SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAINTAINING A LOGICALLY CONSISTENT BACKUP USING MINIMAL DATA TRANSFER

摘要

A system and method for maintaining logically consistent backups using minimal data transfer are presented. A system comprises a backup system having a backup storage device (24) and one or more primary systems (12) having mass storage devices (20) that are to be backed up on the backup storage device (24). The primary systems (12) track changes made to the mass storage device (20). The combined effects of these changes are then captured in a static snapshot (22) when the mass storage device (20) is in a logically consistent state. Only those data blocks changed since the last backup are then transferred to backup system (14). The backup system (14) can then store these changes or apply the changes to the backup storage device (24) in order to bring the backup storage device (24) current to a particular point in time.