Virtual Snapshot Backup for Corrupted Item Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing network data storage systems face challenges in efficiently restoring corrupted items without available backups, leading to potential data loss due to corruption from ransomware or viruses, as current solutions may not include all items or provide outdated backups.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and device for generating virtual snapshots with strong hashes and metadata at predefined intervals, allowing for efficient restoration of corrupted items by searching and recovering data from the best available source based on bandwidth, distance, access latency, storage reliability, and last update time.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If traditional backup methods (incremental block-level backup, file-level backup, deduplication backup) are used, then backup storage capacity is reduced, but the backup may not include all items or provide timely recovery when corruption occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously generating virtual snapshots at predefined intervals and storing them in a distributed manner across multiple sources before corruption occurs. This ensures that when corruption happens, pre-existing snapshots are immediately available for recovery without needing to create backups at the moment of corruption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces virtual snapshots as an intermediary mechanism between traditional backup methods and data recovery. These snapshots act as intermediate copies that can be searched and recovered from multiple sources, bridging the gap between storage efficiency and recovery reliability through a multi-source search approach.
2Reliability
If backups are created at small intervals to minimize data loss, then data recovery reliability improves, but system complexity and resource consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
The backup system is segmented into multiple independent virtual snapshots stored at different sources rather than a single centralized backup system. This segmentation allows the system to manage complexity by distributing the backup burden across multiple smaller units while improving reliability through diversity of sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements self-service through automated multi-source search and recovery mechanisms. When corruption is detected, the system automatically searches across multiple snapshot sources, identifies the best source based on predefined criteria, and recovers data without requiring complex manual intervention or system reconfiguration.
3Reliability
If all virtual snapshots are retained to ensure complete recovery capability, then data recovery reliability improves, but storage resource consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies local quality by preventing deletion of virtual snapshots specifically at the locations where they exist, rather than uniformly retaining all snapshots everywhere. This allows selective preservation of snapshots based on their local value and recovery potential, optimizing the balance between reliability and storage consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a computer-implemented method of backup and restore in a network data storage system (200, 310). The method includes generating, at a predefined time interval, a series of one or more virtual snapshots including, for each item in the network data storage system: (i) a strong hash of the item data, and (ii) one or more metadata elements related to the item. The method includes, in response to a request to restore a particular item: (i) searching the series of virtual snapshots for all available sources of the particular item, (ii) identifying the best source for the particular item, and (iii) recovering item data for the particular item from the identified best source.