Method and system for replicating virtual machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9575792-B2
Application number	US-201414211446-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 14, 2014
Priority date	Mar 14, 2014
Publication date	Feb 21, 2017
Grant date	Feb 21, 2017

Abstract

Methods and systems for replicating a virtual machine and its associated data containers are provided. The virtual machine is placed in an inactive state and a replication directory is generated for cloning each data container from an active directory to the replication directory. The clone of each data container references a physical location where data associated with each data container is stored; and thereafter, the virtual machine is placed in an active state after the cloning is completed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A machine implemented method, comprising:
determining by a virtual machine monitor plugin module for a replication operation, information regarding data containers associated with a virtual machine;
placing the virtual machine in an inactive state by the virtual machine monitor plugin module for performing the replication operation to replicate the virtual machine and data containers associated with the virtual machine;
creating a point in time copy by the virtual machine monitor plugin module of a memory used by the virtual machine for deletion after the replication operation is completed;
generating a replication directory by a processor executable replication module for cloning each data container from an active directory to the replication directory, where the clone of each data container is a single instance storage clone that references to a physical storage location where data associated with each data container is stored; wherein the data containers are cloned individually rather than taking a snapshot of an entire storage volume used for storing the data containers; wherein the replication directory is stored using a same storage volume as the data associated with each data container, where the same storage volume is a logical storage object that is an abstraction of physical storage space, and the replication directory stores metadata for the replication operation, the metadata including a list of replicated data containers and their respective storage paths;
deleting by the virtual machine monitor plugin module the point in time copy of the memory used by the virtual machine; and
activating the virtual machine by the virtual machine monitor plugin module, after cloning is completed.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the replication module interfaces with a virtual machine monitor to determine information regarding the data containers during a discovery operation.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the replication module interfaces with a storage operating system that maintains a data structure which provides a reference to the physical location where data associated with each data container is stored.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the data structure maintains a reference count denoting a number of instances the physical location is referenced.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the metadata further includes a time stamp for the replication operation indicating when the replication operation took place.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the metadata is used for restoring the replicated data containers.

7. A non-transitory, machine readable storage medium storing executable instructions, which when executed by a machine, causes the machine to perform a method for replicating a virtual machine, the method comprising:
determining by a virtual machine monitor plugin module for a replication operation, information regarding data containers associated with a virtual machine;
placing the virtual machine in an inactive state by the virtual machine monitor plugin module for performing the replication operation to replicate the virtual machine and data containers associated with the virtual machine;
creating a point in time copy by the virtual machine monitor plugin module of a memory used by the virtual machine for deletion after the replication operation is completed;
generating a replication directory by a processor executable replication module for cloning each data container from an active directory to the replication directory, where the clone of each data container is a single instance storage clone that references to a physical storage location where data associated with each data container is stored; wherein the data containers are cloned individually rather than taking a snapshot of an entire storage volume used for storing the data containers; wherein the replication directory is stored using a same storage volume as the data associated with each data container, where the same storage volume is a logical storage object that is an abstraction of physical storage space, and the replication directory stores metadata for the replication operation, the metadata including a list of replicated data containers and their respective storage paths;
deleting by the virtual machine monitor plugin module the point in time copy of the memory used by the virtual machine; and
activating the virtual machine by the virtual machine monitor plugin module, after cloning is completed.

8. The storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the replication module interfaces with the virtual machine monitor to determine information regarding the data containers during a discovery operation.

9. The storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the replication module interfaces with a storage operating system that maintains a data structure which provides a reference to the physical location where data associated with each data container is stored.

10. The storage medium of claim 9 , wherein the data structure maintains a reference count denoting a number of instances the physical location is referenced.

11. The storage medium of claim 7 , wherein the metadata further includes a time stamp for the replication operation indicating when the replication operation took place.

12. The storage medium of claim 11 , wherein the metadata is used for restoring the replicated data containers.

13. A system, comprising:
a processor executing instructions out of a memory to execute a method, the method
comprising:
determining by a virtual machine monitor plugin module for a replication operation, information regarding data containers associated with a virtual machine;
placing the virtual machine in an inactive state by the virtual machine monitor plugin module for performing the replication operation to replicate the virtual machine and data containers associated with the virtual machine;
creating a point in time copy by the virtual machine monitor plugin module of a memory used by the virtual machine for deletion after the replication operation is completed;
generating a replication directory by a processor executable replication module for cloning each data container from an active directory to the replication directory, where the clone of each data container is a single instance storage clone that references to a physical storage location where data associated with each data container is stored; wherein the data containers are cloned individually rather than taking a snapshot of an entire storage volume used for storing the data containers; wherein the replication directory is stored using a same storage volume as the data associated with each data container, where the same storage volume is a logical storage object that is an abstraction of physical storage space, and the replication directory stores metadata for the replication operation, the metadata including a list of replicated data containers and their respective storage paths;
deleting by the virtual machine monitor plugin module the point in time copy of the memory used by the virtual machine; and
activating the virtual machine by the virtual machine monitor plugin module, after cloning is completed.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the metadata further includes a time stamp for the replication operation indicating when the replication operation took place.

15. The storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the metadata is used for restoring the replicated data containers.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the replication module interfaces with the virtual machine monitor to determine information regarding the data containers during a discovery

Assignees

• Netapp Inc

Inventors

• Robinson Matthew Douglas
• Tenzer Keith

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F11/1456

  Hardware arrangements for backup · CPC title

• G06F2009/45562

  Creating, deleting, cloning virtual machine instances · CPC title

• G06F2009/4557

  Distribution of virtual machine instances; Migration and load balancing · CPC title

• G06F2201/815

  Virtual · CPC title