Information management of virtual machines having mapped storage devices

• US 9,116,633 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Issued: 08/25/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Sancheti, Ashwin Gautamchand, Pawar, Rahul S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore, Reba I
• Application Number:
  US13/790,226
• Publication Number:
  US 20130262801A1
• Time in Patent Office: 900 Days
• Field of Search: 711/6, 711/203, 711/209, 707/640, 707/645, 707/649, 707/653, 707/661, 707/667, 707/674, 718/1, 718/104
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/12 Replacement control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/127 using additional replacement algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0683 Plurality of storage devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/455 Emulation; Interpretation; Software simulation, e.g. virtualisation or emulation of application or operating system execution engines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 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]

Abstract

Software, firmware, and systems are described herein that create and use a non-production copy of a virtual machine for reverting or restoring the virtual machine. The virtual machine is associated with an external storage device via a logical mapping. A snapshot is taken of a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine to create a snapshot copy of the virtual disk. A snapshot is taken of at least a portion of the mapped external storage device to create a snapshot copy of the mapped external storage device. The snapshot copy of the virtual disk is associated with the snapshot copy of the mapped external storage device. The snapshot copies can then be used to either revert or restore the virtual machine.

Claims

1. At least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions in a memory, which when executed by at least one data processing device perform a method for creating and using a backup copy of data and metadata of a virtual machine that has a mapped logical unit number, the method comprising:

discovering a virtual machine;

discovering a virtual disk for the virtual machine;

discovering a mapped logical unit number (LUN) for the virtual machine, wherein the LUN is a number used to identify a logical unit;

tracking the virtual machine, the virtual disk, and the mapped LUN in a data structure;

capturing a snapshot of the virtual disk,

wherein the snapshot is a set of pointers that reference data and metadata as the data and metadata existed at a particular point in time;

capturing a snapshot of the mapped LUN;

creating a backup copy of the virtual machine from the snapshot of the virtual disk or the snapshot of the mapped LUN; and

reverting or restoring the virtual machine using the backup copy of the virtual machine.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein creating the backup copy of the virtual machine comprises:

mounting the snapshot of the virtual disk onto a proxy virtual machine host;

retrieving an instance of the virtual machine from the mounted snapshot of the virtual disk;

mounting the snapshot of the mapped LUN for the discovered virtual machine onto the proxy virtual machine host;

reading data and metadata from the virtual disk and the mapped LUN of the instance of the virtual machine; and

creating non-production copy the virtual machine.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein reverting or restoring the virtual machine using the backup copy of the virtual machine comprises:

reverting the virtual machine using the snapshot of the virtual disk; and

reverting the mapped LUN using a previously acquired snapshot of the mapped LUN.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein reverting or restoring the virtual machine using the non-production copy of the virtual machine comprises:

identifying a location or identifiers of the non-production copy of the virtual disk for the virtual machine,

wherein the non-production copy of the virtual disk for the virtual machine includes backup or archive copies of the virtual disk stored in a non-production storage medium;

bringing up a new instance of the virtual machine using the non-production copy of the virtual disk of the virtual machine;

restoring the LUN that was previously associated with the virtual machine using the non-production copy of the LUN; and

mounting a restored LUN on the virtual machine.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein reverting or restoring the virtual machine using the backup copy of the virtual machine comprises:

bringing up a new instance of the virtual machine using the non-production copy of virtual disk of the virtual machine;

restoring an LUN that was previously associated with the virtual machine using the non-production copy of the LUN; and

mounting the restored LUN on the virtual machine;

wherein the restored LUN is mounted on the virtual machine via a virtual raw device mapping (RDM).

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein reverting or restoring the virtual machine using the backup copy comprises:

bringing up a new instance of the virtual machine using the non-production copy of the virtual disk of the virtual machine;

restoring an LUN that was previously associated with the virtual machine using the non-production copy of the LUN; and

mounting the restored LUN on the virtual machine.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the virtual machine is restored at a location different than an original location of the virtual machine.

