Storage Management Device Modification History Tracking
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current data storage systems are inadequate in recovering data at any prior point in time, especially in cases of data corruption, as they require snapshots created before the corrupting event and are inefficient due to increased storage capacity needs and error-prone processes.
Innovation Solution
A system that provides a modification history for a data store location, allowing users to determine times of write operations and recreate images prior to these operations, enabling recovery of uncorrupted data without pre-existing snapshots by using a storage management device that tracks and indexes write commands and maintains a time store for historical data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mirroring is used to protect against hardware failure, then data availability is improved, but data corruption is worsened because all mirror copies are corrupted simultaneously
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data protection mechanism by location identifiers, allowing individual blocks to be mirrored independently rather than entire data sets. This enables selective recovery of uncorrupted blocks while corrupted blocks are identified and excluded from recovery operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different quality control to different data blocks by tracking modification histories individually for each location identifier. This allows the system to identify which specific blocks are corrupted and which are not, enabling precise recovery operations that preserve uncorrupted data while excluding corrupted data.
2Reliability
If snapshots are created to enable data recovery, then data recovery capability is improved, but storage capacity requirements are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary information for recovery by maintaining modification histories that track location identifiers and timestamps rather than storing complete data snapshots. This allows recovery operations to reconstruct data on-demand using minimal stored metadata.
Solution Approach 2:
The system adds a temporal dimension to data access by storing modification timestamps with location identifiers. This enables recovery operations to retrieve data from any point in time without requiring complete snapshots at each time point, significantly reducing storage requirements.
3Measurement precision
If modification history tracking is implemented, then data recovery precision is improved, but system complexity is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary tracking of location identifiers and timestamps during normal write operations. This pre-captures the modification history information needed for precise recovery operations, eliminating the need for complex analysis during recovery and simplifying the overall system architecture.
Data Source
AI summary
A storage management device can receive a request for a modification history for a location within a data store, determine one or more times at which at least a portion of data stored at the location was modified, and transmit the one or more determined times.