Systems and methods to process block-level backup for selective file restoration for virtual machines
First Claim
1. A method to process block-level data protection of virtual machine files for selective file-level restoration in a data management system, the method comprising:
- automatically identifying, with a storage manager in a first computing device comprising computer hardware, an information store comprising virtual files associated with a virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is associated with a media agent in a second computing device comprising computer hardware, and a host operating system having a file allocation table (FAT) comprising file information for each virtual file within the information store;
automatically transferring, with the media agent, blocks of data comprising the virtual files from the information store to a secondary storage device during a block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine to create transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device;
automatically updating, with the media agent, a file index associating a location of a corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device;
accessing, with the media agent, the file information in the FAT of the host operating system during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine; and
automatically associating in the file index, with the media agent, the file information associated with each block of data that was transferred from the information store during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine with the location of the corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device;
wherein, using the file index to locate the transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that comprise at least a portion of the selected virtual file, the media agent restores one or more transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that are associated with the at least a portion of the selected virtual file without restoring transferred blocks of data associated with other than the selected virtual file; and
wherein, using the file index to locate the at least a portion of the selected virtual file in the restored one or more blocks of data, the media agent recreates the selected virtual file from the restored one or more blocks of data.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A data storage system protects virtual machines using block-level backup operations and restores the data at a file level. The system accesses the virtual machine file information from the file allocation table of the host system underlying the virtualization layer. A file index associates this virtual machine file information with the related protected blocks in a secondary storage device during the block-level backup. Using the file index, the system can identify the specific blocks in the secondary storage device associated with a selected restore file. As a result, file level granularity for restore operations is possible for virtual machine data protected by block-level backup operations without restoring more than the selected file blocks from the block-level backup data.
415 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method to process block-level data protection of virtual machine files for selective file-level restoration in a data management system, the method comprising:
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automatically identifying, with a storage manager in a first computing device comprising computer hardware, an information store comprising virtual files associated with a virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is associated with a media agent in a second computing device comprising computer hardware, and a host operating system having a file allocation table (FAT) comprising file information for each virtual file within the information store; automatically transferring, with the media agent, blocks of data comprising the virtual files from the information store to a secondary storage device during a block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine to create transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device; automatically updating, with the media agent, a file index associating a location of a corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device; accessing, with the media agent, the file information in the FAT of the host operating system during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine; and automatically associating in the file index, with the media agent, the file information associated with each block of data that was transferred from the information store during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine with the location of the corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device; wherein, using the file index to locate the transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that comprise at least a portion of the selected virtual file, the media agent restores one or more transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that are associated with the at least a portion of the selected virtual file without restoring transferred blocks of data associated with other than the selected virtual file; and wherein, using the file index to locate the at least a portion of the selected virtual file in the restored one or more blocks of data, the media agent recreates the selected virtual file from the restored one or more blocks of data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system to process block-level data protection of virtual machine files for selective file-level restoration in a data management system, the system comprising:
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a storage manager in a first computing system comprising computer hardware configured to automatically identify an information store comprising virtual files associated with a virtual machine, wherein the virtual machine is associated with a media agent in a second computing device comprising computer hardware, and a host operating system having a file allocation table (FAT) comprising file information for each virtual file within the information store; the media agent configured to automatically transfer blocks of data comprising the virtual files from the information store to a secondary storage device during a block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine to create transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device; the media agent further configured to automatically update a file index associating a location of a corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device; the media agent further configured to access the file information in the FAT of the host operating system during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine; and the media agent further configured to automatically associate in the file index the file information associated with each block of data that was transferred from the information store during the block-level data protection operation of the virtual machine with the location of the corresponding transferred block of data in the secondary storage device; wherein, using the file index to locate the transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that comprise at least a portion of the selected virtual file, the media agent is further configured to restore one or more transferred blocks of data in the secondary storage device that are associated with the at least a portion of the selected virtual file without restoring transferred blocks of data associated with other than the selected virtual file; and wherein, using the file index to locate the at least a portion of the selected virtual file in the restored one or more blocks of data, the media agent is further configured to recreate the selected virtual file from the restored one or more blocks of data. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification