Efficient Management of Archival Images of Virtual Machines Having Incremental Snapshots
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- determining that a virtual disk for a virtual machine is represented by a base virtual disk file and one or more incremental virtual disk files;
invoking a merge operation to merge the one or more incremental virtual disk files into the base virtual disk file responsive to the determining; and
writing a backup image comprising the merged base virtual disk file to one or more archive media.
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Abstract
In one embodiment, a backup application is disclosed which is configured to detect that one or more incremental virtual disk files are provided in a virtual machine image. The backup application may invoke a merge function in the virtual machine monitor, and may merge the incremental virtual disk files into the base virtual disk file. Redundant data is thus eliminated, and may reduce the amount of archive media needed to store the backed-up virtual machine image.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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determining that a virtual disk for a virtual machine is represented by a base virtual disk file and one or more incremental virtual disk files; invoking a merge operation to merge the one or more incremental virtual disk files into the base virtual disk file responsive to the determining; and writing a backup image comprising the merged base virtual disk file to one or more archive media. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A computer accessible storage medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed:
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determine that a virtual disk for a virtual machine is represented by a base virtual disk file and one or more incremental virtual disk files; invoke a merge operation to merge the one or more incremental virtual disk files into the base virtual disk file responsive to the determining; and write a backup image comprising the merged base virtual disk file to one or more archive media. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A computer system comprising:
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hardware configured to execute instructions; and a storage device coupled to the hardware, the storage device storing a virtual machine monitor executable by the hardware and a virtual machine schedulable by the virtual machine monitor to execute on the hardware, wherein the virtual machine comprises at least one virtual disk accessed by software encapsulated in the virtual machine, and wherein the virtual disk is represented by a base virtual disk file and one or more incremental virtual disk files, and wherein the storage device further stores a backup application which, when executed, invokes a merge operation to merge the one or more incremental virtual disk files into the base virtual disk file and writes a backup image comprising the merged base virtual disk file to one or more archive media. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification