Subsequent operation input reduction systems and methods for virtual machines
First Claim
1. A method for reducing an amount of input forwarded to a subsequent operation, the method comprising:
- accessing virtual machine image information from a virtual machine disk image;
performing an examination process on the virtual machine image information to determine characteristics of the virtual machine image information including life cycle characteristics associated with the virtual machine image information, wherein the determination comprises automatically identifying at least a first portion of the virtual machine image information having a shorter life cycle than a second portion of the virtual machine image information, wherein the first portion of the virtual machine image information includes files that are frequently modified since a previous de-duplication process and temporary files for which de-duplication is not desired, and wherein the examination process is operating system dependent for identifying specific operating system files;
performing an exclusion block identification process based upon results of the examination process to identify exclusion blocks, wherein the exclusion blocks are identified for exclusion from the subsequent operation along with a downloaded copy of the virtual machine image information that must be committed back to its original data store, and wherein the exclusion blocks include blocks of data used by the frequently modified and the temporary files included in the first portion of the virtual machine image information after loopback mounting of the virtual machine disk image that resides in a mounted checkpoint;
forwarding an indication of the exclusion blocks to the subsequent operation, wherein the subsequent operation includes at least a de-duplication operation or a backup operation; and
performing the subsequent operation on the virtual machine disk image the excludes the exclusion blocks.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Storage systems and methods are presented. A method can include: accessing virtual machine image information; performing an examination process on the virtual machine image information to determine characteristics of the virtual machine image information including temporary attributes of the virtual machine image information; performing an exclusion block identification process based upon results of the examination process to identify exclusion blocks, wherein exclusion blocks are identified for exclusion from a subsequent operation; and forwarding an indication of the exclusion blocks to the subsequent operation. In one embodiment the method is performed within a File Server.
12 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for reducing an amount of input forwarded to a subsequent operation, the method comprising:
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accessing virtual machine image information from a virtual machine disk image; performing an examination process on the virtual machine image information to determine characteristics of the virtual machine image information including life cycle characteristics associated with the virtual machine image information, wherein the determination comprises automatically identifying at least a first portion of the virtual machine image information having a shorter life cycle than a second portion of the virtual machine image information, wherein the first portion of the virtual machine image information includes files that are frequently modified since a previous de-duplication process and temporary files for which de-duplication is not desired, and wherein the examination process is operating system dependent for identifying specific operating system files; performing an exclusion block identification process based upon results of the examination process to identify exclusion blocks, wherein the exclusion blocks are identified for exclusion from the subsequent operation along with a downloaded copy of the virtual machine image information that must be committed back to its original data store, and wherein the exclusion blocks include blocks of data used by the frequently modified and the temporary files included in the first portion of the virtual machine image information after loopback mounting of the virtual machine disk image that resides in a mounted checkpoint; forwarding an indication of the exclusion blocks to the subsequent operation, wherein the subsequent operation includes at least a de-duplication operation or a backup operation; and performing the subsequent operation on the virtual machine disk image the excludes the exclusion blocks. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium for reducing an amount of input forwarded to a subsequent operation, the non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a method comprising:
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accessing virtual machine image information from a virtual machine disk image; performing an examination process on the virtual machine image information to determine characteristics of the virtual machine image information including life cycle characteristics associated with the virtual machine image information, wherein the determination comprises automatically identifying at least a first portion of the virtual machine image information having a shorter life cycle than a second portion of the virtual machine image information, wherein the first portion of the virtual machine image information includes files that are frequently modified since a previous de-duplication process and temporary files for which de-duplication is not desired, and wherein the examination process is operating system dependent for identifying specific operating system files; performing an exclusion block identification process based upon results of the examination process to identify exclusion blocks, wherein the exclusion blocks are identified for exclusion from the subsequent operation along with a downloaded copy of the virtual machine image information that must be committed back to its original data store, and wherein the exclusion blocks include blocks of data used by the frequently modified and the temporary files included in the first portion of the virtual machine image information after loopback mounting of the virtual machine disk image that resides in a mounted checkpoint; forwarding an indication of the exclusion blocks to the subsequent operation, wherein the subsequent operation includes at least a de-duplication operation or a backup operation; and performing the subsequent operation on the virtual machine disk image the excludes the exclusion blocks. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A computer system for reducing an amount of input forwarded to a subsequent operation, the computer system comprising:
a processor coupled to a computer readable storage media and executing computer readable code which causes the computer system to perform operations including; accessing virtual machine image information from a virtual machine disk image; performing an examination process on the virtual machine image information to determine characteristics of the virtual machine image information including life cycle characteristics associated with the virtual machine image information, wherein the determination comprises automatically identifying at least a first portion of the virtual machine image information having a shorter life cycle than a second portion of the virtual machine image information, wherein the first portion of the virtual machine image information includes files that are frequently modified since a previous de-duplication process and temporary files for which de-duplication is not desired, and wherein the examination process is operating system dependent for identifying specific operating system files; performing an exclusion block identification process based upon results of the examination process to identify exclusion blocks, wherein the exclusion blocks are identified for exclusion from the subsequent operation along with a downloaded copy of the virtual machine image information that must be committed back to its original data store, and wherein the exclusion blocks include blocks of data used by the frequently modified and the temporary files included in the first portion of the virtual machine image information after loopback mounting of the virtual machine disk image that resides in a mounted checkpoint; forwarding an indication of the exclusion blocks to the subsequent operation, wherein the subsequent operation includes at least a de-duplication operation or a backup operation; and performing the subsequent operation on the virtual machine disk image the excludes the exclusion blocks. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
Specification