File-Based Snapshots for Block Backup Consistency
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current block-based backup applications are inefficient and costly, as they require taking snapshots of entire file systems, deleting unmodified blocks, and lack file system metadata, leading to inconsistent backups and high resource consumption.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of file-based snapshots for block-based backups, where a blocking enhancer records modified block identifiers, creates a modified block map, and merges modified blocks with unmodified blocks using a file system read and write interface to maintain consistency and enable selective file backup.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If block-based backup applications take snapshots of entire file systems, then backup completeness is improved, but resource consumption and time cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the file system backup process into file-level and block-level operations. It identifies modified files at the file level, then extracts only the modified blocks from those files for backup. This segmentation allows the system to maintain backup completeness while avoiding the overhead of processing entire file systems, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the necessary modified blocks from modified files, rather than backing up entire file systems. By using file metadata to identify which files have changed and then extracting only the modified blocks from those files, the system achieves complete backup coverage with minimal resource consumption, resolving the contradiction between backup completeness and resource usage.
2Quantity of substance
If block-based backup applications delete unmodified blocks, then storage efficiency is improved, but backup consistency deteriorates due to lack of file system metadata
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the backup data into modified blocks and unmodified blocks, storing only modified blocks in the incremental backup. By maintaining file metadata that tracks which blocks have been modified, the system achieves storage efficiency without compromising backup consistency, as the metadata provides the context needed to reconstruct complete file systems from the selective block set.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces file metadata as an intermediary between the file system and the block-based backup storage. This metadata layer tracks which files and blocks have been modified, enabling the system to selectively backup only necessary blocks while maintaining complete backup consistency. The metadata acts as a mediator that provides the contextual information needed to ensure reliability without requiring full file system backups.
3Reliability
If block-based backup applications process entire file systems, then backup thoroughness is improved, but backup window duration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the backup process to operate at two levels: file-level identification of modified files and block-level extraction of modified blocks. This segmentation enables the system to achieve thorough backup coverage by identifying all modified files while significantly reducing the actual backup window by processing only the modified blocks within those files, rather than the entire file system.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary identification of modified files using file metadata before the actual block backup process. By pre-identifying which files have changed and which blocks within those files are modified, the system prepares the minimal necessary data set for backup, thereby maintaining backup thoroughness while minimizing the backup window duration.
Data Source
AI summary
File-based snapshots for block-based backups are described. A system records an identifier corresponding to a modified block in a file system into a modified block map. The system creates a modified file block map based on a modified file. The system identifies a modified file block corresponding to the modified file based on an intersection of the modified block map and the modified file block map. The system creates a mounted backup image by mounting a previously created block-based backup of the file system onto a proxy host. The system enables a forward snapshot of the mounted backup image. The system reads the modified file block from the file system using a file system read interface. The system creates a forward snapshot file for the modified file by writing the modified file block to the mounted backup image using a file system write interface.