SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PREDICTIVE BACKUP IN A DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENT

• US 20200133802A1
• Filed: 10/26/2018
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Inventors: Srinivasan, Sharath Talkad, Rao, Mahesh
• Granted Patent: US 10,754,739 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1461 Backup scheduling policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1464 for networked environments
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/81 Threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A production host for hosting virtual machines includes a persistent storage and a production agent. The persistent storage stores virtual machine data of the virtual machines. The production agent obtains a dynamic backup generation rule for the virtual machines; for a predetermined period of time after obtaining the dynamic backup generate rule: generates first backups of the virtual machines based on the dynamic backup generate rule; and identifies a change rate of the virtual machine data; after the predetermined period of time, obtain a prediction-based backup generation rule that is based on the change rate of the virtual machine data over the predetermined period of time; and generates second backups of the virtual machines based on the prediction-based backup generation rule.

Claims

1. A production host for hosting virtual machines, comprising:

a persistent storage that stores virtual machine data of the virtual machines; and

a production agent programmed to;

obtain a dynamic backup generation rule for the virtual machines;

for a predetermined period of time after obtaining the dynamic backup generate rule;

generate first backups of the virtual machines based on the dynamic backup generate rule; and

identify a change rate of the virtual machine data;

after the predetermined period of time, obtain a prediction-based backup generation rule that is based on the change rate of the virtual machine data over the predetermined period of time; and

generate second backups of the virtual machines based on the prediction-based backup generation rule.

2. The production host of claim 1, wherein the dynamic backup generation rule specifies that the first backups of the virtual machines are generated in response to changes in the virtual machine data exceeding a threshold.

3. The production host of claim 2, wherein the threshold is specified on a per virtual machine of the virtual machines basis.

4. The production host of claim 1, wherein the prediction-based backup generation rule specifies that the second backups of the virtual machines are generated at predetermined points in time.

5. The production host of claim 1, wherein the first backups of the virtual machines are not generated at predetermined points in time.

6. The production host of claim 1, wherein the production agent is further programmed to:

during the predetermined period of time;

send the change rate of the virtual machine data to a remote agent.

7. The production host of claim 6, wherein the prediction-based backup generation rule is obtained from the remote agent.

8. A method for hosting virtual machines, comprising:

obtaining a dynamic backup generation rule for the virtual machines;

for a predetermined period of time after obtaining the dynamic backup generate rule;

generating first backups of the virtual machines based on the dynamic backup generate rule; and

identifying a change rate of virtual machine data of the virtual machines;

after the predetermined period of time, obtaining a prediction-based backup generation rule that is based on the change rate of the virtual machine data over the predetermined period of time; and

generating second backups of the virtual machines based on the prediction-based backup generation rule.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the dynamic backup generation rule specifies that the first backups of the virtual machines are generated in response to changes in the virtual machine data exceeding a threshold.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the threshold is specified on a per virtual machine of the virtual machines basis.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the prediction-based backup generation rule specifies that the second backups of the virtual machines are generated at predetermined points in time.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the first backups of the virtual machines are not generated at predetermined points in time.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

during the predetermined period of time;

sending the change rate of the virtual machine data to a remote agent.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the prediction-based backup generation rule is obtained from the remote agent.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code, which when executed by a computer processor enables the computer processor to perform a method for hosting virtual machines, the method comprising:

obtaining a dynamic backup generation rule for the virtual machines;

for a predetermined period of time after obtaining the dynamic backup generate rule;

generating first backups of the virtual machines based on the dynamic backup generate rule; and

identifying a change rate of virtual machine data of the virtual machines;

after the predetermined period of time, obtaining a prediction-based backup generation rule that is based on the change rate of the virtual machine data over the predetermined period of time; and

generating second backups of the virtual machines based on the prediction-based backup generation rule.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the dynamic backup generation rule specifies that the first backups of the virtual machines are generated in response to changes in the virtual machine data exceeding a threshold.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the threshold is specified on a per virtual machine of the virtual machines basis.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the prediction-based backup generation rule specifies that the second backups of the virtual machines are generated at predetermined points in time.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first backups of the virtual machines are not generated at predetermined points in time.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

during the predetermined period of time;

sending the change rate of the virtual machine data to a remote agent.