Synthetic Full Backup Creation via Block Deduplication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional backup systems face inefficiencies in managing long chains of incremental backups, requiring significant resources and complexity, especially when dealing with synthetic full backups and deduplication processes.
Innovation Solution
A method for creating standalone full backups by providing copies of modified data units and storing references to unmodified units, allowing for efficient restoration without relying on other backups, utilizing deduplication techniques to minimize resource usage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional backup systems create full backups by capturing all allocated blocks, then complete backup coverage is achieved, but backup time and storage resources increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the changed blocks between backup points rather than capturing all allocated blocks. The incremental backup mechanism identifies and backs up only the differences (modified blocks) since the previous backup, significantly reducing backup time while maintaining the ability to restore complete data chains through sequential application of increments to the base backup.
2Productivity
If incremental backups are used to reduce backup size and time, then backup efficiency improves, but restoration complexity increases due to long chains of dependencies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates synthetic full backups at intermediate points in the backup chain as a preliminary action. These synthetic full backups are constructed by combining the base backup with selected incremental backups before they are needed for restoration. This preliminary creation of standalone full backups eliminates the need to traverse long chains during restoration, reducing restoration complexity while maintaining backup efficiency.
3Productivity
If synthetic full backups are created to shorten backup chains, then restoration efficiency improves, but backend processing load and object management complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates synthetic full backups by copying and combining data blocks from the base backup and incremental backups according to change tracking information. Rather than managing complex chains of dependent backups, the system creates standalone synthetic full backup copies that can be restored independently. This copying approach simplifies management while maintaining restoration efficiency.
4Quantity of substance
If deduplication is used to reduce storage requirements, then storage efficiency improves, but processing complexity and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs deduplication operations during the backup creation process as a preliminary action, identifying and eliminating duplicate blocks before they are stored in the backup chain. By pre-processing the data to remove duplicates and tracking which blocks are unique, the system reduces storage requirements without requiring complex real-time processing during restoration operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method may include creating a first full backup of a set of data units at a first time. The computer-implemented method may also include identifying one or more data units in the set of data units that have been modified since the first time. The computer-implemented method may further include creating a second full backup of the set of data units by providing copies of the one or more data units that have been modified since the first time and storing references to copies of one or more data units in the set of data units that have not been modified since the first time. The references may be configured such that the second full backup is a standalone backup that is independent of any other backups.