Abstract: A method and system for backing up computer data uses a network device to select a storage device in a manner that enhances at least one parameter associated with the backup process.

Abstract: A data management system that protects data into a continuous object store includes a management interface having a time control. The time control allows an administrator to specify a “past” time, such as a single point or range. When the time control is set to a single point, a hierarchical display of data appears on a display exactly as the data existed in the system at that moment in the past. The time control enables the management interface to operate within a history mode in which the display provides a visual representation of a “virtual” point in time in the past during which the data management system has been operative to provide the data protection service.

Abstract: Embodiments of the system described herein can be implemented in a software application that runs on a host device or is embedded in a logic or memory device such as a gate array, EEPROM, a control, or dynamical system. The system embodiment allows a set of similar or dissimilar intelligent devices or sensors, which may be interconnected with any type of network or bus, to replicate data between themselves for the purpose of remote backup, redundancy, content distribution, or measurements. The attributes of the data, which may be changed or created on one device or passed through the device, are tracked and journaled in volatile or non-volatile storage in a first phase. This occurs in real-time as the data changes or passes through the device. In a second phase, the attributes that match patterns pre-specified in a configuration are used to decide what changes or the content to replicate to one or more devices. In a third phase, the data is replicated.

Abstract: Techniques are described for replicating data from one to one or more heterogeneous data processing or communication devices for the purpose of remote backup, redundancy, content distribution, communications, observations or measurements. In a first phase, the attributes of the data that are modified or created on a device or that are passing through the device are tracked and journaled in volatile or non-volatile storage in real-time. In a second phase, the attributes that match patterns pre-specified in a configuration are used to determine which data to replicate and which modifications to make the devices. In a third phase, the data is replicated. In a preferred embodiment, the described techniques comprise an application that runs on a host device or is embedded in a logic or memory device. The described invention is designed to be transparent for system redundancy and error recovery processes such as error correction, re-transmission on links, and raid configuration.

Abstract: A method and system for facilitating the performance of data backups facilitates the storage of information being backed up on a non-tape storage device in a format that facilitates the subsequent transfer of the information to a tape storage device without substantial further processing by a computer.

Abstract: A data management system or “DMS” provides an automated, continuous, real-time, substantially no downtime data protection service to one or more data sources associated with a set of application host servers. To facilitate the data protection service, a host driver embedded in an application server captures real-time data transactions, preferably in the form of an event journal that is provided to other DMS components. The driver functions to translate traditional file/database/block I/O and the like into a continuous, application-aware, output data stream. The host driver includes an event processor. When an authorized user determines that a primary copy of the data in the host server has become incorrect or corrupted, the event processor can perform a recovery operation to an entire data source or a subset of the data source using former point-in-time data in the DMS. The recovery operation may have two phases.

Abstract: A data management system or “DMS” provides data services to data sources associated with a set of application host servers. The data management system typically comprises one or more regions, with each region having one or more clusters. A given cluster has one or more nodes that share storage. When providing continuous data protection and data distribution, the DMS nodes create distributed object storage to provide the necessary real-time data management services. The objects created by the DMS nodes are so-called active objects. The distributed object store can be built above raw storage devices, a traditional file system, a special purpose file system, a clustered file system, a database, and so on. According to the present invention, the DMS active object store provides an indexing service to the active objects. In an illustrative embodiment, any object property that has a given attribute is indexed and, as a result, the attribute becomes searchable.

Abstract: A data management system or “DMS” provides an automated, continuous, real-time data protection service to one or more data sources associated with a set of application host servers. To facilitate the service, a host driver embedded in an application server captures real-time data transactions. When a data protection command for a given data source is forwarded to a host driver, an event processor enters into an initial upload state. During this state, the event processor gathers a list of data items to be protected and creates a data list. Then, the event processor moves the data to a DMS core to create initial baseline data. The upload is a stream of application-aware data chunks that are attached to upload events. A resynchronization state is entered when there is a suspicion that the state of the data in the host is out-of-sync with the state of the most current data in the DMS. During upload or upward resynchronization, the application does not have to be shut down.

Abstract: The present invention provides a distributed clustering method to allow multiple active instances of consistency management processes that apply the same encoding scheme to be cooperative and function collectively. The techniques described herein facilitate an efficient method to apply an erasure encoding and decoding scheme across dispersed data stores that receive constant updates. The technique can be applied on many forms of distributed persistent data stores to provide failure resiliency and to maintain data consistency and correctness.

Abstract: An efficient method to apply an erasure encoding and decoding scheme across dispersed data stores that receive constant updates. A data store is a persistent memory for storing a data block. Such data stores include, without limitation, a group of disks, a group of disk arrays, or the like. An encoding process applies a sequencing method to assign a sequence number to each data and checksum block as they are modified and updated onto their data stores. The method preferably uses the sequence number to identify data set consistency. The sequencing method allows for self-healing of each individual data store, and it maintains data consistency and correctness within a data block and among a group of data blocks. The inventive technique can be applied on many forms of distributed persistent data stores to provide failure resiliency and to maintain data consistency and correctness.