Generic process for determining child to parent inheritance for fast provisioned or linked clone virtual machines
First Claim
1. A method for backing up virtual machine (VM) data, the method comprising:
- in response to a request to back up a first VM of a first storage system, determining a disk layout of a VM disk associated with the first VM to be backed up, the disk layout having a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding one of a plurality of VMs of the VM disk;
traversing the disk layout to derive a first storage location of a first VM configuration data of the first VM and to derive a second storage location of a second VM configuration data associated with a second VM, wherein the second VM is a parent VM to the first VM represented in the hierarchical structure;
identifying a first VM snapshot from the first configuration data and a second VM snapshot from the second configuration data;
determining a list of changed blocks representing data blocks that are different between the first VM snapshot and the second VM snapshot; and
backing up the data blocks identified in the list of changed blocks from the first storage system to a second storage system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for backing up virtual machine (VM) data is described, and includes, in response to a request to back up a first VM of a first storage system, determining a disk layout of a VM disk associated with the first VM, the disk layout having nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding to a VM. The method includes traversing the disk layout to derive a first storage location of a first VM configuration data of the first VM and a second storage location of a second VM configuration data associated with a second VM that is a parent VM to the first VM, identifying a first VM snapshot from the first configuration data and a second VM snapshot from the second configuration data, determining a list of changed blocks representing data blocks that are different between the first and second VM snapshots, and backing up the changed blocks.
45 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for backing up virtual machine (VM) data, the method comprising:
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in response to a request to back up a first VM of a first storage system, determining a disk layout of a VM disk associated with the first VM to be backed up, the disk layout having a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding one of a plurality of VMs of the VM disk; traversing the disk layout to derive a first storage location of a first VM configuration data of the first VM and to derive a second storage location of a second VM configuration data associated with a second VM, wherein the second VM is a parent VM to the first VM represented in the hierarchical structure; identifying a first VM snapshot from the first configuration data and a second VM snapshot from the second configuration data; determining a list of changed blocks representing data blocks that are different between the first VM snapshot and the second VM snapshot; and backing up the data blocks identified in the list of changed blocks from the first storage system to a second storage system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer instructions stored therein for backing up virtual machine (VM) data, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
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in response to a request to back up a first VM of a first storage system, determining a disk layout of a VM disk associated with the first VM to be backed up, the disk layout having a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding one of a plurality of VMs of the VM disk; traversing the disk layout to derive a first storage location of a first VM configuration data of the first VM and to derive a second storage location of a second VM configuration data associated with a second VM, wherein the second VM is a parent VM to the first VM represented in the hierarchical structure; identifying a first VM snapshot from the first configuration data and a second VM snapshot from the second configuration data; determining a list of changed blocks representing data blocks that are different between the first VM snapshot and the second VM snapshot; and backing up the data blocks identified in the list of changed blocks from the first storage system to a second storage system. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A system for backing up virtual machine (VM) data, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor for storing instructions which when executed from the memory, cause the processor to; in response to a request to back up a first VM of a first storage system, determine a disk layout of a VM disk associated with the first VM to be backed up, the disk layout having a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding one of a plurality of VMs of the VM disk; traverse the disk layout to derive a first storage location of a first VM configuration data of the first VM and to derive a second storage location of a second VM configuration data associated with a second VM, wherein the second VM is a parent VM to the first VM represented in the hierarchical structure; identify a first VM snapshot from the first configuration data and a second VM snapshot from the second configuration data; determine a list of changed blocks representing data blocks that are different between the first VM snapshot and the second VM snapshot; and back up the data blocks identified in the list of changed blocks from the first storage system to a second storage system. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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Specification