HYPERVISOR AGNOSTIC INTERCHANGEABLE BACKUP RECOVERY AND FILE LEVEL RECOVERY FROM VIRTUAL DISKS

• US 20160070623A1
• Filed: 09/04/2014
• Published: 03/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Derk, David G., Edwards, Robert C. Jr., Hochberg, Avishai H., Hoobler, Delbert B. III, Smith, James P., Fruchtman, Michael S., Piletski, Vadzim L.
• Granted Patent: US 9,684,567 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• 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 3/0605 by facilitating the interaction with a user or administrator
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/067 Distributed or networked storage systems, e.g. storage area networks [SAN], network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for hypervisor agnostic interchangeable backup recovery and file level recovery from virtual disks. Data is stored for a first virtual disk that represents data in a first format and metadata for the first virtual disk in a common data format in a storage having a fixed block length. A virtual disk file represents data in a second format that allows variable size blocks. Multiple instances of the fixed block length of blocks of data for the second virtual disk indicated in the virtual disk file are read. Each instance of the read fixed block length of blocks is written to the storage in the common data format with metadata describing the format of the blocks in the second virtual disk, and can be restored to a third virtual disk in the first or second format.

Claims

1. A computer program product for storing data from virtual disks, wherein the computer program product comprises at least one computer readable storage medium including program instructions, wherein the program instructions when executed by a processor cause operations, the operations comprising:

storing data for a first virtual disk that represents data in a first format and metadata for the first virtual disk in a common data format in a storage, wherein the common data format stores blocks of data having a fixed block length;

processing a virtual disk file representing a second virtual disk, wherein the virtual disk file represents data in a second format that allows variable size blocks, wherein the second format is different from the first format used to represent the data for the first virtual disk and different from the common data format;

reading multiple instances of the fixed block length of blocks of data for the second virtual disk indicated in the virtual disk file;

for each instance of the fixed block length of blocks read, writing the instance of the read fixed block length of blocks to the storage in the common data format with metadata describing the format of the blocks in the second virtual disk; and

restoring the blocks in the common data format in the storage stored from the first virtual disk to a third virtual disk in the first or second format.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the restoring comprises:

processing the blocks in the common data format and the metadata from the second virtual disk file to restore the data blocks into a third virtual disk in the first format.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the restoring comprises:

processing the blocks in the common data format and the metadata from the second virtual disk file to restore the data blocks into a third virtual disk in the second format; and

generating a new virtual disk file providing information on the data blocks of the third virtual disk.

4. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the virtual disk file comprises a parent virtual disk file having information on all data in the second virtual disk as of an initial point-in-time, and wherein the operations further comprise:

processing a child virtual disk file in the second format having data for the second virtual disk as of an incremental point-in-time following the initial point-in-time;

wherein the reading of each instance of the fixed block length of blocks comprises;

determining whether the child virtual disk file has changed data for any of the blocks to read in the second virtual disk for the instance of the fixed block length of blocks between the initial and incremental point-in-times;

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the parent virtual disk file in response to determining that the child virtual disk file does not provide blocks for the fixed block length of blocks to read; and

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the child virtual disk file and as indicated in the parent virtual disk file for blocks of the instance of the fixed block length of blocks not indicated in the child virtual disk file.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise:

processing the metadata and the blocks in the common data format stored to restore the data blocks in the storage stored in the common data format to a third virtual disk; and

generating a new virtual disk file indicating the data in the third virtual disk in the second data format.

6. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the virtual disk file comprises a parent virtual disk file having information on all data in the first virtual disk as of an initial point-in-time, and wherein the operations further comprise:

processing a plurality of child virtual disk files in the second format having data for the second virtual disk represented by the parent virtual disk file at different incremental point-in-times;

wherein the reading of each instance of the fixed block length of blocks comprises;

determining whether at least one of the child virtual disk files has changed data for any of the blocks to read in the second virtual disk for the fixed length block of disks between the initial and incremental point-in-times;

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the parent virtual disk file in response to determining that the child virtual disk files do not provide blocks for the fixed block length of blocks to read; and

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the child virtual disk file providing data as of a most recent point-in-time and as indicated in the parent virtual disk file that are not indicated in one of the child virtual disk files.

7. The computer program product of claim 6, wherein the reads to the blocks indicated in the parent and child virtual disk files to access the data blocks to write to the storage in the common data format are for a fixed length of data used in the common data format, and wherein the data blocks for one block in the common data format are read from data blocks represented in the parent virtual disk file and the child virtual disk file when the child virtual disk file indicates changed data for a portion of the data block in the common data format.

8. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the fixed block length in the common data format has a different length than the variable sized blocks identified in the virtual disk file.

9. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the first and second virtual disk files in the first and second formats are used by different first and second hypervisors implementing virtual machines.

10. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

mounting the second virtual disk represented by the virtual disk file, wherein the reads are performed against the mounted second virtual disk and written to the storage in the command data format.

