Disaster recovery for virtual machines across primary and secondary sites

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9020895-B1
Application number	US-201113335427-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Dec 22, 2011
Priority date	Dec 27, 2010
Publication date	Apr 28, 2015
Grant date	Apr 28, 2015

Abstract

A processing system stores a backup of virtual machine data on a storage device in a primary network storage system. A virtual machine running on a primary host machine, which is coupled to the primary network storage system, generates the virtual machine data. A replication software module replicates the backup of the virtual machine data from the primary network storage system to a secondary network storage system. In the event of a failure on the first network storage system, disaster recovery services module restores the virtual machine data from the secondary network storage system to cause the virtual machine to run on a secondary host machine coupled to the secondary network storage system, wherein the disaster recovery services module is coupled to the primary host machine and the secondary host machine over a network.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
indicating, from a disaster recovery services module to a first data protection module via a network, that a snapshot of a virtual machine should be stored in a primary network storage system, wherein a primary host machine comprises the first data protection module, wherein the primary host machine is coupled with the primary network storage system, wherein the virtual machine is executing on the primary host machine;
storing, by the primary host machine, the snapshot of the virtual machine on one or more storage devices in the primary network storage system, wherein the snapshot of the virtual machine represents a state of the virtual machine at the time of the snapshot;
replicating the snapshot of the virtual machine from the primary network storage system to a secondary network storage system;
detecting, by the disaster recovery services module, a failure of at least one of the primary host machine or the primary network storage system;
in response to detecting the failure of at least one of the primary host machine and the primary network storage system,
determining, by the disaster recovery services module, a secondary host machine, wherein the secondary host machine is coupled with the secondary network storage system, wherein the secondary host machine comprises a second data protection module; and
indicating, from the disaster recovery services module to the second data protection module via the network, that the virtual machine should be restored to the secondary host machine; and

restoring, by the second data protection module, the virtual machine to the secondary host machine based, at least in part, on the snapshot of the virtual machine replicated to the secondary network storage system, wherein restoring the virtual machine to the secondary host machine begins execution of the virtual machine on the secondary host machine at the state of the virtual machine at the time of the snapshot.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the snapshot of the virtual machine comprises a persistent point-in-time image of the virtual machine.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said replicating the snapshot of the virtual machine from the primary network storage system to the secondary network storage system comprises mirroring the persistent point-in-time image to one or more storage devices in the secondary network storage system.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
storing metadata associated with the snapshot of the virtual machine on one or more storage devices in the primary network storage system, the metadata comprising a host name of the primary host machine.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
replicating the metadata from the primary network storage system to the secondary network storage system.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:
determining a host name of the secondary host machine.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said restoring the virtual machine to the secondary host machine comprises:
replacing the host name of the primary host machine in the metadata with the host name of the secondary host machine.

8. A system comprising:
a device comprising a disaster recovery services module and a first processor, the disaster recovery services module comprising a first machine readable storage medium having program code stored therein that is executable by the first processor to cause the device to,
indicate, to a first data protection module via a network, that a snapshot of a virtual machine should be stored in a primary network storage system;
detect a failure of at least one of a primary host machine or the primary network storage system; and
in response to detection of a failure of at least one of the primary host machine or the primary network storage system, indicate, to a second data protection module via the network, that the virtual machine should be restored to the secondary host machine;

the primary host machine coupled with the primary network storage system, the primary host machine comprising the first data protection module and a second processor, the primary host machine configured to execute the virtual machine,
wherein the first data protection module comprises a second machine readable storage medium having program code stored therein that is executable by the second processor to cause the primary host machine to,
store the snapshot of the virtual machine to the primary network storage system, wherein the snapshot of the virtual machine represents a state of the virtual machine at the time of the snapshot;

the primary network storage system comprising a first set of one or more storage devices, the primary network storage system configured to replicate the snapshot of the virtual machine from the primary network storage system to a secondary network storage system;
the secondary network storage system comprising a second set of one or more storage devices; and
the secondary host machine coupled with the secondary network storage system, the secondary host machine comprising the second data protection module and a third processor, the secondary host machine configured to execute the virtual machine,
wherein the second data protection module comprises a third machine readable storage medium having program code stored therein that is executable by the third processor to cause the secondary host machine to,
restore the virtual machine to the secondary host machine based, at least in part, on the snapshot of the virtual machine replicated to the secondary network storage system, wherein restoration of the virtual machine to the secondary host machine begins execution of the virtual machine on the secondary host machine at a state of the virtual machine at the time of the snapshot.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the snapshot of the virtual machine comprises a persistent point-in-time image of the virtual machine.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the primary network storage system being configured to replicate the snapshot of the virtual machine from the primary network storage system to the secondary network storage system comprises the primary network storage system being configured to mirror the persistent point-in-time image to the secondary network storage system.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the program code executable by the second processor further comprises program code executable by the second processor to cause the primary data host machine to:
store metadata associated with the snapshot of the virtual machine to the primary network storage system, the metadata comprising a host name of the primary host machine.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the primary network storage system is further configured to:
replicate the metadata from the primary network storage system to the secondary network storage system.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein when the program code being executable by the third processor to cause the secondary host machine to restore the virtual machine to the secondary host machine comprises program code executable by the third processor to cause the secondary host machine to:
determine a hostname associated with the secondary host machine; and
replace the host name of the primary host machine in the metadata with the host name of the secondary host machine.

14. A device comprising:
a processor; and
a machine readable storage medium having program code stored therein that is executable by the processor to cause the device to,
indicate, via a network, to a first data protection module on a primary host machine, that a snapshot of a virtual machine should be stor

Assignees

• Rajashekar Rajesh
• Bhalodia Atul
• Barve Anagha
• Karinta Vineeth
• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Rajashekar Rajesh
• Bhalodia Atul
• Barve Anagha
• Karinta Vineeth

Classifications

• G06F16/2308

  Concurrency control (transaction processing G06F9/466) · CPC title

• G06F11/0712 Primary

  in a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems · CPC title

• G06F17/30008 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F16/128

  Details of file system snapshots on the file-level, e.g. snapshot creation, administration, deletion (error detection or correction of the data by redundancy in operations or in hardware G06F11/14, G06F11/16) · CPC title

• G06F16/188 Primary

  Virtual file systems · CPC title