Patent Document

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/245,080 filed on Sep. 26, 2011, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/413,889, entitled “Method and System for Rapid Failback of a Computer System in a Disaster Recovery Environment”, filed Apr. 28, 2006, (now U.S. Pat. No. 8,028,192), and naming Anand A. Kekre, Ankur Panchbudhe, and Angshuman Bezbaruah as inventors. This application is assigned to Symantec Operating Corporation, the assignee of the present invention, and is hereby incorporated by reference, in its entirety and for all purposes. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to disaster recovery of a computer system and, more particularly, to a method and system for rapid failback of a computer system in a disaster recovery environment. 
     Description of Related Art 
     Computer systems having disaster recovery capabilities are desirable for many workplace environments. Such systems are intended to rapidly transfer computing functions from a failed computer (primary computer) to a secondary computer with minimal impact on a user. Once the failed computer returns to operation, the disaster recovery is completed by returning the computing functions to the primary computer. 
     Businesses and organizations depend upon the data stored on these systems and expect that, after a disaster, the recovery process will be quick. In the event of a computer virus, data corruption, system failure, power outage, or any natural disaster, without a system for disaster recovery, data may be lost or become inaccessible for a period of time while the disaster recovery process is occurring. Therefore, to protect system data and facilitate rapid disaster recovery, the data is replicated from one computer system to a remote computer system. The replicated data is available to a user upon failover of the primary computer to the secondary computer. A disaster recovery operation has two components: failover, where the secondary computer operates as the primary computer when the primary computer fails, and failback, where the computing function assumed by the secondary computer is returned to the primary computer upon the primary computer becoming functional. 
     More specifically, to prepare for a failover, data is backed up (replicated) from a primary computer to a secondary computer. The secondary computer is typically remote to the primary computer and stores a duplicate image of a primary data storage as a secondary data storage. The secondary data storage is used for disaster recovery, i.e., restoring the primary data storage in the event of a failure of the primary computer. Upon failover, the secondary computer assumes the role of the primary computer and writes data to the secondary data storage. 
     Recovery and restoration of data should occur as quickly and seamlessly as possible. The restored primary computer needs to resume the computing functions of application software as rapidly as possible. During a conventional failback operation, applications cannot be restarted on the primary computer until the secondary data storage is synchronized with the primary data storage, i.e., all of the data written to the secondary data storage after failover is copied to the primary data storage. The recovery operation may take a prolonged period of time, depending on the amount of data that needs to be copied from the secondary data storage to the primary data storage. 
     Businesses require failover and failback operations to occur as rapidly and as seamlessly as possible. More importantly, prompt access to all of the data, i.e. data written by the primary computer prior to failover and data written by the secondary computer after failover, is desirable. Conventional failback does not allow access to all of the data until synchronization between the primary data storage and the secondary data storage is complete. 
     Thus, there is a need in the art for a method and system of rapidly performing a failback operation of a computer system in a manner that provides access to all of the data prior to the completion of the synchronization operation. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     A method, system and computer-readable medium for providing rapid failback of a computer system is described. The method provides access to data storage during failback of applications from a secondary computer to a primary computer. The method comprises, during a failback procedure, where a primary data storage of the primary computer is being synchronized with a secondary data storage of the secondary computer, receiving a read request from an application, accessing a map to determine a location of a latest version of data corresponding to the read request, where the location may be within either the primary data storage or the secondary data storage, and reading data from the location. The system comprises a primary computer coupled to a primary data storage and a secondary computer coupled to a secondary data. The primary computer maintains a write log and the secondary computer maintains a map. The computer-readable medium contains instructions, which, when executed by a processor, performs the steps embodied by the method. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Various embodiments of the invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, provided to illustrate and not to limit the invention, wherein like designations denote like elements, and in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a high-availability computer environment in which the present invention can be utilized; 
         FIG. 2  is a flow diagram of a method for replicating a high-availability computer system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a flow diagram of a method for failing over a high-availability computer system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a flow diagram of a method for failing back a high-availability computer system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 5  is a flow diagram of a method for serving a read request, based on an updated map after a failback, in accordance with various embodiments of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIG. 1  depicts a computing environment  100  in which one embodiment of the present invention may be utilized to provide rapid disaster recovery. The computing environment  100  includes a primary computer  102  connected to a secondary computer  120  via a communications network  118 . The computers  102  and  120  may be desktop computers, laptop computers, servers, virtualization switches such as those manufactured by BROCADE and CISCO SYSTEMS, intelligent RAID subsystems such as those manufactured by HITACHI and EMC or any computing device which can benefit from a connection to the communications network  118 . The communications network  118  may be any conventional network, such as an Ethernet network, a fiber channel network or a wide area network (WAN) that provides either a direct or indirect (e.g., Internet or communication via a client) connection between the computers. 
