Opportunistic Data Seeding for Backup Efficiency
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data protection systems are often underutilized and idle for long periods, leading to inefficient backup processes due to the need to transfer and deduplicate large amounts of data during scheduled backups, which can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.
Innovation Solution
Implement an opportunistic data seeding process that writes new client data to temporary files during idle times, allowing the data protection system to pre-store new data before the actual backup, thereby increasing deduplication rates and reducing bandwidth consumption and backup times.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is transferred and deduplicated during scheduled backups, then backup accuracy is ensured, but backup time and resource consumption increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by performing data seeding during idle periods before the actual backup window. The backup appliance proactively receives and stores new data from clients during low-activity periods, so that when the scheduled backup occurs, most data is already present on the appliance. This eliminates the need to transfer and deduplicate large amounts of data during the backup window, significantly reducing backup time while maintaining 100% backup accuracy.
2Reliability
If data is transferred and deduplicated during scheduled backups, then data protection is ensured, but bandwidth consumption and resource usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs data seeding during idle periods when bandwidth and resources are underutilized. By proactively receiving and storing new data during these periods, the backup appliance eliminates the need for large data transfers during the scheduled backup window, significantly reducing bandwidth consumption and resource usage while maintaining complete data protection.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements continuous data seeding during idle periods to maintain a steady state where data is continuously accumulated on the backup appliance. This continuous action during low-activity periods ensures that when the backup window opens, the appliance is already prepared with the necessary data, eliminating interruptions and reducing overall resource consumption.
3Loss of energy
If data protection system is idle for long periods, then resource usage is minimized, but backup efficiency decreases due to large data transfer requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms idle periods into productive time by implementing continuous data seeding. During these low-activity periods, the backup appliance actively receives and stores new data from clients, converting what would be wasted idle time into useful data accumulation. This ensures that when the backup window opens, the appliance is already prepared with the necessary data, significantly improving backup efficiency without increasing resource usage during the backup window itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses idle periods to perform preliminary data seeding, preparing the backup appliance in advance for the scheduled backup. This preliminary action during low-activity periods ensures that the backup process itself can proceed efficiently with minimal resource consumption, as most data is already present on the appliance rather than requiring large transfers.
Data Source
AI summary
One example method includes by a data source entity, querying a data storage entity to determine if it has adequate under-utilized resources to perform a portion of a data seeding process. When the data storage entity indicates to the data source entity that the data storage entity has adequate unused resources to perform the portion of the data seeding process, initiating, by the data source entity, the data seeding process, and the data seeding process includes transmitting data from the data source entity to the data storage entity for storage in a temporary file at the data storage entity, and the data that is transmitted is data that was targeted to be protected by a data protection process. Finally, the data protection process may be performed so that only data not already present at the data storage entity is transmitted by the data source entity to the data storage entity.