External dynamic virtual machine synchronization

• US 10,387,073 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2017
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Bhagi, Sri Karthik, Gutta, Sunil, Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Pawar, Rahul S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sadler, Nathan
• Application Number:
  US15/473,365
• Publication Number:
  US 20180284986A1
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2048 where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2056 by mirroring
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/324 Display of status information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• 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 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein include systems and processes for replicating one or more user computing systems of an information management system at an external resource system to create a backup or fallback of the user computing systems. Replicating the user computing systems may include replicating data as well as the applications, operating systems and configuration of the user computing systems. This replicated or fallback user computing system may be implemented on a virtual machine at the external resource system. Thus, if a user computing system becomes inaccessible, a new user computing system can be generated based on the backup copy of the user computing system at the external resource system. Further, in some embodiments, the copy of the user computing system may be interacted with at the external resource system. Thus, certain embodiments disclosed herein can be used to transition an information management system to an external resource system.

Claims

1. A system for synchronizing a local computing system with an external resource system, the system comprising:

a replication system in communication with a client computing system designated for backup and the external resource system, the replication system comprising one or more hardware processors and configured to;

receive a synchronization trigger to synchronize the client computing device with a corresponding virtual machine at the external resource system, the synchronization trigger comprising a backup command to backup the client computing device to a secondary storage;

cause a snapshot of a virtual machine hard disk that is different from the client computing device designated for backup to be mounted on the corresponding virtual machine at the external resource system;

trigger an incremental restore operation of data of the client computing system designated for backup to a simulated hard disk at the replication system;

intercept a write command to the simulated hard disk at the replication system; and

cause the intercepted write command to be performed on the corresponding virtual machine at the external resource system instead of the simulated hard disk at the replication system that is different from the external resource system.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the replication system is further configured to:

create a new snapshot of the corresponding virtual machine after the intercepted write command is performed on the corresponding virtual machine; and

store the new snapshot at a snapshot repository.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the new snapshot replaces the snapshot at the snapshot repository.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the new snapshot is designated as a current snapshot and the snapshot is designated as a non-current snapshot.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization trigger comprises an incremental backup operation corresponding to performing an incremental backup of the client computing device to the secondary storage.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the synchronization trigger comprises an occurrence of a write at the client computing device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the replication system is further configured to generate and to host the simulated hard disk.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the external resource system comprises a third-party data center that is operated by a separate entity than an entity that operates the external resource system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the incremental restore operation restores from a secondary storage data blocks that differ from a previous backup of the client computing device.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the replication system comprises a proxy system.

11. A computer-implemented method of synchronizing a local computing system with an external resource system, the computer implemented method comprising:

as implemented by a replication system in communication with a client computing system designated for backup and the external resource system, the replication system comprising one or more hardware processors and configured with specific computer-executable instructions comprising;

receiving a synchronization trigger to synchronize the client computing device with a corresponding virtual machine at the external resource system, the synchronization trigger comprising a backup command to backup the client computing device to a secondary storage;

accessing a snapshot of a virtual machine hard disk that is different from the client computing device designated for backup;

mounting the snapshot of the virtual machine hard disk on the corresponding virtual machine at the external resource system;

triggering an incremental restore operation of data of the client computing system designated for backup to a simulated hard disk at the replication system;

intercepting a write command to the simulated hard disk at the replication system; and

performing the intercepted write command on the corresponding virtual machine at the external resource system instead of the simulated hard disk at the replication system that is different from the external resource system.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising:

creating a new snapshot of the corresponding virtual machine after performing the intercepted write command on the corresponding virtual machine; and

storing the new snapshot at a snapshot repository.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the new snapshot is stored in place of the snapshot.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the new snapshot is tagged as a current snapshot and the snapshot is tagged as a non-current snapshot.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the synchronization trigger comprises an incremental backup operation corresponding to performing an incremental backup of the client computing device to the secondary storage.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the synchronization trigger comprises a write at the client computing device.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising creating the simulated hard disk at the replication system.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the external resource system comprises a third-party data center.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the incremental restore operation restores data blocks from a secondary storage that differ from a previous backup of the client computing device.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the replication system comprises a proxy system.