Patent ID: 11921590
Assignee: EMC IP HOLDING COMPANY LLC
Field: Digital communication (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  H | IPC G  H

Claim 9:
10. A computer-implemented method of providing application consistent backup of network equipment devices in a network, comprising:
grouping two or more of the network equipment devices into a partition of a plurality of partitions;
configuring a data protection network device to backup and restore configuration changes of the partition using a three phase full quorum (3P-FQ) mechanism to provide all devices a same amount of time to invoke protection measures through individual prepare, snap, and save phases using device ternary content-addressable memory (TCAM), and to protect the network equipment devices of the partition based on a service level (SLA) policy apart from a fixed maintenance schedule, until all devices are ready;
determining if a full quorum of network equipment devices are ready for the backup;
defining a maximum timeout period to allow the full quorum to reach readiness for the backup, the maximum timeout period defining a period of time accommodating a respective communication protocol of each network equipment device;
taking a snapshot backup of each network equipment device in the partition if the full quorum is ready;
storing the snapshot backup in local storage in a snap and save phase saving configuration data including initial settings and the configuration changes of each of the network equipment devices to local storage to allow backup of a corresponding network equipment device to be completed out of sync with the plurality of network equipment devices through use of the local storage storing configuration items of the corresponding network device;
backing up the snapshot backup from local storage to secondary storage; and
aborting the backup if at least one of: any network equipment device is not ready for the backup within the maximum timeout period, fails taking the snapshot backup, or fails backing up its configuration data to the secondary storage.