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

Claim 0:
1. A computer-implemented method of providing application consistent backup of network equipment devices in a network, comprising:
determining a readiness of all the network equipment devices in the network to perform the backup in a prepare phase using a period of time accommodating a respective communication protocol of each network equipment device;
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;
performing, if all network equipment devices are determined to be ready, 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; and
performing, if all network equipment devices in the partition perform the snap and save phase, a backup and tier phase storing the configuration data of each of the network equipment devices to secondary storage from the local storage.