Centralized multi-cloud workload protection with platform agnostic centralized file browse and file retrieval time machine

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11016935-B2
Application number	US-201715824871-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2017
Priority date	Nov 28, 2017
Publication date	May 25, 2021
Grant date	May 25, 2021

Abstract

The disclosed technology teaches finding contents of one or more virtual machines running on one or more cloud servers. The disclosed technology includes a cloud snapshot metadata manager periodically instantiating indexing virtual machines on the cloud servers. The indexing virtual machines compile metadata of one or more virtual machines on the cloud server from one or more snapshot file systems of the virtual machines. The indexing virtual machines then transmit the compiled metadata to the cloud snapshot metadata manager. The cloud snapshot metadata manager forwards the metadata to a client and causing the client to create an index of the compiled metadata from multiple virtual machine snapshots on multiple clouds and responding to queries from a user using the index of compiled metadata, without requiring the user to instantiate or to attach to the snapshots.

First claim

We claim as follows:

1. A method of finding content among incremental snapshots in a cloud based virtual machine environment comprising multiple systems and a hybrid workload, the method including:
providing a scheduling mechanism for coordinating snapshot capture across the multiple systems, the multiple systems including local and remote physical machines and a system operator;
periodically causing instantiation of a first indexing virtual machine on a first cloud and a second indexing virtual machine on a second cloud by a cloud snapshot metadata manager;
the first and second indexing virtual machines, upon instantiation, compiling, for indexing, metadata of one or more snapshot file systems generated or controlled by the scheduling mechanism on the first and second clouds, respectively, which have not been indexed since a prior instantiation of the first and second indexing virtual machines on the first and second clouds, wherein the first and second indexing virtual machines compile the metadata independently of one another, and wherein each of the first and second indexing virtual machines includes a virtual machine container, a first data volume attached to the virtual machine container and an indexing app loaded from the data volume and running under the virtual machine container;
the first and second indexing virtual machines transmitting the compiled metadata to the cloud snapshot metadata manager, the first indexing virtual machine corresponding to an IP address comprising a root volume and a data volume;
shutting down the first indexing virtual machine after it has finished the compiling of metadata of snapshot file systems on the first cloud that were not previously indexed during a prior instantiation;
the cloud snapshot metadata manager transmitting the compiled metadata to a client and causing the client to at least initiate automatically creating an index of the compiled metadata from multiple virtual machine snapshots on multiple clouds and responding to queries from a user using the index of compiled metadata, without requiring the user to instantiate or to attach to the snapshots; and
providing a hybrid workload management interface enabling the system operator to access a capability of a virtual machine executing in the multiple systems, and view and access information of another virtual machine in an infrastructure of the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , further including the cloud snapshot metadata manager responding to a retrieval request for a file from a selected snapshot from the first cloud by instructing the first indexing virtual machine to attach a responsive file system corresponding to the selected snapshot and receiving from the first indexing virtual machine the requested file.

3. The method of claim 1 , further including the first and second indexing virtual machines compiling metadata of snapshot file systems for multiple virtual machines running on each of the first and second clouds, respectively.

4. The method of claim 1 , further including, during the compiling, the first and second indexing virtual machines mounting the snapshot file systems to a virtual machine container of the first indexing virtual machine and a virtual machine container of the second indexing virtual machine, respectively, for the compiling.

5. The method of claim 1 , further including responding to the queries from the user in a context of a selected snapshot.

6. The method of claim 1 , further including responding to the queries from the user across snapshots.

7. The method of claim 1 , further including, responding to the queries from the user across clouds.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions for finding content among incremental snapshots in a cloud based virtual machine environment comprising multiple systems and a hybrid workload, which instructions when executed by one or more processors implement:
a scheduling mechanism for coordinating snapshot capture across the multiple systems, the multiple systems including local and remote physical machines and a system operator;
periodically causing instantiation of a first indexing virtual machine on a first cloud and a second indexing virtual machine on a second cloud by a cloud snapshot metadata manager;
the first and second indexing virtual machines, upon instantiation, compiling, for indexing, metadata of one or more snapshot file systems generated or controlled by the scheduling mechanism on the first and second clouds, respectively, which have not been indexed since a prior instantiation of the first and second indexing virtual machines on the first and second clouds, wherein the first and second indexing virtual machines compile the metadata independently of one another, and wherein each of the first and second indexing virtual machines includes a virtual machine container, a first data volume attached to the virtual machine container and an indexing app loaded from the data volume and running under the virtual machine container;
the first and second indexing virtual machines transmitting the compiled metadata to the cloud snapshot metadata manager, the first indexing virtual machine corresponding to an IP address comprising a root volume and a data volume;
shutting down the first indexing virtual machine after it has finished the compiling of metadata of snapshot file systems on the first cloud that were not previously indexed during a prior instantiation;
the cloud snapshot metadata manager transmitting the compiled metadata to a client and causing the client to at least initiate automatically creating an index of the compiled metadata from multiple virtual machine snapshots on multiple clouds and responding to queries from a user using the index of compiled metadata, without requiring the user to instantiate or to attach to the snapshots; and
a hybrid workload management interface enabling the system operator to access a capability of a virtual machine executing in the multiple systems, and view and access information of another virtual machine in an infrastructure of the user.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further including the cloud snapshot metadata manager responding to a retrieval request for a file from a selected snapshot from the first cloud by instructing the first indexing virtual machine to attach a responsive file system corresponding to the selected snapshot and receiving from the first indexing virtual machine the requested file.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further including the first and second indexing virtual machines compiling metadata of snapshot file systems for multiple virtual machines running on each of the first and second clouds, respectively.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further including, during the compiling, the first and second indexing virtual machines mounting the snapshot file systems to a virtual machine container of the first indexing virtual machine and a virtual machine container of the second indexing virtual machine, respectively, for the compiling.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further including responding to the queries from the user in a context of a selected snapshot.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further including responding to the queries from the user across snapshots.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , further including, responding to the queries from the user across clouds.

15. A system for finding content among incremental snapshots in a cloud based virtual machine environment comprising mu

Assignees

• Rubrik Inc

Inventors

• Pandey Prateek
• Jain Shashank
• Agrawal Priyam
• Palit Biswaroop

Classifications

• G06F2009/45595

  Network integration; Enabling network access in virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F8/71

  Version control (security arrangements therefor G06F21/57); Configuration management · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · 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

• G06F11/1438

  Restarting or rejuvenating · CPC title