System and method for environment aware backup and restoration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10684791-B2
Application number	US-201816143317-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2018
Priority date	Sep 26, 2018
Publication date	Jun 16, 2020
Grant date	Jun 16, 2020

Abstract

A remote agent for performing a backup of a virtual machine includes a persistent storage that stores backup policies and a backup manager that obtains a backup generation request for the virtual machine and, in response to the backup generation request, performs a component validation analysis of a production host that hosts the virtual machine to identify a backup state of the production host; makes a first determination, based on the backup state of the production host, that the production host is in a backup-enabled state; and, in response to the first determination, generates a backup of the virtual machine, using the backup policies, for storage in a backup storage; and validates that the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup storage based on a reduced size representation of the backup and a reduced size representation of a copy of the backup in the backup storage.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A remote agent for performing a backup of a virtual machine, comprising:
a persistent storage that stores backup policies; and
a backup manager programmed to:
obtain a backup generation request for the virtual machine; and
in response to the backup generation request:
perform a component validation analysis of a production host that hosts the virtual machine to identify a backup state of the production host, wherein the component validation analysis comprises:
identifying a first responsiveness status of a production agent of the production host;
identifying a second responsiveness status of the virtual machine; and
identifying the backup state of the production host based on both of the first responsiveness status and the second responsiveness status;

make a first determination, based on the backup state of the production host, that the production host is in a backup-enabled state; and
in response to the first determination:
generate a backup of the virtual machine, using the backup policies, for storage in a backup storage; and
validate that the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup storage based on:
 a reduced size representation of the backup, and
 a reduced size representation of a copy of the backup in the backup storage.

2. The remote agent of claim 1 , wherein the backup manager is further programmed to:
obtain a second backup generation request of the virtual machine;
in response to the second backup generation request:
perform a second component validation analysis of the production host to identify a second backup state of the production host;
make a second determination, based on the second backup state, that the production host is in a backup-disabled state; and
in response to the second determination:
perform a remediation of the production host based on the second backup state to attempt to change the second backup state of the production host to a backup-enabled state.

3. The remote agent of claim 2 , wherein the backup manager is further programmed to:
make a third determination, based on the remediation, that the production host is in the backup-disabled state; and
in response to the third determination:
reject the backup generation request.

4. The remote agent of claim 2 , wherein the backup manager is further programmed to:
make a third determination, based on the remediation, that the production host is in the backup-enabled state; and
in response to the third determination:
make a fourth determination that the virtual machine meets a policy exception based on, at least, an availability of computing resources of the production host; and
in response to the fourth determination:
perform a policy exception analysis to obtain modified backup policies; and
generate a second backup of the virtual machine using the modified backup policies.

5. The remote agent of claim 1 , wherein validating that the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup storage comprises:
making a second determination that the reduced size representation of the backup does not match the reduced size representation of the copy of the backup in the backup storage; and
in response to the second determination:
making a third determination that the reduced size representation of the backup matches a reduced size representation of a second copy of the backup in the backup storage.

6. The remote agent of claim 1 , wherein performing the component validation analysis of the production host that hosts the virtual machine to identify the backup state of the production host further comprises:
identifying an available storage capacity of the production host;
identifying a size of a shadow copy of the virtual machine; and
identifying the backup state of the production host based on both of the available storage capacity and the size of the shadow copy.

7. A method for performing a backup of a virtual machine, comprising:
obtaining a backup generation request for the virtual machine by a remote agent; and
in response to the backup generation request:
performing, by the remote agent, a component validation analysis of a production host that hosts the virtual machine to identify a backup state of the production host, wherein the component validation analysis comprises:
identifying a first responsiveness status of a production agent of the production host;
identifying a second responsiveness status of the virtual machine; and
identifying the backup state of the production host based on both of the first responsiveness status and the second responsiveness status;

making a first determination, based on the backup state of the production host, that the production host is in a backup-enabled state; and
in response to the first determination:
generating a backup of the virtual machine, using backup policies, for storage in a backup storage; and
validating that the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup storage based on:
a reduced size representation of the backup, and
a reduced size representation of a copy of the backup in the backup storage.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the method further comprises:
obtaining a second backup generation request of the virtual machine;
in response to obtaining the second backup generation request:
performing a second component validation analysis of the production host to identify a second backup state of the production host;
making a second determination, based on the second backup state, that the production host is in a backup-disabled state; and
in response to the second determination:
perform a remediation of the production host, by the remote agent, based on the second backup state to attempt to change the second backup state of the production host to a backup-enabled state.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:
making a third determination, based on the remediation, that the production host is in the backup-disabled state; and
in response to the third determination:
rejecting the backup generation request.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the method further comprises:
making a third determination, based on the remediation, that the production host is in the backup-enabled state; and
in response to the third determination:
making a fourth determination that the virtual machine meets a policy exception based on, at least, an availability of computing resources of the production host; and
in response to the fourth determination:
performing a policy exception analysis to obtain modified backup policies; and
generating a second backup of the virtual machine using the modified backup policies.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein validating that the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup storage comprises:
making a second determination that the reduced size representation of the backup does not match the reduced size representation of the copy of the backup in the backup storage; and
in response to the second determination:
making a third determination that the reduced size representation of the backup matches a reduced size representation of a second copy of the backup in the backup storage.

12. The method of claim 7 , wherein performing the component validation analysis of the production host that hosts the virtual machine to identify the backup state of the production host further comprises:
identifying an available storage capacity of the production host;
identifying a size of a shadow copy of the virtual machine; and
identifying the backup state of the production host based on both of the available storage capacity and the size of

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Ashokkumar Pravin Kumar
• Bansal Aaditya Rakesh
• Hebsur Sudha Vamanraj

Classifications

• G06F11/1438

  Restarting or rejuvenating · CPC title

• G06F11/3442

  for planning or managing the needed capacity · CPC title

• G06F11/3055

  Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available (error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G06F11/301

  where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems (virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077) · CPC title

• G06F11/3006

  where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems (multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50) · CPC title