Patent ID: 9558072
Date: 2017-01-31
CPC Classifications: G06F

Claim:
1. A computer implemented method for performing block-level recovery of a source volume to restore a source volume to the time of a selected incremental backup of the source volume by accessing changed block tracking data in a chronological series of backups of the source volume, the chronological series of backups of the source volume including a full backup followed by incremental backups of changed blocks of the source volume, the incremental backups including the selected incremental backup and at least one incremental backup following the selected incremental backup, and each incremental backup including block change tracking data identifying changed blocks of the source volume, the method comprising: selecting a time of the selected incremental backup; creating a map of the multiple valid blocks of the source volume, the map containing the changed block tracking data showing how each individual valid block has changed since the time of the selected incremental backup; for each of the individual valid blocks of the multiple valid blocks of the source volume, separately performing the following: (a) inspecting the changed block tracking data from after the time of the selected incremental backup to determine whether or not the individual valid block has changed in the source volume after the time of the selected incremental backup, and (b) keeping, in the source volume, the current individual valid blocks that when it is determined in (a) not to have changed since the time of the selected incremental backup, and (c) for the current individual valid blocks that is determined in (a) to have changed after the time of the selected incremental backup: (i) locating the most recent version of each of the individual valid blocks at the time of the selected incremental backup; (ii) copying to the source volume the most recent version of each of the valid blocks identified in (i); wherein the method further includes initiating a snapshot copy of the source volume in order to take the source volume offline.