Patent Application
20180165162
This invention relates to systems and methods for presenting options associated with restoring data.
Data is increasingly one of an organization's most valuable assets. Accordingly, it is paramount that an organization protect its data, particularly its business-critical data. Statistics show that a high percentage of organizations, as high as fifty percent, are unable to recover from an event of significant data loss, regardless of whether the loss is the result of a virus, data corruption, physical disaster, software or hardware failure, human error, or the like. At the very least, significant data loss can result in lost income, missed business opportunities, and/or substantial legal liability. Accordingly, it is important that an organization implement adequate policies and procedures to prevent such losses from occurring. In many cases, an organization will protect data using a variety of strategies, such as traditional backups, remote data replication, and periodic snapshots. Each of these protection strategies has advantages and disadvantages and uses different techniques to restore lost or damaged data.
When data is lost or damaged, an administrator may have various options in terms of dates and times to restore data, which data to restore, and recovery methods used to restore data. For example, data may be restored from a traditional backup in the event data loss is the result of a software bug, hardware failure, or user error such as deletion of a file or directory. Alternatively, in some situations, data may be restored more rapidly from a snapshot (i.e., point-in-time copy). Unfortunately, options that are available are not always presented to an administrator in an intuitive, efficient, or user-friendly manner.
In view of the foregoing, what are needed are systems and methods to present options associated with restoring data in a more intuitive, efficient, and/or user-friendly manner.
The invention has been developed in response to the present state of the art and, in particular, in response to the problems and needs in the art that have not yet been fully solved by currently available systems and methods. Accordingly, systems and methods are disclosed to more effectively present options associated with restoring data. The features and advantages of the invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.
Consistent with the foregoing, a method for presenting options associated with restoring data is disclosed. In one embodiment, such a method includes providing a calendar, such as a monthly calendar, showing multiple days. The method enables a user to select a day on the calendar. In response to the selection, the method automatically displays, together with the calendar, a list of restore points associated with the selected day. The method further enables a user to select a restore point in the list. In response to the selection, the method automatically displays, together with the calendar and list of restore points, a list of restore options associated with the selected restore point. The method further enables the user to select a restore option, associated with a data recovery method, from the list of restore options.
A corresponding system and computer program product are also disclosed and claimed herein.
In order that the advantages of the invention will be readily understood, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through use of the accompanying drawings, in which:
It will be readily understood that the components of the present invention, as generally described and illustrated in the Figures herein, could be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations. Thus, the following more detailed description of the embodiments of the invention, as represented in the Figures, is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, as claimed, but is merely representative of certain examples of presently contemplated embodiments in accordance with the invention. The presently described embodiments will be best understood by reference to the drawings, wherein like parts are designated by like numerals throughout.
The present invention may be embodied as a system, method, and/or computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer-readable storage medium (or media) having computer-readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.
The computer-readable storage medium may be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer-readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage system, a magnetic storage system, an optical storage system, an electromagnetic storage system, a semiconductor storage system, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer-readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer-readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Computer-readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer-readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage system via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer-readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer-readable program instructions for storage in a computer-readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.
Computer-readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages.
The computer-readable program instructions may execute entirely on a user's computer, partly on a user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on a user's computer and partly on a remote computer, or entirely on a remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, a remote computer may be connected to a user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer-readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer-readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, may be implemented by computer-readable program instructions.
These computer-readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer-readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer-readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device to produce a computer-implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
Referring to
As shown, the computing system 100 includes at least one processor 102 and may include more than one processor 102. The processor 102 may be operably connected to a memory 104. The memory 104 may include one or more non-volatile storage devices such as hard drives 104a, solid state drives 104a, CD-ROM drives 104a, DVD-ROM drives 104a, tape drives 104a, or the like. The memory 104 may also include non-volatile memory such as a read-only memory 104b (e.g., ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, and/or Flash ROM) or volatile memory such as a random access memory 104c (RAM or operational memory). A bus 106, or plurality of buses 106, may interconnect the processor 102, memory devices 104, and other devices to enable data and/or instructions to pass therebetween.
To enable communication with external systems or devices, the computing system 100 may include one or more ports 108. Such ports 108 may be embodied as wired ports 108 (e.g., USB ports, serial ports, Firewire ports, SCSI ports, parallel ports, etc.) or wireless ports 108 (e.g., Bluetooth, IrDA, etc.). The ports 108 may enable communication with one or more input devices 110 (e.g., keyboards, mice, touchscreens, cameras, microphones, scanners, storage devices, etc.) and output devices 112 (e.g., displays, monitors, speakers, printers, storage devices, etc.). The ports 108 may also enable communication with other computing systems 100.
In certain embodiments, the computing system 100 includes a wired or wireless network adapter 114 to connect the computing system 100 to a network 116, such as a LAN, WAN, or the Internet. Such a network 116 may enable the computing system 100 to connect to one or more servers 118, workstations 120, personal computers 120, mobile computing devices, or other devices. The network 116 may also enable the computing system 100 to connect to another network by way of a router 122 or other device 122. Such a router 122 may allow the computing system 100 to communicate with servers, workstations, personal computers, or other devices located on different networks.
Referring to
In the illustrated embodiment, the calendar 202 is a monthly calendar 202 that displays days in a grid-like pattern. A user may select a day of the month by clicking the element (e.g., box, etc.) associated with the day with a mouse pointer 208 (or possibly a finger or stylus if using other types of devices). The element representing the day may change color or become highlighted when selected, as shown in
Selecting a restore point may cause a list 206 of associated restore options to be displayed for the restore point. In the illustrated embodiment, the selected restore point has three restore options associated therewith, namely “restore from backup,” “fast snapshot revert,” and “file restore.” The “restore from backup” option may enable data to be restored from conventional backup data, such as offsite or remote backup data. The “fast snapshot revert” option may enable data to be quickly restored from a snapshot or point-in-time copy. This option may not be available or selectable in response to hardware failures such as storage media failures.
The “file restore” option may enable data to be restored at the file level or at other lower levels of granularity, as opposed to having to restore an entire volume. In certain embodiments, the “file restore” option may be enabled or implemented by indexing the metadata of files or other data elements within a volume, and then making this index available when restoring data. For example, an administrator may mount a volume and explore the volume or search for specific files or data elements within the volume when deciding what data to restore. These files or data elements could then be restored without having to restore the entire volume. This may significantly reduce an amount of time required to restore data.
The restore options shown in
In certain embodiments, mousing over a day in the calendar 202 may cause the restore point list 204 associated with the day to be temporarily displayed. This may enable an administrator to quickly peruse restore points associated with each day without actually selecting a day. Similarly, mousing over a restore point in the restore point list 204 may, in certain embodiments, cause restore options associated with the restore point to be temporarily displayed. This may enable an administrator to quickly browse restore options associated with each restore point without actually selecting a restore point.
Referring to
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The concepts shown in
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The calendar module 502 may be configured to display a calendar 202, such as the monthly calendar 202 shown in
When a day is selected on the calendar 202, the restore point module 504 may present a list 204 of restore points to the administrator. The restore point module 504 may include one or more of a time module 514, size module 516, and selection module 518. The time module 514 may list a time for each restore point in the list 204 and the size module 516 may list a size for each restore point in the list 204. The size may be expressed, for example, as a total size of data once it restored, or an amount of backend storage that is being utilized in association with a restore point or associated restore option (e.g., data stored on backend storage to preserve a point-in-time copy, backend storage used to store a data backup, etc.). The selection module 518 may enable an administrator to select a restore point in the list 204, which may in turn invoke the restore options module 506.
When a restore point is selected in the list 204, the restore options module 506 may present a list 206 of restore options that may be used in association with the restore point. Various sub-modules may be used to invoke various restore options when selected by an administrator. For example, a backup restore module 520 may restore data from a data backup. A snapshot restore module 522 may restore data from a snapshot. A file restore module 524 may restore data at a lower level of granularity, namely at the file level. In order to implement the file restore module 524, an indexing module 526 may index metadata associated with files in a volume, and a search module 528 may enable this index to be searched for desired files. Once a file or files are selected, the file restore module 524 may restore the file or files as opposed to the entire volume.
The flowcharts and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer-usable media according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowcharts or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the Figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustrations, may be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
