SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR INCREMENTAL VIRTUAL MACHINE BACKUP USING STORAGE SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY

• US 20140095817A1
• Filed: 09/28/2012
• Published: 04/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Emc IP Holding Company LLC (Dell Technologies Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Jian Xing, Windsor W. Hsu
• Inventors: HSU, WINDSOR W., XING, JIAN
• Granted Patent: US 9,104,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 711/162
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1438 Restarting or rejuvenating
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1451 by selection of backup contents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1479 Generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/08 in hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/12 Replacement control
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/121 using replacement algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/188 Virtual file systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/815 Virtual middleware or OS functionality using virtual machines to implement generic software techniques for error detection or fault masking G06F11/1484
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/84 Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/065 Replication mechanisms
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

Techniques for virtual machine incremental backup are described herein. According to one embodiment, a request for an incremental backing up a virtual machine (VM) is received at a storage system, the request identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM. The storage system determines a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup. The changes between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image are then transmitted to a target backup storage system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request at a storage system for an incremental backup of a virtual machine (VM), the VM is hosted by a VM monitor (VMM) of a client, the request identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM;

determining a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup; and

transmitting changes between the requested VM disk image and the previous VM disk image to a target backup storage system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the VM disk image is one or more disk snapshots created at the storage system based on a VM snapshot created at the VMM.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising deleting the one or more disk snapshots after the changes has been transmitted to the target backup storage system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein deletion of the one more disk snapshots is performed by erasing a VM snapshot initiated by the VMM.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the difference between the disk snapshot and the previous disk snapshot is determined based on disk change tracking by the storage system.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating at the backup storage system the requested VM disk image based on the transmitted changes and a previous VM disk image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage system is a deduplicating storage system.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the target backup storage system is a deduplicating storage system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the target backup storage system is a proxy server.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored therein, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method, the method comprising:

receiving a request at a storage system for an incremental backup of a virtual machine (VM), the VM is hosted by a VM monitor (VMM) of a client, the request identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM;

determining a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup; and

transmitting changes between the requested VM disk image and the previous VM disk image to a target backup storage system.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the VM disk image is one or more disk snapshots created at the storage system based on a VM snapshot created at the VMM.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, further comprising deleting the one or more disk snapshots after the changes has been transmitted to the target backup storage system.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein deletion of the one more disk snapshots is performed by erasing a VM snapshot initiated by the VMM.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the difference between the disk snapshot and the previous disk snapshot is determined based on disk change tracking by the storage system.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, further comprising creating at the backup storage system the requested VM disk image based on the transmitted changes and a previous VM disk image.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the storage system is a deduplicating storage system.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the target backup storage system is a deduplicating storage system.

18. A storage system, comprising:

a backup logic receives a request at a storage system for an incremental backup of a virtual machine (VM), the VM is hosted by a VM monitor (VMM) of a client, the request identifying a requested VM disk image associated with a consistent state of the VM;

determines a difference between the requested VM disk image and a previous VM disk image representing a previous VM backup; and

transmits changes between the requested VM disk image and the previous VM disk image to a target backup storage system.

19. The storage system of claim 18, wherein the VM disk image is one or more disk snapshots created at the storage system based on a VM snapshot created at the VMM.

20. The storage system of claim 19, wherein the backup logic further deletes the one or more disk snapshots after the changes has been transmitted to the target backup storage system.

21. The storage system of claim 20, wherein the backup logic further deletes the one or more disk snapshots after the changes has been transmitted to the target backup storage system triggered by erasing of a VM snapshot initiated by the VMM.

22. The storage system of claim 18, wherein the difference between the disk snapshot and the previous disk snapshot is determined based on disk change tracking by the storage system.

23. The storage system of claim 18 is a deduplicating storage system.