Cross site recovery of a VM

• US 10,114,707 B2
• Filed: 07/12/2016
• Issued: 10/30/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Bachu, Kiran K., Meier, Richard, Madhavapeddi, Vijay C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Adam
• Application Number:
  US15/208,427
• Publication Number:
  US 20160357643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 840 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/20 using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements
• 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 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency ensuring consistency in mirrored systems G06F11/2064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Restoring a virtual machine is disclosed. An indication of the virtual machine of a primary site to be restored at a remote site using a copy stored at the remote site of a backup data of the virtual machine of the primary site is received. The virtual machine is restored to the remote site using a backup application deployed at the remote site as a virtual appliance managed using a virtual environment management platform.

Claims

1. A system for restoring a virtual machine, comprising:

a communication interface configured to;

receive an indication to restore the virtual machine of a primary site at a remote site, wherein the virtual machine of the primary site is one of one or more virtual machines of the primary site available to be restored at the remote site, wherein the virtual machine of the primary site is to be restored using a backup copy of the primary site virtual machine that is stored in a backup storage at the remote site, wherein the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine was generated using a virtual appliance of the primary site directly accessing data of the virtual machine of the primary site from a data storage of the primary site without accessing the virtual machine itself, wherein the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine was replicated from the backup storage of the primary site to the backup storage of the remote site, wherein the backup storage of the primary site is configured to store one or more backup images of the one or more virtual machines of the primary site, wherein the data storage of the primary site is configured to store data of the one or more virtual machines of the primary site; and

a processor coupled with the communication interface and configured to;

determine a type of restoration site of the remote site; and

restore the primary site virtual machine to the remote site using a backup application of the remote site, wherein in response to receiving a communication from a central backup application, the backup application of the remote site is configured to restore the primary site virtual machine at the remote site using the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine that is stored in the backup storage at the remote site.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the primary site and the remote site are located at different geographical locations.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication is received in response to a determination that the primary site has experienced an error.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication is received in response to a determination that the remote site is to provide at least a portion of a functionality of the primary site.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the indication is received in response to a determination that a utilization level of a resource of the primary site is above a threshold.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to create a virtual machine infrastructure of a virtual environment management platform for the system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to install a virtual environment manager providing a virtual environment management platform for the system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the virtual environment management platform includes VMware vCenter.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the virtual environment management platform is used at least in part to provide an interface that can be used by a user to select that the virtual machine should be restored at the remote site.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to determine a hostname of the remote site based at least in part on whether the remote site is to become the primary site.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to set a hostname of the remote site to be the same as a hostname of the primary site.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein restoring the primary site virtual machine includes reconstructing an image of the primary site virtual machine using the backup copy.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein restoring the primary site virtual machine includes storing the image to a production data storage of the remote site.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein restoring the primary site virtual machine includes registering the image as a new VM to a virtual environment management platform.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the backup copy is stored in a native format of the virtual machine.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the type of restoration site of the remote site is a primary site.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the type of restoration site of the remote site is a secondary site.

18. A method for restoring a virtual machine, comprising:

determining a type of restoration site of a remote site;

receiving an indication to restore the virtual machine of a primary site at the remote site, wherein the virtual machine of the primary site is one of one or more virtual machines of the primary site available to be restored at the remote site, wherein the virtual machine of the primary site is to be restored using a backup copy of the primary site virtual machine that is stored in a backup storage at the remote site, wherein the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine was generated using a virtual appliance of the primary site directly accessing data of the virtual machine of the primary site from a data storage of the primary site without accessing the virtual machine itself, wherein the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine was replicated from the backup storage of the primary site to the backup storage of the remote site, wherein the backup storage of the primary site is configured to store one or more backup images of the one or more virtual machines of the primary site, wherein the data storage of the primary site is configured to store data of the one or more virtual machines of the primary site; and

restoring the primary site virtual machine to the remote site using a backup application of the remote site, wherein in response to receiving a communication from a central backup application, the backup application of the remote site is configured to restore the primary site virtual machine at the remote site using the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine that is stored in the backup storage at the remote site.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein restoring the primary site virtual machine includes reconstructing an image of the primary site virtual machine using the backup copy.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein restoring the primary site virtual machine includes storing the image to a production data storage of the remote site.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the primary site and the remote site are located at different geographical locations.

22. A computer program product for restoring a virtual machine, the computer program product being embodied in a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and comprising computer instructions for:

determining a type of restoration site of a remote site;

receiving an indication to restore the virtual machine of a primary site at the remote site, wherein the virtual machine of the primary site is one of one or more virtual machines of the primary site available to be restored at the remote site, wherein the virtual machine of the primary site is to be restored using a backup copy of the primary site virtual machine that is stored in a backup storage at the remote site, wherein the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine was generated using a virtual appliance of the primary site directly accessing data of the virtual machine of the primary site from a data storage of the primary site without accessing the virtual machine itself, wherein the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine was replicated from the backup storage of the primary site to the backup storage of the remote site, wherein the backup storage of the primary site is configured to store one or more backup images of the one or more virtual machines of the primary site, wherein the data storage of the primary site is configured to store data of the one or more virtual machines of the primary site; and

restoring the primary site virtual machine to the remote site using a backup application of the remote site, wherein in response to receiving a communication from a central backup application, the backup application of the remote site is configured to restore the primary site virtual machine at the remote site using the backup copy of the primary site virtual machine that is stored in the backup storage at the remote site.