VIRTUAL MACHINE RECOVERY POINT GENERATION

• US 20180276085A1
• Filed: 03/16/2018
• Published: 09/27/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/2017
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: MITKAR, Amit, EROFEEV, Andrei, AUSARKAR, Amit Bhaskar, NAGRALE, Ajay Venkat
• Application Number:
  US15/923,979
• Publication Number:
  US 20180276085A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• 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 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• 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 11/324 Display of status information
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/162 Delete operations erasing in storage systems G06F3/0652
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/164 File meta data generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1734 Details of monitoring file system events, e.g. by the use of hooks, filter drivers, logs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/21 Design, administration or maintenance of databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• 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 2201/82 Solving problems relating to consistency ensuring consistency in mirrored systems G06F11/2064
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/064 : Management of blocks
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 : Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0656 : Data buffering arrangements
• 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

Recovery points can be used for replicating a virtual machine and reverting the virtual machine to a different state. A filter driver can monitor and capture input/output commands between a virtual machine and a virtual machine disk. The captured input/output commands can be used to create a recovery point. The recovery point can be associated with a bitmap that may be used to identify data blocks that have been modified between two versions of the virtual machine. Using this bitmap, a virtual machine may be reverted or restored to a different state by replacing modified data blocks and without replacing the entire virtual machine disk.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of generating a recovery point of a virtual machine, the computer-implemented method comprising:

as implemented by a media agent within a computing system comprising one or more hardware processors and configured with specific computer-executable instructions,

generating a first bitmap representing a set of data blocks of a virtual machine disk of a virtual machine;

receiving a first modified data block within a first recovery point time period, the first modified data block modified relative to a first data block of a backed up copy of the virtual machine disk stored at a secondary storage device;

storing the first modified data block at the secondary storage device;

updating a first portion of the first bitmap corresponding to the first data block to indicate that the first modified data block exists at the secondary storage device; and

responsive to the first recovery point time period elapsing, completing creation of a first recovery point, the first recovery point corresponding to the first bitmap.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second modified data block within the first recovery point time period, the second modified data block modified relative to a second data block of the backed up copy of the virtual machine disk;

storing the second modified data block; and

updating a second portion of the first bitmap corresponding to the second data block.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the second modified data block is stored at a different secondary storage device than the first modified data block.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second modified data block within a second recovery point time period;

generating a second bitmap representing the set of data blocks of the virtual machine disk;

storing the second modified data block; and

updating a portion of the second bitmap corresponding to the second modified data block.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the second recovery point time period is subsequent to the first recovery point time period, and wherein the second bitmap includes an indication that the first modified data block exists at the secondary storage device and that the second modified data block exists at one of the secondary storage device or a different secondary storage device.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein completing creation of the first recovery point comprises storing the first bitmap at a recovery point index repository on a secondary storage computing system.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the updating the first portion of the first bitmap comprises storing at the first portion of the first bitmap a storage location within the secondary storage device of the first modified data block.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first modified data block is received from a filter driver that captures input/output commands communicated between the virtual machine and the virtual machine disk.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second modified data block within the first recovery point time period, the second modified data block corresponding to the first data block of the backed up copy of the virtual machine disk;

storing the second modified data block at one of the secondary storage device or different secondary storage device; and

updating the first portion of the first bitmap corresponding to the first data block to indicate that the second modified data block exists at the one of the secondary storage device or the different secondary storage device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising providing the first modified data block to a replication server hosting a replica virtual machine corresponding to the virtual machine.

11. A system for generating a recovery point of a virtual machine, the system comprising:

a media agent implemented in computer hardware, the media agent configured to;

generate a first bitmap representing a set of data blocks of a virtual machine disk of a virtual machine;

receive a first modified data block within a first recovery point time period, the first modified data block modified relative to a first data block of a backed up copy of the virtual machine disk stored at a secondary storage device;

store the first modified data block at the secondary storage device;

update a first portion of the first bitmap corresponding to the first data block to indicate that the first modified data block exists at the secondary storage device; and

responsive to the first recovery point time period elapsing, complete creation of a first recovery point, the first recovery point corresponding to the first bitmap.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the media agent is further configured to:

receive a second modified data block within the first recovery point time period, the second modified data block modified relative to a second data block of the backed up copy of the virtual machine disk;

store the second modified data block; and

update a second portion of the first bitmap corresponding to the second data block.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the second modified data block is stored at a different secondary storage device than the first modified data block.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the media agent is further configured to:

receive a second modified data block within a second recovery point time period;

generate a second bitmap representing the set of data blocks of the virtual machine disk;

store the second modified data block; and

update a portion of the second bitmap corresponding to the second modified data block.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the second recovery point time period is subsequent to the first recovery point time period, and wherein the second bitmap includes an indication that the first modified data block exists at the secondary storage device and that the second modified data block exists at one of the secondary storage device or a different secondary storage device.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the media agent is further configured to complete creation of the first recovery point by storing the first bitmap at a recovery point index repository on a secondary storage computing system.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the media agent is further configured to update the first portion of the first bitmap by storing at the first portion of the first bitmap a storage location within the secondary storage device of the first modified data block.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein the first modified data block is received from a filter driver that captures input/output commands communicated between the virtual machine and the virtual machine disk.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the media agent is further configured to:

receive a second modified data block within the first recovery point time period, the second modified data block corresponding to the first data block of the backed up copy of the virtual machine disk;

store the second modified data block at one of the secondary storage device or different secondary storage device; and

update the first portion of the first bitmap corresponding to the first data block to indicate that the second modified data block exists at the one of the secondary storage device or the different secondary storage device.

20. The system of claim 11, wherein the media agent is further configured to provide the first modified data block to a replication server hosting a replica virtual machine corresponding to the virtual machine.