SUBSEQUENT OPERATION INPUT REDUCTION SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR VIRTUAL MACHINES

• US 20130198742A1
• Filed: 02/01/2012
• Published: 08/01/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veritas Technologies, LLC (Whitehouse Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Symantec Corporation (NortonLifeLock Inc.)
• Inventors: Kumar, Sumit, Agrawal, Mukund
• Granted Patent: US 9,904,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 718/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45579 I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

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.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

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.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the exclusion blocks are excluded from a subsequent de-duplication operation.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the exclusion blocks are excluded from a subsequent backup operation.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the exclusion blocks include virtual storage blocks storing information with a short life cycle with respect to the life cycle of other information associated with a virtual machine.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the exclusion blocks include virtual storage blocks storing information that has been frequently modified since a previous de-duplication process.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the exclusion blocks include virtual storage blocks storing other information that are otherwise designated for de-duplication avoidance.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the method is performed within a File Server.

8. A reprogrammable tangible computer readable medium having stored thereon, computer executable instructions that when executed by a computer system cause the computer system to perform a method comprising:

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.

9. The reprogrammable tangible computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the exclusion blocks are excluded from a subsequent de-duplication operation.

10. The reprogrammable tangible computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the exclusion blocks are excluded from a subsequent backup operation.

11. The reprogrammable tangible computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the exclusion blocks include virtual storage blocks storing information with a short life cycle with respect to the life cycle of other information associated with a virtual machine.

12. The reprogrammable tangible computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the exclusion blocks include virtual storage blocks storing information that has been frequently modified since a previous de-duplication process.

13. The reprogrammable tangible computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the exclusion blocks include virtual storage blocks storing other information that are otherwise designated for de-duplication avoidance.

14. The reprogrammable tangible computer readable medium of claim 8 wherein the method is performed within a File Server.

15. A 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;

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.

16. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the exclusion blocks are excluded from a subsequent de-duplication operation.

17. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the exclusion blocks are excluded from a subsequent backup operation.

18. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the exclusion blocks include:

virtual storage blocks storing information with a short life cycle with respect to the life cycle of other information associated with a virtual machine; and

virtual storage blocks storing information that has been frequently modified since a previous de-duplication process.

19. The computer system of claim 18 wherein the exclusion blocks include:

virtual storage blocks storing other information that are otherwise designated for de-duplication avoidance.

20. The computer system of claim 15 wherein the method is performed within a File Server.