Systems and methods for performing data management operations using snapshots

• US 9,268,602 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2013
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Prahlad, Anand, Pawar, Rahul S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Tammy
• Application Number:
  US14/083,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20140075440A1
• Time in Patent Office: 827 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1448 Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/128 Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion use of snapshots for error detection or correction G06F11/14, G06F11/16
• 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 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45583 Memory management, e.g. access or allocation
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4856 resumption being on a different machine, e.g. task migration, virtual machine migration G06F9/5088 takes precedence

Abstract

A system stores a snapshot and an associated data structure or index to storage media to create a secondary copy of a volume of data. In some cases, the associated index includes application specific data about a file system or other application that created the data to identify the location of the data. The associated index may include three entries, and may be used to facilitate the recovery of data via the snapshot. The snapshot may be used by ancillary applications to perform various functions, such as content indexing, data classification, deduplication, e-discovery, and other functions.

Claims

1. A method for creating snapshots of virtual machines, wherein the method is performed by a computing system having a processor and memory, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a discovery of one or more virtual machines are hosted by a primary virtual machine host,

creating snapshots of the one or more virtual machines hosted by the primary virtual machine host, wherein the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines reference multiple data objects;

creating at least one index associated with the snapshots, wherein the index includes context information related to logical locations of copies of the multiple data objects referenced by each of the snapshots;

exposing the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines to at least one second virtual machine host;

registering the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host via the exposed snapshots;

powering on the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host;

verifying that the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines were properly created based on the powering on of the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host; and

in response to verifying that the snapshots were properly created, powering off the one or more virtual machines on the at least one secondary virtual machine host.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the method further comprises accessing one or more of the multiple individual data objects.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the snapshots references at least one set of data associated with an application, and wherein the application includes an email server, a Structured Query Language (SQL) server, a file server, or an application server.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein creating snapshots includes creating the snapshots at least partly with a hardware-based snapshot provider.

5. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium whose contents cause a computing system to create snapshots of virtual machines, wherein the computing system has a processor and memory, comprising:

receiving an indication of a discovery of one or more virtual machines are hosted by a primary virtual machine host,

creating snapshots of the one or more virtual machines hosted by the primary virtual machine host, wherein the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines reference multiple data objects;

creating at least one index associated with the snapshots, wherein the index includes context information related to logical locations of copies of the multiple data objects referenced by each of the snapshots;

exposing the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines to at least one second virtual machine host;

registering the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host via the exposed snapshots;

powering on the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host;

verifying that the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines were properly created based on the powering on of the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host; and

in response to verifying that the snapshots were properly created, powering off the one or more virtual machines on the at least one secondary virtual machine host.

6. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, further comprising accessing one or more of the multiple individual data objects.

7. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 wherein the snapshots references at least one set of data associated with an application, and wherein the application includes an email server, a Structured Query Language (SQL) server, a file server, or an application server.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 5 wherein creating snapshots includes creating the snapshots at least partly with a hardware-based snapshot provider.

9. A system to create snapshots of virtual machines, comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory;

a receiving component configured to receive an indication of one or more virtual machines,

a creating component configured to create snapshots of the one or more virtual machines hosted by a primary virtual machine host, wherein the snapshots reference multiple data objects, and configured to create at least one index associated with the snapshots, wherein the index includes context information related to logical locations of copies of the multiple data objects referenced by each of the snapshots;

an exposing component configured to expose the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines to the at least one second virtual machine host;

a registering component configured to register the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host; and

a powering component configured to power on the or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host, wherein powering on of the one or more virtual machines on the at least one second virtual machine host verifies that the snapshots of the one or more virtual machines were properly created, and configured to power off the one or more virtual machines on the at least one secondary virtual machine host after the verification that the snapshots were properly created.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising an accessing component configured to access one or more of the multiple individual data objects.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the snapshots reference at least one set of data associated with an application, and wherein the application includes an email server, a Structured Query Language (SQL) server, a file server, or an application server.

12. The system of claim 9 wherein the creating component is associated with a hardware-based snapshot provider.