BACKUP AND NON-STAGED RECOVERY OF VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20150378833A1
• Filed: 08/18/2014
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/26/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Misra, Shishir, Ganapathy, Pradeep, Nanivadekar, Mandar, L, Balasubramaniyam, N, Tejaswini K, Kulkarni, Rohan A
• Granted Patent: US 9,626,254 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1458 Management of the backup or restore process
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual

Abstract

Methods for creating backup of data of a virtual environment to allow non-staged recovery are described. The described method may include receiving data of a virtual environment through one or more data streams for backup. The method also includes generating metadata corresponding to the received data and storing the received data at a first location of a backup storage unit. Further, the method includes storing the generated metadata at a second location of the backup storage unit, where the second location is different from the first location of the backup storage unit. The method further includes mapping the at least one predefined file to the stored data to create a mapping table to allow direct access to the stored data for non-staged recovery.

Claims

1. A method for creating backup of data of a virtual environment to allow non-staged recovery, the method comprising:

receiving the data of the virtual environment through one or more data streams for backup, wherein the data includes at least one predefined file of at least one virtual machine (VM);

generating metadata corresponding to the received data, wherein the metadata is indicative of properties of the received data;

storing the received data at a first location of a backup storage unit;

storing the generated metadata at a second location of the backup storage unit, wherein the second location is different from the first location of the backup storage unit; and

mapping the at least one predefined file to the stored data to create a mapping table which allows direct access to the stored data for non-staged recovery.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the received data is stored as binary large objects (Blobs) onto the first location of the backup storage unit.

3. The method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the storing the received data comprises randomly naming the blobs based on a predefined naming convention.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises generating a shared directory for recovery of the stored data, wherein the shared directory includes the at least one predefined file and a link between the at least one predefined file and the stored data.

5. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the link between the at least one predefined file and the stored data is one of a hard-link and a soft-link, wherein the link is based on type of the backup storage unit, and wherein the type of the backup storage unit is one of a local storage unit and an external storage unit.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the storing the received data at a first location of the backup storage unit comprises:

generating at least one thinly-distributed file corresponding to the received data, wherein the received data correspond to changed blocks, and wherein the received data includes changed blocks and associated mapping information; and

creating metadata corresponding to the at least one thinly-distributed file based on the changed blocks and associated mapping information.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from a computing host (104), a request to recover the stored data of the virtual environment, wherein the request is indicative of access to at least one predefined file backed-up onto a backup storage unit;

creating a shared directory for access by the computing host (104), wherein the shared directory includes the at least one predefined file; and

associating each of the at least one predefined file with a link to a corresponding Blob, wherein the link is one of a hard-link and a soft-link.

8. A backup host (102) for providing non-staged recovery of backed-up data of a virtual environment, the backup host (102) comprising:

a processor (108);

a communication module (118) coupled to the processor (108) to receive, from a computing host (104), a request to restore stored data of the virtual environment, wherein the request is to access at least one predefined file corresponding to the stored data;

a storage module (120) coupled to the processor (108) to create a shared directory for access by the computing host (104), wherein the shared directory includes the at least one predefined file; and

a mapping module (122) coupled to the processor (108) to associate each of the at least one predefined file within the shared directory with a link to at least one corresponding binary large object (Blob) stored as backup in a first location of a backup storage unit.

9. The backup host (102) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the communication module (118) further provides the shared directory to the computing host (104) for recovery of the backed-up data of the virtual environment.

10. The backup host (102) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the mapping module (122) determines the link to be one of a hard-link and a soft-link based on type of the backup storage unit utilized for the backed-up data.

11. The backup host (102) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the type of the backup storage unit is one of a local storage unit and an external storage unit.

12. The backup host (102) as claimed in claim 8, wherein the storage module (120) stores the at least one blob at the first location of the backup storage unit with random names based on a predefined naming convention.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions for a backup host (102) to communicate in a computing environment (300), executable by a processor resource to:

receive data of a virtual environment through one or more data streams for backup, wherein the data includes at least one predefined file of at least one virtual machine;

generate metadata corresponding to the received data, wherein the metadata is indicative of properties of the data;

store the received data at a first location of a backup storage unit, wherein type of the backup storage unit is one of a local storage unit and an external storage unit;

store the generated metadata at a second location of the backup storage unit, wherein the second location is different from the first location of the backup storage unit; and

map the at least one predefined file to the stored data to create a mapping table which allows direct access to the stored data for non-staged recovery.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium as claimed in claim 13, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further:

receives, from a computing host (104), a request to recover data of the virtual environment, wherein the request is indicative of access to at least one predefined file backed-up onto a backup storage unit;

creates a shared directory for access by the computing host (104), wherein the shared directory includes the at least one predefined file; and

associates each of the at least one predefined file with a link to a corresponding Blob, wherein the link is one of a hard-link and a soft-link.