SEAMLESS VIRTUAL MACHINE RECALL IN A DATA STORAGE SYSTEM

• US 20140201737A1
• Filed: 06/24/2013
• Published: 07/17/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/14/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Mitkar, Amit, Deshpande, Sumer Dilip, Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Pawar, Rahul S., Sancheti, Ashwin Gautamchand
• Granted Patent: US 9,286,110 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/4557 Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing
• 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 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/461 Saving or restoring of program or task context
• 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 may archive virtual machines (VMs) that are determined to have a low level of utilization. The system may create a virtual machine placeholder for an archived VM, which may be a “light” or minimal version of the VM that acts like the actual VM. By using a VM placeholder, a VM may appear to be active and selectable by the user. When the user selects the VM, the VM placeholder can interact with the user in similar manner as the VM. Accessing the VM placeholder may trigger restore of the archived VM from secondary storage. The restore of the archived VM may be “seamless” to the user since the VM remains available while it is being restored.

Claims

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

determining whether to archive a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computers in primary storage with computer hardware comprising one or more computer processors based on usage data;

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 wherein the VM placeholder appears to be the VM;

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

restoring at least a portion of the VM and the associated data to the primary storage when the VM placeholder is accessed after the VM and the associated data are deleted.

2. 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 using the VM placeholder.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM placeholder interacts with an operating system or a virtualization software on the one or more client computers as if it is the VM.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM placeholder comprises a reference to the VM and its associated data in the secondary storage.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the reference is an address of a location in the secondary storage where the VM and its associated data are stored.

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

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the reduced amount of resources comprises a CPU and a memory.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein said restoring further comprises allocating resources to the VM.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said allocating comprises:

increasing the reduced amount of resources associated with the VM placeholder; and

allocating the resources associated with the VM placeholder to the VM.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the resources include one or more of:

storage space, CPU, memory, and network resource.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising deleting the VM placeholder when all of the VM and the associated data are restored to the primary storage.

12. 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.

13. 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;

determine whether to archive a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computers in the primary storage based on usage data;

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 wherein the VM placeholder appears to be the VM;

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

restore at least a portion of the VM and the associated data to the primary storage when the VM placeholder is accessed after the VM and the associated data are deleted.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the VM is selectable by a user after the VM and the associated data are deleted from the primary storage using the VM placeholder.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the VM placeholder interacts with an operating system or a virtualization software on the one or more client computers as if it is the VM.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the VM placeholder comprises a reference to the VM and its associated data in the secondary storage.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the reference is an address of a location in the secondary storage where the VM and its associated data are stored.

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

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said virtual machine archiving module performs said restore of the portion of the data and the associated data at least partly by:

increasing the reduced amount of resources associated with the VM placeholder; and

allocating the resources associated with the VM placeholder to the VM.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the virtual machine archiving module initiates copying of the VM and its associated data, creates the VM placeholder, and deletes the VM and the associated data during a backup of data from the primary storage to the secondary storage.