System and method for agentless backup of virtual machines

• US 9,996,425 B2
• Filed: 04/18/2016
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/18/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: MidCap Financial Trust
• Original Assignee: Acronis International GmbH (Acronis AG)
• Inventors: Shulga, Victor, Semyonov, Vasily, Protasov, Stanislav, Shumlevich, Mark, Beloussov, Serguei
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Jigar
• Application Number:
  US15/131,872
• Publication Number:
  US 20170300386A1
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/14 Error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operation G06F11/16 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1484 involving virtual machines
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45562 Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/805 Real-time
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for performing agentless backup of a virtual machine using a temporary attached virtual disk. An example method includes creating a virtual machine disk in a datastore, loading a software application in the virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine, communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine, collecting the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine, generating a snapshot of the virtual machine, and storing a backup of the virtual machine in a backup archive based on the snapshot.

Claims

1. A method for generating a backup of a virtual machine, the method comprising:

creating, by a processor, a virtual machine disk with a plurality of partitions in a datastore;

creating at least one partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-only partition and at least another partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-write partition;

loading, by the processor, a software application in the read-only partition of the virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine;

communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine;

collecting, by the software application, the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine and storing the metadata in a portion of the read-write partition, in order to facilitate recovery of the at least one application from a backup archive;

generating a snapshot of the virtual machine;

performing post-snapshot operations on the snapshot; and

storing, by the processor, a backup of the virtual machine in the backup archive based on the snapshot.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising recovering the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine in the event of an error of the at least one application executing based on the collected metadata.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising deleting, by the processor, the snapshot of the virtual machine after the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup archive.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

creating, by a processor, another virtual machine disk in the datastore;

allocating the virtual machine disk for read-only operations and the another virtual machine disk for read-write operations;

loading, by the processor, the software application in the virtual machine disk allocated for read-only operations.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine in an independent mode.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the post-snapshot operations comprises executing service batch files.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

restoring the snapshot from the backup device to the virtual machine; and

mapping the metadata corresponding to the at least one application into their original location.

8. A system for generating a backup of a virtual machine, the system comprising:

a datastore; and

a processor configured to;

create a virtual machine disk with a plurality of partitions in a datastore;

create at least one partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-only partition and at least another partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-write partition;

load a software application in the read-only virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine;

communicatively couple the datastore to the virtual machine;

send at least one instruction to the software application in the virtual machine disk to collect the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine and to store the metadata in a portion of the read-write partition, in order to facilitate recovery of the at least one application from a backup archive;

cause a snapshot of the virtual machine to be generated;

perform post-snapshot operations on the snapshot; and

store a backup of the virtual machine in the backup archive based on the snapshot.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to recover the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine in the event of an error of the at least one application executing based on the collected metadata.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to delete the snapshot of the virtual machine after the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup archive.

11. The system according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to:

create another virtual machine disk in the datastore;

allocate the virtual machine disk for read-only operations and the another virtual machine disk for read-write operations;

load the software application in the virtual machine disk allocated for read-only operations.

12. The system according to claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured to communicatively couple the datastore to the virtual machine in an independent mode.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the post-snapshot operations comprises executing service batch files.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for generating a backup of a virtual machine, including instructions for:

creating a virtual machine disk with a plurality of partitions in a datastore;

creating at least one partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-only partition and at least another partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-write partition,

loading a software application in the read-only virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine;

communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine;

collecting the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine and storing the metadata in a portion of the read-write partition, in order to facilitate recovery of the at least one application from a backup archive;

generating a snapshot of the virtual machine;

performing post-snapshot operations on the snapshot; and

storing a backup of the virtual machine in the backup archive based on the snapshot.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14, further including instructions for recovering the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine in the event of an error of the at least one application executing based on the collected metadata.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14, further including instructions for deleting the snapshot of the virtual machine after the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup archive.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14, further including instructions for:

creating, by a processor, another virtual machine disk in the datastore;

allocating the virtual machine disk for read-only operations and the another virtual machine disk for read-write operations;

loading, by the processor, the software application in the virtual machine disk allocated for read-only operations.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14, further including instructions for communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine in an independent mode.