Patent ID: 7716185

Claim:
A method for saving data from a first client in a system that includes one or more clients in communication with a server that performs a backup operation of data from the one or more clients, the data being organized into backup groupings, the method comprising: receiving a signal that indicates that a single snapshot should be generated; identifying one or more backup groupings to be saved; sending the identified one or more backup groupings to a server; receiving an indication of one or more identified backup groupings to be saved in the form of a modified listing of backup groupings from the server after sending the identified one or more backup groupings to the server and prior to generation of the single snapshot, the modified listing including the identified one or more backup groupings along with an initiating backup grouping and a terminating backup grouping for creating, maintaining, and deleting the single snapshot, the initiating backup grouping and the terminating backup grouping not being tied to any data on the client and determining an order for processing the identified one or more backup groupings; identifying one or more directories corresponding to the one or more identified backup groupings, the one or more directories including data relating to at least one of an operating system or the operating system state of the client; suspending an act of an application to be backed up saving data into the one or more directories corresponding to the one or more identified backup groupings; notifying the application to ensure that transactions are suspended and that the data to be backed up is in a consistent state; requesting creation of the single snapshot using at least a portion of each of the one or more identified directories; resuming the act of the application saving the data into the one or more directories corresponding to the one or more identified backup groupings; returning the initiating backup grouping to the server; using the modified listing of backup groupings and the single snapshot to back up the data from the one or more identified backup groupings; returning the terminating backup grouping to the server.