Disclosed are techniques for coordinating distributed backup data protection sites for alternating recording of point in time copies. For a monitored volume, or pool of monitored volumes, periodic point in time copies are recorded upon data storage capabilities of rotating backup data storage sites as each period elapses. Upon recording a point in time copy at a given backup data storage site, the given site broadcasts to other sites metadata about the point in time copies recorded by each of the backup data storage sites for the monitored volume. As subsequent periods elapse, a rotation of sites are cycled through for selection to record point in time copies for the given period such that point in time copies of the monitored volume are recorded across multiple backup data storage sites, with each backup data storage site recording point in time copies of the monitored volume snapshotted to different times.

An apparatus to facilitate descriptor resiliency in a computer system platform is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a non-volatile memory to store firmware for a computer system platform, wherein the firmware comprises a primary descriptor including access permission details for platform components and a secondary descriptor including a backup copy of the access permission details and a controller, coupled to the first non-volatile memory, including recovery hardware to detect a problem during a platform reset with the primary descriptor, recover the contents of the primary descriptor from the backup copy included in the secondary descriptor and store the contents of the backup copy to primary descriptor.

Provided are a database information backup method and recovery method, an electronic device, and a computer-readable storage medium. The backup method includes the following steps: a server receives a backup task instruction and mounts a storage volume to a client; the client receives the mounted storage volume and determines whether the backup task instruction is a full backup, and if so, the client starts a CDP thread, the client starts a VSS to create a volume shadow copy; the client determines whether the backup task instruction is a full backup, and if so, the client backs up valid data in the volume shadow copy, otherwise, the client backs up corresponding data in the volume shadow copy; the server creates a storage volume snapshot and a time point; and the server unloads a mapping mounted by the storage volume.

A computing device includes a hardware switch that is activated when a primary Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) of a first BIOS chip of the device fails to load an Operating System (OS) image from an OS partition of a hard drive. The switch passes control to a backup BIOS that executes from a backup BIOS chip. The backup BIOS loads a recovery image from BIOS recovery partition of the hard drive, which causes a reflash application to execute from the recovery image. Reflash application obtains a recovery BIOS from the BIOS recovery partition of the hard drive, reflashes/writes the recovery BIOS onto the first BIOS chip and reboots the device. Following reboot of the device, recovery BIOS loads the OS image from the OS partition, and recovery BIOS becomes the primary BIOS on the first BIOS chip of the device.

Techniques for generating a crash-consistent clone of file(s) stored by a distributed file system are described herein. To generate the crash-consistent clone, a coordinator node may identify multiple nodes (e.g., at least a first node and a second node) of the distributed file system that are storing different portions of data of the file. The coordinator node may then send a first command to the multiple nodes to cause each of the multiple nodes to quiesce the file and clone the different portions of the data to generate the crash-consistent clone of the file. The coordinator node may then receive, from the multiple nodes, a status associated with generating the crash-consistent clone of the file. Based at least in part on the status, the coordinator node may send a second command to the multiple nodes to cause each of the multiple nodes to unquiesce the file.

Information is stored that maps storage units to a pool of data protection appliances on which the storage units reside. The stored information includes a set of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses through which each data protection appliance can be reached. A connection request is received from a client. The connection request includes an identification of a particular storage unit which the client seeks to access for a data protection job. The particular storage unit is looked up in the stored information to identify a particular data protection appliance on which the particular storage unit currently resides. A list of multiple IP addresses through which the particular data protection appliance can be reached according to the stored information is returned to the client. The client, upon receipt of the list, selects an IP address from the list to attempt an initial connection to the particular data protection appliance.

A method provides the capability to maintain integrity of a data image stored by computing a hash value (“digest”) of the data image and comparing the hash value computed for the data image with a hash value computed for the data image and kept in a non-volatile area of memory. Bit flips in the data image that are a result of memory hardware errors reveal themselves as differences in the digest computed for the data image and the computed digest for the data.

Systems and method that restore application data stored by a virtual machine database for an application (e.g., SQL, SharePoint, Exchange, and so on) running on the virtual machine are described. The systems and methods create an integrated snapshot of the application data stored in the virtual machine database, by creating a secondary copy of the application data stored in the virtual machine database, performing, via a virtual server agent (VSA), a software snapshot of the virtual machine, and performing, via the virtual server agent, a hardware snapshot of the software snapshot of the virtual machine.

Systems and methods for providing data protection operations including cyber-threat protection operations. A sentiment analysis may be performed using language analysis to identify or determine a general or specific sentiment with or without intent to do harm. A score of the sentiment is then determined to assess risk. The data backup policy can be updated based on the assessed risk.

An information processing device performs control to record identification information of at least a part of a plurality of magnetic tapes belonging to a magnetic tape pool, on the plurality of magnetic tapes or on a recording medium except for the magnetic tapes that is provided in a plurality of magnetic tape cartridges including the plurality of magnetic tapes, respectively.