Cloud Backup Metadata Deduplication for Disaster Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Integrating cloud storage services with backup systems is challenging due to the need for specialized backup servers and high latency in wide-area networks, making operations like creating synthetic backups slow and costly.
Innovation Solution
Eliminating the need for specialized backup servers by using a cloud spanning storage interface that transfers and deduplicates backup data streams and metadata, allowing cloud storage to be used as inexpensive and easily maintained off-site data storage, and enabling efficient disaster recovery without explicit support for disaster recovery or cloud-based storage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If cloud storage services are used for off-site backup data storage, then cost and administrative overhead are reduced, but access speed and operational performance deteriorate due to wide-area network latency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by creating synthetic backups in advance by combining previous backup data sets and incremental backups before they are needed for recovery. This pre-computation of backup data sets reduces the operational burden during actual disaster recovery scenarios, addressing the performance deterioration issue while maintaining the cost benefits of cloud storage.
2Reliability
If specialized backup servers are deployed at cloud storage sites, then backup system functionality is improved, but system complexity and operational cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing a backup system where the primary backup server can perform multiple functions - creating backups locally, transferring them to cloud storage, and synthesizing new backup data sets from stored backups and incrementals. This eliminates the need for specialized backup servers at cloud sites, reducing system complexity while maintaining full backup functionality through the cloud storage service's general-purpose computing capabilities.
3Reliability
If full backup data sets are transferred to cloud storage, then complete data protection is achieved, but data transfer time and network bandwidth consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing backup data into full backup data sets and incremental backup data sets. Instead of transferring complete backup data sets repeatedly, the system transfers initial full backups and subsequent smaller incremental changes to cloud storage. This segmented approach reduces overall data transfer time and network bandwidth consumption while maintaining complete data protection through the combination of full and incremental backups.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies discarding and recovering by eliminating redundant data during the backup process. The system identifies and discards duplicate data between full and incremental backups, transferring only unique information to cloud storage. During recovery, the system recovers complete data sets by combining the discarded redundant information from stored backups with the unique incremental changes, achieving complete data protection with minimal transfer time.
Data Source
AI summary
Cloud storage services can be used to facilitate secondary backup and disaster data recovery without the need for specialized backup servers at the secondary location or cloud storage service. Backup data streams are transferred to a cloud storage service. In addition to the backup data streams, backup metadata is generated for each backup data stream. The backup metadata is adapted to configure a backup server to retrieve and access data in the backup data stream. The backup metadata is also transferred to the cloud storage service. To access data from the backup data stream, a recovery backup system is connected with the cloud storage service. Backup metadata is transferred from the cloud storage service to the recovery backup system. The recovery backup system is updated with the backup metadata, which configures the recovery backup system to retrieve and access data in the backup data stream.