8. A method for creating and using a backup copy of a virtual machine, the method being performed by a processor executing instructions stored in a memory, the method comprising:

determining that a virtual machine can directly read data and metadata from and write data and metadata to an external storage device via a logical mapping,

wherein the logical mapping includes a logical unit number (LUN),

wherein the LUN is used to identify a logical unit, and,

wherein the virtual machine has a virtual disk;

creating a snapshot of the virtual disk for the virtual machine;

wherein the snapshot is a set of pointers that reference data and metadata as the data and metadata existed at a particular point in time;

taking a snapshot of at least a portion of the mapped external storage device to create a snapshot copy of the mapped external storage device;

associating the snapshot copy of the virtual disk with the snapshot copy of the mapped external storage device in a data structure; and

using the snapshot copies to either revert or restore the virtual machine.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein using the snapshot copies to either revert or restore the virtual machine comprises:

reverting the virtual machine using the snapshot of the virtual disk;

reverting the mapped external storage device using a previously acquired snapshot of the mapped external storage device.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein using the snapshot copies to either revert or restore the virtual machine comprises:

identifying a location or identifiers of snapshot copies of the virtual disks of the virtual machine, wherein the snapshot copies of the virtual disks of the virtual machine include backup or archive copies of the virtual disks stored in a non-production storage medium;

bringing up a new instance of the virtual machine using snapshot copies of virtual disks of the virtual machine;

restoring mapped external storage devices that were previously associated with the virtual machine using snapshot copies of the mapped external storage devices; and

mounting each mapped external storage device on the virtual machine.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein using the snapshot copies to either revert or restore the virtual machine comprises:

bringing up a new instance of the virtual machine using snapshot copies of virtual disks of the virtual machine;

restoring mapped external storage devices that were previously associated with the virtual machine using snapshot copies of the mapped external storage devices; and

mounting each mapped external storage device on the virtual machine,

wherein each restored LUN is mounted on the virtual machine via a virtual raw device mapping (RDM).

12. The method of claim 8, wherein using the snapshot copies to either revert or restore the virtual machine comprises:

bringing up a new instance of the virtual machine using snapshot copies of virtual discs of the virtual machine;

restoring mapped external storage devices that were previously associated with the virtual machine using snapshot copies of the mapped external storage devices; and

mounting each mapped external storage device on the virtual machine.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the virtual machine is restored at a location different than an original location of the virtual machine.

14. At least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions in a memory, which when executed by at least one data processing device perform a method for creating a backup, copy of a virtual machine, comprising:

discovering a virtual machine;

discovering at least one virtual disk and a logical unit number (LUN) for the virtual machine,

wherein the LUN is a number used to identify a logical unit,

wherein the LUN is mapped to the virtual machine via a physical raw device mapping,

wherein physical raw device mapping (PRDM) allows the virtual machine to directly read data and metadata from and write data and metadata to a virtual storage device;

creating a tracking data structure that includes the virtual machine, the virtual disk, and the mapped LUN;

taking at least one snapshot of the virtual disk and at least one snapshot of the mapped LUN to create snapshot copies,

wherein the snapshot is a set of pointers that reference data and metadata as the data and metadata existed at a particular point in time

mounting the snapshot copies at a proxy virtual host; and

creating a non-production copy of the virtual machine from the proxy virtual host.

15. The at least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising using the snapshot copies to revert the virtual machine to an earlier state.

16. The at least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising using the additional non-production copy of the virtual machine to restore a new copy of the virtual machine at a location different than an original location of the virtual machine, wherein restoring a new copy of the virtual machine at a new location comprises restoring a mapped LUN using a backup copy of the mapped LUN.

17. The at least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, further comprising using the non-production copy of the virtual machine to restore a new copy of the virtual machine at a location different than an original location of the virtual machine.

18. The at least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein creating an additional non-production copy of the virtual machine comprises reading data out of the proxy virtual host using a virtualization software application programming interface.

19. The at least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the tracking data structure includes mount point information that indicates the drive location or drive identifier where each virtual disk or PRDM-mapped LUN is mounted within a file system of the virtual machine.

20. The at least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the discovering virtual machine, the virtual disk, and the mapped LUN includes crawling or spidering a network and accessing the data structure that tracks the virtual machine, the virtual disk, and the mapped LUN.