LIVE SYNCHRONIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF VIRTUAL MACHINES ACROSS COMPUTING AND VIRTUALIZATION PLATFORMS AND USING LIVE SYNCHRONIZATION TO SUPPORT DISASTER RECOVERY

• US 20170168903A1
• Filed: 11/30/2016
• Published: 06/15/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: DORNEMANN, Henry Wallace, NAGRALE, Ajay Venkat, VENKATESHA, Ananda, PAWAR, Rahul S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,228,962 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1446 Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2038 with a single idle spare processing component
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2048 where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2097 maintaining the standby controller/processing unit updated initialisation or re-synchronisation thereof G06F11/1658 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

An illustrative “Live Synchronization” feature in a data storage management system can reduce the downtime that arises in failover situations. The illustrative Live Sync embodiment uses backup data to create and maintain a ready (or “warm”) virtualized computing platform comprising one or more virtual machines (“VMs”) that are configured and ready to be activated and take over data processing from another data processing platform operating in the production environment. The “warm” computing platform awaits activation as a failover solution for the production system(s) and can be co-located at the production data center, or configured at a remote or disaster recovery site, which in some embodiments is configured “in the cloud.” Both local and remote illustrative embodiments are discussed herein. An “incremental forever” approach can be combined with deduplication and synthetic full backups to speed up data transfer and update the disaster recovery sites.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

backing up a first virtual machine into a first backup copy of the virtual machine stored to a first secondary storage device,

wherein the first virtual machine executes over a first hypervisor operating on a first virtual machine server,

wherein the first virtual machine accesses data that is stored in a primary storage device that is communicatively coupled with the first virtual machine server, and

wherein the first backup copy comprises, in a hypervisor-independent format, one or more configuration parameters of the first virtual machine;

configuring a second virtual machine, based on the one or more configuration parameters obtained from the first backup copy,

wherein the second virtual machine is configured over a second hypervisor operating on a second virtual machine server which is distinct from the first virtual machine server;

restoring the first backup copy to the second virtual machine, which is in communication with a primary storage device storing restored data in native format accessible to the second virtual machine; and

synchronizing the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine, comprising;

periodically backing up the first virtual machine to successive incremental backup copies comprising changes relative to a respective preceding backup copy of the first virtual machine, and

restoring each successive incremental backup copy to the second virtual machine, thereby making the second virtual machine ready to operate instead of the first virtual machine, based on the most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine restored to the second virtual machine.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first hypervisor is of a first type and the second hypervisor is of a different type;

and

wherein a data agent associated with the second virtual machine server converts the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format obtained from the first backup copy into a format suitable for the second hypervisor, thereby enabling the synchronizing to work across different types of hypervisors.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to detecting that the first virtual machine has failed, activating the second virtual machine by the second data agent; and

taking over by the second virtual machine instead of the first virtual machine, based on the most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine restored to the second virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the backing up operations are performed at least in part by a first data agent that is associated with the first virtual machine server;

and

wherein the restoring operations are performed at least in part by a second data agent that is associated with the second virtual machine server, and wherein the second data agent obtains the one or more configuration parameters from the first backup copy of the first virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the backing up operations are performed at least in part by a first data agent that is associated with the first virtual machine server;

and

wherein a second data agent that is associated with the second virtual machine server obtains the one or more configuration parameters from the first backup copy of the first virtual machine and;

(a) determines whether the first hypervisor is of the same type as the second hypervisor, (b) converts the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format into a format suitable for the second hypervisor, and (c) instructs the second virtual machine server to configure the second virtual machine according to the converted one or more configuration parameters.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the backing up operations are performed by a first data agent that is associated with the first virtual machine server and a first media agent associated with the first secondary storage device;

wherein the restoring operations are performed by a second data agent that is associated with the second virtual machine server and a second media agent associated with the second secondary storage device; and

wherein the second data agent obtains the one or more configuration parameters from the first backup copy of the first virtual machine and;

(a) determines whether the first hypervisor is of the same type as the second hypervisor, (b) converts the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format into a format suitable for the second hypervisor, and (c) instructs the second virtual machine server to configure the second virtual machine according to the converted one or more configuration parameters.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the backing up operations are performed by a first data agent that is associated with the first virtual machine server and a first media agent associated with the first secondary storage device;

wherein the restoring operations are performed by a second data agent that is associated with the second virtual machine server and a second media agent associated with the second secondary storage device; and

when the second media agent detects that restoring a first incremental backup copy has failed more than a threshold number of times, the second media agent, in conjunction with the second data agent, (a) restores a second incremental backup copy, which is older than the first incremental backup copy, to the second virtual machine, and (b) blocks any further restore operations to the second virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the backing up operations are performed at least in part by a first data agent that is associated with the first virtual machine server;

and

further comprising;

detecting, by a second data agent that is associated with the second virtual machine server, that a failure has occurred at the first virtual machine server; and

