HYPERVISOR-INDEPENDENT REFERENCE COPIES OF VIRTUAL MACHINE PAYLOAD DATA BASED ON BLOCK-LEVEL PSEUDO-MOUNT

• US 20180253361A1
• Filed: 02/20/2018
• Published: 09/06/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: DHATRAK, Vinit Dilip
• Granted Patent: US 10,740,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3034 where the computing system component is a storage system, e.g. DASD based or network based digital input from or digital output to record carriers G06F3/06; digital recording or reproducing G11B20/18; for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence
• 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 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

Hypervisor-independent reference copies of virtual machine payload data based on block-level pseudo-mount infrastructure and techniques are generated and stored in an illustrative data storage management system. An illustrative hypervisor-independent reference copy comprises one or more virtual-machine payload data files that originated from a first virtual machine. The hypervisor-independent virtual-machine-payload reference copy is governed by a distinct reference copy policy that controls retention, storage, tiering, scheduling, etc. for the reference copy, independently of how the illustrative system treats other virtual machine payload data files originating from the same virtual machine.

Claims

1. A method for generating a hypervisor-independent reference copy in a data storage management system, the method comprising:

generating a reference copy comprising one or more virtual-machine payload data files that originated from a first virtual machine,

wherein the generating is based on enumerating the one or more virtual-machine payload data files from a block-level backup copy of a virtual disk file associated with the first virtual machine;

wherein the generating comprises;

restoring each of the one or more virtual-machine payload data files from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk,

creating a file-level backup copy, in a backup format, of each respective restored virtual-machine payload data file, and

logically assembling the file-level backup copies created from the respective one or more restored virtual-machine payload data files into the reference copy; and

wherein the restoring, creating, and assembling are performed without a hypervisor, thereby generating the reference copy in a hypervisor-independent format.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the enumerating is based on determining that at least one source for the reference copy originated with a virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the enumerating is based on determining that at least one source for the reference copy originated with a virtual machine, thereby necessitating block-level pseudo-mounting of the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk file associated with the first virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the enumerating is enabled by block-level pseudo-mounting of the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk file associated with the first virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating is further based on block-level pseudo-mounting of the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk file associated with the first virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein a storage manager initiates the generating of the reference copy based on a reference-copy subclient that defines the one or more virtual-machine payload data files to be included in the reference copy.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a storage manager instructs a file-system data agent and a media agent to restore each of the one or more virtual-machine payload data files from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a storage manager initiates the generating of the reference copy based on parameters in a storage policy that comprises a rule for selecting the one or more virtual-machine payload data files to be included in the reference copy.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a storage policy comprises a rule for selecting the one or more virtual-machine payload data files to be included in the reference copy.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the reference copy protects the one or more virtual-machine payload data files restored from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk independently of how the data storage management system manages other data in the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk and also independently of how the data storage management system manages metadata associated with the first virtual machine from which the virtual disk originated.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the reference copy protects the one or more virtual-machine payload data files restored from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk independently of how the data storage management system manages other data in the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk, including metadata associated with the first virtual machine from which the virtual disk originated.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the reference copy does not depend upon a continued operation of the first virtual machine that created the virtual-machine payload data files, or upon a later re-activation of a virtual machine to access the virtual-machine payload data files in the reference copy.

13. A method for generating a hypervisor-independent reference copy in a data storage management system, the method comprising:

generating a hypervisor-independent reference copy comprising one or more virtual-machine payload data files that originated from a first virtual machine,

wherein the generating is based on block-level pseudo-mounting of a block-level backup copy of a virtual disk file associated with the first virtual machine;

wherein the generating comprises;

restoring each of the one or more virtual-machine payload data files from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk,

creating a file-level backup copy, in a backup format, of each respective restored virtual-machine payload data file, and

logically assembling the file-level backup copies created from the respective one or more restored virtual-machine payload data files into the reference copy; and

wherein the restoring, creating, and assembling operations are performed without a hypervisor, thereby generating the reference copy in a hypervisor-independent format.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the generating is further based on enumerating the one or more virtual-machine payload data files from the pseudo-mounted block-level backup copy of the virtual disk file associated with the first virtual machine.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the pseudo-mounting is based on determining that at least one source for the reference copy originated with a virtual machine.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein a storage manager initiates the generating of the reference copy based on a reference-copy subclient that defines the one or more virtual-machine payload data files to be included in the reference copy.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein a storage manager initiates the generating of the reference copy based on parameters in a storage policy that comprises a rule for selecting the one or more virtual-machine payload data files to be included in the reference copy.

18. A data storage management system comprising:

one or more computing devices, comprising one or more respective processors and corresponding computer-readable memory,

configured to generate a reference copy comprising one or more virtual-machine payload data files that originated from a first virtual machine,

wherein the reference copy is generated based on enumerating the one or more virtual-machine payload data files from a block-level backup copy of a virtual disk file associated with the first virtual machine; and

wherein a first one of the computing devices is configured to, without using a hypervisor;

restore each of the one or more virtual-machine payload data files from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk,

create a file-level backup copy, in a backup format, of each respective restored virtual-machine payload data file, and

assemble the file-level backup copies created from the respective one or more restored virtual-machine payload data files into the reference copy,

thereby generating the reference copy that is hypervisor-independent.

19. The data storage management system of claim 18, wherein the reference copy protects the one or more virtual-machine payload data files restored from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk independently of how the data storage management system manages other data in the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk.

20. The data storage management system of claim 18, wherein the reference copy protects the one or more virtual-machine payload data files restored from the block-level backup copy of the virtual disk independently of how the data storage management system manages metadata associated with the first virtual machine from which the virtual disk originated.