Dell Products Inc.

Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Unisys Corporation

Salil Dangi

Ernest Daza

Nitin Madan

James Zarbock

Scott H Ogata

Donna Barry Lewis

Gokul Prasanna Mani

Bhimsen Bhanjois

Naveen Rastogi

Roger Andrew Jones

Amol Powar

Kalyan Chakravarthy Gunda

Sanjay Vedanthan

Srisailendra Yallapragada

Alok Katiyar

Scott Auchmoody

Orit Levin-Michael

Qun Fan

Harshadrai Parekh

Eugene Kim

System audits messages, communicated internally in copy management system, about copy management jobs, and learns about relationships between message requests for user actions on copy management jobs and subsequent failures of copy management jobs. System creates snapshot of copy management content displayed by user interface and selected by user as context for user's message, and creates message's link to snapshot. System stores user entries that identify message's intended recipient(s), time of availability, and text. If message requests user action on copy management job, and relationship between unanswered requests for user to perform action on copy management job and subsequent failures of copy management job satisfies relationship threshold, then machine learning system sends message via copy management system's internal communication channel to system-selected administrator, who selects message's hyperlink to snapshot. System responds by outputting context for message to system-selected administrator's user interface, which enables system-selected administrator to respond to message.

Auditing contextual messages between users in copy management systems

System determines first context of messages between copy management system users and creates snapshot of copy management content part, which is displayed by user interface, and selected by system user as context for subsequent message. System creates hyperlink in message to snapshot that depicts copy management content part and stores user entries for tag that identifies at least one intended recipient of message, time when message is available for intended recipient(s), and text for message. System sends message at time to intended recipient(s) via internal communication channel of system. In response to recipient of message selecting message's hyperlink to snapshot, system outputs context for message to recipient's user interface, which enables recipient to respond to message. If second context of messages between copy management system users matches first context of messages, then information requested in message after first context of messages is conveyed to at least one user interface.

Communicating and taking action based on contexts for messages between users in copy management systems

Improving data recovery and restoration times by clamping down security after malware detection, and protect a data center from a cyber recovery vault. Embodiments provide a cyber recovery vault configured to store data backed up for a production site for long-term retention and disaster recovery. The vault is coupled to the data center comprising a production site through an automated air gap controlled by the vault. Control signals transmitted by the vault trigger the air gap to close the coupling between the vault and data center upon detection of a malware attack, and the data center is configured to listen for the control signals and implement heightened security measures to protect its data in response to the control signal.

Protecting data against malware attacks using cyber vault and automated airgap control

One example method includes generating, by a data backup server agent that is hosted by a backup client computing system, backup data files from data stored at the backup client computing system. The backup data files are written to a temporary folder in a staging location of a backup storage server. A determination is made of if an attempt to move the temporary folder has failed. A failure is indicative that the backup storage server is operating in a retention lock mode. Each of the plurality of backup data files are moved individually from the temporary folder to a final folder in a final location of the backup storage server when it is determined that the attempt to move the temporary folder has failed.

Retention lock leveraging in a backup computing system

One example method includes generating in a shared protection namespace a first point-in-time copy of a first working frozen copy of an active namespace that includes first files associated with the active namespace that are stacked in a first horizontal file. A retention lock is applied to the first horizontal file. A second point-in-time copy of a second working frozen copy of the active namespace that includes second files associated with the active namespace that are stacked in a second horizontal is generated. A retention lock is applied to the second horizontal file. The second horizontal file is generated by copying files from the first horizontal file into the second horizontal file and copying files from the second working frozen copy of the active namespace into the second horizontal file.

Efficient retention locking of a copy of a large namespace on a deduplication filesystem

One example method, which may be performed in a dedupe environment, includes receiving a data call from a caller, in response to the data call, generating data that fulfills a portion of the data call, storing the data in a buffer, checking an offset to determine if the offset maps to the buffer, and when the offset maps to the buffer, altering the data that is located at the offset in the buffer. When the offset does not map to the buffer, the generation of data may cease.

Enhancements to datagen algorithm to gain additional performance for L1 dataset

One example method includes generating first and second snapshots of a shared protection namespace of a backup storage device. The first snapshot includes a first working frozen copy of an active namespace and the second snapshot includes a second work working frozen copy of the active namespace. First and second point-in-time copies of the first and second working frozen copies are generated in the shared protection namespace. The first point-in-time copy includes first files extracted from the first working frozen copy and that are stacked in at least one first horizontal file. The second point-in-time copy includes the second files included in the second working frozen copy that are stacked in at least one second horizontal file. A retention lock is applied to the at least one first and second horizontal files.

