| 摘要 |
This invention provides a method and apparatus for storing on centralized ma ss storage devices archival data from multiple computers in a networked environment. In a networked computer system having a communication network interconnecting o ne or more computers and a storage unit, parallel processes are created to perform repeated backup operations for disks on computer devices on the communication network . A storage unit may be a single storage device capable of executing a plurality of processes or one or more primary storage devices connected to one or more secondary storage devices. The backup operations for a disk include a backup initialization which occu rs when a primary storage device does not have a full index or a backup data fi le for a disk but a secondary storage device does. During a backup initialization, da ta from the files and directories on that disk along with an index entry for each file o r directory are passed to the primary storage device which directly passes that information directly through to the secondary storage device. The index entries are incorporated into a full index and the data is incorporated into a backup data file. An index entry contains, among other information, the location of a file or directory on the disk, th e date the file or directory was last modified and the location of the associated data in th e backup data file. During a backup cycle, the computer device is incrementally backed up to a primary storage device such that the primary storage device contains a full index with an entry for each file and directory on the disk and a backup data file for the disk with data for the files and directories which have been changed or created since the last backup to the secondary storage device occurred. When a specified, predetermined time or event occurs or the transfer is otherwise indicated, the primary storage device transfers the full index and the backup data file to the secondary storage device. |