     The primary computer  102  comprises at least one central processing unit (CPU)  104 , support circuits  106 , and memory  108 . The CPU  104  may comprise one or more conventionally available microprocessors. The support circuits  106  are well known circuits that comprise power supplies, clocks, input/output interface circuitry and the like. 
     Memory  108  may comprise random access memory, read only memory, removable disk memory, flash memory, and various combinations of these types of memory. The memory  108  is sometimes referred to as main memory and may in part be used as cache memory or buffer memory. The memory  108  stores various software packages, such as an operating system (OS)  110 , a primary data storage  112 , replication software  114 , application software  115  and a write log  116 . The primary data storage  112  may be internal to the primary computer  102  or external to the primary computer  102 , e.g. on a storage area network (SAN). 
     The primary computer  102  may function as an application server. The primary computer  102  executes application software  115  such as Internet, productivity software, collaboration software, databases, electronic mail and the like. The data stored by the application software  115  is, under normal operation, written to the primary data storage  112 . 
     The write log  116  maintains a record of the write requests made by the application software  115 . More specifically, the write log maintains a record of the physical addresses or logical addresses of the data written by the application software  115  to the primary data storage  112 . The write log  116  is cleared after the secondary computer  120  acknowledges that the write request was completed in the secondary storage, as discussed below. 
     The replication software  114  provides for an asynchronous replication of data stored in the primary data storage  112  to the secondary computer  120 . An exemplary replication software  114  is VERITAS VOLUME REPLICATOR available from Veritas Corporation of Mountain View, Calif. 
     An asynchronous replication operation records each write request made by the application software  115  to the write log  116 . The write requests are then sent to the secondary computer  120 . The primary computer receives an acknowledgment (ack) from the secondary computer  120  that the write request has been completed on the secondary data storage  130 . As such, writes are returned to the issuing application software  115 , without waiting for an acknowledgement to be received from the secondary computer  120 . The write request is also recorded locally to the primary data storage  112 . The primary computer  102  continues execution of the application software  115  while writing data to the primary data storage  112  and supplying the data to the secondary computer  120 . The secondary computer  120  acknowledges completion of the write from the primary computer  102 . After the acknowledgment is received, the primary computer  102  clears the write log  116 . The operation is considered asynchronous because the primary computer  102  does not need to receive an acknowledgment from the secondary computer  120  that the data was successfully received before continuing execution of the application software  115 . 
     The secondary computer  120  comprises at least one central processing unit (CPU)  122 , support circuits  124 , and memory  126 . The CPU  122  may comprise one or more conventionally available microprocessors. The support circuits  124  are well known circuits that comprise power supplies, clocks, input/output interface circuitry and the like. 
     Memory  126  may comprise random access memory, read only memory, removable disk memory, flash memory, and various combinations of these types of memory. The memory  126  is sometimes referred to as main memory and may in part be used as cache memory or buffer memory. The memory  126  stores various software packages, such as an operating system (OS)  128 , the secondary data storage  130 , a synchronization agent  132 , a map  134 , and application software  136 . The secondary data storage  130  may be internal to the secondary computer  120  or external to the secondary computer  120 , e.g. on a storage area network (SAN). 
