Instant Physical Machine Restore via Network Boot
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional disaster recovery and bare metal recovery processes are burdensome and time-consuming, especially when dealing with large backup data sizes, requiring system administrators to manually restore systems after catastrophic hardware failures, which prolongs the recovery time.
Innovation Solution
A data recovery method that exposes a network-connected backup medium as a boot-capable disk to enable instant restore of a physical machine by using block-based backup data volumes over a network, allowing the machine to be booted up quickly without the need for an operating system or disaster recovery media.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional disaster recovery or bare metal recovery process is used, then data can be restored from backup media, but the process is burdensome and time consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring backup media with bootable images and pre-positioning recovery tools before actual disaster occurs. When failure happens, the pre-prepared bootable backup image can be immediately deployed without requiring manual OS installation or configuration, thus reducing recovery time while maintaining reliable data restoration.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a copy of the backup media that can be bootable and directly restored to the failed system. Instead of requiring manual restoration processes, a bootable copy of the backup image is deployed to the failed system, allowing automatic restoration and significantly reducing the time and effort required for recovery.
2Reliability
If manual restoration process is used for large backup data, then complete data recovery can be achieved, but the process becomes even more challenging and time consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system creates a bootable copy of the backup image that contains all necessary data and recovery information. This copy can be directly deployed to the failed system and automatically restored, eliminating the need for complex manual restoration processes while ensuring complete data recovery even for large backup datasets.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces manual mechanical restoration operations with automated image-based restoration. Instead of manually copying and pasting files or configuring systems, a bootable backup image is deployed and automatically restores the entire system state, reducing complexity while maintaining complete recovery capability.
3Reliability
If traditional bare metal recovery is performed, then system can be restored from backup, but operating system must be re-installed which prolongs recovery time
Solution Approach 1:
The backup media is pre-configured with bootable images that include the operating system and all necessary system files. When restoration is needed, this pre-prepared bootable image can be immediately deployed to the failed system, eliminating the need for manual OS reinstallation and significantly reducing recovery duration while ensuring reliable system restoration.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention creates a bootable copy of the backup image that includes the operating system and system configuration. This copy can be directly deployed to the failed system and automatically restores the entire system state, including the operating system, eliminating the need for manual reinstallation and reducing recovery time.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of performing data restore includes connecting, using a boot capable network communication interface, to a backup server over a data network, the backup server having stored thereon a block based backup data volume; accessing the block based backup data volume via the data network as a remotely readable storage resource; and using operating system data read from the block based backup data volume to perform a network boot operation.