Creating host-level application-consistent backups of virtual machines
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method of producing a backup of virtual machine data, the method comprising:
- creating a first snapshot of a host volume associated with a host system, the host volume comprising host data and virtual machine data, wherein the virtual machine data is associated with a virtual machine running on the host system;
causing the virtual machine to produce a second snapshot, the second snapshot comprising data from an application running on the virtual machine;
causing the application to write data to the second snapshot, wherein the data is consistent with a current state of the application, the current state comprising in-memory data of the application; and
updating a portion of the first snapshot of the host volume with the second snapshot, the portion associated with the data from the application.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A host server hosting one or more virtual machines can back up host volumes and the one or more virtual machines installed thereon in an application-consistent manner. In one implementation, a host-level requestor instructs a host-level writer to identify which virtual machines qualify for application-consistent backups. The host-level requestor then instructs the host-level writer to initiate virtual machine backups through guest-level requesters in each appropriately-configured virtual machine, wherein the virtual machines create application-consistent backups within the virtual machine volumes. The host-level requester then initiates snapshots of the server volumes on the host-level. The virtual machine-level snapshots can thus be retrieved from within the host-level snapshots of the server volumes.
-
Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A computer-implemented method of producing a backup of virtual machine data, the method comprising:
-
creating a first snapshot of a host volume associated with a host system, the host volume comprising host data and virtual machine data, wherein the virtual machine data is associated with a virtual machine running on the host system; causing the virtual machine to produce a second snapshot, the second snapshot comprising data from an application running on the virtual machine; causing the application to write data to the second snapshot, wherein the data is consistent with a current state of the application, the current state comprising in-memory data of the application; and updating a portion of the first snapshot of the host volume with the second snapshot, the portion associated with the data from the application. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A computer readable storage device, having stored thereon computer instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to at least:
-
cause a first backup process to produce a first backup of a host volume comprising host data and virtual machine volume data, the virtual machine volume data corresponding to a virtual machine configured to operate on a host; send an indication to the virtual machine to produce a second backup, the second backup comprising backup state data provided by an application running on the virtual machine; cause the application to write state data to the second backup consistent with a current state of the application, the current state comprising in-memory data of the application; and update a subset of the virtual machine volume data in the first backup of the host volume using the second backup, the subset associated with the application, by at least mounting the subset of the virtual machine volume data as a virtual hard drive volume. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A computer readable storage device having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, upon execution by a computer, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:
-
halting a mirroring process on a mirrored storage device, the mirrored storage device comprising a first memory and a second memory, the first memory having stored thereon a virtual disk volume corresponding to a virtual machine, the mirroring process maintaining the second memory as a mirror image of the first memory; causing the virtual machine to participate in a backup process, the virtual machine running an application, the application having a current state comprising in-memory data of the application; causing the application to write data to produce a snapshot having data consistent with the current state; locating the virtual disk volume in the second memory; and replacing at least a subset of the virtual disk volume in the second memory with at least a subset of the snapshot. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
-
Specification