JPH05313972A - Disk backup system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a system to surely and automatically perform the backup of a disk connected to a computer fitting in the purpose of a user without preparing a specific hardware. CONSTITUTION:This system is composed of an OS table reading part 110 which reads a disk constitutional table 16 under the control of an OS, a backup decision part 120 which specifies the disk satisfying a backup condition decided in advance from the disk constitutional table 16, and a backup job generating part 130 which automatically generates a job to write a specified disk on an external medium, and the disk constitutional table 16 under the control of the OS is directly read, and the disk required for the backup is found from the ones registered on the table 16, and a backup job to write the disk targeted for backup on the external medium is automatically appllied to the system without interposing another's hand. Therefore, it is possible to automatically perform the backup for the disk, at need, and to heighten reliability for the system to the disk fault.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a computer system, and more particularly to a backup system for disk devices such as magnetic disk devices and optical disk devices.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The conventional disk backup method is
A computer user submits a backup job to the system as needed.

Further, recently, a method called a mirrored disk for writing exactly the same data to two disk devices at the same time, or a method of writing data with redundancy provides automatic data recovery in the case of disk destruction. Hardware technologies such as the disk array method have also appeared.

[0004]

The above-mentioned conventional backup methods have the following drawbacks.

In order for a computer user to submit a job for backup, a job control language (JC
If anything, such as L), knowledge that is not necessarily required for a person who uses a pure application is required. Therefore, submitting a job for backup is a heavy burden for a user who does not have a dedicated computer system operation staff.

In fact, many small computer users do not back up their disks at all.

Further, even when a user submits a job, there is a disadvantage that he sometimes forgets it.

Both the backup mirrored disk technology and the disk array technology by hardware require a disk having an actual data amount or more (2 in the case of a mirrored disk).
Since the number of disk arrays is about 1.25 times), the number of disks increases and the cost burden on the user side increases accordingly.

Further, since hardware for backup control is required, there is a drawback that the amount of hardware of the computer main body increases, leading to an increase in main body price.

An object of the present invention is to provide an OS table reading section 110 for reading a disk configuration table 16 under the control of an operating system (hereinafter referred to as an OS), and a backup condition predetermined from the disk configuration table 16. It has a backup determination unit 120 for specifying a disk and a backup job generation unit 130 for automatically generating a job for writing the specified disk to an external medium, and directly reads the disk configuration table 16 managed by the OS. By searching for a disk that needs to be backed up from the disks registered in the table 16 and automatically submitting a backup job for writing the disk to be backed up to an external medium to the system without human intervention, The drawbacks of Up from time to time automatically performed to provide a disk backup method for increasing reliability of the system to disk failures.

[0011]

According to the disk backup method of the present invention, an OS table reading section for reading a disk configuration table under OS control which registers a disk device connected to a computer system, and an OS table reading. To a computer system, a backup judgment unit that specifies a disk that satisfies a predetermined backup condition from the disk configuration table read by the unit, and a job to write the disk specified by the backup judgment unit to an external medium. It has a backup job generation unit for inputting.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system using a disk backup system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the disk configuration table 16 shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. The figure which shows an example of the description of the backup condition of the disk backup method,
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the job image 160 of FIG.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the format of the backup recording file 150 of FIG.

In FIG. 1, a computer system using the disk backup method of this embodiment is an operating system (OS) 10 having a disk configuration table 16, an OS table reading section 110, a backup judging section 120, and a backup job. Generator 1
And a backup processing unit 100 having 30. And operating system (O
S) 10 is a data disk and is a magnetic disk device for backup, DISKA11 to DISKX
13 is connected and is a magnetic tape device MTa 14 to M
The Tn 15 is connected to the operating system (OS) 10. A system input reader (SYSIN) 17 stores a job image input to the computer system of this embodiment. DISKA11 to DISKX13 are registered in the disk configuration table 16 in the OS 10 in the format of FIG. D
When data is written to the ISKA11 to DISKX13, the OS records the date and time of this writing operation in the update date and time field 22 of the disk configuration table 16. The system console 18 is also connected to the operating system (OS) 10. The backup processing unit 100 knows the location (address) of the OS table reading unit 110 in the OS, can always read the contents of the table, and passes the read contents to the backup determination unit 120. Backup determination unit 120
Searches the disk configuration table 16 for a disk that meets the backup conditions stored in advance in the parameter file 140. Then, FIG. 3 shows a description example of the backup condition stored in the backup parameter file. When the disk to be backed up is found, the backup determination unit 120 passes the name of the disk to be backed up and the label name of the magnetic tape to save the contents of the disk to the backup job generation unit 130. The backup job generation unit 130 saves a backup target disk on a magnetic tape having the above label (the job image is shown in FIG.
(Shown in FIG. 3) is created and input to the SYSIN 17.

Once the backup job has been run,
The label name of the magnetic tape for saving and MTa to MT on which the magnetic tape should be set on the system console 18
One of the magnetic tape device names of n is displayed.

Then, a person near the system console 18 sets the magnetic tape medium on which the person is displayed to any one of the magnetic tapes MTa14 to MTn15 which are also displayed, so that the backup is executed.

When the backup job is completed normally, the backup job generating unit 130 writes the name of the disk that was backed up, the backup completion date and time, and the backup destination magnetic tape in the backup recording file 150 in the format of FIG. Record the label name. Next, the format of the disk configuration table 16 of the disk backup method of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, the disk configuration table 16 of the present embodiment shows the disk name 21 which is the name of the disk connected to the system and the date and time when the corresponding disk was last updated in the YYMMDD / HH: MM format. It is composed of the last update date / time 22 recorded in step 2, the disk size 23 which is the capacity size of the disk, the access right 24 in which the access right to the disk is stored, and the like. Here, since the disk size 23, the access right 24, etc. are not directly related to this embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the backup conditions of the disk backup method of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3A is a description in the case where all the disks are saved on the magnetic tape every 24 hours.
(B) is a description when DISKA and DISKB are saved to the magnetic tape 12 hours after the last update.

Next, an example of the job image 160 of the disk backup system of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

An example of this job image 160 is DISK
This is a job image when A is saved on the magnetic tape having the label LBL-A. Next, the backup recording file 15 of the disk backup method of the present embodiment
The format of 0 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the format of the backup recording file 150 of the disk backup method of this embodiment is the disk name 5 which is the name of the disk on which the backup is performed.
1 and the date and time when this backup was completed YYMMDD
/ HH: Backup completion date and time 52 recorded in MM format
And a magnetic tape label name 53 for recording the label name of the magnetic tape for which the backup has been saved. Backup determination unit 12 in FIG.
0 refers to the backup completion date and time of the backup completion date and time 52 in FIG. 5 to calculate the save timing every 24 hours in the example of FIG. 3A, and also refers to the magnetic tape label name 53 to identify the same. The magnetic tape to be used for backup is determined so that two or more different disks are not allocated to the tape medium.

[0023]

As described above, according to the disk backup method of the present invention, the disk configuration table managed by the OS is directly read, and the disk which needs to be backed up is searched from the disks registered in the table.
By automatically submitting a backup job to write the backup target disk to an external medium to the system without human intervention, the disk is automatically backed up at any time without the need for special hardware. This has the effect of increasing the reliability of the system against disk failures.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a computer system using a disk backup system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a format of a disk configuration table 16 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a description of backup conditions of the disk backup method of this embodiment.

4 is a diagram showing an example of a job image 160 in FIG.

5 is a diagram showing an example of a format of a backup recording file 150 of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 operating system (OS) 11 DISKA 12 DISKB 13 DISKX 14 MTa 15 MTn 16 disk configuration table 17 system input reader (SYSIN) 18 system console 21 disk name 22 last update date 23 disk size 24 access right 51 disk name 52 backup completed Date and time 53 Magnetic tape label name 100 Backup processing unit 110 OS table reading unit 120 Backup determination unit 130 Backup job generation unit 140 Backup parameter file 150 Backup recording file 160 Backup job image

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An operating system (OS) table reading unit for reading a disk configuration table under the control of an operating system (OS) that registers a disk device connected to a computer system, and the operating system ( OS) A backup judging unit that specifies a disk satisfying a predetermined backup condition from the disk configuration table read by the table reading unit, and a job for writing the disk specified by the backup judging unit to an external medium. And a backup job generating unit for inputting the above into the computer system.