Patent ID: 7698593
Filing Date: 2010-04-13
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A data protection management system for protecting content controlled by a clustered server by treating the clustered server as a single entity, the data protection management system comprising: a data protection server; a data storage pool communicatively coupled to and controlled by the data protection server for storing a replicated copy of the protected content; and a clustered server comprising a plurality of cluster nodes, wherein each cluster node includes the following: a file system filter that is configured to, upon receiving notice of a modification to the protected content, generate a change record comprising information describing the modification, wherein only a single cluster node is in actual communication with the protected content at any given time such that only the file system filter on the cluster node in actual communication generates a change record for any given modification; a data protection agent that is configured to provide communications between the data protection server and the file system filter on the cluster node; wherein during the initialization of the data protection management system, the data protection server recognizes that the clustered server is a cluster, and initializes each cluster node of the cluster server with the data protection agent and the file system filter; and wherein upon each cluster node being initialized with a file system filter and a data protection agent, the clustered server is configured to receive communications from the data protection server that addresses the clustered server as a single entity such that upon receiving a notification from the data protection server of a pending dismount of the cluster node in actual communication with the protected content, the clustered server notifies the cluster node in actual communication with the protected content of the pending dismount such that the cluster node in communication flushes change records generated by its file system filter to a log file that is shared by each of the cluster nodes before the cluster node in communication dismounts; and wherein the clustered server is further configured to receive periodic requests from the data protection server that also addresses the clustered server as a single entity that requests the log file from the clustered server wherein the clustered server routes the request to the data protection agent operating on the cluster node in actual communication with the protected content such that the data protection agent operating on the cluster node in actual communication with the protected content responds by sending the log file to the data protection server where the change records stored in the log file are replicated to the replicated content in the data storage pool.