Efficiently restoring execution of a backed up virtual machine based on coordination with virtual-machine-file-relocation operations

• US 9,996,534 B2
• Filed: 06/09/2017
• Issued: 06/12/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CommVault Systems Incorporated
• Inventors: Dornemann, Henry Wallace, Pawar, Rahul S., Kumarasamy, Paramasivam, Kilaru, Satish Chandra, Venkatesha, Ananda
• Primary Examiner(s): Hoang, Son T
• Application Number:
  US15/619,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20170277686A1
• Time in Patent Office: 368 Days
• Field of Search: None
• 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 11/1448 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 11/1453 using de-duplication of the data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1469 Backup restoration techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2094 Redundant storage or storage space G06F11/2056 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2308 Concurrency control transaction processing G06F9/466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2009/45575 Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances
• 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 9/45558 Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects

Abstract

The disclosed systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including any applications executing thereon, to quickly start executing and servicing users based on pre-staged data blocks supplied from a backup copy in secondary storage. Substantially concurrently with the ongoing execution of the virtual machine, a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation may move data blocks originating in the backup copy to a primary storage destination that becomes the virtual machine'"'"'s primary data store after the relocation operation completes. An enhanced data agent, operating in conjunction with an enhanced media agent in a storage management system, coordinates restoring of the virtual machine and the launch of the relocation operation. The enhanced media agent may pre-stage certain backed up data blocks which may be needed to launch the virtual machine, based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine'"'"'s operational profile. The enhanced media agent may also pre-stage backed up data blocks for the relocation operation, based on the operation'"'"'s relocation scheme. Servicing read requests to the virtual machine may take priority over ongoing pre-staging of backed up data. Read requests may be tracked so that the media agent may properly maintain the contents of an associated read cache. Some embodiments of the illustrative storage management system may lack, or may simply not require, the relocation operation, and may operate in a “live mount” configuration.

Claims

1. A system for restoring a virtual machine to execute on a host computing device, based on coordination with a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, the system comprising:

the host computing device in communication with a first data storage device;

wherein the host computing device is configured to concurrently execute the virtual machine and the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation,

wherein the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation comprises a logical transfer to the first data storage device, based on a relocation sequence, of a copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the copy of data comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk and is stored in a second data storage device;

a second computing device in communication with the host computing device,

wherein the second computing device comprises a media agent and a shared file system mounted to the host computing device, and

wherein the shared file system is configured as a recovery point for the virtual machine and as a source of data for the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation;

a third computing device that comprises a data agent;

wherein the data agent is configured to;

(a) instruct the media agent to copy from the copy of data associated with the virtual machine to the second computing device, a first set of data blocks based on a profile of the virtual machine,

(b) instruct the media agent to copy from the copy of data associated with the virtual machine to the second computing device, a second set of data blocks based on the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, and

(c) instruct the media agent to respond to a read request for a data block issued by the virtual machine on the host computing device by;

(i) if the requested data block is not found on the second computing device, copying the requested data block from the copy of data from the second data storage device to the second computing device, and

(ii) transmitting the requested data block from the second computing device in response to the read request; and

wherein each of the computing devices comprises respective one or more hardware processors and computer-readable memory.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the second computing device further comprises a read-cache that stores data blocks that were (A) logically transferred from the copy of data associated with the virtual machine and (B) transmitted in response to the read request.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data agent is further configured to transmit the profile of the virtual machine to the media agent for identifying the first set of data blocks in the copy of data associated with the virtual machine.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the data agent is further configured to:

when the virtual machine and the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation execute concurrently on the host computing device, instruct the media agent to copy a third set of data blocks from the copy of data to the second computing device, at a same priority as serving the read request to the virtual machine, wherein the third set of data blocks is based on the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data agent is further configured to:

instruct the media agent to determine whether a plurality of read requests comprises a sequence of data blocks according to the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, and

if the plurality of read requests comprises the sequence of data blocks according to the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, instruct the media agent to purge the sequence of data blocks from the second computing device after the plurality of read requests has been responded to.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the data agent is further configured to:

determine whether a plurality of read requests comprises a sequence of data blocks according to the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, and

if the plurality of read requests comprises the sequence of data blocks according to the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, instruct the media agent to purge the sequence of data blocks from the second computing device after the plurality of read requests has been responded to.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the data agent is further configured to, after launching of execution of the virtual machine and prior to launching of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, instruct the media agent to copy the second set of data blocks from the copy of data to the second computing device at a lower priority than responding to the read request.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the data agent is further configured to, after the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation has completed, and concurrently with execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device, instruct the media agent to de-associate the second data storage device from the virtual machine.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the data agent is further configured to, after the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation has completed, and concurrently with execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device,

