Volume Restoration via Deduplication Delta Analysis
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional backup approaches are inefficient and resource-intensive, especially in environments with unrelenting data growth, stringent recovery service level agreements, and increasing virtualization, as they often require full restore operations that consume significant network bandwidth and storage resources.
Innovation Solution
The method employs a deduplication system to store backup copies of snapshots, using a delta function to identify differences between current and backed-up data, allowing for efficient volume restoration by selecting the nearest snapshot to the recovery point objective and minimizing network bandwidth through metadata-based delta operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional full backup approaches are used, then data protection is ensured, but network bandwidth consumption and storage resources are significantly increased
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary delta data (changes) from the full backup set, rather than transferring complete backup images. By identifying and transferring only the portions of data that differ between the source volume and target snapshot, network bandwidth consumption is significantly reduced while still achieving complete restoration capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The backup data is segmented into change blocks and unchanged blocks. The system identifies specific data segments that have changed since the last snapshot and only restores those segments, rather than restoring entire volume images. This segmentation enables efficient incremental restoration with minimal network transfer.
2Reliability
If traditional full restore operations are performed, then complete volume recovery is achieved, but restoration time and computational resources are increased
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-identifying change blocks and preparing delta data before restoration is needed. Snapshots are continuously maintained in the backup pool, and change blocks are pre-computed and stored in the deduplication pool, so that when restoration is required, only the minimal necessary data needs to be transferred and applied, dramatically reducing restoration time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the restoration parameter from complete volume image transfer to selective delta block transfer. By changing the restoration approach from restoring all data to restoring only changed data blocks, the system achieves complete volume recovery with significantly reduced time and computational resources.
3Quantity of substance
If deduplication is implemented to reduce storage usage, then storage efficiency is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a deduplication pool as an intermediary layer between the backup pool and the restoration process. This intermediary pool stores only unique change blocks with deduplication metadata, acting as a mediator that enables efficient storage and rapid restoration without requiring complex point-in-time reconstruction algorithms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses copying of deduplication metadata and change block references rather than storing complete volume images. By copying minimal metadata information about data changes and using that to retrieve only necessary blocks from the deduplication pool, the system achieves high storage efficiency with manageable complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Example embodiments relates to method and systems to restore content of a volume at a given point in time. A computing device to restore content of a volume at a given point in time comprises a physical processor and a machine-readable storage medium comprising machine readable instructions executable by the processor that cause the computing device to command a storage array to select a surviving snapshot that was created at a nearest point in time to the given point in time among a set of surviving read-only snapshots of content of the volume stored in the storage array, command the storage array to create an editable surviving snapshot of the selected surviving snapshot, perform a delta function associated with a deduplication system, the deduplication system comprising a set of backup objects for the set of surviving read-only snapshots and a set of backup objects for a set of non-surviving read-only snapshots of content of the volume and restore content of the volume at the given point in time by commanding the storage array to modify the editable surviving snapshot based on an output of the delta function. Each of the backup objects within the deduplication system comprises a manifest, the manifest comprising a list of chunk signatures that represents chunks of data. The delta function is performed between a manifest of a backup object of the selected surviving snapshot and a manifest of a backup object of a snapshot created at the given point in time.