One example method includes generating first and second snapshots of a shared protection namespace of a backup storage device. The first snapshot includes a first working frozen copy of an active namespace and the second snapshot includes a second work working frozen copy of the active namespace. The first snapshot is converted into a first data-less snapshot. A snapshot difference operation is preformed between the first data-less snapshot and the second snapshot. First and second point-in-time copies of the first and second working frozen copies are generated in the shared protection namespace. The first point-in-time copy includes the first files extracted from the first working frozen copy and stacked in at least one first horizontal file. The second point-in-time copy includes the second files stacked in at least one second horizontal file. A retention lock is applied to the at least one first and second horizontal files.

One example method includes receiving a set of database parameters, creating one or more simulated databases based on the database parameters, receiving a set of target characteristics for the database, based on the target characteristics, slicing a datastream into a grouping of data slices, populating the simulated database(s) with the data slices to create the database collection and forward or reverse morphing the database from one generation to another without rewriting the entire database collection.

Generating and morphing a collection of databases that collectively has desired dedupability, compression, clustering and commonality

Making inline deduplicated backups of protected data using group fingerprints resident in a storage server by generating group fingerprints on a storage server for a backup client that is not capable of using group fingerprints, from individual fingerprints generated for each segment of protected data divided into variable size segments and then grouped together. Each fingerprint comprises a signature for a respective data segment. The method further maintains the group fingerprints for files resident on the storage server, compares, in the storage server, respective group fingerprints for these files with a new backup file to be backed up from the backup client to determine duplicated data between these files, and converts the new backup file to a virtual synthetic backup during a backup time of the new file.

Server-side inline generation of virtual synthetic backups using group fingerprints

A backup system stores recipes during backup file creation when virtual synthetic backups are used, where a recipe comprises a specific sequence of steps used to generate the backup file. Replication logic of the backup system replays the recipe to generate the same backup file on the backup target so that an old backup combined with new backup data comprises the recipe. Embodiments of a server-side group fingerprint system include a process to auto-generate recipes for server resident files by formulating a file as a series of L1 fingerprints which are in turn a set of L0s and GFPs where some of the L1s are shared with other files. The recipe can be used to convert the representation of the file from a native fingerprint based representation into a virtual synthetic format.

Targeted deduplication using group fingerprints and auto-generated backup recipes for virtual synthetic replication

One example method includes accessing a point-in-time copy including retention locked backups that were stored on a backup storage server at a time the point-in-time copy was generated. The method further includes accessing a current namespace including retention locked backups that are currently stored on the backup storage server. Each retention locked backup includes data backup files. The method also includes determining a first set of retention locked backups that are included in the point-in-time copy, but are not included in the current namespace. The method finally includes copying the first set of retention locked backups from the point-in-time copy into the current namespace without removing any of the retention locked backups already in the current namespace.

Rollback from a retention locked namespace

Embodiments of a targeted deduplication process that splits protected data into variable size segments, generates a fingerprint for each segment, and then combines fingerprints into groups to form group fingerprints. An embodiment auto-generates and persists the group fingerprints for the backups which are already on the storage server, thus enabling the backup client to fetch these fingerprints using an identifier and enforce synthesis for the new backup or replication copy against any previously written backup. For this embodiment, group fingerprints are generated on the storage server itself, rather than being generated on and pushed from the backup client for mere storage on the storage server, so that, as files are ingested, the storage server also auto-generates group fingerprints on its own.

Targeted deduplication using server generated group fingerprints for virtual synthesis

Embodiments of a targeted deduplication process that splits protected data into variable size segments, generates a fingerprint for each segment, and then combines fingerprints into groups to form group fingerprints. The group fingerprints are stored on and retrieved from a server by a client to identify duplicate data present on a server during the backup process on an 'as needed' basis. The specific group fingerprints sent are based on knowledge of previous backups of the asset, either learned or provided as a hint from the backup application. Once it is known that a specific group fingerprint is present on the server, a virtual synthetic request can be generated instead of a traditional deduplication process. This enables virtual synthetic backups for applications that do not have sufficient knowledge of changed blocks from a previous backup to use the virtual synthetic operations on their own.

Targeted deduplication using server-side group fingerprints for virtual synthesis

One example method includes by a data source entity, querying a data storage entity to determine if it has adequate under-utilized resources to perform a portion of a data seeding process. When the data storage entity indicates to the data source entity that the data storage entity has adequate unused resources to perform the portion of the data seeding process, initiating, by the data source entity, the data seeding process, and the data seeding process includes transmitting data from the data source entity to the data storage entity for storage in a temporary file at the data storage entity, and the data that is transmitted is data that was targeted to be protected by a data protection process. Finally, the data protection process may be performed so that only data not already present at the data storage entity is transmitted by the data source entity to the data storage entity.

Growing community of inventors

Mission Viejo, CA, United States of America

Salil Dangi