Restoring computing environments, such as autorecovery of file systems at certain points in time

Abstract

A method and system for restoring a computing environment from a secondary data store, and facilitating such restoration, is described. In some examples, the system copies the configuration parameters of a computing environment, such as a file system, as well as the data within the file system, and transfers the copies to secondary storage for later restoration. For example, the system may generate an xml file of the configuration parameters of the computing environment when a backup operation of the computing environment is performed, and store the xml file along with copies of the data from the computing environment in secondary storage.

We claim: 
     
         1 . At least one computer-readable medium, excluding a transitory propagating signal, and carrying instructions, which when executed by at least one data processor, restores one or more computing environments of one or more source devices to previous states of the computing environments, comprising:
 causing a state of each of the computing environments of the one or more source devices to be transferred to a secondary server,
 wherein the computing environments each include one or more file systems, 
 wherein the state of the computing environments and the file systems correspond to at least one set of data and configuration information for a point in time; 
   receiving a request to restore the computing environments of the one or more physical source devices to a previous state,
 wherein the previous state corresponds to an identified one of multiple sets of data and configuration information associated with the computing environments of the one or more physical source devices, and, 
 wherein the received request is selected from one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information associated with a point in time; 
   causing the identified one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information to be retrieved; and,   causing the previous state of the computing environments of the one or more physical source devices to be restored based on the retrieved one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information,
 such that restoration of the computing environments, including the file systems, is performed without requiring a user to provide information associated with the computing environments to be restored, and 
 such that the restoration is performed based on the identified configuration information to quickly and automatically provision, configure, and/or recover the computing environments. 
   
     
     
         2 . The at least one computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 causing configuration files for the computing environments to be created at different points in time;   causing data stored within the computing environments to be stored at the different points in time; and,   causing the generated configuration files and the copied data to be transferred to the secondary server at the different points in time.   
     
     
         3 . The at least one computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein the identified one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information includes one or more xml files containing one or more system parameters of the computing environments. 
     
     
         4 . The at least one computer-readable medium of  claim 1 , wherein a restoration interface is configured to automatically retrieve the identified one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information in response to user selection via the secondary server. 
     
     
         5 . The at least one computer-readable medium of  claim 4 , wherein the restoration interface is configured to monitor a storage capacity of the secondary server and to provide one-touch restoration of the computing environments of the one or more physical source devices based on the user selection. 
     
     
         6 . A method to provide one-touch recovery of a computing environment of a physical source device to a previous state of the computing environment, comprising:
 receiving a request to recover one or more computing environments of one or more physical source devices to a previous state,
 wherein differing states of the one or more computing environment of the one or more source devices were previously transferred to a secondary storage, 
 wherein the each of the differing states of the computing environments respectively correspond to at a differing set of data and configuration information; 
 wherein the previous state corresponds to an identified one of multiple sets of data and configuration information associated with the one or more computing environments of the one or more source devices, and, 
 the identified one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information was selected by a user and is associated with a point in time; 
   based on the received request, causing the identified one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information to be retrieved; and,   enabling the previous state of the one or more computing environments of the one or more source devices to be recovered based on the retrieved one of the multiple sets of data and configuration information.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising causing recovery via an interface using an xml file containing system configuration parameters of the one or more computing environments. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising causing recovery via a restoration interface using an xml file containing system configuration parameters of the one or more source devices stored at the secondary storage. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising causing a secondary copy of the data associated with the one or more source devices to be retrieved via the secondary storage. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 performing the recovery using an xml file containing system configuration parameters of the one or more source devices stored in a cloud-based computing system, and   retrieving a secondary copy of the set of data associated with the one or more source devices via the secondary storage.   
     
     
         11 . At least one computer readable medium, excluding transitory signals, which when executed by at least one data processor, performs a method for recovering a computing environment to a previous backup state, comprising:
 providing an interface configured to enable a user to select a configuration file, from multiple configuration files, to recover one or more computing environments to a previous point in time,
 wherein the interface is configured to permit the user to selectively recover the one or more computing environments to one of multiple, previous backup states, 
 wherein each of the previous backup states of the one or more computing environments represents a point in time for the computing environments, 
 wherein each of the previous backup states includes a configuration file and a set of data associated with the one or more computing environments for that point in time; 
   receiving, via the interface, user selection of a selected configuration file from the multiple configuration files,
 wherein the selected configuration file corresponds to a selected point in time at which to recover the one or more computing environments, 
   causing recovery of the one or more computing environments from the selected configuration file,
 to thereby recover the one or more computing environments to the selected point in time. 
   
     
     
         12 . The at least one computer readable medium of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 provisioning the interface; and   configuring the provisioned interface using an xml file containing configuration parameters associated with a previous state of a file system of the one or more computing environments.   
     
     
         13 . The at least one computer readable medium of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 provisioning a host machine via booting a computer-readable storage medium; and   configuring the host machine using an xml file containing configuration parameters associated with the selected point in time of the one or more computing environments.   
     
     
         14 . The at least one computer readable medium of  claim 11 , further comprising:
 booting a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium previously hosted by a cloud-based computing system to provision a host machine; and   configuring the host machine using an xml file containing a system configuration associated with the previous state of the one or more computing environments.   
     
     
         15 . The at least one computer readable medium of  claim 11  wherein the interface is configured to selectively provide a status of sets of data that are scheduled for transfer or that are pending transfer to a cloud-based computing system, and
 wherein the interface is configured to monitor a storage capacity of the cloud-based computing. 
 
     
     
         16 . The at least one computer readable medium of  claim 11 , further comprising initially staging the recovery via the selected configuration file and via a cloud-based computing system accessed through a virtual machine, before recovery the one or more computing environments to the selected point in time. 
     
     
         17 . The at least one computer readable medium of  claim 11  wherein when a network connection with the one or more computing environments is unavailable, transferring a previous state of the one or more computing environments to a computer-readable medium to enable a bootable recovery of the computing environments.