Virtual Service Layer for Geographically Dispersed Storage Replication
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional data protection systems face challenges in maintaining continuous data protection by keeping pace with high data transaction rates at production sites without slowing them down, leading to potential backlogs and system shutdowns.
Innovation Solution
A virtual service layer is introduced that consumes storage mediums from multiple sites, enabling mirroring and write order fidelity delta sets, allowing for efficient data replication and synchronization across sites, including geographic distances, while maintaining write order fidelity through a splitter and recovery appliances.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If journaling is used to enable continuous data protection and rollback capability, then data recovery flexibility is improved, but system overhead increases and productivity deteriorates due to multiple data transactions required at the backup site
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a journaling layer as an intermediary between the production storage system and backup storage system. This journaling layer captures data transactions in a log format, allowing the backup system to process and replay transactions asynchronously without blocking the production system. The journal acts as a buffer that decouples the high-speed production transactions from the slower backup operations, maintaining both recovery flexibility and system throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary actions by maintaining a journal of data transactions in advance of actual backup operations. Instead of waiting for backup completion before allowing production operations, the system pre-captures all transactions in the journal, enabling the production system to continue at full speed while backup operations proceed separately using the pre-recorded transaction log.
2Reliability
If the backup site processes all data transactions to maintain continuous protection, then data consistency is improved, but the backup site cannot keep pace with high transaction rates and backlogs build up
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements periodic action by batching journal transactions and processing them in intervals rather than requiring real-time processing of every single transaction. The backup system can process transactions in manageable batches, applying multiple journal entries sequentially to the backup storage, which maintains data consistency while matching the backup system's processing capabilities and preventing backlog accumulation.
3Reliability
If synchronous replication is used to maintain real-time data copies, then data consistency is improved, but production site downtime increases during failures
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-positioning data in the journal before failures occur. When a failure happens, the backup system can immediately begin replaying journal transactions to catch up, rather than waiting for complex failure detection and recovery protocols. This preliminary journaling approach minimizes downtime while maintaining consistency.
Data Source
AI summary
A method, system, and program product for enabling a virtual service layer to consume a storage medium of a first site and a storage medium of a second site, enabling the virtual service layer to map the storage mediums of the first and second sites as one or more virtual storage volumes, wherein the one or more storage volumes are mirrored between the first and second site, and enabling the virtual service layer to create a write order fidelity delta set of the virtual storage volumes by writing the delta set to backend storage and notifying a splitter to which delta set the IO belongs.