Live synchronization and management of virtual machines across computing and virtualization platforms and using live synchronization to support disaster recovery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10228962-B2
Application number	US-201615365756-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 30, 2016
Priority date	Dec 9, 2015
Publication date	Mar 12, 2019
Grant date	Mar 12, 2019

Abstract

An illustrative “Live Synchronization” feature in a data storage management system can reduce the downtime that arises in failover situations. The illustrative Live Sync embodiment uses backup data to create and maintain a ready (or “warm”) virtualized computing platform comprising one or more virtual machines (“VMs”) that are configured and ready to be activated and take over data processing from another data processing platform operating in the production environment. The “warm” computing platform awaits activation as a failover solution for the production system(s) and can be co-located at the production data center, or configured at a remote or disaster recovery site, which in some embodiments is configured “in the cloud.” Both local and remote illustrative embodiments are discussed herein. An “incremental forever” approach can be combined with deduplication and synthetic full backups to speed up data transfer and update the disaster recovery sites.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
backing up a first virtual machine into a first full backup copy of the first virtual machine stored to a first secondary storage device,
wherein the first virtual machine executes over a first hypervisor operating on a first virtual machine server,
wherein the first virtual machine accesses data that is stored in a first primary storage device that is communicatively coupled with the first virtual machine server, and
wherein the first full backup copy comprises, in a hypervisor-independent format, one or more configuration parameters of the first virtual machine converted into the hypervisor-independent format by a first data agent associated with the first virtual machine server;

configuring a second virtual machine, based on the one or more configuration parameters obtained from the first full backup copy,
wherein the second virtual machine is configured over a second hypervisor operating on a second virtual machine server which is distinct from the first virtual machine server, and
wherein a second data agent that is associated with the second virtual machine server obtains the one or more configuration parameters from the first full backup copy of the first virtual machine and: (a) determines whether the first hypervisor is of the same type as the second hypervisor, (b) converts the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format into a format suitable for the second hypervisor, and (c) instructs the second virtual machine server to configure the second virtual machine according to the converted one or more configuration parameters;

restoring the first full backup copy to the second virtual machine, which is in communication with a second primary storage device storing restored data in native format accessible to the second virtual machine;
synchronizing the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine, comprising:
periodically backing up the first virtual machine to successive incremental backup copies comprising changes relative to a preceding backup copy of the first virtual machine, and
restoring each successive incremental backup copy to the second virtual machine, thereby making the second virtual machine ready to operate instead of the first virtual machine, based on a most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine restored to the second virtual machine; and

wherein the backing up operations are performed at least in part by the first data agent and the restoring operations are performed at least in part by the second data agent.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first hypervisor is of a first type and the second hypervisor is of a different type; and
wherein the second data agent enables the synchronizing to work across different types of hypervisors.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
in response to detecting that the first virtual machine has failed, activating the second virtual machine by the second data agent; and
taking over by the second virtual machine instead of the first virtual machine, based on the most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine restored to the second virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the backing up operations are performed by the first data agent and a first media agent associated with the first secondary storage device; and
wherein the restoring operations are performed by the second data agent and a second media agent associated with a second secondary storage device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the backing up operations are performed by the first data agent and a first media agent associated with the first secondary storage device;
wherein the restoring operations are performed by the second data agent and a second media agent associated with a second secondary storage device; and
when the second media agent detects that restoring a first incremental backup copy has failed more than a threshold number of times, the second media agent, in conjunction with the second data agent, (a) restores a second incremental backup copy, which is older than the first incremental backup copy, to the second virtual machine, and (b) blocks any further restore operations to the second virtual machine.

6. The method of claim 1
further comprising:
detecting, by the second data agent that a failure has occurred at the first virtual machine server; and
in response to the detecting, causing, by the second data agent, the second virtual machine to be activated and to take over instead of the first virtual machine, based on the most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine restored to the second virtual machine.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising:
reverse synchronizing a backup copy of the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine, wherein the backup copy of the second virtual machine comprises changes generated by the second virtual machine when operating instead of the first virtual machine; and
after the reverse synchronizing, taking over by the first virtual machine instead of the second virtual machine, based on the backup copy of the second virtual machine restored to the first virtual machine.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
transmitting the first full backup copy to a secondary storage computing device, which stores the first full backup copy to a second secondary storage device; and
wherein the synchronizing of the second virtual machine further comprises:
transmitting each successive incremental backup copy to the secondary storage computing device, which stores each incremental backup copy to the second secondary storage device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the second virtual machine server provides a cloud-based computing platform for the second virtual machine.

10. A method comprising:
backing up a first virtual machine into a first full backup copy of the first virtual machine stored to a first secondary storage device,
wherein the first virtual machine executes over a first hypervisor operating on a first virtual machine server,
wherein the first virtual machine accesses data that is stored in a first primary storage device that is communicatively coupled with the first virtual machine server, and
wherein the first full backup copy comprises, in a hypervisor-independent format, one or more configuration parameters of the first virtual machine converted into the hypervisor-independent format by a first data agent associated with the first virtual machine server;

transmitting the first full backup copy to a secondary storage computing device, which stores the first full backup copy to a second secondary storage device;
configuring a second virtual machine, based on the one or more configuration parameters obtained from the first full backup copy,
wherein the second virtual machine is configured over a second hypervisor operating on a second virtual machine server which is distinct from the first virtual machine server, and
wherein a second data agent that is associated with the second virtual machine server obtains the one or more configuration parameters from the first full backup copy of the first virtual machine and: (a) determines whether the first hypervisor is of the same type as the second hypervisor, (b) converts the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format into a format suitable for the second hypervisor, and (c) instructs the second virtual machine server to configure the second virtual machine according to the converted one or more configuration parameters;

restoring the first full backup copy to the second virtual machine, which is in communication with a second primary storage devic

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• Dornemann Henry Wallace
• NAGRALE Ajay Venkat
• Pawar Rahul S
• Venkatesha Ananda

Classifications

• G06F2009/45583

  Memory management, e.g. access or allocation · CPC title

• G06F11/1446

  Point-in-time backing up or restoration of persistent data · CPC title

• G06F11/2038

  with a single idle spare processing component · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F11/2048

  where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage · CPC title