SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO RESTORE SELECTED FILES FROM BLOCK-LEVEL BACKUP FOR VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20140201162A1
• Filed: 12/06/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Pawar, Rahul S., Mitkar, Amit, Kilaru, Satish Chandra
• Application Number:
  US14/098,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20140201162A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/679
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/168 Details of user interfaces specifically adapted to file systems, e.g. browsing and visualisation, 2d or 3d GUIs query results presentation G06F16/156
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/23 Updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• 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 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A data storage system restores selected virtual machine files from a block-level backup without restoring blocks associated with files other than the selected virtual machine file. The system identifies the one or more blocks associated with a selected file from a file index that is created during the block-level backup of the virtual machine by accessing the file allocation tables of the underlying host system and associating the locations of the blocks with the file information from the file allocation table for the virtual files of the virtual machine. The system further restores the identified blocks without restoring blocks associated with files other than the selected file and/or file version, recreates the selected file from the restored blocks, and presents the restored file to the user.

Claims

1. A method to restore a selected file from block-level data protection of virtual files without restoring blocks of data associated with other than the selected file in a data management system, the method comprising:

receiving with computer hardware an indication of a selected file to restore from a file level table of virtual files associated with a virtual machine backed up by a block-level backup procedure, the virtual machine associated with a host operating system having a file allocation table (FAT) comprising file location information of the virtual files in a data store, wherein when blocks of data comprising the virtual files are transferred from the data store to a secondary storage device to create a secondary copy of the virtual files during the block-level backup procedure, an index is created that associates the file location information for each virtual file with a location of a corresponding block of data in the secondary storage device;

automatically identifying with the computer hardware one or more blocks of data in the secondary storage device associated with the selected file based at least in part on the index to create identified one or more blocks of data;

automatically restoring with the computer hardware the identified one or more blocks of data from the secondary storage device without restoring blocks of data associated with other than the selected file to create restored blocks of data; and

automatically recreating with the computer hardware the selected file from the restored blocks of data based at least in part on the index to create a recreated file.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically presenting with the computer hardware the recreated file.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the recreated file is presented on a graphical user interface (GUI).

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the file location information comprises, for each virtual file, a linked list of one or more clusters across which the virtual file is stored on the data store.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the file location information comprises metadata.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein a storage manager instructs a media agent to identify in the index the one or more blocks of data in the secondary storage device associated with the selected file.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the selected file comprises a selected version.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein a media agent accesses the FAT.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the file level table comprises names of the virtual files and the indication comprises the name of the selected file.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein a media agent retrieves the file location information from the FAT and adds the file location information to a media agent index associated with the media agent for each virtual file in each block of data backed up by the block-level backup procedure.

11. A system to restore a selected file from block-level data protection of virtual files without restoring blocks of data associated with other than the selected file in a data management system, the system comprising:

computer hardware; and

computer-readable storage comprising computer-readable instructions that, when executed by the computer hardware, cause the computer hardware to perform operations defined by the computer-readable instructions, the computer-readable instructions configured to;

receive an indication of a selected file to restore from a file level table of virtual files associated with a virtual machine backed up by a block-level backup procedure, the virtual machine associated with a host operating system having a file allocation table (FAT) comprising file location information of the virtual files in a data store, wherein when blocks of data comprising the virtual files are transferred from the data store to a secondary storage device to create a secondary copy of the virtual files during the block-level backup procedure, an index is created that associates the file location information for each virtual file with a location of a corresponding block of data in the secondary storage device;

automatically identify one or more blocks of data in the secondary storage device associated with the selected file based at least in part on the index to create identified one or more blocks of data;

automatically restore the identified one or more blocks of data from the secondary storage device without restoring blocks of data associated with other than the selected file to create restored blocks of data; and

automatically recreate the selected file from the restored blocks of data based at least in part on the index to create a recreated file.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the computer-readable instructions are further configured to automatically present the recreated file.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the recreated file is presented on a graphical user interface (GUI).

14. The system of claim 11 wherein the file location information comprises, for each virtual file, a linked list of one or more clusters across which the virtual file is stored on the data store.

15. The system of claim 11 wherein the file location information comprises metadata.

16. The system of claim 11 wherein a storage manager instructs a media agent to identify in the index the one or more blocks of data in the secondary storage device associated with the selected file.

17. The system of claim 11 wherein the selected file comprises a selected version.

18. The system of claim 11 wherein a media agent accesses the FAT.

19. The system of claim 11 wherein the file level table comprises names of the virtual files and the indication comprises the name of the selected file.

20. The system of claim 11 wherein a media agent retrieves the file location information from the FAT and adds the file location information to a media agent index associated with the media agent for each virtual file in each block of data backed up by the block-level backup procedure.