Persistent Cache for Incremental Backup Metadata
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional incremental backup methods are time-consuming and expensive due to the need to read large amounts of data from archives during the backup process, especially when archives are remotely located or access speeds are slow.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a persistent cache in a computing device's volume, which stores frequently accessed archive metadata pages, allowing for quick access during incremental backups and reducing the need to read from the archive.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If data is read from remote archive during incremental backup, then backup completeness is ensured, but backup time increases significantly and access speed decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-loads archive metadata pages into a persistent cache before incremental backup operations begin. This preliminary action stores frequently accessed metadata (file names, sizes, checksums, locations) in local storage, so that during backup only the cache needs to be queried rather than reading from the remote archive, thus reducing backup time while maintaining backup completeness
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a persistent cache as an intermediary layer between the remote archive and the backup software. This cache acts as a mediator that holds metadata pages locally, allowing the backup process to access metadata quickly without directly reading from the slow remote archive, thus resolving the contradiction between backup completeness and backup time
2Measurement precision
If large amount of archive data is read during incremental backup, then data comparison accuracy is improved, but network traffic increases and cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary metadata pages from the archive and stores them in the persistent cache. Instead of reading and comparing large amounts of actual backup data, the system extracts and uses only the metadata (file names, checksums, locations) needed for comparison, thus maintaining data comparison accuracy while dramatically reducing network traffic and associated costs
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are systems and method for performing data backups using a persistent cache. A method may include storing at least one archive metadata page of a plurality of archive metadata pages in a local persistent cache, wherein the archive metadata pages are associated with a plurality of files backed up from a local storage volume of the computing device to an archive; detecting that a file of the plurality of files is modified on the local storage volume; performing an incremental backup of the modified file, by: determining whether an archive metadata page of the modified file is stored in the persistent cache, in response to determining that the archive metadata page of the modified file is comprised in the at least one archive metadata page, retrieving the archive metadata page from the persistent cache; and executing the incremental backup of the modified file using the archive metadata page.