VM protection with true zero RTO

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11099770-B1
Application number	US-202016802120-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Feb 26, 2020
Priority date	Feb 26, 2020
Publication date	Aug 24, 2021
Grant date	Aug 24, 2021

Abstract

One example method includes powering off a replica VM, taking a snapshot of an OS disk of a source VM associated with the replica VM, taking a snapshot of an OS disk of the replica VM, generating a list of blocks that includes all blocks of the source VM OS disk that have changed since a preceding cloning or snapshot process and further includes all blocks of the replica VM OS disk that have changed since the preceding cloning or snapshot process, and performing an override of the replica VM disk by writing, to the replica VM OS disk, the respective source VM OS disk values for each block in the list of blocks.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
powering off a replica VM;
taking a snapshot of an OS disk of a source VM associated with the replica VM;
taking a snapshot of an OS disk of the replica VM;
generating a list of blocks that comprises all blocks of the source VM OS disk that have changed since a preceding cloning or snapshot process and further comprises all blocks of the replica VM OS disk that have changed since the preceding cloning or snapshot process; and
performing an override of the replica VM disk by writing, to the replica VM OS disk, the respective source VM OS disk values for each block in the list of blocks.

2. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising performing the following operations prior to powering off the replica VM:
performing an initial cloning process in which data from the source VM OS disk is cloned to the replica VM OS disk; and
taking a snapshot of the source VM OS disk, and taking a snapshot of the replica VM OS disk.

3. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising taking a snapshot of the replica VM OS disk after the override has been performed.

4. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein the operations are begun only after one or more criteria are met, and the criteria comprise: a periodic update basis; a cumulative update basis; an OS disk reboot requirement; and a critical update basis.

5. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein one or more blocks in the list of blocks are blocks of the replica VM OS disk that have been changed as a result of a process performed by the replica VM OS.

6. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising deleting, after the override is successfully completed, the snapshots of the OS disk of the replica VM and the OS disk of the source VM.

7. The method as recited in claim 1 , further comprising, after the override is successfully completed, connecting the replica VM OS disk to the replica VM, and powering up the replica VM.

8. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein all changes written to the replica VM OS disk in the override process are written from the source VM OS disk.

9. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein only values of source VM OS disk blocks that differ from respective values of corresponding replica VM OS disk blocks are written to the replica VM OS disk.

10. The method as recited in claim 1 , wherein generating the list of blocks comprises:
comparing the snapshot of the source VM OS disk with a snapshot of the source VM OS disk that was generated in a preceding cloning or snapshot process; and
comparing the snapshot of the replica VM OS disk with a snapshot of the replica VM OS disk that was generated in a preceding cloning or snapshot process.

11. A non-transitory storage medium having stored therein instructions that are executable by one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:
powering off a replica VM;
taking a snapshot of an OS disk of a source VM associated with the replica VM;
taking a snapshot of an OS disk of the replica VM;
generating a list of blocks that comprises all blocks of the source VM OS disk that have changed since a preceding cloning or snapshot process and further comprises all blocks of the replica VM OS disk that have changed since the preceding cloning or snapshot process; and
performing an override of the replica VM disk by writing, to the replica VM OS disk, the respective source VM OS disk values for each block in the list of blocks.

12. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise performing the following operations prior to powering off the replica VM:
performing an initial cloning process in which data from the source VM OS disk is cloned to the replica VM OS disk; and
taking a snapshot of the source VM OS disk, and taking a snapshot of the replica VM OS disk.

13. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise taking a snapshot of the replica VM OS disk after the override has been performed.

14. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein the operations are begun only after one or more criteria are met, and the criteria comprise: a periodic update basis; a cumulative update basis; an OS disk reboot requirement; and a critical update basis.

15. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein one or more blocks in the list of blocks are blocks of the replica VM OS disk that have been changed as a result of a process performed by the replica VM OS.

16. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise deleting, after the override is successfully completed, the snapshots of the OS disk of the replica VM and the OS disk of the source VM.

17. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprise, after the override is successfully completed, connecting the replica VM OS disk to the replica VM, and powering up the replica VM.

18. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein all changes written to the replica VM OS disk in the override process are written from the source VM OS disk.

19. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein only values of source VM OS disk blocks that differ from respective values of corresponding replica VM OS disk blocks are written to the replica VM OS disk.

20. The non-transitory storage medium as recited in claim 11 , wherein generating the list of blocks comprises:
comparing the snapshot of the source VM OS disk with a snapshot of the source VM OS disk that was generated in a preceding cloning or snapshot process; and
comparing the snapshot of the replica VM OS disk with a snapshot of the replica VM OS disk that was generated in a preceding cloning or snapshot process.

Assignees

• Emc Ip Holding Co Llc

Inventors

• Shemer Jehuda
• Said Jawad
• Wolfson Kfir

Classifications

• G06F2009/45583

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

• G06F2009/45575

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

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F9/45558

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F3/0619 Primary

  in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors · CPC title