Head start population of an image backup. In one example embodiment, a method for head start population of an image backup may include tracking blocks that are modified in a source storage between a first point in time and a second point in time, head start copying a first portion of the modified blocks into the image backup prior to the second point in time, activating a snapshot on the source storage at the second point in time where the snapshot represents a state of the source storage at the second point in time, and copying, subsequent to the second point in time, from the snapshot and into the image backup, a second portion of the modified blocks that were not yet copied into the image backup by the second point in time.

An intelligent method of selecting a data recovery site upon receiving a data recovery request. The backup system collects historical activity data of the storage system to identify work load of every data recovery site. A predicted activity load for each data recovery site is then generated using the collected data. When a request for data recovery is received, the system first identifies which data recovery site has copies of the files to be recovered. Then it uses the predicted work load for these data recovery sites to determine whether to use a geographically local site or a site that may be remote geographically, but has a lower work load.

The present enhancement leaves production systems undisturbed while a remote application (“testbed application”) executes elsewhere (“testbed host”). An intermediary computing device hosts an enhanced pseudo-disk driver, pseudo-disks, and an enhanced media agent. The enhanced pseudo-disk driver creates the pseudo-disks, each one representing an associated point-in-time backup image residing in secondary storage. A network, e.g., an Internet Protocol (IP) network or a Fibre Channel (FC) Storage Area Network (SAN), connects the intermediary device with the testbed host, and the enhanced media agent exposes pseudo-disks over the network using iSCSI or FC protocol, respectively. The testbed application uses an exposed pseudo-disk as its recovery data source, such that pseudo-disk resources provide data on an as-needed basis sufficient for the testbed application to operate, yet (a) without restoring the entire associated backup image from secondary storage and (b) without impacting the production environment.

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 may store the backup image of the computer system in an archive storage database. The method may determine a subset of the data blocks of the backup image that are required to keep the computer system operational. 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 may restore a remaining set of the data blocks from the backup image after the startup of the computer system.

A first backup policy specifies triggering backups at a first frequency and retaining the backups for a first duration. A second backup policy specifies triggering backups at a second frequency, less than the first frequency, and retaining the backups for a second duration, greater than the first duration. When two or more backups are to be triggered on a same day, a backup is allowed to proceed according to the first backup policy. A search is conducted for the allowed backup. If the backup is found, the backup is promoted as a backup conducted according to the second backup policy specifying a retention time of the second duration.

Example implementations are directed to a local area network (LAN)-free and application-consistent backup with data copy offload from backup server to primary storage. Primary storage mounts the secondary storage volume and directly transfers the differential data that updated after the last backup. The example implementations reduce the LAN network load and the load on the backup server and speeding up the backup process.

An improved model-based approach for undoing actions in an application that was not previously configured with an undo feature is disclosed. Object models are constructed for each object invoked by the application. Snapshots of the object model are captured after every action to preserve the object model state at different points in time. The object model includes an object tree data structure having multiple nodes comprising data and metadata for the object. The object model is frozen and editing of the object is only permitted via an undo management engine. In response to edits from the application, the undo management engine responds by unfreezing the path of object nodes from leaf node to root node in the object tree data structure. Edits are applied to the object model at the leaf node. The object model can then be re-frozen to maintain the state of the object after each action.

Staging data in a cloud-based storage system, including: receiving, at the cloud-based storage system integrating a first tier of cloud storage and a second tier of cloud storage, a data storage operation from a computer device; storing data corresponding to the data storage operation within the first tier of cloud storage in accordance with a first storage format; and responsive to detecting a condition for transferring data between the first tier of cloud storage and the second tier of cloud storage, transferring the data in the first storage format from the first tier of cloud storage to a second data format within the second tier of cloud storage.

Restore operations in containerized environments are disclosed. An ephemeral instance of an application is created and a datastore is mounted to the ephemeral instance. The ephemeral instance is not accessible to users or application. The backup data is restored to the datastore. Once restored, the datastore is then mounted to a production instance and production resumes.

Example implementations described herein are directed to automated failover and assuring RTO (Recovery Time Objective) assurance, and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) on asynchronous remote copy feature of storage. By using markers that are cyclically stored to the journal volume, the storage device can thereby determine an accurate communication loss period.