Synthetic Incremental Backup Chain Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current data protection systems, such as Backup Exec System Recovery, face resource strain and inefficiency due to long backup chains requiring substantial computing resources and storage space, especially when restoring data from extensive incremental backups, which limits their ability to support large volumes and network connections.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus for optimizing backup chains using synthetic backups, where a system recovery manager determines schedule information to create synthetic incremental backups, reducing the number of backups needed by consolidating incremental changes and pruning unnecessary backups, thereby optimizing resource usage and chain length.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If incremental backups are used to capture changed data since the last backup, then backup efficiency is improved, but the backup chain becomes extremely long requiring access to every previous backup to assemble a complete backup
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple incremental backups into a single synthetic incremental backup that represents the cumulative changes. Instead of maintaining a long chain of individual incremental backups, the system merges them into consolidated synthetic backups that can be restored independently, reducing the backup chain length while preserving restore capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates synthetic incremental backups as simplified copies that represent the essential changes from multiple incremental backups. These synthetic copies contain the necessary information to restore data without requiring access to the entire original incremental backup chain.
2Manufacturing precision
If a long backup chain is maintained to support frequent incremental backups, then data protection granularity is improved, but substantial computing resources and storage space are required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple fine-grained incremental backups into coarser synthetic incremental backups. This consolidation reduces the total storage space required while maintaining the ability to restore data at appropriate granularity levels, trading some restore precision for significant storage savings.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the temporal resolution parameter of backups by creating synthetic backups that represent aggregated time periods. Instead of storing every individual incremental backup at fine time intervals, the system creates synthetic backups at coarser intervals, reducing storage requirements while maintaining adequate protection granularity.
3Quantity of substance
If synthetic incremental backups are created to consolidate multiple incremental backups, then storage requirements are reduced, but the collapse process requires substantial computing resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs the collapse operation as a preliminary action during scheduled maintenance windows, consolidating incremental backups into synthetic backups in advance. This preliminary consolidation reduces the ongoing storage burden and makes the trade-off of computing resources acceptable by performing the intensive operation when system load is lower.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements periodic collapse operations that consolidate incremental backups into synthetic backups at scheduled intervals. This periodic approach distributes the computing resource requirements over time rather than requiring continuous high resource usage, making the process manageable within available system capacity.
4Manufacturing precision
If access to every previous backup is required to assemble a complete backup, then restore accuracy is improved, but restore time and network bandwidth are significantly increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates synthetic incremental backups as self-contained copies that contain the necessary data to restore systems without requiring access to the entire incremental backup chain. These synthetic copies enable faster restoration by eliminating the need to sequentially access and assemble multiple previous backups.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the essential restore capability from the incremental backup chain and encapsulates it in synthetic incremental backups. This extraction removes the dependency on accessing every previous backup while preserving the ability to accurately restore data, significantly reducing restore time and network requirements.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus for optimizing a backup chain using synthetic backups is described. In one embodiment, a method for creating synthetic incremental backups to optimize a backup chain comprises accessing a backup chain, which further comprises a plurality of incremental backups and determining schedule information defining a number of incremental backups to use to create one or more synthetic incremental backups representing the plurality of incremental backups from the backup chain, wherein the number of backups is defined by a numerical progression.