     The secondary computer  120  functions as a backup application server. The secondary computer  120  assumes the role of the primary computer  102  in the event the primary computer  102  fails. The secondary computer  120  executes application software  136  such as Internet, productivity software, collaboration software, databases, electronic mail and the like. The application software  136  is often the same software available on the primary computer  102 , ensuring a user has continuous access to these applications. 
     The secondary data storage  130  is a replica of the primary data storage  112 . The replication software  114  copies data stored in the primary data storage  112  to the secondary data storage  130  in an asynchronous manner, i.e. the replication software  114  does not copy the data written to the primary data storage  112  simultaneously to the backup data storage  130 . The operation of an asynchronous backup operation is discussed in further detail above. Immediately following the completion of a replication operation, the primary data storage  112  and the secondary data storage  130  are identical. Since the replication operation is performed asynchronously, the secondary data storage  130  is not always identical to the primary data storage  112 . Over time, the primary data storage  112  will differ from the secondary data storage  130  until a replication operation is completed. 
     During a failover, the secondary computer  120  assumes the role of the primary computer  102 . Since the secondary computer  120  usually executes the same application software  136  as the application software  115  executed by the primary computer  102 , the interruption experienced by a user is minimized. The application software  136  writes data to the secondary data storage  130  after a failover to the secondary computer  120 . After the application resumes in the secondary computer  120 , the map  134  records modifications, i.e. writes of data, made by the application software  136  to the secondary data storage  130 . More specifically, the map  134  records a write address, i.e. a physical or logical address, for the data written to the secondary date storage  130 . The map  134  may be an extent map, a data log, a bitmap (one bit per block) and the like. 
     The synchronization agent  132  facilitates coordination of the primary computer  102  with the secondary computer  120  during failback of the application to the primary computer  102 . The synchronization agent  132  updates the map  134  with the write requests, i.e. the physical addresses or the logical addresses, recorded in the write log  116  of the primary server  102 . The updated map  134  is now the union of the write addresses recorded in the write log  116  and all of the write requests made to the secondary data storage  130  by the application software  136 . The updated map  134  provides complete read address information for data stored after the completion of the last replication operation. 
     The application software  115  on the primary computer  102  accesses the map  134  on the secondary computer  120  during a failback operation. The map  134  is sent to the primary computer  102 , so that the map can be inspected locally in the primary computer  102 , while serving read requests from the application software  115 . The map  134  provides the application software  115  with a proper read address for the data written after the last replication operation of the primary computer  102 . In one embodiment of the invention, if the map  134  contains a read address for the data requested by the application software  115 , then the data is retrieved from the secondary data storage  130 . If the map  134  does not contain a read address for the data requested by the application software  115 , then the data is retrieved from the primary data storage  112 . In another embodiment of the invention, the map  134  is a bitmap having one bit per block, e.g., a “1” indicates the associated data block is within the secondary data storage  130  and a “0” indicates the associated data block is within the primary data storage  112 . 
       FIG. 2  is a flow diagram of a method  200  for replicating a primary data storage  112  to a secondary data storage  130 . The method  200  begins at step  202  and proceeds to step  204 . At step  204 , the primary data storage  112  receives a write request from application software  115 . At step  206 , the write request is stored in a write log  116 . At step  208 , the write request is simultaneously issued to the primary data storage  112  and also to a secondary computer  120 , i.e., the computer coupled to the secondary data storage  130 . 
     At step  210 , the application software  115  resumes execution. At step  212 , the secondary computer  120  writes the data received at step  208  to the secondary data storage  130 . At step  214 , the secondary computer  120  acknowledges the data write to a primary computer  102 , i.e., the computer coupled to the primary data storage  112 . At step  216 , the primary computer  102  clears the write log  116 . The method  200  ends at step  218 . 
       FIG. 3  is a flow diagram of a method  300  for failover of a high-availability computer system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The method  300  starts at step  302  and proceeds to step  304 . At step  304 , a failure in a primary computer  102  is detected. At step  305 , a map  134  is activated on a secondary computer  120 . At step  306 , application software  136  on the secondary computer  120  is executed. The application software  136  on the secondary computer  120  is generally identical to application software  115  executed by the primary computer  102 . Since the mode of replication is asynchronous, the secondary data storage  130  might lag the primary data storage  112  by a few writes. Therefore the failed over application  136  starts on the secondary computer  120  with one of its previous states. 
