Archiving virtual machines in a data storage system

• US 9,311,121 B2
• Filed: 03/11/2013
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Deshpande, Sumer Dilip, Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Venkatesha, Ananda, Sancheti, Ashwin Gautamchand
• Primary Examiner(s): Zhong, Ruolei
• Assistant Examiner(s): MUNDUR, PADMAVATHI V
• Application Number:
  US13/793,085
• Publication Number:
  US 20140181294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,128 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/113 Details of archiving lifecycle management in storage systems G06F3/0649; backup systems G06F11/1446
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45595 Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances
• 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 9/45533 Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5077 Logical partitioning of resources; Management or configuration of virtualized resources specific details on emulation or internal functioning of virtual machines G06F9/455

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.

Claims

1. A method of archiving virtual machines in a networked data storage system, comprising:

using one or more computing devices comprising one or more hardware processors coupled to memory;

monitoring usage of a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computing devices residing in a primary storage subsystem, the VM associated with one or more virtualization applications, wherein said monitoring is based on usage of resources associated with the VM and is performed according to a storage policy for archiving the VM;

determining whether to archive the VM based on the usage of the VM;

in response to determining that the VM should be archived, 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, the VM placeholder including information for restoring the VM from the one or more secondary storage devices; and

deleting the VM from the one or more primary storage devices, wherein the VM appears to be accessible to a user after being deleted from the one or more primary storage devices and is displayed as an active VM in a list of available VMs along with VMs that have not been archived, and wherein the placeholder is recognized as the VM by the virtualization applications,

wherein said determining whether to archive the VM, said copying the VM, and said deleting the VM occur during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said determining whether to archive the VM based on the usage of the VM comprises determining whether the usage of the VM is below a threshold level of activity.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising determining that the VM should be archived when the usage of the VM is below the threshold level of activity.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the resources associated with the VM include one or more of:

storage, central processing unit (CPU), memory, or network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM is obtained from one or more hypervisors associated with the one or more client computing devices.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM is obtained from a virtual center that manages and collects information from one or more hypervisors associated with the one or more client computing devices.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM is obtained during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising activating the VM when the user accesses the VM placeholder, wherein said activating the VM comprises restoring at least a portion of the VM from the secondary storage subsystem to the primary storage subsystem.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM include an event defined by a virtualization application.

9. A data storage system configured for archiving virtual machines, comprising:

one or more computing devices comprising one or more hardware processors coupled to memory, the one or more computing devices configured to;

monitor usage of a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computing devices residing in a primary storage subsystem, the VM associated with one or more virtualization applications, wherein the monitoring is based on usage of resources associated with the VM and is performed according to a storage policy for archiving the VM;

determine whether to archive the VM based on the usage of the VM;

in response to determining that the VM should be archived, using one or more secondary storage controller computers comprising computer hardware, copy 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;

create a VM placeholder for the VM on the one or more primary storage devices, the VM placeholder including information for restoring the VM from the one or more secondary storage devices; and

delete the VM from the one or more primary storage devices, wherein the VM appears to be accessible to a user after being deleted from the one or more primary storage devices and is displayed as an active VM in a list of available VMs along with VMs that have not been archived, and wherein the placeholder is recognized as the VM by the virtualization applications,

wherein the determination of whether to archive the VM, the copying of the VM, and the deletion of the VM occur during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the determination of whether to archive the VM based on the usage of the VM comprises determining whether the usage of the VM is below a threshold level of activity.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to determine that the VM should be archived when the usage of the VM is below the threshold level of activity.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the resources associated with the VM include one or more of:

storage usage, central processing unit (CPU), memory, or network.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM is obtained from one or more hypervisors associated with the one or more client computing devices.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM is obtained from a virtual center that manages and collects information from one or more hypervisors associated with the one or more client computing devices.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM is obtained during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to activate the VM when the user accesses the VM placeholder, wherein the activation of the VM comprises restoring at least a portion of the VM from the secondary storage subsystem to the primary storage subsystem.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein data relating to the usage of the VM include an event defined by a virtualization application.