Patent ID: 7707184

Claim:
A computer implemented method for generating a backup of a database, comprising: maintaining the database on a file system executed on a file server; storing header information in a backup file of the file server, wherein the header information contains metadata associated with the database; storing footer information in the backup file of the file server, wherein the footer information comprises database identification information associated with the database and is generated from the header information; creating a snapshot of the database; incurring an error condition at the database that requires performance of a hard recovery operation by the file server; in response to incurring the error condition, verifying log files associated with the database to ensure that all of the log files are present and not corrupted; restoring the snapshot of the database to form a restored database; overwriting a header of the restored database with the header information in the backup file to permit the hard recovery operation; overwriting a footer of the restored database with the footer information in the backup file to permit the hard recovery operation; copying the verified log files to the file system; and performing the hard recovery operation to replay the verified log files in the file system and rebuild the restored database to a fully consistent state.