System and method for incremental virtual machine backup using storage system functionality
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
- receiving at a storage system a virtual machine (VM) snapshot from a host system, the snapshot representing a consistent state of a VM hosted by the host system, wherein the storage system is communicatively coupled to the host system over a storage network, wherein the VM snapshot was captured by a virtual machine monitor (VM) in response to a first request received from a backup application server via a VMM application programming interface (API) over a network, and wherein the VMM manages a plurality of VMs within the host system;
storing the VM snapshot in a persistent storage device of the storage system as a VM disk image file;
receiving a second request at the storage system for an incremental backup of the VM from the backup application server over the network, the second request including a VM identifier identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM;
in response to the second request, identifying by backup logic of the storage system the VM disk image file corresponding to the requested VM disk image from the persistent storage device based on the VM identifier;
determining, by a disk change tracker of the storage system, a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup; and
transmitting, by the backup logic of the storage system, changes between the requested VM disk image and the previous VM disk image to a target backup storage system directly without going through the backup application server, wherein the backup application server is a separate server for managing backup of a plurality of storage systems over the network.
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Abstract
Techniques for virtual machine incremental backup are described herein. According to one embodiment, a request for an incremental backing up a virtual machine (VM) is received at a storage system, the request identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM. The storage system determines a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup. The changes between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image are then transmitted to a target backup storage system.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
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receiving at a storage system a virtual machine (VM) snapshot from a host system, the snapshot representing a consistent state of a VM hosted by the host system, wherein the storage system is communicatively coupled to the host system over a storage network, wherein the VM snapshot was captured by a virtual machine monitor (VM) in response to a first request received from a backup application server via a VMM application programming interface (API) over a network, and wherein the VMM manages a plurality of VMs within the host system; storing the VM snapshot in a persistent storage device of the storage system as a VM disk image file; receiving a second request at the storage system for an incremental backup of the VM from the backup application server over the network, the second request including a VM identifier identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM; in response to the second request, identifying by backup logic of the storage system the VM disk image file corresponding to the requested VM disk image from the persistent storage device based on the VM identifier; determining, by a disk change tracker of the storage system, a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup; and transmitting, by the backup logic of the storage system, changes between the requested VM disk image and the previous VM disk image to a target backup storage system directly without going through the backup application server, wherein the backup application server is a separate server for managing backup of a plurality of storage systems over the network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
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receiving at a storage system a virtual machine (VM) snapshot from a host system, the snapshot representing a consistent state of a VM hosted by the host system, wherein the storage system is communicatively coupled to the host system over a storage network, wherein the VM snapshot was captured by a virtual machine monitor (VM) in response to a first request received from a backup application server via a VMM application programming interface (API) over a network, and wherein the VMM manages a plurality of VMs within the host system; storing the VM snapshot in a persistent storage device of the storage system as a VM disk image file; receiving a second request at the storage system for an incremental backup of the VM from the backup application server over the network network, the second request including a VM identifier identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM; in response to the second request, identifying by backup logic of the storage system the VM disk image file corresponding to the requested VM disk image from the persistent storage device based on the VM identifier; determining, by a disk change tracker of the storage system, a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup; and transmitting, by the backup logic of the storage system, changes between the requested VM disk image and the previous VM disk image to a target backup storage system directly without going through the backup application server, wherein the backup application server is a separate server for managing backup of a plurality of storage systems over the network. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A storage system, comprising:
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a processor; a persistent storage device; a backup logic executed by the processor configured to receive a virtual machine (VM) snapshot front a host system, the snapshot representing a consistent state of a VM hosted by the host system, wherein the storage system is communicatively coupled to the host system over a storage network, wherein the VM snapshot was captured by a virtual machine monitor (VMM) in response to a first request received from a backup application server via a VMM application programming interface (API) over a network, and wherein the VMM manages a plurality of VMs within the host system, store the VM snapshot in a persistent storage device of the storage system as a VM disk image file, receive a second request for an incremental backup of the VM from the backup application server over the network, the second request including a VM identifier identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM; and in response to the second request, identify by the VM disk image file corresponding to the requested VM disk image from the persistent storage device based on the VM identifier; and a disk tracker executed by the processor to determine a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup; and wherein the backup logic is to transmit changes between the requested VM disk image and the previous VM disk image to a target backup storage system directly without going through the backup application server. wherein the backup application server is a separate server for managing backup of a plurality of storage systems over the network. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification