Workflows for series of snapshots

• US 10,055,307 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2015
• Issued: 08/21/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vmware LLC (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: VMware, Inc. (Broadcom, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ren, Joanne, Barry, David W., Farkas, Keith, Zucca, Mike, Valkanov, Martin
• Primary Examiner(s): Truong, Dennis
• Application Number:
  US14/755,375
• Publication Number:
  US 20170004051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,148 Days
• Field of Search: 718 1, 707639, 707610, 711 6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/00 Error detection; Error correction; Monitoring error detection, correction or monitoring in information storage based on relative movement between record carrier and transducer G11B20/18; monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing G11B27/36; in static stores G11C29/00
• 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 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1471 involving logging of persistent data for recovery
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data

Abstract

The present disclosure is related to methods, systems, and machine-readable media for workflows for series of snapshots. A server can manage replication of a number of series of snapshots of a virtual computing instance (VCI). An on-host agent can replicate a parent series of the number of series of snapshots to at least one child series of the number of series of snapshots. The parent series can precede the at least one child series in the number of series of snapshots. A change in the parent series can be propagated to the child series. Management of the replication of the numbers of series of snapshots can be switched from the server to a different server.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

managing, with a server, replication of a number of series of snapshots of a virtual computing instance (VCI);

replicating, with an on-host agent, a parent series of the number of series of snapshots to at least one child series of the number of series of snapshots, wherein the parent series precedes the at least one child series in the number of series of snapshots;

subsequent to the replicating, propagating a change in the snapshots of the parent series to the child series including propagating one or more snapshots from the parent series to the child series; and

switching management of the replication of the number of series of snapshots from the server to a different server, wherein switching management comprises;

determining that the different server has more resource availability than the first server,

deactivating replication of the parent series, and

activating management of the parent series by the different server including loading the parent series from a data store.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein switching the management to the different server comprises:

deactivating management by the server of the at least one child series;

wherein data associated with the at least one child series is stored to the data store associated with the at least one child series.

3. The method of claim 2, where switching management of the at least one child series to the different server further comprises:

activating management of the child series by the different server including loading the child series from the data store to the different server; and

linking the loaded series as parent and child.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the switching of the management of the parent series and the child series is initiated by at least one of a user and a manager engine of the server and the different server.

5. The method of claim 1, comprising pausing replication of the parent series, wherein the child series associated with the parent series replicates until the child series has completed replication of snapshots associated with the child series.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein replication of the parent series and the child series is based on a recovery point objective (RPO) that indicates a minimum time interval between each replication.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising suppressing the RPO after the child series has completed replicating the snapshots to avoid an error that would otherwise occur for a violation of the RPO.

8. The method of claim 1, comprising;

locating, in parallel, physical storage for the parent series and the child series; and

storing the parent series and the child series, in parallel, in the physical storage.

9. The method of claim 8, comprising updating the parent series and the child series in the physical storage when a change has occurred in at least one of the parent series and the child series.

10. A system, comprising:

one or more computers having one or more processors and one or more storage media having instructions that when executed perform operations comprising;

managing, with a server, replication of a number of series of snapshots of a virtual computing instance (VCI);

replicating, with an on-host agent, a parent series of the number of series of snapshots to at least one child series of the number of series of snapshots, wherein the parent series precedes the at least one child series in the number of series of snapshots;

subsequent to the replicating, propagating a change in the snapshots of the parent series to the child series including propagating one or more snapshots from the parent series to the child series; and

switching management of the replication of the number of series of snapshots from the server to a different server, wherein switching management comprises;

determining that the different server has more resource availability than the first server,

deactivating replication of the parent series, and

activating management of the parent series by the different server including loading the parent series from a data store.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein switching the management to the different server comprises:

deactivating management by the server of the at least one child series;

wherein data associated with the at least one child series is stored to the data store associated with the at least one child series.

12. The system of claim 11, where switching management of the at least one child series to the different server further comprises:

activating management of the child series by the different server including loading the child series from the data store to the different server; and

linking the loaded series as parent and child.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the switching of the management of the parent series and the child series is initiated by at least one of a user and a manager engine of the server and the different server.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the instructions when executed further comprise pausing replication of the parent series, wherein the child series associated with the parent series replicates until the child series has completed replication of snapshots associated with the child series.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein replication of the parent series and the child series is based on a recovery point objective (RPO) that indicates a minimum time interval between each replication.

16. The system of claim 15, comprising suppressing the RPO after the child series has completed replicating the snapshots to avoid an error that would otherwise occur for a violation of the RPO.

17. The system of claim 10, comprising;

locating, in parallel, physical storage for the parent series and the child series; and

storing the parent series and the child series, in parallel, in the physical storage.

18. The system of claim 17, comprising updating the parent series and the child series in the physical storage when a change has occurred in at least one of the parent series and the child series.

19. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions executable by a processing resource to cause a computing system to perform operations comprising:

managing, with a server, replication of a number of series of snapshots of a virtual computing instance (VCI);

replicating, with an on-host agent, a parent series of the number of series of snapshots to at least one child series of the number of series of snapshots, wherein the parent series precedes the at least one child series in the number of series of snapshots;

subsequent to the replicating, propagating a change in the snapshots of the parent series to the child series including propagating one or more snapshots from the parent series to the child series; and

switching management of the replication of the number of series of snapshots from the server to a different server, wherein switching management comprises;

determining that the different server has more resource availability than the first server,

deactivating replication of the parent series, and

activating management of the parent series by the different server including loading the parent series from a data store.