Staged restore of a decremental backup chain

Abstract

Staged restore of a decremental backup chain. In one example embodiment, a method includes, first, restoring a first backup of a source storage to a restore storage. Next, a second backup of the source storage in a decremental backup chain of the source storage is identified. Then, a third backup of the source storage in the decremental backup chain of the source storage is identified. Next, blocks in the decremental backup chain that were newly allocated in the source storage between the first point in time and the second point in time are identified. Then, the newly-allocated blocks are restored to the restore storage. Next, blocks in the decremental backup chain that were changed in the source storage between the first point in time and the second point in time are identified. Lastly, the changed blocks are restored to the restore storage.

1 . A method for staged restore of a decremental backup chain, the method comprising:
 restoring a first backup of a source storage to a restore storage, the first backup representing blocks from the source storage from a first point in time;   identifying a second backup of the source storage in a decremental backup chain of the source storage, the second backup being a decremental backup, the second backup also representing the blocks from the source storage from the first point in time;   identifying a third backup of the source storage in the decremental backup chain of the source storage that is subsequent to the second backup and upon which the second backup depends, the third backup representing blocks from the source storage from a second point in time;   identifying blocks in the decremental backup chain that were newly allocated in the source storage between the first point in time and the second point in time;   restoring the newly-allocated blocks to the restore storage;   identifying blocks in the decremental backup chain that were changed in the source storage between the first point in time and the second point in time; and   restoring the changed blocks to the restore storage.