Policies can be applied to, and enforced for, specific resources by applying a corresponding tag to those resources. An entity, such as a customer of a resource provider, can generate one or more policies to be applied to a set of resources, where those policies can relate to data retention, backup, lifecycle events, and other such aspects. Each policy can be associated with a particular tag, which may comprise a key-value pair to be applied to various resources. A policy enforcement manager can determine the tagged resources and ensure that the relevant policies are applied. The policies can include logic or intelligence for performing a variety of tasks with respect to resources, groups of resources, or types of resources, as identified using the tags.

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.

One example method includes performing failure recovery operations in a computing system using matrix clocks. Each node or process in a computing system is associated with a matrix clock. As events and transitions occur in the computing systems, the matrix clocks are updated. The matrix clocks provide a chronological and casual view of the computing system and allow a recovery line to be determined in the event of system failure.

Embodiments for optimizing multiple backup operations for a data protection system, by determining a size of a dataset to be saved in each backup operation and an available bandwidth in each transfer window of a plurality of transfer windows for transfer data between a source and destination; then determining an order of the backup operations based on first ordering the backups based on decreasing dataset size and second ordering the transfer windows in order of decreasing bandwidth, and matching the backups to the transfer windows in accordance with the first ordering and second ordering. The optimum time represents a time to initiate the backup operation that results in a shortest data transfer time over all of the transfer windows from as compared to other possible transfer windows in a defined backup period.

Methods, storage systems and computer program products create a transactionally consistent backup of a database by generating, during a time period beginning with a first time and ending with a second time, a copy of the database including multiple tables. During the time period, queries that request updates to the tables are periodically generated and conveyed to a software system managing the database, responses including updates to the tables are received responsively to the periodic queries, and the received updates are stored to a journal. A set of the updates not stored in the copy are identified, in the journal, and copy of the database is updated with the updates so as to ensure that the copy includes the transactionally consistent backup of the database.

Dynamic snapshot scheduling techniques are provided using storage system metrics. One method comprises obtaining a schedule for generating snapshots of a portion of a storage system; automatically adjusting snapshot generation parameters in the schedule based on: (i) a current storage pool usage metric, (ii) an input/output metric of at least one storage resource in the portion of the storage system, (iii) a measure of snapshots in a destroying state, and/or (iv) a measure of a number of created snapshots; and initiating a generation of a snapshot of the storage system portion in accordance with the adjusted schedule. A snapshot generation frequency may be increased in response to an increase of: the current storage pool usage metric, the number of snapshots in the destroying state, and/or the number of created snapshots. A snapshot generation frequency may be decreased in response to an increase of the I/O metric of the at least one storage resource.

Disclosed herein are systems and method for selectively restoring a computer system to an operational state. In an exemplary aspect, the method may create a backup image of the computer system comprising a set of data blocks, and create and start a virtual machine based on the backup image. The method may identify a subset of the data blocks accessed from the backup image during startup of the virtual machine. In response to determining that the computer system should be restored, the method may restore the subset of the data blocks such that the computer system is operational during startup, and restore a remaining set of the data blocks from the backup image after the startup of the computer system.

A request to restore a specific backup instance is received. In response to the received request to restore the specific backup instance, a new reference backup instance based on the specific backup instance stored at the storage controlled by the backup system is created at a storage controlled by a backup system. Data associated with the specific backup instance is provided to a recipient system from the storage associated with a backup system. A constructive incremental backup snapshot of the recipient system is performed based on the new reference backup instance.

Assessing protection for storage resources, including: identifying a set of active data protection features for one or more storage resources; generating a data protection assessment based on the set of active data protection features; and reporting the data protection assessment.

The invention relates to data recovery technology. An archive connection driver creates a virtual storage medium that is readable by an operating system, with the operating system running antivirus scanning algorithms on the connected virtual storage medium. Corrupted data and malware are deleted and the relevant data blocks repaired in a connected backup. Corrupted data and infected files are restored in marked invalid data in the backup.