(a) instruct the media agent to de-associate the second data storage device from the virtual machine, and

(b) instruct the virtual machine to use the first data storage device as a primary data store.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination with the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation comprises the data agent being configured to:

after launching of execution of the virtual machine and prior to launching of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, instruct the media agent to copy the second set of data blocks from the copy of data to the second computing device at a lower priority than responding to the read request.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination with the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation comprises the data agent being configured to:

if a plurality of read requests comprises a sequence of data blocks according to the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, instruct the media agent to purge the sequence of data blocks from the second computing device after the plurality of read requests has been responded to.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the coordination with the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation comprises the data agent being configured to:

after the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation has completed, and concurrently with execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device,

(a) instruct the media agent to de-associate the second data storage device from the virtual machine, and

(b) instruct the virtual machine to use the first data storage device as a primary data store.

13. A storage management system for restoring execution of a virtual machine on a host computing device, based on coordination with a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, the system comprising:

the host computing device comprising one or more hardware processors and computer-readable memory, and in communication with a first data storage device;

a data agent hosted by a first computing device comprising one or more hardware processors and computer-readable memory;

a media agent hosted by a second computing device comprising one or more hardware processors and computer-readable memory;

wherein the media agent is configured to;

determine, based on a profile of the virtual machine received from the data agent prior to execution of the virtual machine by the host computing device, a first set of data blocks to be copied from a backup copy of the virtual machine,

wherein the backup copy is stored on a second data storage device in communication with the media agent, and wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine, and

copy the first set of data blocks from the backup copy to the second computing device;

wherein the host computing device is configured to launch execution of the virtual machine based on the first set of data blocks served by the media agent from the second computing device; and

wherein the media agent is further configured to;

copy a second set of data blocks from the backup copy to the second computing device, wherein the second set of data blocks is based on a relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, which comprises a logical transfer of the backup copy to the first data storage device according to the relocation sequence, and

in response to a read request for a data block from the virtual machine;

(i) if the requested data block is not found on the second computing device, copy the requested data block from the backup copy to the second computing device, and (ii) transmit the requested data block from the second computing device to the virtual machine, and

wherein while the virtual machine executes on the host computing device prior to the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, the media agent is configured to respond to the read request at a higher priority than copying the second set of data blocks from the backup copy to the second computing device.

14. The storage management system of claim 13, wherein the data agent is configured to instruct the media agent to respond to the read request at a higher priority than copying the second set of data blocks from the backup copy to the second computing device while the virtual machine executes on the host computing device prior to the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation.

15. The storage management system of claim 13, wherein while the virtual machine and the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation are executed concurrently on the host computing device, the media agent is configured to:

(a) copy a third set of data blocks from the backup copy to the second computing device, wherein the third set of data blocks is based on the relocation sequence of the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, and

(b) respond to the read request at the same priority as copying the third set of data blocks.

16. The storage management system of claim 15, wherein the data agent is configured to instruct the media agent to copy the third set of data blocks and to respond to the read request at the same priority as the copying while the virtual machine and the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation are executed concurrently on the host computing device.

17. The storage management system of claim 13, wherein after the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation has completed and concurrently with execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device, the media agent is configured to de-associate the second data storage device from the virtual machine.

18. The storage management system of claim 17, wherein the data agent is configured to instruct the media agent to de-associate the second data storage device from the virtual machine after the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation has completed and concurrently with execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device.

19. The storage management system of claim 13, wherein after the virtual-machine-file-relocation operation to the first data storage device has completed, the data agent is configured to instruct the virtual machine to use the first data storage device as a primary data store.