JP4600127B2 - Storage backup service system and storage backup service method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a storage backup service system that supports recovery when a storage failure occurs in a personal computer or a small information device such as a mobile phone.

  In recent years, the price of hardware has been remarkably reduced, and large-capacity storages such as hard disks, optical disks, and semiconductor memory disks are actively used. In particular, the increase in hard disk capacity reaches 1000 times in 10 years. On the other hand, the spread of the Internet and the exponential spread of the WWW are generating data at a rate that surpasses the evolution of hardware. Along with the improvement in CPU performance, individual users can use a large amount of data.

  Under these circumstances, storage has become the most important component. However, with the exception of corporate backbone databases and the like, data protection, that is, backup is not so much performed, especially in personal use environments.

  For this reason, if a hard disk (HDD) that has not been backed up unfortunately crashes, not only will the data be lost, but the business will continue until the HDD has been replaced and the necessary software has been reinstalled or configured. It has a great impact, such as stopping. In particular, when a mobile device is carried around, there is an increased risk of crashing the HDD due to impact such as dropping.

  On the other hand, in recent years, remote storage using a network has become available at the personal level along with the spread of broadband. Wireless LAN spots called hot spots are spreading around stations in metropolitan areas, and by using remote storage together, so-called diskless mobile devices that do not have storage such as HDDs can be used in the same way as mobile devices with storage. can do.

However, wireless LAN spots that are fast enough for practical use of remote storage are limited to parts of large cities and are not available anywhere in the country. For this reason, it is difficult for users of mobile devices traveling around customers to use diskless mobile devices and use devices with HDDs while risking HDD crashes. It will still take some time before an environment where remote storage can be used cheaply anywhere in the country.
In order to minimize the influence of the HDD crash, a method for easily backing up storage of a mobile device has been proposed.

  Patent Document 1 proposes a method of performing backup at a remote location via a network. In Patent Document 2, a backup device for a portable notebook personal computer is proposed. Patent Document 3 proposes a service method for collecting and managing backup media at low cost without using an expensive network or dedicated device. However, in the methods of Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 3, it is easy to perform backup, but it takes time to recover the mobile device when the HDD fails. In the method of Patent Document 2, there is a complexity that it is necessary to always carry a large-capacity storage device as a backup / restore device in addition to the mobile device.

JP-A-10-133925

JP 2000-284997 A JP 2004-133529 A

  The problem to be solved is to provide a storage backup service system that can be easily backed up by a user and can be recovered in as short a time as possible when a storage failure such as an HDD occurs.

The storage backup service system of the present invention includes a mobile machine having a replaceable main storage, a storage failure sensor for detecting a failure of the main storage, and a backup image of the main storage that exists in a different location from the mobile machine. The secondary storage that stores the image, the image server that is in the vicinity of the secondary storage, receives the request from the mobile machine and transmits the image of the secondary storage, and the image that is present at a different location from the image server. One or a plurality of replicators that receive and copy to the alternative storage of the main storage.
Further, it includes a service for transporting the alternative storage copied by the replicator to the user's whereabouts and exchanging the alternative main storage with the failed main storage of the user's mobile machine.

  If the storage failure sensor detects an abnormality in the main storage when the user instructs to start the mobile machine, the mobile machine connects to the secondary storage via the network and starts the system, and the user is notified of the abnormality in the main storage. And the user instructs the delivery destination of the alternative storage of the main storage.

  The mobile machine notifies the delivery destination to the image server, the image server sends the secondary storage image to the destination replicator, and the replicator copies the secondary storage image to the alternative storage. The copied alternative storage is brought to the user by the support engineer at the service location where the replicator is located, and replaced with the failed main storage of the mobile machine.

  With the storage backup service system of the present invention, the user can improve the business continuity at the time of storage failure of the mobile machine, shorten the time until the mobile machine is restored, and minimize the downtime of the user. Can be obtained.

  The storage backup service system of the present invention can be implemented in the form shown in FIG. 1, and is most effective when combined with a delivery / exchange service for alternative storage performed manually.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of one embodiment of the storage backup service system of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows the system configuration of the storage backup service system.
Reference numeral 101 denotes a mobile machine, which can be realized by, for example, a notebook computer or a PDA used by the user 201. The mobile machine 101 includes a main storage 202 such as an HDD and a storage failure sensor 203 as shown in FIG.

An image server 102 normally copies the backup image of the mobile machine 101 sent through the network 104 to the secondary storage 204.
The secondary storage 204 needs to make a complete image copy of the main storage 202 for the first time, but after that, only sectors that have changed during use are recorded, and sectors that have changed when the mobile machine 101 is shut down. Is transmitted to the image server 102, and the storage images between the main storage 202 and the secondary storage 204 are synchronized.

  In normal times, only the use of the mobile machine 101 and the synchronization processing of the main storage 202 and the secondary storage 204 are performed as described above. Such synchronization processing of a storage image with a remote site is a known technique introduced in Patent Document 1 and the like and will not be described in detail here.

A replicator 103 receives the image of the secondary storage 204 via the network 104 and copies it to the alternative storage 205 in accordance with a request from the image server 102. The alternative storage 205 has the same standard as the main storage 202 and can be removed from the replicator 103 and replaced with the main storage 202 of the mobile machine 101. The replicator 103 includes a display and a printer, and notifies the delivery engineer of the alternative storage 205 to the support engineer 206 at the replicator installation location.
Note that the mobile machine 101, the image server 102, and the replicator 103 are devices each having a communication unit (not shown).

