reducing restoration complexity while maintaining incremental backup storage efficiency
2Loss of time
If incremental backups are performed to reduce backup processing time, then backup time decreases, but restoration efficiency decreases compared to full backups
Solution Approach 1:
During the incremental backup process, the system performs preliminary actions by building and updating the extents catalog and reference maps that contain complete data item information. This preliminary work during backup enables fast restoration operations later, decoupling the time benefits of incremental backups from restoration efficiency, thus resolving the contradiction between reduced backup time and maintained restoration efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a copied reference structure (extents catalog and reference map) that replicates the comprehensive data item information found in full backups. This copied reference enables restoration operations to proceed with the same efficiency as full backup restoration, while the actual backup process benefits from incremental time savings, thereby resolving the contradiction between backup time reduction and restoration efficiency
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, and medium for performing incremental backups of a data set within a deduplication storage system. An incremental backup of a data set is initiated, and the changed data items of the data set are deduplicated. An extents catalog is created to fully describe the data set. References associated with the unchanged data items of the data set are retrieved from the extents catalog and then sent to a deduplication engine. The deduplication engine uses the references to retrieve fingerprints associated with the unchanged data items from a previous reference map. Then, the deduplication engine creates a new reference map for the incremental backup and stores the newly generated and retrieved fingerprints in the new reference map.