Method and system for virtual on-demand recovery
A data management system (“DMS”) provides an automated, continuous, real-time, substantially no downtime data protection service to one or more data sources. A host driver embedded in an application server captures real-time data transactions, preferably in the form of an event journal. 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 that 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. First, the structure of the host data in primary storage is recovered to the intended recovering point-in-time. Thereafter, the actual data itself is recovered. The event processor enables such data recovery in an on-demand manner, by allowing recovery to happen simultaneously while an application accesses and updates the recovering data.
1. A method of data recovery in a first computer processing environment, where data has been stored in a data store different from a data source in the first processing environment, the method comprising:
initiating a data recovery operation;
recovering given data to a former state as reflected in a data store, wherein the recovery comprises:
presenting a structure of the given data to an application associated with a data source so that, from a point-of-view of the application, the data source is recovered prior to fully recovering the given data; and
continuing to recover the given data; and
enabling the application to continue accessing or updating the given data during the recovery.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein enabling the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery comprises capturing application events.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data source is a database.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein enabling the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery comprises capturing database events.
5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising updating the data store with the database events.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data source is an email server.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the application is an operating system.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data source comprises at least a directory of files and a subdirectory of files.
9. An apparatus for providing a data recovery service in a first processing environment, where data has been stored in a data store different from a data source in the first processing environment, comprising:
a processor; and
code executable by the processor to:
initiate a data recovery operation;
recover given data to a former state as reflected in a data store, wherein the recovery comprises:
presenting a structure of the given data to an application associated with a data source so that, from a point-of-view of the application, the data source is recovered prior to fully recovering the given data; and
continuing to recover the given data; and
enable the application to continue accessing or updating the given data during the recovery.
10. The apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a host driver that captures application events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.
11. The apparatus of claim 9 , further comprising a filter driver, wherein the filter driver captures application events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.
12. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the data source is a database.
13. The apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising a host driver that captures database events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.
14. The apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising a filter driver that captures database events to enable the application to continue updating the given data during the recovery.
15. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the code executable by the processor further comprises updating the data store with the database events.
16. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the code executable by the processor further comprises updating the data store with the database events.
17. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the data source is an email server.
18. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the application is an operating system.
19. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the data source comprises at least a directory of files and a subdirectory of files.