Real-time data protection system and method

Details Real-time data protection system and method Real-time data protection system and method

1998-05-08

2001-10-23

Le, Dieu-Minh (Department: 2184)

Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery

Data processing system error or fault handling

Reliability and availability

C714S013000, C714S011000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06308283

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system and method for providing real-time protection of data on computer systems connected to a network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are several known methods for protecting computer data. One such method is to perform periodic batch back-ups of either an entire hard disk drive or selected files on a hard disk drive. Typically files may be selected based upon a file directory tree or other criteria, such as hard-coded filenames or filenames with wildcard characters. The data is typically written to a large capacity storage device, such as a tape-drive, connected directly to the computer system. Some batch back-up systems, however, such as the system described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,133,065, permit data on computers connected to a computer network to be backed-up onto a centralized back-up device on the network. Where batch back-ups are used, it is usually recommended that disk-wide back-ups of data be performed infrequently, such as monthly, and that back-ups of new or modified files be performed frequently, such as daily.
A disadvantage of batch back-up systems is that the stored data is often out of date. Even nightly back-ups do not protect data accumulated since the last back-up. In certain businesses, such as banking and financial industries, the loss of even an hour of transactions can have serious repercussions. Another disadvantage of batch back-up systems is that typically the entire selected file is backed-up even if only a portion of the file has been modified. If the batch back-up system is operating over a network, valuable network resources are wasted transferring unchanged data.
Another known method for protecting data is to duplicate (or mirror) all data write operations occurring on a primary device onto one or more secondary (back-up) devices. In systems utilizing this method, the data storage control unit for the primary device (such as a disk controller) is directly connected to either the secondary device itself or the control unit for the secondary device.
This type of data protection has been implemented using Redundant Array Inexpensive Direct access storage device (RAID) drives. A RAID drive is in essence a package of multiple, inexpensive disk drives. Mirroring has been accomplished by configuring the RAID drive controller to write the same data to two separate disks in the RAID drive.
Mirroring techniques are also used on fault tolerant computer systems. Fault tolerant computer systems have been available for mini-computers and mainframes for years, offering survival of any single point of failure in the system. These systems, however, often require expensive, redundant hardware, additional hardware for connectivity and frequently require specialized (often proprietary) operating systems.
one disadvantage of all known real-time mirroring systems is that none provides a granularity of mirroring smaller than a disk, partition or volume set. Also, none of the known real-time mirroring systems provides for mirroring across a local or wide area network.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for creating back-up copies of data files substantially concurrently with changes to those data files without using specialized hardware or operating systems.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for back-ups at the level of individual files.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a back-up system that can be used with existing application programs that contain no data protection code without modification to the application programs.
The above and other objects are realized by the system and method of the present invention. Briefly, the present invention provides a data protection system that is not tied to specialized hardware or operating systems and that permits the user to specify a level of granularity of data protection down to individual files. In one preferred embodiment, a user initializes a configuration database that specifies the data files on a local system the user wishes to back-up (i.e., mirror) and the network location of a remote computer system to contain the back-up files. The system of the present invention provides a mirroring driver that is attached to the file system driver of the local computer system and intercepts operations on files (such as write operations, and delete, rename and change of attribute operations). By attaching the mirroring driver to the file system driver, the system of the present invention can mirror files accessed by existing application programs, having no data protection code, without modification to the application programs. The mirroring driver has a table with information read from the configuration database and determines if the operation is on a protected file. If it is, the mirroring driver stores information regarding the operation in a log file. A send process, which runs asynchronously from the mirroring driver, reads the log file and forwards the information regarding the operation from the local computer system across the network to the remote computer system containing the back-up file. The information is forwarded to the remote computer system using the standard methods provided by the networking software. A receive process on the remote computer system stores the information in its own log file and sends an acknowledgement to the source local computer system. A router process on the remote computer system then reads the remote. computer system's log file and applies the operations to the back-up files.
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the local system is itself a local area network having a plurality of workstations connected to a network server.


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