in response to the detecting, causing, by the second data agent, the second virtual machine to be activated and to take over instead of the first virtual machine, based on the most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine restored to the second virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

reverse synchronizing a backup copy of the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine, wherein the backup of the second virtual machine comprises changes generated by the second virtual machine when operating instead of the first virtual machine; and

after the reverse synchronizing, taking over by the first virtual machine instead of the second virtual machine, based on the backup copy of the second virtual machine restored to the first virtual machine.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

transmitting the first backup copy to a secondary storage computing device, which stores the first backup copy to a second secondary storage device; and

wherein the synchronizing of the second virtual machine further comprises;

transmitting each successive incremental backup copy to the secondary storage computing device, which stores the respective incremental backup copy to the second secondary storage device.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the second virtual machine server provides a cloud-based computing platform for the second virtual machine.

12. A method comprising:

backing up a first virtual machine into a first backup copy of the virtual machine stored to a first secondary storage device,

wherein the first virtual machine executes over a first hypervisor operating on a first virtual machine server,

wherein the first virtual machine accesses data that is stored in a primary storage device that is communicatively coupled with the first virtual machine server, and

wherein the first backup copy comprises, in a hypervisor-independent format, one or more configuration parameters of the first virtual machine;

transmitting the first backup copy to a secondary storage computing device, which stores the first backup copy to a second secondary storage device;

configuring a second virtual machine, based on the one or more configuration parameters obtained from the first backup copy,

wherein the second virtual machine is configured over a second hypervisor operating on a second virtual machine server which is distinct from the first virtual machine server;

restoring the first backup copy to the second virtual machine, which is in communication with a primary storage device storing restored data in native format accessible to the second virtual machine; and

synchronizing the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine, comprising;

periodically backing up the first virtual machine to successive incremental backup copies comprising changes relative to a preceding backup copy of the first virtual machine,

consolidating one or more of the successive incremental backup copies into a consolidated copy,

restoring the consolidated copy to the second virtual machine, thereby making the second virtual machine ready to operate instead of the first virtual machine, based on the most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine consolidated into the consolidated copy and restored to the second virtual machine.

13. A system for generating virtual machines from backups of source computing platforms, including physical computing devices and/or virtual machines, and maintaining the generated virtual machines synchronized with respective source computing platforms and ongoing backups thereof in preparation for failover from the source computing platforms, the system comprising:

a source computing platform executing a first set of applications and comprising a first data agent;

a primary storage device comprising data accessed by the first set of applications;

a secondary storage device for storing backup copies;

a destination computing platform (a) hosting a virtual machine and (b) comprising a second data agent;

wherein the first data agent is configured to;

back up the source computing platform, including the data that is accessed by the first set of applications, to the secondary storage device, wherein an initial backup is followed by subsequent incremental backups that comprise only changed data relative to an immediately preceding backup, and

wherein the initial backup generates a first backup copy that comprises, in a hypervisor-independent format, one or more configuration parameters of the source computing platform obtained by the first data agent and converted by the first data agent into the hypervisor-independent format;

wherein the second data agent is configured to;

convert the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format obtained from the first backup copy into a format suitable for a hypervisor executing on the destination computing platform,

generate the virtual machine from the initial backup copy based on the converted one or more configuration parameters,

keep the virtual machine synchronized to the source computing platform by restoring the first backup copy and the respective subsequent incremental backup copies to the virtual machine, and

when detecting that the first computing platform has failed, activate the virtual machine to begin executing instead of the first computing platform,

wherein a second set of applications corresponding to the first set of applications execute on the activated virtual machine.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the first data agent is configured to perform the backup operations in conjunction with a media agent associated with the secondary storage device.

15. The system of claim 13 wherein the second data agent is configured to perform the restore operations in conjunction with a media agent associated with the secondary storage device.

16. The system of claim 13 wherein the first data agent is configured to perform the backup operations in conjunction with a first media agent associated with the secondary storage device;

wherein the second data agent is configured to perform the backup operations in conjunction with a second media agent that receives the first backup copy and the subsequent incremental backup copies from the first media agent.

17. The system of claim 13 wherein the first data agent is configured to perform the backup operations in conjunction with a first media agent associated with the secondary storage device;

wherein the second data agent is configured to perform the restore operations in conjunction with a second media agent; and

wherein the first media agent is further configured to periodically consolidate a plurality of the incremental backup copies into a consolidated copy that is transmitted to the second media agent; and

wherein the respective subsequent incremental backup copies are restored to the virtual machine from the consolidated copy.

18. The system of claim 13 wherein the first computing platform is a second virtual machine hosted by a second hypervisor and the one or more configuration parameters are formatted independently of the second hypervisor.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the second virtual machine executes over and is managed by a first type of hypervisor and the virtual machine at the destination computing platform executes over and is managed by a second type of hypervisor that is different from the first type of hypervisor, thereby enabling synchronization between the source computing platform and the first virtual machine across virtualization platforms.

20. The system of claim 13 wherein the destination computing platform is implemented as a cloud resource.