Hybrid Backup System Ingesting Incremental Changes into Base Backups
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current backup systems, whether incremental or decremental, face inefficiencies in terms of resource utilization and restoration speed, making neither ideal for comprehensive data protection.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a hybrid backup system that creates incremental backups during periods of higher resource utilization and ingests them into a base backup to form additional decremental backups during lower utilization periods, balancing resource impact and allowing increased access to prior backups.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If incremental backups are created during periods of higher resource utilization, then backup frequency and data protection are improved, but system resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The backup system dynamically adjusts its operation mode between incremental and decremental backups based on real-time resource utilization conditions. During high resource utilization periods, the system performs lighter incremental backups, while during low utilization periods, it performs more resource-intensive decremental backups that ingest incremental changes into base backups, optimizing the balance between data protection and resource consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the backup parameter (type of backup performed) based on resource utilization conditions. When resource utilization is high, the system uses incremental backup mode; when resource utilization is low, it switches to decremental backup mode, thereby adapting the backup strategy to current system conditions and resolving the contradiction between frequent backups and resource consumption.
2Speed
If decremental backups are created to enable fast restoration, then restoration speed is improved, but backup creation becomes more resource-intensive
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic decremental backups at intervals when resource utilization is low, rather than performing them continuously. This periodic approach allows the system to maintain fast restoration capability through base backups while avoiding excessive resource consumption during peak utilization periods, as incremental backups are performed more frequently between decremental operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary incremental backups during high resource utilization periods, capturing data changes without immediately ingesting them into base backups. These preliminary backups are then ingested during low utilization periods when resources are available, thereby preparing the data for fast restoration while deferring the resource-intensive ingestion operation to appropriate times.
3Reliability
If base backups are updated frequently to capture data changes, then data protection is improved, but backup creation time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The backup system segments the backup process into two distinct phases: a quick incremental backup phase that captures data changes during high resource utilization periods, and a slower ingestion phase that integrates these changes into base backups during low utilization periods. This segmentation allows the system to maintain frequent data protection coverage while avoiding repeated long-duration base backup operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary incremental backups that capture data changes quickly without immediately updating base backups. These preliminary backup sets are then ingested into base backups during low resource utilization periods, thereby maintaining frequent data protection while deferring the time-consuming base backup update operation to when it will cause minimal disruption.
4Productivity
If incremental backups are used to reduce backup time, then backup creation speed is improved, but restoration time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a periodic pattern where incremental backups are performed frequently during high resource utilization periods for fast backup creation, and decremental backups that ingest these incremental changes into base backups are performed during low utilization periods. This periodic alternation ensures that both backup creation speed and restoration speed requirements are met at different times in the backup cycle.
Solution Approach 2:
The backup system dynamically switches between incremental and decremental backup modes based on resource utilization conditions. During high utilization periods, incremental backups provide fast backup creation; during low utilization periods, decremental backups update base backups to maintain fast restoration capability, thereby dynamically balancing the two opposing requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
Utilizing an incremental backup in a decremental backup system. In one example embodiment, a method for utilizing an incremental backup in a decremental backup system includes creating a base backup that includes all original allocated blocks in a source storage at a first point in time. Next, an incremental backup is created that includes allocated blocks in the source storage that were newly allocated or were changed between the first point in time and a second point in time. The changed allocated blocks in the incremental backup are identified. During a third time period, a decremental backup is created and the incremental backup is ingested into the base backup by copying, into the decremental backup, original allocated blocks from the base backup that correspond to the changed allocated blocks in the incremental backup. Lastly, the newly-allocated blocks and the changed allocated blocks from the incremental backup are added to the base backup.