Disaster recovery using local and cloud spanning deduplicated storage system

Abstract

A spanning storage interface facilitates the use of cloud storage services by storage clients and may perform data deduplication. The spanning storage interface may include local storage for caching data from storage clients. A disaster recovery application includes at least first and second spanning storage interfaces at first and second network locations. The second spanning storage interface is provided for at least disaster recovery operations. The second spanning storage interface includes second local storage for improving data access performance. A copy of the local cache of the first spanning storage interface is transferred to the second local storage while the first network location is operating. In the event of a disaster affecting the first network location, the second spanning storage interface can provide data access to the first network location's data with improved performance from using the copy of local cache in the second local storage.

1 . A disaster recovery system comprising:
 a first spanning storage interface at a first network location, wherein the first spanning storage interface is adapted to receive first data from at least a first storage client at the first network location and to transfer a deduplicated version of the first data to a cloud storage service via a wide-area network;   a first local data storage at the first network location, wherein the first local data storage includes a copy of a portion of the first data;   a second spanning storage interface at a second network location, wherein the second spanning storage interface is adapted to provide access to the first data if the first spanning storage interface is unavailable; and   a second local data storage at the second network location, wherein the second local data storage includes a second copy of the portion of the first data.   
     
     
         2 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 1 , wherein the copy of the portion of the first data is stored in deduplicated form. 
     
     
         3 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 1 , wherein the first spanning storage interface is adapted to transfer the copy of the portion of the first data to the second local data storage while it is available. 
     
     
         4 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 1 , wherein the second network location is connected with the first network location via a wide-area network. 
     
     
         5 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 1 , wherein the second spanning storage interface is adapted to access the deduplicated version of the first data from the cloud storage service via the wide-area network. 
     
     
         6 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 1 , wherein the second spanning storage interface is adapted to update the deduplicated version of the first data in the cloud storage service if the first spanning storage interface is unavailable. 
     
     
         7 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 1 , wherein the second spanning storage interface is adapted to receive second data from at least a second storage client at the second network location and to transfer a deduplicated version of the second data to a cloud storage service via the wide-area network. 
     
     
         8 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 7 , wherein the second local data storage includes a copy of a portion of the second data. 
     
     
         9 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 8 , wherein the copy of the portion of the second data is stored in deduplicated form. 
     
     
         10 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 7 , wherein the first spanning storage interface is adapted to provide access to the second data if the second spanning storage interface is unavailable. 
     
     
         11 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 10 , wherein the first local data storage includes a second copy of the portion of the second data. 
     
     
         12 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 11 , wherein the second spanning storage interface is adapted to transfer the copy of the portion of the second data to the first local data storage while it is available. 
     
     
         13 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 2 , wherein the copy of the portion of the first data includes data segments and labels. 
     
     
         14 . The disaster recovery system of  claim 13 , wherein the copy of the portion of the first data includes segment reference counts. 
     
     
         15 . A method of improving performance of disaster recovery systems, the method comprising:
 receiving, with a first spanning storage interface, first data from at least a first storage client at the first network location;   transferring a deduplicated version of the first data to a cloud storage service via a wide-area network;   storing a portion of the first data in a first local data storage at the first network location; and   transferring a copy of the portion of the first data to a second local data storage at a second network location, wherein the second network location includes a second spanning storage interface adapted to provide access to the first data if the first spanning storage interface is unavailable.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , comprising:
 receiving, with the second spanning storage interface, second data from at least a second storage client at the second network location;   transferring a deduplicated version of the second data to the cloud storage service via the wide-area network;   storing a portion of the second data in the second local data storage at the second network location; and   transferring a copy of the portion of the second data to the first local data storage at a first network location.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , wherein the first spanning storage interface is adapted to provide access to the second data if the second spanning storage interface is unavailable. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the copy of the portion of the first data is stored in deduplicated form. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , wherein the copy of the portion of the first data includes data segments and labels. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 19 , wherein the copy of the portion of the first data includes segment reference counts. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the first and second network locations are connected via a wide-area network.