Methods of consistent data protection for multi-server applications
View Patent ↗A method according to one embodiment includes receiving a request to perform a snapshot of data associated with an application running on multiple servers; coordinating I/O Freezers on different servers for freezing data requests from instances of the application running on the servers; and after determining that the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests, requesting initiation of a snapshot operation to take the snapshot of the data.
1. A method, comprising:
automatically discovering servers running instances of an application;
automatically discovering storage devices associated with each instance of the application;
receiving a request to perform a snapshot of data associated with an application running on multiple servers;
instructing I/O Freezers on different servers to freeze data requests from instances of the application running on the servers;
determining whether the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests;
after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests, instructing the I/O Freezers to initiate snapshot processing on the data associated with the application so that the I/O Freezers perform the snapshot processing within the same window of synchronization;
determining whether the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing; and
after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing, instructing the I/O Freezers to no longer freeze the data requests.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining an association of the I/O Freezers with the application.
3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising automatically discovering operating system and configuration information associated with each instance of the application.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein data requests made during the freezing are copied and applied after the I/O Freezers are instructed to no longer freeze the data requests.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data requests from the instances of the application are rejected during the freezing.
6. A method, comprising:
automatically discovering servers running instances of an application;
automatically discovering storage devices associated with each instance of the application;
automatically discovering operating system and configuration information associated with each instance of the application;
receiving a request to perform a snapshot of data associated with an application running on multiple servers;
determining an association of I/O Freezers on the servers with the application;
instructing the I/O Freezers on different servers to freeze data requests from instances of the application running on the servers;
determining whether the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests;
after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have frozen the data requests, instructing the I/O Freezers to initiate snapshot processing on the data associated with the application so that the I/O Freezers perform the snapshot processing within the same window of synchronization;
determining whether the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing; and
after determining that all of the I/O Freezers have initiated the snapshot processing, instructing the I/O Freezers to no longer freeze the data requests,
wherein data requests made during the freezing are copied and applied after the I/O Freezers are instructed to no longer freeze the data requests.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the discovering is performed at predetermined intervals.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the discovering is performed upon occurrence of a predefined event.