EFFICIENT LIVE-MOUNT OF A BACKED UP VIRTUAL MACHINE IN A STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
First Claim
1. A system for restoring a backed up virtual machine for execution on a host computing device, based on pre-staging backed up data blocks to a media agent, the system comprising:
- the host computing device configured to execute the virtual machine based on a recovery point;
a secondary storage computing device in communication with the host computing device, wherein the secondary storage computing device comprises the media agent, a read-cache, and a shared file system that is configured as the recovery point for the virtual machine;
a secondary storage device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the secondary storage device comprises a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk;
a virtualization-client computing device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the virtualization-client computing device comprises a data agent; and
wherein the media agent is configured to;
receive the profile of the virtual machine from the data agent,determine a first set of data blocks to be copied from the backup copy, based on the profile of the virtual machine, andcopy the first set of data blocks from the backup copy to the read-cache; and
wherein a launch of execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device is based on the first set of data blocks served by the media agent via the recovery point.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The disclosed systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including any applications executing thereon, to quickly start executing and servicing users based on pre-staged data blocks supplied from a backup copy in secondary storage. Substantially concurrently with the ongoing execution of the virtual machine, a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation may move data blocks originating in the backup copy to a primary storage destination that becomes the virtual machine'"'"'s primary data store after the relocation operation completes. An enhanced data agent, operating in conjunction with an enhanced media agent in a storage management system, coordinates restoring of the virtual machine and the launch of the relocation operation. The enhanced media agent may pre-stage certain backed up data blocks which may be needed to launch the virtual machine, based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine'"'"'s operational profile. The enhanced media agent may also pre-stage backed up data blocks for the relocation operation, based on the operation'"'"'s relocation scheme. Servicing read requests to the virtual machine may take priority over ongoing pre-staging of backed up data. Read requests may be tracked so that the media agent may properly maintain the contents of an associated read cache. Some embodiments of the illustrative storage management system may lack, or may simply not require, the relocation operation, and may operate in a “live mount” configuration.
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Citations
12 Claims
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1. A system for restoring a backed up virtual machine for execution on a host computing device, based on pre-staging backed up data blocks to a media agent, the system comprising:
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the host computing device configured to execute the virtual machine based on a recovery point; a secondary storage computing device in communication with the host computing device, wherein the secondary storage computing device comprises the media agent, a read-cache, and a shared file system that is configured as the recovery point for the virtual machine; a secondary storage device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the secondary storage device comprises a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk; a virtualization-client computing device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the virtualization-client computing device comprises a data agent; and wherein the media agent is configured to; receive the profile of the virtual machine from the data agent, determine a first set of data blocks to be copied from the backup copy, based on the profile of the virtual machine, and copy the first set of data blocks from the backup copy to the read-cache; and wherein a launch of execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device is based on the first set of data blocks served by the media agent via the recovery point. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A system for restoring a backed up virtual machine for execution on a host computing device, based on pre-staging backed up data blocks to a media agent, the system comprising:
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the host computing device configured to execute the virtual machine based on a recovery point; a secondary storage computing device in communication with the host computing device, wherein the secondary storage computing device comprises the media agent, a read-cache, and a shared file system that is configured as the recovery point for the virtual machine; a secondary storage device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the secondary storage device comprises a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk; wherein the media agent is configured to; copy a first set of data blocks from the backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine to the read-cache, wherein the first set of data blocks is based on a profile of the virtual machine, wherein a launch of execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device is based on the first set of data blocks served by the media agent via the recovery point; and wherein the media agent is further configured to, during execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device; serve a read request for a data block to the virtual machine by;
(i) copying the requested data block from the backup copy to the read-cache if the requested data block is not found in the read-cache, and (ii) transmitting the requested data block from the read-cache, via the recovery point, in response to the read request. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for restoring a backed up virtual machine for execution on a host computing device, based on pre-staging backed up data blocks to a media agent component of a storage management system, the method comprising:
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prior to execution of the virtual machine, receiving, by the media agent from a data agent component of the storage management system, a profile of the virtual machine, wherein the media agent resides on a secondary storage computing device; determining, by the media agent, based on the profile of the virtual machine, a first set of data blocks to be copied from a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy is stored on a secondary storage device in communication with the media agent, and wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine; copying the first set of data blocks, by the media agent from the backup copy to a read-cache associated with the media agent on the secondary storage computing device; and launching execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device, based on the first set of data blocks, which set of blocks is served by the media agent from the read-cache. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12)
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Specification