Cluster Shared Volume Backup Checkpoint Resume
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
In cluster environments, backup solutions for shared resources, such as CSV volumes, often lose progress during failover or failback events due to the interruption of snapshot processes, requiring restarts from the beginning, which is inefficient and time-consuming.
Innovation Solution
A persistent VSS shadow copy of the shared drive is created and stored on the CSV volume, allowing for a checkpoint to be maintained to resume backups from the point of failure, enabling seamless continuation of the backup process upon node recovery without needing to retake a new snapshot.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a snapshot is taken for backup during failover or failback, then the backup process can proceed, but the snapshot is lost and backup progress is interrupted requiring restart from beginning
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by creating a persistent snapshot before failover occurs and maintaining it across node transitions. The snapshot is prepared in advance and stored in a location that survives failover events, allowing the backup process to resume rather than restart. This resolves the contradiction by ensuring the snapshot (preliminary action) persists through the failover event, eliminating the need to recreate it and lose backup progress.
2Ease of operation
If backup is performed through the current active node, then the backup can be executed, but failover interrupts the backup and requires complete restart
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by making the snapshot accessible to multiple cluster nodes rather than being tied to a single active node. The persistent snapshot is stored in a location that can be accessed by any node in the cluster, allowing any node to continue the backup process after failover. This resolves the contradiction by enabling the backup function to be performed by multiple nodes (multi-functionality), so when one node fails, another can take over without restarting the backup.
3Reliability
If a new VSS snapshot is created after failover, then backup can continue, but the process is repeated from scratch increasing time and resource consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies discarding and recovering by preserving the original snapshot across failover events and recovering it for continued use. Instead of discarding the snapshot when failover occurs and creating a new one, the system recovers the persistent snapshot that survived the failover. This resolves the contradiction by recovering the existing snapshot resource rather than discarding it and creating a new one, thereby maintaining backup continuity while conserving computational resources.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques to back up a cluster resource are disclosed. In various embodiments, an active cluster node is used to take and store persistently on a cluster shared volume a snapshot of the cluster shared volume. The persistent snapshot is used to back up the cluster shared volume, including by storing checkpoint information indicating as the backup progresses which portions of the snapshot have been backed up. A cluster environment with which the cluster shared volume is associated is monitored to detect any failover or failback affecting the backup.