Efficient live-mount of a backed up virtual machine in a storage management system

• US 10,048,889 B2
• Filed: 06/23/2016
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Pawar, Rahul S., Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Kilaru, Satish Chandra, Venkatesha, Ananda
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Franco, Christopher
• Application Number:
  US15/191,366
• Publication Number:
  US 20160306587A1
• Time in Patent Office: 782 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0862 with prefetch
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1016 Performance improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/151 Emulated environment, e.g. virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/154 Networked environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/263 Network storage, e.g. SAN or NAS
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/461 Sector or disk block
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/507 using speculative control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/602 Details relating to cache prefetching
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/6022 Using a prefetch buffer or dedicated prefetch cache
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0605 : by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0617 : in relation to availability
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 : Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0647 : Migration mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0649 : Lifecycle management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 : Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0664 : at device level, e.g. emulation of a storage device or system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 : Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 : Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45537 : Provision of facilities of other operating environments, e.g. WINE I/O emulation G06F13/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 : Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including any applications executing thereon, to quickly start executing and servicing users based on pre-staged data blocks supplied from a backup copy in secondary storage. An enhanced media agent may pre-stage certain backed up data blocks which may be needed to launch the virtual machine, based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine'"'"'s operational profile. The enhanced media agent may also pre-stage backed up data blocks for a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, based on the operation'"'"'s relocation scheme. Servicing read requests to the virtual machine may take priority over ongoing pre-staging of backed up data. Read requests may be tracked so that the media agent may properly maintain the contents of an associated read cache. Some embodiments of the illustrative storage management system may lack, or may simply not require, the relocation operation, and may operate in a “live mount” configuration.

Claims

1. A method for executing a backed up virtual machine on a host computing device without restoring an entire backup copy of the virtual machine, based on pre-staging certain backed up data blocks, the method comprising:

prior to execution of the virtual machine,

copying a first set of data blocks, by a media agent component of a storage management system, from a backup copy of data stored on a secondary storage device in communication with the media agent to a read-cache associated with the media agent,

wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine,

wherein the first set of data blocks is based on a profile of the virtual machine, and

wherein the media agent executes on a first computing device comprising one or more processors and corresponding computer memory;

launching execution of the virtual machine on a second computing device,

based on the first set of data blocks, wherein the first set of data blocks is served by the media agent from the read-cache, and

wherein the second computing device comprises one or more processors and corresponding computing memory;

during the execution of the virtual machine on the second computing device,

serving, by the media agent to the virtual machine, a read request for one or more data blocks that is issued by the virtual machine,

wherein the serving of the read request comprises;

(i) copying the requested one or more data blocks from the backup copy to the read-cache if the requested one or more data blocks are not found in the read-cache, and

(ii) transmitting the requested one or more data blocks from the read-cache to the virtual machine in response to the read request; and

wherein continuing the execution of the virtual machine on the second computing device is based on the media agent serving further data blocks to the virtual machine, and

wherein the further data blocks are copied from the backup copy to the read-cache without restoring the entire backup copy of the virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting, by a data agent component of the storage management system, the profile of the virtual machine to the media agent;

instructing, by the data agent, the media agent to determine, based on the profile of the virtual machine, the first set of data blocks to be copied from the backup copy to the read-cache; and

wherein the data agent executes on a third computing device comprising one or more processors and corresponding computer memory.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the profile of the virtual machine is received by the media agent from a data agent component of the storage management system.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the profile of the virtual machine comprises at least one indication of a file associated with the virtual machine, as selected by a user via a file manager application, and wherein the backup copy comprises a representation of the file selected by the user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the first set of data blocks comprises backed up data blocks from the indicated file.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

after the execution of the virtual machine on the second computer has completed, de-associating the secondary storage device from the virtual machine, by the media agent.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

after the execution of the virtual machine on the second computer has completed, instructing the media agent, by a data agent, to de-associate the secondary storage device from the virtual machine.

8. A system for executing a backed up virtual machine on a computing device in a live-mount configuration, based on pre-staging certain backed up data blocks without restoring an entire backup copy of the virtual machine, the system comprising:

a first computing device configured to execute the virtual machine based on a recovery point,

wherein the first computing device comprises at least one processor and corresponding computer memory;

a second computing device in communication with the first computing device,

wherein the second computing device is configured to execute a media agent, and comprises a read-cache and a shared file system that is configured as the recovery point for the virtual machine, and

wherein the second computing device comprises at least one processor and corresponding computer memory;

a storage device in communication with the second computing device,

wherein the storage device comprises a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, and

wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk;

wherein the media agent is configured to;

determine, based on a profile of the virtual machine, a first set of data blocks to be copied from the backup copy, wherein the profile of the virtual machine comprises at least one indication of a file associated with the virtual machine, which file is selected by a user via a file manager application, pre-stage the first set of data blocks by copying the first set of data blocks from the backup copy to the read-cache, wherein the first set of data blocks comprises backed up data blocks from the file selected by the user, and

serve the pre-staged first set of data blocks to the first computing device via the recovery point when execution of the virtual machine is launched by the first computing device,

thereby enabling the first computing device to launch the execution of the virtual machine from the pre-staged first set of data blocks without the entire backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine being restored; and

wherein the media agent is further configured to;

serve to the first computing device further data blocks copied from the backup copy without the entire backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine being restored.

9. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

a third computing device in communication with the second computing device,

wherein the third computing device is configured to execute a data agent,

wherein the third computing device comprises at least one processor and corresponding computer memory; and

wherein the data agent is configured to transmit the profile of the virtual machine to the media agent.

10. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

a file manager application that is configured to present a user with one or more indications of respective files associated with the virtual machine, and is further configured to receive a selection by the user of one of the one or more respective files, and

wherein the backup copy comprises a representation of the file selected by the user.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the profile of the virtual machine comprises at least one indication of a file associated with the virtual machine, which file is selected by a user via a file manager application, and wherein the backup copy comprises a representation of the file selected by the user.

12. The system of claim 8 further comprising:

a file manager application that is configured to present a user with one or more indications of respective files associated with the virtual machine, and is further configured to receive a selection by the user of one of the one or more respective files, and

wherein the pre-staged first set of data blocks comprises backed up data blocks from the indicated file.

13. A computer-readable medium, excluding transitory propagating signals, storing instructions that, when executed by a secondary storage computing device, cause the secondary storage computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by a media agent that executes on the secondary storage computing device, a profile of a virtual machine to be executed by a host computing device that is distinct from the secondary storage computing device;

determining, by the media agent, based on the profile of the virtual machine, a first set of data blocks to be copied from a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy is stored on a secondary storage device in communication with the media agent, and wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine;

copying the first set of data blocks, by the media agent from the backup copy to a read-cache associated with the media agent on the secondary storage computing device;

serving the first set of data blocks to the host computing device, by the media agent from the read-cache without restoring the entire backup copy of the virtual machine,

thereby enabling the host computing device to launch execution of the virtual machine based on the first set of data blocks;

serving further data blocks to the host computing device, by the media agent, in response to read requests issued by the virtual machine, without restoring the entire backup copy of the virtual machine,

thereby enabling continuing execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device,

wherein the serving of the further data blocks comprises;

(i) copying a requested data block from the backup copy to the read-cache if the requested data block is not found in the read-cache, and

(ii) transmitting the requested data block from the read-cache to the host computing device; and

wherein the profile of the virtual machine comprises at least one indication of a file associated with the virtual machine, which file is selected by a user via a file manager application, and wherein the backup copy comprises a representation of the file selected by the user.