Snapshot-based disaster recovery orchestration of virtual machine failover and failback

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2025036535-A1
Application number	US-202418918981-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 17, 2024
Priority date	Mar 26, 2020
Publication date	Jan 30, 2025
Grant date	—

Abstract

Snapshot-based disaster recovery (DR) orchestration systems and methods for virtual machine (VM) failover and failback do not require that VMs or their corresponding datastores be actively operating at the DR site before a DR orchestration job is initiated, i.e., before failover. An illustrative data storage management system deploys proprietary components at source data center(s) and at DR site(s). The proprietary components (e.g., storage manager, data agents, media agents, backup nodes, etc.) interoperate with each other and with the source and DR components to ensure that VMs will successfully failover and/or failback. DR orchestration jobs are suitable for testing VM failover scenarios (“clone testing”), for conducting planned VM failovers, and for unplanned VM failovers. DR orchestration jobs also handle failback and integration of DR-generated data into the failback site, including restoring VMs that never failed over to fully re-populate the source/failback site.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A data storage management system comprising one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon; and
one or more hardware processors that, having executed the computer-executable instructions, configure the data storage management system to: perform a first orchestration job comprising: one or more of: detect that a first virtual machine has failed, and cause the first virtual machine to be powered off, wherein a first datastore of the first virtual machine is configured in a first data storage volume of a primary data storage; cause the primary data storage (i) to take a first snapshot of the first data storage volume, and (ii) to store the first snapshot at the primary data storage;
cause data captured by the first snapshot to be replicated from the primary data storage to a second data storage volume that is configured in a failover data storage that is distinct from the primary data storage,
wherein the primary data storage and the failover data storage have a mirror-relationship that enables replication of data therebetween; cause a failover virtualization manager to cause a virtual machine host computing device to power up a second virtual machine and to provide the second virtual machine with access to the second data storage volume as a second datastore of the second virtual machine, wherein the second datastore comprises the data captured by the first snapshot, and wherein the second datastore is created, and the second virtual machine is powered up, on-demand by the first orchestration job.

2 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the data storage management system to initiate the first orchestration job for a planned failover of the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

3 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual machine has failed due to one or more of: (a) a failure at a first virtual machine host computing device that hosts the first virtual machine, (b) a failure at the primary data storage, and (c) a failure at a first virtualization manager associated with the first virtual machine host computing device.

4 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual machine executes in one of: a first virtualized data center and a first cloud computing environment; and
wherein after the first orchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in a second virtualized data center.

5 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual machine executes in one of: a first virtualized data center and a first cloud computing environment; and
wherein after the first orchestration job, the second virtual machine executes in a second cloud computing environment.

6 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the data storage management system to perform a second first orchestration job that causes the second virtual machine to fail back to the first virtual machine, wherein the second first orchestration job causes a first virtualization manager to re-activate the first virtual machine and establishes in the primary data storage the first datastore of the re-activated first virtual machine based on a second snapshot of the second data storage volume.

7 . The data storage management system of claim 6 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the data storage management system to:
determine that a third virtual machine is not included in a failover group that comprises the first virtual machine; determine that the third virtual machine is powered off and did not fail over in the first orchestration job; identify a backup copy of the third virtual machine; perform a restore job that restores the backup copy of the third virtual machine to a third data storage volume at the primary data storage; and cause the first virtualization manager to re-activate the third virtual machine with access to the third data storage volume as a third datastore of the third virtual machine.

8 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the first virtual machine and the second virtual machine are part of a failover group defined in administrative settings of the data storage management system.

9 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the data storage management system to instruct a data agent to cause a first virtualization manager to power off the first virtual machine.

10 . The data storage management system of claim 1 , wherein the first orchestration job comprises an auxiliary copy job that causes the data captured by the first snapshot to be replicated from the primary data storage to the second data storage volume.

11 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a first computing device comprising one or more hardware processors, cause the first computing device to:
initiate a disaster recovery orchestration job for a first virtual machine, wherein the disaster recovery orchestration job comprises: one or more of: detect that the first virtual machine has failed, and cause the first virtual machine to be powered off, wherein a first datastore of the first virtual machine is configured in a first data storage volume of a primary data storage; cause the primary data storage (i) to take a first snapshot of the first data storage volume, and (ii) to store the first snapshot at the primary data storage;
cause an auxiliary copy job to replicate data captured by the first snapshot at a second data storage volume in a failover data storage that is distinct from the primary data storage,
wherein the primary data storage and the failover data storage have a mirror-relationship that enables replication of data therebetween; cause a failover virtualization manager to cause a virtual machine host computing device to power up a second virtual machine and to provide the second virtual machine with access to the second data storage volume as a second datastore of the second virtual machine, wherein the second datastore comprises the data captured by the first snapshot, and wherein the second datastore is created, and the second virtual machine is powered up, on-demand by the disaster recovery orchestration job.

12 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the first computing device to initiate the disaster recovery orchestration job for a planned failover of the first virtual machine to the second virtual machine.

13 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the first virtual machine has failed due to one or more of: (a) a failure at a first virtual machine host computing device that hosts the first virtual machine, (b) a failure at the primary data storage, and (c) a failure at a first virtualization manager associated with the first virtual machine host computing device.

14 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the first computing device to activate, on-demand, a data agent associated with the failover virtualization manager.

15 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the first virtual machine executes in one of: a first virtualized data center and a first cloud computing environment; and
wherein after the disaster reco

Assignees

• Commvault Systems Inc

Inventors

• Polimera Rajesh
• JOSEPH Sarath Cheriyan
• Kumar Kuldeep
• Ramgiri Venkata Chalapathi Sucheth
• Sancheti Ashwin Gautamchand
• Mani Madhumitha
• Dornemann Henry Wallace

Classifications

• G06F11/1469

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title

• G06F2201/84

  Using snapshots, i.e. a logical point-in-time copy of the data · CPC title

• G06F2201/82

  Solving problems relating to consistency · CPC title

• G06F2201/815

  Virtual · CPC title

• G06F2009/45583

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