Integrated Disk-Tape Backup Scheduling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current backup solutions lack integration between disk-to-disk and tape backup systems, requiring separate management and operation, which can lead to data loss and business disruptions due to mismanagement.
Innovation Solution
A method for performing disk-to-tape backups in coordination with disk-to-disk backups, creating a combined backup schedule that resolves potential conflicts between disk and tape backup schedules, allowing for integrated management and restoration of datasets across both systems from a single console.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate tape backup systems and disk-to-disk backup systems are used, then each system can be optimized for its specific function, but the systems cannot be integrated and must be separately managed, increasing the risk of data loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges tape backup systems and disk-to-disk backup systems into a single integrated backup system. The disk backup server combines both tape backup functionality and disk-to-disk backup functionality, allowing unified management of both backup types through a single console while maintaining the reliability benefits of separate optimized systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The disk backup server is designed with multi-functionality, serving as both a tape backup server and a disk-to-disk backup server. This universal device can perform multiple backup operations (tape backups, disk backups, and combined backups) through a single console, reducing the need for separate specialized systems.
2Ease of operation
If separate management of tape backup and disk-to-disk backup systems is implemented, then each system can operate independently, but mismanagement may result in lost data and business losses
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines tape backup management and disk-to-disk backup management into a single unified console. Administrators can manage both backup types through one interface, eliminating the complexity of separate management systems and reducing the risk of mismanagement while maintaining operational ease.
3Productivity
If disk-to-disk backup systems operate at higher speeds and greater capacities, then backup efficiency is improved, but tape backup systems remain slower and less capacity-intensive, creating operational disparities
Solution Approach 1:
The disk backup server is designed as a universal system that can perform both high-speed disk-to-disk backups and tape backups through the same console. This multi-functional design allows the system to leverage the high productivity of disk operations while maintaining compatibility with tape backup requirements, bridging the operational disparity between the two backup types.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the present invention provide a disk-to-disk-to-tape backup method and system responsive to a combined backup request to backup a dataset to a backup disk according to a disk backup schedule and then to backup the dataset from the backup disk to a backup tape according to a tape backup schedule. The combined backup method completes a backup of the dataset to the backup disk and then to a backup tape device in accordance with a resolved schedule that considers potential conflicts between the schedules. To restore, aspects of the invention receive a request to restore a backup of the dataset from a backup-tape and the resolved schedule derived from the tape backup schedule and the disk backup schedule. The restoration verifies that a backup tape holds the target dataset by matching a combined backup identifier from the request against a corresponding combined backup identifier held in storage.