Patent ID: 8600935

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for achieving file-level data-protection operations using block-level technologies, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising: identifying a plurality of input/output (“I/O”) operations, each of which is directed to at least one data block on a primary storage system; accessing a data-protection list that uniquely identifies a select subset of files on the primary storage system that are to be protected by a block-level data-protection operation that copies data on a block-by-block basis from the primary storage system to a secondary storage system; determining, by analyzing the data-protection list, that: at least one I/O operation within the plurality of I/O operations is directed to at least a portion of at least one of the files within the select subset of files identified on the data-protection list; at least one additional I/O operation within the plurality of I/O operations is directed to a file that is not included within the select subset of files identified on the data-protection list; achieving file-level data-protection operations on the select subset of files identified on the data-protection list using block-level data-protection operations by, in response to the determination: performing the block-level data-protection operation on the I/O operation that is directed to the file within the select subset of files identified on the data-protection list; excluding, from the block-level data-protection operation, the additional I/O operation that is directed to the file that is not included within the select subset of files identified on the data-protection list; maintaining file-system consistency between the primary storage system and the secondary storage system by providing a filter driver at the secondary storage system that: maintains a local copy of the data-protection list; filters out all requests to access files on the secondary storage system that are not identified on the local copy of the data-protection list by only servicing requests to access files on the secondary storage system that are identified within the local copy of the data-protection list.