     At step  308 , the application software  136  accesses data on a secondary data storage  130 . Since the secondary data storage  130  is a substantially identical replica of the primary data storage  112 , most of the data required by the application software  136  will be located on the secondary data storage  130 . The only data not replicated from the primary data storage  112  to the secondary data storage  130  will be the data identified in a write log  116 . The data identified in the write log  116  is data written by the application software  115  to the primary data storage  112  that has not been copied from the primary data storage  112  to the secondary data storage  130 . At step  309 , the secondary computer  120  records the location of data stored on the secondary data storage  130  after failover to the map  134 . 
     At decision step  310 , the method  300  checks to determine if the primary computer  102  is restored and running. If the answer is no, then the method  300  loops to step  308  and the application software  136  continues to access the secondary data storage  130 . Thus, the secondary computer  120  continues in the role of the failed primary computer  102 . If the answer is yes, then the method proceeds to step  312 . At step  312 , an appropriate failback process ( FIG. 4 ) is initiated. The method  300  ends at step  314 . 
       FIG. 4  is a flow diagram of a method  400  for failback of a computer system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The method  400  begins at step  402  and proceeds to step  404 . At step  404 , a secondary computer  120  retrieves the information stored in a write log  116  of a primary computer  102 . At step  406 , the secondary computer  120  synchronizes a map  134  with information from the write log  116 . Synchronization is performed by the union of write addresses stored in the map  134  with the write addresses stored in the write log  116 . At step  407 , the updated map  134  is transmitted from the secondary computer  120  to the primary computer  102 . 
     At step  408 , the primary computer  102  executes its own application software  115 . At step  410 , the primary computer  102  uses the updated map  134  to access data stored on either the primary data storage  112  or the secondary data storage  130  (shown in  FIG. 5 ). At step  412 , a synchronization of the primary computer  102  and the secondary computer  120  occurs in the background. Synchronization involves copying the data blocks indicated by the updated map  134  from the secondary data storage  130  in the secondary computer  120  to the primary data storage  112  in the primary computer  102 . The method  400  ends at step  414 . Copying the blocks as indicated by the updated map  134  ensures that the primary data storage  112  is updated with the writes that had been issued by application  136  on secondary data storage  130 . Additionally, it ensures that data in locations identified in the write log  116  are “rolled back” to the copy in the secondary data storage  130 . 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart depicting a method  500  for serving a read request based upon an updated map  134  during a failback, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The method  500  begins at step  502  and proceeds to step  504 . At step  502 , the primary computer  102  receives a read request to access data. At step  506 , the primary computer  102  accesses the map  134  to determine if the data stored on the primary computer  102  is different from the data stored on the secondary computer  120 . At step  508 , if the map  134  indicates no modifications have been made to the data, then the primary computer  102  services the read request from the primary data storage  112 . If the map  134  indicates that modifications were made to the data during the failover period, then the method  500  proceeds to step  510 . At step  510 , the read request is directed to the secondary computer  120 . At step  512 , the read request is serviced by the secondary computer  120  from the secondary data storage  130 . Further, the secondary server  120  provides the result of the read operation to the primary computer  102 . The method  500  ends at step  514 . 
     The present invention provides the benefit of providing for rapid disaster recovery during failback of the primary computer  102 . Rapid disaster recovery is achieved by the redirection of read requests from the primary computer  102  to the secondary computer  120 , as needed. The synchronization agent  132  and map  134  enable application software  115  within the primary computer  102  to access data that was written to the secondary data storage  130  after failure of the primary computer  102 . As such, during failback, the application(s) executed by the primary computer  102  do not have to wait for the storage synchronization before restarting. 
     Thus, the present invention provides a system, method and computer-readable medium for rapid failback of a secondary computer to a primary computer while providing access to all of the data stored on both the primary and secondary computers. This is an especially desirable feature in a high availability computer system where access to data is often critical.

Technology Category: g