Server-Side Group Fingerprints for Virtual Synthetic Backups
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing deduplication systems require persistent storage of group fingerprints on clients, which is inefficient and consumes valuable client resources. Additionally, applications lacking Change Block Tracking (CBT) knowledge cannot utilize virtual synthetic backups effectively.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a method where server-generated group fingerprints are retrieved on demand during the backup process, eliminating the need for persistent storage on the client. This allows for targeted deduplication using virtual synthesis, enabling efficient backup and replication processes even for applications without CBT knowledge.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If group fingerprints are persistently stored on the client system, then duplicate data identification is enabled, but client storage resources are consumed and processing overhead increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the group fingerprint storage function from the client system and relocates it to the server system. The server generates, stores, and manages group fingerprints for multiple clients, allowing clients to identify duplicates without maintaining persistent fingerprint storage locally. This resolves the contradiction by enabling reliable duplicate identification while eliminating the storage burden from clients.
Solution Approach 2:
The server acts as an intermediary between clients and the fingerprint storage system. Clients request group fingerprints from the server during backup operations, and the server provides them on-demand without requiring clients to maintain persistent storage. This mediator approach enables duplicate identification while reducing client resource consumption.
2Loss of energy
If virtual synthetic backups are implemented, then network bandwidth efficiency is improved, but applications without CBT knowledge cannot utilize this feature
Solution Approach 1:
The server-side group fingerprint system provides a universal interface that works with all backup applications regardless of whether they have CBT capability. The server generates group fingerprints for any data received from any application, enabling virtual synthetic backups to be used universally across different application types without requiring application-specific modifications.
Solution Approach 2:
The server automatically generates and manages group fingerprints without requiring client-side processing or application-specific logic. This self-service approach allows any application to benefit from virtual synthetic backups by simply sending data to the server, which handles the fingerprint generation and duplicate identification autonomously.
3Productivity
If server-side group fingerprints are retrieved on demand, then client processing overhead is reduced, but additional network communication is required
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of requiring clients to perform complete fingerprint verification locally, the system uses partial action by retrieving only the necessary group fingerprints from the server on demand. This reduces client processing overhead significantly, and the network communication overhead is minimized by only transferring fingerprint data rather than complete data sets.
Data Source
AI summary
Making inline deduplicated backups of protected data using group fingerprints resident in a storage server by generating group fingerprints on a storage server for a backup client that is not capable of using group fingerprints, from individual fingerprints generated for each segment of protected data divided into variable size segments and then grouped together. Each fingerprint comprises a signature for a respective data segment. The method further maintains the group fingerprints for files resident on the storage server, compares, in the storage server, respective group fingerprints for these files with a new backup file to be backed up from the backup client to determine duplicated data between these files, and converts the new backup file to a virtual synthetic backup during a backup time of the new file.