System and method for reducing storage requirement in backup subsystems ...

United States Patent

[19]

Morris

US005813017A [ii] Patent Number: 5,813,017 [45] Date of Patent: *Sep. 22, 1998

[54] SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REDUCING
STORAGE REQUIREMENT IN BACKUP
SUBSYSTEMS UTILIZING SEGMENTED
COMPRESSION AND DIFFERENCING

[75] Inventor: Robert J. T. Morris, Los Gatos, Calif.

[73] Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y.

[ * ] Notice: The term of this patent shall not extend beyond the expiration date of Pat. No. 5,574,906.

[21] Appl. No.: 707,263
[22] Filed: Sep. 3, 1996

Related U.S. Application Data

[63] Continuation of Ser. No. 328,204, Oct. 24, 1994, Pat. No. 5,574,906.

[51] Int. CI.6 G06F 17/30

[52] U.S. CI 707/204; 707/203

[58] Field of Search 707/200, 202,

707/203, 204

[56] References Cited

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Primary Examiner—-Thomas G. Black
Assistant Examiner—-Jack M. Choules
Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Paik Saber

In a client/server environment, a method and means for reducing the storage requirement in the backup subsystem and further reducing the load on the transmission bandwidth where base files are maintained on the server in a segmented compressed format. When a file is modified on the client, the file is transmitted to the server and compared with the segmented compressed base version of the file utilizing a differencing function but without decompressing the entire base file. A delta file which is the difference between the compressed base file and the modified version of the file is created and stored on a storage medium which is part of the backup subsystem. Alternatively, a copy of frequently accessed base files are maintained on the client in a compressed format. Whenever the client detects that a frequently accessed file has been modified, the modified version of the file is differenced against the base version of that file without decompressing the entire base file and a delta file is generated. The delta file is then transmitted to the server to be stored at the server for storage medium to be utilized either immediately or at a later time to update the base version of the modified file on the server.

42 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets