ARCHIVING VIRTUAL MACHINES IN A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20140181812A1
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Published: 06/26/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Deshpande, Sumer Dilip, Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Venkatesha, Ananda, Sancheti, Ashwin Gautamchand
• Granted Patent: US 9,286,086 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• 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 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

Abstract

The data storage system according to certain aspects can manage the archiving of virtual machines to (and restoring of virtual machines from) secondary storage. The system can determine whether to archive virtual machines based on usage data or information. The usage information may include storage usage, CPU usage, memory usage, network usage, events defined by a virtual machine software or application, etc. The system may archive virtual machines that are determined to have a low level of utilization. For example, a virtual machine can be archived when its usage level falls below a threshold level. The system may create a virtual machine placeholder for an archived virtual machine, which may be a “light” or minimal version of the virtual machine that acts as if it is the actual virtual machine. By using a virtual machine placeholder, a virtual machine may appear to be active and selectable by the user.

Claims

1. A method of archiving virtual machines in a networked data storage system, comprising:

monitoring usage of a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computers in primary storage with computer hardware comprising one or more computer processors;

in response to determining that the VM should be archived, copying the VM and its associated data from the primary storage to secondary storage;

creating a VM placeholder for the VM in the primary storage; and

deleting the VM and the associated data from the primary storage,

wherein the VM placeholder appears to be the VM.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM placeholder interacts with one or more operating systems on the one or more client computers as if it is the VM.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM placeholder comprises a reduced amount of resources in comparison to the VM.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the reduced amount of resources comprises a CPU and a memory.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM is selectable by a user after the VM and the associated data are deleted from the primary storage.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the VM is selected using the VM placeholder.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the VM and the associated data is restored to the primary storage when the VM placeholder is accessed after the VM and the associated data are deleted.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising deleting the VM placeholder when all of the VM and the associated data are restored to the primary storage.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein said monitoring usage of a VM comprises obtaining usage information during a backup of data from the primary storage to the secondary storage.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said copying the VM and its associated data, said creating the VM placeholder, and said deleting the VM and the associated data occur during a backup of data from the primary storage to the secondary storage.

11. A data storage system configured for archiving virtual machines, comprising:

a storage manager module executing on computer hardware comprising one or more computer processors and configured to initiate copying of data from primary storage to secondary storage; and

a virtual machine archiving module executing on computer hardware comprising one or more computer processors and configured to;

monitor usage of a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computers in the primary storage;

in response to determining that the VM should be archived, initiate copying of the VM and its associated data, by the storage manager, from the primary storage to the secondary storage;

create a VM placeholder for the VM in the primary storage; and

delete the VM and the associated data from the primary storage,

wherein the VM placeholder appears to be the VM.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the VM placeholder interacts with one or more operating systems on the one or more client computers as if it is the VM.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the VM placeholder comprises a reduced amount of resources in comparison to the VM.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the reduced amount of resources comprises a CPU and a memory.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the VM is selectable by a user after the VM and the associated data are deleted from the primary storage.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the VM is selected using the VM placeholder.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein at least a portion of the VM and the associated data is restored to the primary storage when the VM placeholder is accessed after the VM and the associated data are deleted.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the virtual machine archiving module is further configured to delete the VM placeholder when all of the VM and the associated data are restored to the primary storage.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein said monitoring usage of a VM comprises obtaining usage information during a backup of data from the primary storage to the secondary storage.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein said copying the VM and its associated data, said creating the VM placeholder, and said deleting the VM and the associated data occur during a backup of data from the primary storage to the secondary storage.