Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-2 ,4-7, 9-10, 12-14 and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Spertus et al. US 7,529,785 (hereinafter “Spertus”) in view of Sait et al. US 9,940,377 (hereinafter “Sait”).
Regarding claim 1, Spertus: A backup method, the method comprising: [FIG. 3 and col. 11 ln. 26: “FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating aspects of the operation of a backup manager 110, according to one embodiment.”]
obtaining backup task information, wherein the backup task information comprises information about to-be-backed-up data and a backup storage identifier [FIG. 3 and col. 11 ln. 40: “When the next request is received (block 315), if it is a request from a backup client 130 to store local backup data” Also see FIG. 4 and col. 13 ln. 4: “As shown in block 405, the backup manager 110 may receive a request from a backup client 130 to back up a specified source data set, such as, for example, a disk drive in (e.g., "C:\" in a Windows.TM. environment), a file system, one or more logical volumes, a set of named directories and/or files, etc.”]
obtaining list information of a first storage pool indicated by the backup storage identifier, wherein the list information indicates information about storage units in the first storage pool, [FIG. 2 and co. 7 ln. 65: “In response, the designated backup manager 110 may identify a list of files that are to be backed up, and check whether any of the files on the list are already available (e.g., for potential restoration to the requesting backup client device 130) from the P2P cloud and/or other portions of the storage pool 120.”]
the first storage pool comprises a plurality of storage units, and the plurality of storage units are located in at least two storage clusters; [col. 9 ln. 65: “a storage pool 120 may comprise a collection of disk arrays.”]
reading the to-be-backed-up data from a storage device based on the information about the to-be-backed-up data; and [FIG. 2 and co. 7 ln. 65: “The term ‘local backup data’ may be used herein to describe data that is backed up from a backup client 130 to its designated backup manager 110 in a first phase of the backup protocol, without using P2P algorithms. In some embodiments, for example, the first phase may comprise the client backup device 130 (or a user at the client backup device 130) specifying a source data set, and backup software at the client and/or at a designated backup manager 110 copying some or all of the source data set to a portion 210 of a storage pool 120 accessible from the designated backup manager.”]
storing, based on the list information, the to-be-backed-up data in one or more storage units in the first storage pool. [FIG. 3 and col. 11 ln. 42: “the backup manager may be configured to select a portion 210 of the storage pool 120 to store the local backup data, reallocating storage currently being used for P2P backup data if needed (block 325). The local backup data may be stored in the selected portion 210 of the storage pool (block 330).”]
Spertus does not expressively disclose cluster or production but does teach “[a] variety of different types of physical and/or virtual storage devices may be used for storage pool 120 in different embodiments… a storage pool 120 may comprise a collection of disk arrays.” Spertus col. 9 ln. 63.
Sait teaches: clusters [col. 17 ln. 32: “a pool of staged volumes may be used in a cluster computing setup.”]
production [col. 2 ln. 52col. 17 ln. 32: “production storage”]
Therefore, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill to have combined Spertus’s back-up method with Sait’s cluster pool production storage setup, thereby devising a back up method that includes a cluster pool production storage setup. One would have been motivated to have combined the prior arts because Spertus for brevity does not exhaustively list all possible storage configurations that could be used with his back-up method. Sait’s cluster pool production storage setup is a suitable storage system that would benefit from Spertus’s back-up method.
Regarding claim 2: The method according to claim 1, further comprises: generating metadata of the to-be-backed-up data, wherein the metadata of the to-be-backed-up data comprises an identifier of the one or more storage units storing the to-be-backed-up data. [Spertus, col. 8 ln. 22: “In one implementation, the backup manager 120 may cache or store metadata indicating where backup versions of the files of the source data set that were not copied may be obtained for restoration, e.g., in order to avoid having to search the P2P network when and if restoration of the source data set is needed.”]
Regarding claim 4: The method according to claim 1, wherein the to-be-backed-up data belongs to a first backup file; and wherein the backup task information further comprises information about unmodified data in the first backup file. [Spertus, FIG. 2 and col. 7 ln. 65: “In response, the designated backup manager 110 may identify a list of files that are to be backed up, and check whether any of the files on the list are already available (e.g., for potential restoration to the requesting backup client device 130) from the P2P cloud and/or other portions of the storage pool 120.”]
Regarding claim 5: The method according to claim 2, further comprising: storing the metadata of the to-be-backed-up data in a first storage unit; and [Spertus, FIG. 3 and col. 11 ln. 42: “the backup manager may be configured to select a portion 210 of the storage pool 120 to store the local backup data, reallocating storage currently being used for P2P backup data if needed (block 325). The local backup data may be stored in the selected portion 210 of the storage pool (block 330).”]
reporting information about the first storage unit. [Spertus, col. 8 ln. 66: “In some embodiments, the client device 130 may be notified when the second phase of the backup is completed, thus indicating that the client's data has been successfully uploaded into the P2P cloud (and can be recovered even if, for example, the designated backup manager 110 fails). In other embodiments, notifications may be provided to the client 130 at the end of each phase.”]
Regarding claim 6: The method according to claim 1, wherein the backup storage identifier comprises an identifier of the first storage pool or an identifier of a repository corresponding to the first storage pool. [Spertus, FIG. 2 and co. 7 ln. 65: “The term ‘local backup data’ may be used herein to describe data that is backed up from a backup client 130 to its designated backup manager 110 in a first phase of the backup protocol, without using P2P algorithms. In some embodiments, for example, the first phase may comprise the client backup device 130 (or a user at the client backup device 130) specifying a source data set, and backup software at the client and/or at a designated backup manager 110 copying some or all of the source data set to a portion 210 of a storage pool 120 accessible from the designated backup manager.”]
Regarding claim 7: The method according to claim 1, further comprising: obtaining configuration task information, wherein the configuration task information indicates to configure a second storage unit as a resource of a second storage pool, [Spertus, FIG. 3 and col. 11 ln. 42: “the backup manager may be configured to select a portion 210 of the storage pool 120 to store the local backup data, reallocating storage currently being used for P2P backup data if needed (block 325). The local backup data may be stored in the selected portion 210 of the storage pool (block 330).” Also see FIG. 1: Multiple storage pools are configured]
the second storage pool comprises a plurality of storage units, and [Spertus, col. 9 ln. 65: “a storage pool 120 may comprise a collection of disk arrays.”]
the plurality of storage units comprised in the second storage pool are located in at least two storage; and [Spertus, col. 9 ln. 65: “a storage pool 120 may comprise a collection of disk arrays.”]
recording information about the second storage unit in list information of the second storage pool. [Spertus, FIG. 3 and col. 11 ln. 42: “the backup manager may be configured to select a portion 210 of the storage pool 120 to store the local backup data, reallocating storage currently being used for P2P backup data if needed (block 325). The local backup data may be stored in the selected portion 210 of the storage pool (block 330).”]
clusters [Sait, col. 17 ln. 32: “a pool of staged volumes may be used in a cluster computing setup.”]
Claims 9-10 and 12 are rejected based on the same citations and rationale given to claims 1-2 and 12.
Claims 13-14 and 16-19 are rejected based on the same citations and rationale given to claims 1-2 and 4-7.
Examiner’s Comments
Claims 3, 8, 11, 15, and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The prior arts do not teach nor suggest claim 3 limitations as follows: “The method according to claim 2, wherein the backup task information further comprises storage location information of metadata of a predecessor copy, and the predecessor copy is a copy of a backup object, in a previous backup, to which the to-be-backed-up data belongs; wherein the metadata of the to-be-backed-up data further comprises storage location information of unmodified data in the predecessor copy; and wherein the one or more storage units storing the to-be-backed-up data and one or more storage units storing the unmodified data are located in different storage clusters.” Claims 11 and 15 recites similarly.
The prior arts do not teach nor suggest claim 8 limitations as follows: “The method according to claim 1, further comprising: obtaining recovery task information, wherein the recovery task information comprises information about to-be-recovered data; obtaining list information of a third storage pool that stores the to-be-recovered data; obtaining metadata of the to-be-recovered data based on the information about the to-be-recovered data, wherein the metadata of the to-be-recovered data comprises storage location information of the to-be-recovered data; and reading the to-be-recovered data based on the list information of the third storage pool and the storage location information of the to-be-recovered data.” Claim 20 recites similarly.
Conclusion
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/JONATHAN D GIBSON/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2113