Prioritization and source-nonspecific based virtual machine recovery apparatuses, methods and systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11061713-B2
Application number	US-201916661934-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 23, 2019
Priority date	Aug 7, 2017
Publication date	Jul 13, 2021
Grant date	Jul 13, 2021

Abstract

The Prioritization and Source-Nonspecific Based Virtual Machine Recovery Apparatuses, Methods and Systems (“MBR”) transforms backup configuration request, restore request inputs via MBR components into backup configuration response, restore response outputs. A restore request is obtained. A reestablishing virtual machine is booted. A recovery virtual machine configuration identifying source-nonspecific software is determined. A recovery prioritization index for data blocks of the associated backup disk image is determined. Essential data blocks of the backup disk image are prefetched to build a pseudo abridged virtual machine. User access to the reestablishing virtual machine is provided. A latent virtual machine is created inside the reestablishing virtual machine. Command data blocks are fetched for both the reestablishing virtual machine and the latent virtual machine when a user command is received. Remaining data blocks are fetched for the latent virtual machine in priority order. The reestablishing virtual machine is rebooted to boot the latent virtual machine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A recovery virtual machine restoring apparatus, comprising:
a memory;
a component collection in the memory, including:
a virtual machine restore processing component;

a processor disposed in communication with the memory, and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions from the component collection stored in the memory,
wherein the processor issues instructions from the virtual machine restore processing component, stored in the memory, to:
obtain, via at least one processor, by a recovery device, a restore request datastructure to build a recovery virtual machine using a backup disk image of a source device, wherein the backup disk image is stored on a backup device;
boot, via at least one processor, a reestablishing virtual machine on the recovery device;
determine, via at least one processor, by the reestablishing virtual machine, a recovery virtual machine configuration for the recovery virtual machine, wherein the recovery virtual machine configuration identifies source-nonspecific software to be restored, wherein the source-nonspecific software is available from a set of source-nonspecific locations;
determine, via at least one processor, by the reestablishing virtual machine, a recovery prioritization index for data blocks of the backup disk image, wherein the recovery prioritization index identifies essential data blocks of the backup disk image;
prefetch, via at least one processor, by the reestablishing virtual machine, the essential data blocks of the backup disk image to build the reestablishing virtual machine into a pseudo abridged virtual machine that includes source-nonspecific software configured differently than the corresponding software on the backup disk image;
provide, via at least one processor, user access to the reestablishing virtual machine, permitting a user to run user commands on the reestablishing virtual machine;
create, via at least one processor, by the reestablishing virtual machine, a latent virtual machine inside the reestablishing virtual machine;
fetch, via at least one processor, by the reestablishing virtual machine for both the reestablishing virtual machine and the latent virtual machine, when a user command is received by the reestablishing virtual machine, command data blocks associated with the user command that have not yet been fetched, and execute the user command by the reestablishing virtual machine;
fetch, via at least one processor, by the reestablishing virtual machine for the latent virtual machine, when not fetching command data blocks, remaining data blocks of the backup disk image that have not yet been fetched, in priority order specified by the recovery prioritization index, wherein the remaining data blocks are fetched from a source-nonspecific location when the remaining data blocks are available in equivalent form from the source-nonspecific location, and wherein the remaining data blocks are fetched from the backup device when the remaining data blocks are not available in equivalent form from a source-nonspecific location; and
reboot, via at least one processor, the reestablishing virtual machine to boot the latent virtual machine on the recovery device when the latent virtual machine substantially recreates the backup disk image.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the recovery device comprises host hardware running a host hypervisor.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the restore request datastructure is obtained from a recovery software agent as a result of a triggered event.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein the triggered event is one of: detecting that the source device is corrupted, detecting that the source device crashed, detecting that the source device is unreachable via network.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the source-nonspecific software to be restored comprises at least one of: operating system, file system, application software, configuration data, user data.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein fetching the source-nonspecific software to be restored from a source-nonspecific location provides a lower transmission time penalty compared to fetching from the backup device.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the recovery prioritization index specifies recovery priority rankings for sets of data blocks of the backup disk image.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the essential data blocks are data blocks sufficient to provide partial functionality similar to corresponding partial functionality of the source device via the reestablishing virtual machine to the user.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein essential data blocks associated with a source-nonspecific software available in equivalent form from a source-nonspecific location are prefetched from the source-nonspecific location, and other essential data blocks are prefetched from the backup device.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the latent virtual machine is created using a copy of the essential data blocks prefetched by the reestablishing virtual machine.

11. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the command data blocks associated with the user command are fetched from a source-nonspecific location.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the command data blocks associated with the user command are fetched in batches of data blocks associated with an application or a data set.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the remaining data blocks are fetched in batches of data blocks that improve the efficiency of reading or transmitting the remaining data blocks.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to fetch the remaining data blocks further comprise instructions to:
select, via at least one processor, a data block with the next highest recovery priority ranking from the remaining data blocks;
determine, via at least one processor, a source-nonspecific discrepancy hash for the selected data block;
determine, via at least one processor, a backup device discrepancy hash for the selected data block; and
determine, via at least one processor, that the selected data block should be fetched either from a source-nonspecific location when the source-nonspecific discrepancy hash matches the backup device discrepancy hash, or from the backup device when the source-nonspecific discrepancy hash does not match the backup device discrepancy hash.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , further, comprising:
the processor issues instructions from the virtual machine restore processing component, stored in the memory, to:
copy, via at least one processor, boot blocks of the backup disk image onto boot blocks of the reestablishing virtual machine to cause the latent virtual machine to boot upon a reboot.

16. A processor-readable recovery virtual machine restoring non-transient physical medium storing processor-executable components, the components, comprising:
a component collection stored in the medium, including:
a virtual machine restore processing component;
wherein the virtual machine restore processing component, stored in the medium, includes processor-issuable instructions to:
obtain, via at least one processor, by a recovery device, a restore request datastructure to build a recovery virtual machine using a backup disk image of a source device, wherein the backup disk image is stored on a backup device;
boot, via at least one processor, a reestablishing virtual machine on the recovery device;
determine, via at least one processor, by the reestablishing virtual machine, a recovery virtual machine configuration for the recovery virtual machine, wherein the recovery virtual machine

Assignees

• Datto Inc

Inventors

• Hutcheson Campbell
• Speirs Ii William Robert
• Gibbons Jr Robert J

Classifications

• G06F2009/45583

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

• G06F9/4406

  Loading of operating system · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F2009/45579

  I/O management, e.g. providing access to device drivers or storage · CPC title

• G06F2009/45575

  Starting, stopping, suspending or resuming virtual machine instances · CPC title