  When the primary storage 202 of the mobile machine 101 fails, the storage failure sensor 203 of the mobile machine 101 detects the storage failure when it is started next time, and the secondary storage 204 of the image server 102 is detected via the network 104. The used mobile machine 101 is activated.

  This is executed by a network boot program installed in the BIOS stored in the ROM of the mobile machine 101. The network boot program is a mechanism that allows remote storage to be handled in the same way as local storage via a general-purpose network such as the Internet by using a protocol such as iSCSI, and is currently installed in BIOS of many personal computers. ing.

The flow of control when the main storage 202 of the mobile machine 101 fails will be described using FIG. In FIG. 3, numbers enclosed in square brackets represent sequence numbers.
When the user activates the mobile machine 101, the storage failure sensor 203 detects a failure, and the BIOS activation program requests connection to the secondary storage 204 (step 1). If connection is possible, the image server 102 notifies the mobile machine of connection information to the secondary storage 204 (step 2). The mobile machine 101 starts up the mobile machine 101 using the OS image connected to the secondary storage 204 and backed up in the secondary system 204. Next, the mobile machine 101 notifies the user 201 that there is a failure in the storage, and displays a screen asking whether or not to use the alternative storage creation and delivery service. A screen image of the mobile machine 101 at this time is shown in FIG.

  When the user 201 inputs an address 402, a name 403, and a desired delivery time 404 and selects an execution button 401 to receive the creation and delivery service of the alternative storage 205, the mobile machine 101 outputs an alternative storage creation request to the image server 102. (Step 3).

At this time, when there are a plurality of replicators 103, the image server 102 analyzes the input address and refers to a table prepared in advance to select the replicator 103 closest to the address.
However, the image server 102 does not execute the creation of the alternative storage 205 at this point, but only stores the request and notifies the mobile machine 101 of the receipt notification (step 4).

  Thereafter, the user 201 performs a business operation or the like using the mobile machine 101 activated with the image of the secondary storage 204. During this time, the secondary storage 204 of the image server 102 is connected to the mobile machine 101 instead of the main storage 202, and the image of the secondary storage 204 is updated according to the usage contents of the user 201.

When the user finishes using the mobile machine 101 and shuts down, the image server 102 is notified of the shutdown (step 5).
At this stage, the image of the secondary storage 204 is in the latest state that is newer than the main storage 202.

The image server 102 requests the replicator 103 to create an alternative storage (step 6).
If the request can be executed, the replicator 103 notifies the image server 102 of the receipt of the request (step 7).
The image server 102 transfers the image of the secondary storage 204 to the replicator 103 (step 8).

The replicator writes the transferred image of the secondary storage 204 to the alternative storage 205.
When the creation of the alternative storage 205 is completed, a completion notification message is notified from the replicator 103 to the image server 102.

  When the replicator 103 copies the storage image to the alternative storage 205, the storage ID and the delivery destination of the alternative storage 205 are displayed on the display of the replicator 103 and simultaneously printed as a delivery repair order slip by the printer. An example of the screen of the replicator 103 at this time is shown in FIG.

  Thereafter, the alternative storage 205 is removed from the replicator 103 by the support engineer 206, delivered to the requested user 201, and replaced with the failed main storage 202.

  Note that if a storage failure is detected while working on the mobile machine 101, the latest image that backed up the image of the main storage 202 cannot be properly The image at the time of backup is stored in the secondary storage 204. The user can at least restore the storage image until the last connection to the network and a graceful shutdown.

  Further, it goes without saying that the image server 102 accommodates a plurality of secondary storages 204 corresponding to a plurality of different mobile machines 101 and manages them in pairs with the corresponding mobile machines 101.

  The method of the present invention is not effective when the main storage 202 fails in an environment where it cannot be connected to the network 104. However, at least if there is a point that can be connected to the network 104 during movement, the creation and delivery request of the alternative storage 205 Can be done.

This is a very effective method when the network 104 with a certain speed can be used.
For example, after the morning storage failure, copying to the alternative storage 205 in the secondary storage is performed during a time period when the user 201 does not use the mobile machine 101, for example, at night, and before the alternative storage 205 is Once delivered and exchanged, there is virtually no interruption of business due to storage failure.
As described above, according to the storage backup service system of the present invention, the user can minimize the downtime due to the storage failure of the mobile machine.

  It can be applied to services of portable information devices such as notebook PCs, PDAs, and portable music players.

It is explanatory drawing of the service outline | summary of a storage backup service system. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a storage backup service system. FIG. It is a sequence diagram which shows the flow of a process at the time of storage failure of a mobile machine. It is the figure which illustrated the screen shown to a user at the time of a storage failure. It is the figure which illustrated the screen display of the replicator.

Explanation of symbols

  101 mobile machine, 102 image server, 103 replicator, 104 network, 201 users, 202 primary storage, 203 storage failure sensor, 204 secondary storage, 205 alternative storage, 206 support engineer.

Claims (2)

Secondary storage for storing backup images of the mobile machine's main storage;
An image server that receives a request from the mobile machine and transmits an image of the secondary storage;
One or more replicators that receive the image sent by the image server and copy it to an alternative storage that can be exchanged with the main storage;
Have a said image server transmits accordance replicator specified information notified from the mobile machine, an image in the specified replicator of the secondary storage among multiple replicator that,
Storage backup service system characterized by Designating a replicator that copies a secondary storage image via a network when the mobile machine detects an abnormality in the primary storage;
The replicator copying an image of the secondary storage to an alternative storage having a specification interchangeable with the main storage;
A storage backup service method comprising:

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