Archiving virtual machines in a data storage system
First Claim
1. A method of archiving virtual machines in a networked data storage system, comprising:
- using one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware;
monitoring usage of a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computing devices in a primary storage subsystem, the VM associated with a virtualization application, wherein said monitoring is based at least in part on usage of resources associated with the VM, the resources including one or more of;
central processing unit (CPU), memory, storage, or network, and wherein said monitoring is performed according to a storage policy indicating a threshold resource usage value for archiving the VM;
in response to determining that the usage of the VM is less than or equal to the threshold resource usage value, using one or more secondary storage controller computers comprising computer hardware, copying the VM from one or more primary storage devices residing in the primary storage subsystem to one or more secondary storage devices residing in a secondary storage subsystem to create a secondary copy of the VM;
creating a VM placeholder for the VM on the one or more primary storage devices; and
deleting the VM from the one or more primary storage devices,wherein, subsequent to the deletion of the VM, the VM placeholder is recognized as the VM by the virtualization application and the secondary copy of the VM is accessed using the VM placeholder, andwherein said monitoring usage of a VM, said copying the VM, said creating the VM placeholder, and said deleting the VM occur during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The data storage system according to certain aspects can manage the archiving of virtual machines to (and restoring of virtual machines from) secondary storage. The system can determine whether to archive virtual machines based on usage data or information. The usage information may include storage usage, CPU usage, memory usage, network usage, events defined by a virtual machine software or application, etc. The system may archive virtual machines that are determined to have a low level of utilization. For example, a virtual machine can be archived when its usage level falls below a threshold level. The system may create a virtual machine placeholder for an archived virtual machine, which may be a “light” or minimal version of the virtual machine that acts as if it is the actual virtual machine. By using a virtual machine placeholder, a virtual machine may appear to be active and selectable by the user.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method of archiving virtual machines in a networked data storage system, comprising:
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using one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware; monitoring usage of a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computing devices in a primary storage subsystem, the VM associated with a virtualization application, wherein said monitoring is based at least in part on usage of resources associated with the VM, the resources including one or more of;
central processing unit (CPU), memory, storage, or network, and wherein said monitoring is performed according to a storage policy indicating a threshold resource usage value for archiving the VM;in response to determining that the usage of the VM is less than or equal to the threshold resource usage value, using one or more secondary storage controller computers comprising computer hardware, copying the VM from one or more primary storage devices residing in the primary storage subsystem to one or more secondary storage devices residing in a secondary storage subsystem to create a secondary copy of the VM; creating a VM placeholder for the VM on the one or more primary storage devices; and deleting the VM from the one or more primary storage devices, wherein, subsequent to the deletion of the VM, the VM placeholder is recognized as the VM by the virtualization application and the secondary copy of the VM is accessed using the VM placeholder, and wherein said monitoring usage of a VM, said copying the VM, said creating the VM placeholder, and said deleting the VM occur during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A data storage system configured for archiving virtual machines, comprising:
one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware configured to; monitor usage of a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computing devices in a primary storage subsystem, the VM associated with a virtualization application, wherein said monitoring is based at least in part on usage of resources associated with the VM, the resources including one or more of;
central processing unit (CPU), memory, storage, or network, and wherein the monitoring is performed according to a storage policy indicating a threshold resource usage value for archiving the VM;in response to determining that usage of the VM is less than or equal to the threshold resource usage value, using one or more secondary storage controller computers comprising computer hardware, copy the VM from the one or more primary storage devices residing in the primary storage subsystem to one or more secondary storage devices residing in a secondary storage subsystem to create a secondary copy of the VM; create a VM placeholder for the VM on the one or more primary storage devices; and delete the VM from the one or more primary storage devices, wherein, subsequent to the deletion of the VM, the VM placeholder is recognized as the VM by the virtualization application and the secondary copy of the VM is accessed using the VM placeholder, and wherein the monitoring of the usage of the VM, the copying of the VM, the creation of the VM placeholder, and the deletion of the VM occur during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
Specification