Flashcopy Backup Collapse Without Breaking Chain
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current systems face challenges in efficiently ingesting Flashcopy backups into a repository without breaking the Flashcopy chain, particularly when reusing existing space efficient target volumes or managing collisions between mount, clone, and ingest operations.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves dynamically allocating new target volumes and Flashcopy maps to avoid collisions, reusing existing resources when possible, and synchronously ingesting Flashcopy maps to maintain chain stability, allowing for continuous ingestion of backups without breaking the chain.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If Flashcopy backups are ingested into a repository, then backup data is stored and managed, but the Flashcopy chain may be broken if target volumes are reused or collapsed
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by marking target volumes for collapse before actual ingestion occurs. The Flashcopy Map is updated to reflect the collapsed state in advance, ensuring that when ingestion happens, the chain integrity is already prepared and maintained, preventing breaks in the Flashcopy chain while enabling efficient data transfer to the repository
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary mechanism through the Flashcopy Map data structure that mediates between the source volumes and the repository. This map acts as a mediator that tracks dependencies and coordinates the collapse operation, allowing the ingestion process to proceed without directly breaking the chain by managing the relationship between collapsed volumes and their data
2Quantity of substance
If target volumes are reused to avoid resource overhead, then storage efficiency improves, but collisions between mount, clone, and ingest operations occur
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies dynamics by making the target volume allocation flexible and adaptive. Instead of static allocations, the system dynamically determines which target volumes can be reused and under what conditions, allowing the same volume to serve multiple purposes at different times while avoiding collisions through real-time state management and coordination between operations
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses copying by creating a Flashcopy Map that copies the dependency relationships and metadata information from source volumes to the repository. This allows the actual data to be transferred without physically copying the entire volume structure, enabling efficient storage utilization while maintaining the ability to track and manage volume relationships to prevent operation collisions
3Reliability
If Flashcopy chain is maintained for data integrity, then reliability improves, but resource overhead increases during ingestion and collapse operations
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts the essential dependency tracking function from the Flashcopy chain management and separates it into the Flashcopy Map data structure. This extraction allows the chain integrity to be maintained through metadata management rather than complex operational coordination, reducing the overhead of maintaining data integrity while preserving the reliability benefits
Data Source
AI summary
Upon an indication that a Flashcopy backup is not to be ingested, ingesting changed grains and/or a Flashcopy Map (fcmap) of the Flashcopy backup into a repository and dynamically marking the Flashcopy backup for collapse from a first repository into a second repository without breaking a flashcopy chain.