11. A system for storing data from virtual disks including a first virtual disk and a second virtual disk, comprising:

a processor; and

at least one computer readable storage medium including program instructions that when executed by the processor to cause operations, the operations comprising;

storing data for the first virtual disk that represents data in a first format and metadata for the first virtual disk in a common data format in a storage, wherein the common data format stores blocks of data having a fixed block length;

processing a virtual disk file representing the second virtual disk, wherein the virtual disk file represents data in a second format that allows variable size blocks, wherein the second format is different from the first format used to represent the data for the first virtual disk and different from the common data format;

reading multiple instances of the fixed block length of blocks of data for the second virtual disk indicated in the virtual disk file;

for each instance of the fixed block length of blocks read, writing the instance of the read fixed block length of blocks to the storage in the common data format with metadata describing the format of the blocks in the second virtual disk; and

restoring the blocks in the common data format in the storage stored from the first virtual disk to a third virtual disk in the first or second format.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the restoring comprises:

processing the blocks in the common data format and the metadata from the second virtual disk file to restore the data blocks into a third virtual disk in the second format; and

generating a new virtual disk file providing information on the data blocks of the third virtual disk.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the virtual disk file comprises a parent virtual disk file having information on all data in the second virtual disk as of an initial point-in-time, and wherein the operations further comprise:

processing a child virtual disk file in the second format having data for the second virtual disk as of an incremental point-in-time following the initial point-in-time;

wherein the reading of each instance of the fixed block length of blocks comprises;

determining whether the child virtual disk file has changed data for any of the blocks to read in the second virtual disk for the instance of the fixed block length of blocks between the initial and incremental point-in-times;

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the parent virtual disk file in response to determining that the child virtual disk file does not provide blocks for the fixed block length of blocks to read; and

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the child virtual disk file and as indicated in the parent virtual disk file for blocks of the instance of the fixed block length of blocks not indicated in the child virtual disk file.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the virtual disk file comprises a parent virtual disk file having information on all data in the first virtual disk as of an initial point-in-time, and wherein the operations further comprise:

processing a plurality of child virtual disk files in the second format having data for the second virtual disk represented by the parent virtual disk file at different incremental point-in-times;

wherein the reading of each instance of the fixed block length of blocks comprises;

determining whether at least one of the child virtual disk files has changed data for any of the blocks to read in the second virtual disk for the fixed length block of disks between the initial and incremental point-in-times;

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the parent virtual disk file in response to determining that the child virtual disk files do not provide blocks for the fixed block length of blocks to read; and

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the child virtual disk file providing data as of a most recent point-in-time and as indicated in the parent virtual disk file that are not indicated in one of the child virtual disk files.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the reads to the blocks indicated in the parent and child virtual disk files to access the data blocks to write to the storage in the common data format are for a fixed length of data used in the common data format, and wherein the data blocks for one block in the common data format are read from data blocks represented in the parent virtual disk file and the child virtual disk file when the child virtual disk file indicates changed data for a portion of the data block in the common data format.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the first and second virtual disk files in the first and second formats are used by different first and second hypervisors implementing virtual machines.

17. A method for storing data from virtual disks, comprising:

storing data for a first virtual disk that represents data in a first format and metadata for the first virtual disk in a common data format in a storage, wherein the common data format stores blocks of data having a fixed block length;

processing a virtual disk file representing a second virtual disk, wherein the virtual disk file represents data in a second format that allows variable size blocks, wherein the second format is different from the first format used to represent the data for the first virtual disk and different from the common data format;

reading multiple instances of the fixed block length of blocks of data for the second virtual disk indicated in the virtual disk file;

for each instance of the fixed block length of blocks read, writing the instance of the read fixed block length of blocks to the storage in the common data format with metadata describing the format of the blocks in the second virtual disk; and

restoring the blocks in the common data format in the storage stored from the first virtual disk to a third virtual disk in the first or second format.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the restoring comprises:

processing the blocks in the common data format and the metadata from the second virtual disk file to restore the data blocks into a third virtual disk in the second format; and

generating a new virtual disk file providing information on the data blocks of the third virtual disk.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the virtual disk file comprises a parent virtual disk file having information on all data in the second virtual disk as of an initial point-in-time, further comprising:

processing a child virtual disk file in the second format having data for the second virtual disk as of an incremental point-in-time following the initial point-in-time;

wherein the reading of each instance of the fixed block length of blocks comprises;

determining whether the child virtual disk file has changed data for any of the blocks to read in the second virtual disk for the instance of the fixed block length of blocks between the initial and incremental point-in-times;

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the parent virtual disk file in response to determining that the child virtual disk file does not provide blocks for the fixed block length of blocks to read; and

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the child virtual disk file and as indicated in the parent virtual disk file for blocks of the instance of the fixed block length of blocks not indicated in the child virtual disk file.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the virtual disk file comprises a parent virtual disk file having information on all data in the first virtual disk as of an initial point-in-time, further comprising:

processing a plurality of child virtual disk files in the second format having data for the second virtual disk represented by the parent virtual disk file at different incremental point-in-times;

wherein the reading of each instance of the fixed block length of blocks comprises;

determining whether at least one of the child virtual disk files has changed data for any of the blocks to read in the second virtual disk for the fixed length block of disks between the initial and incremental point-in-times;

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the parent virtual disk file in response to determining that the child virtual disk files do not provide blocks for the fixed block length of blocks to read; and

reading the fixed block length of blocks as indicated in the child virtual disk file providing data as of a most recent point-in-time and as indicated in the parent virtual disk file that are not indicated in one of the child virtual disk files.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the reads to the blocks indicated in the parent and child virtual disk files to access the data blocks to write to the storage in the common data format are for a fixed length of data used in the common data format, and wherein the data blocks for one block in the common data format are read from data blocks represented in the parent virtual disk file and the child virtual disk file when the child virtual disk file indicates changed data for a portion of the data block in the common data format.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein the first and second virtual disk files in the first and second formats are used by different first and second hypervisors implementing virtual machines.