Patent · US Expired

System recovery by restoring hardware state on non-identical systems

US6535998B1 · kind B1 · utility

49Cited by
7References
34Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 26, 1999
Grant dateMar 18, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateJul 26, 2019

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/1415
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and system for recovering from a system failure wherein the failed system is restored to a new system that has different hardware. Hardware state is preserved during a backup process, and following a failure, a restore is performed to the extent possible using that hardware state but on a system having a different hardware configuration. Rules are provided for handling the differences through selective merging, arranging, and replacement of data, with the logic and work performed transparently to the user. Hardware state includes hard disk configuration information, the location (partition) of the operating system, devices installed on the system and any additional drivers to load. When restored, for hardware that is identical, the hardware state is restored as specified in the file. If the hardware state is not identical, then a set of rules are used to restore the hardware state. Via these rules, hard disks may be restored to differently sized or a different number of hard disks, disk mirror pairs may be handled appropriately, and so on. Critical devices that are required to restore the system are merged as necessary during the restore process, while new or different non…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.