Systems and methods for virtual machine boot disk restoration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9740520-B1
Application number	US-201514871037-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Sep 30, 2015
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for virtual machine boot disk restoration may include (1) identifying a hypervisor that hosts at least one virtual machine, where a replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data stored by the virtual machine, including a virtual machine boot disk used by the virtual machine, to a data repository that is separate from the hypervisor, (2) determining that the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine, including boot disk data replicated from the virtual machine boot disk, (3) attaching, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to a storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor, and (4) restoring, from the replication system and via the storage proxy virtual machine, the boot disk data back to the virtual machine boot disk. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for virtual machine boot disk restoration, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing device comprising at least one processor, the method comprising:
identifying a hypervisor that hosts at least one virtual machine, wherein a replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data stored by the virtual machine, including a virtual machine boot disk used by the virtual machine, to a data repository that is separate from the hypervisor;
determining that the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine, including boot disk data replicated from the virtual machine boot disk;
attaching, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to a storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor;
restoring, from the replication system and via the storage proxy virtual machine, the boot disk data replicated from the virtual machine boot disk back to the virtual machine boot disk.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the replication system lacks direct access via a storage area network to a storage device that stores the virtual machine boot disk for the hypervisor.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data stored by the virtual machine by communicating with the virtual machine.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual machine is offline when the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine, preventing the replication system from restoring at least a portion of the replicated virtual machine data via communication with the virtual machine.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein attaching, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor comprises bringing the storage proxy virtual machine online in response to determining that the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein:
the hypervisor hosts a plurality of virtual machines;
the replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data for each of the plurality of virtual machines, including a plurality of virtual machine boot disks;
attaching the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine comprises attaching the plurality of virtual machine boot disks to the storage proxy virtual machine.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
bringing the virtual machine online after restoring the boot disk data to the virtual machine boot disk;
restoring at least a portion of the replicated virtual machine data from the replication system by communicating directly with the virtual machine.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising restoring, from the replication system and via the storage proxy virtual machine, an additional portion of the replicated virtual machine data to an additional virtual machine disk.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein attaching, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor comprises creating, according to a storage networking protocol used by the replication system, a logical volume that maps onto the virtual machine boot disk.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein attaching, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor comprises connecting the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine with a virtual storage interface adapter.

11. A system for virtual machine boot disk restoration, the system comprising:
an identification module, stored in memory, that identifies a hypervisor that hosts at least one virtual machine, wherein a replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data stored by the virtual machine, including a virtual machine boot disk used by the virtual machine, to a data repository that is separate from the hypervisor;
a determination module, stored in memory, that determines that the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine, including boot disk data replicated from the virtual machine boot disk;
an attachment module, stored in memory, that attaches, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to a storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor;
a restoration module, stored in memory, that restores, from the replication system and via the storage proxy virtual machine, the boot disk data replicated from the virtual machine boot disk back to the virtual machine boot disk;
at least one physical processor configured to execute the identification module, the determination module, the attachment module, and the restoration module.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the replication system lacks direct access via a storage area network to a storage device that stores the virtual machine boot disk for the hypervisor.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data stored by the virtual machine by communicating with the virtual machine.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the virtual machine is offline when the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine, preventing the replication system from restoring at least a portion of the replicated virtual machine data via communication with the virtual machine.

15. The system of claim 11 , wherein the attachment module attaches, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor by bringing the storage proxy virtual machine online in response to determining that the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine.

16. The system of claim 11 , wherein:
the hypervisor hosts a plurality of virtual machines;
the replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data for each of the plurality of virtual machines, including a plurality of virtual machine boot disks;
attaching the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine comprises attaching the plurality of virtual machine boot disks to the storage proxy virtual machine.

17. The system of claim 11 , wherein the restoration module further:
brings the virtual machine online after restoring the boot disk data to the virtual machine boot disk;
restores at least a portion of the replicated virtual machine data from the replication system by communicating directly with the virtual machine.

18. The system of claim 11 , the restoration module restores, from the replication system and via the storage proxy virtual machine, an additional portion of the replicated virtual machine data to an additional virtual machine disk.

19. The system of claim 11 , wherein the attachment module attaches, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to the storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor by creating, according to a storage networking protocol used by the replication system, a logical volume that maps onto the virtual machine boot disk.

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Assignees

• Veritas Technologies Llc
• Veritas Tech

Inventors

• Sarda Pooja
• Modi Dipen

Classifications

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F2009/45575

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

• G06F11/1464

  for networked environments · CPC title

• G06F11/1469

  Backup restoration techniques · CPC title

• G06F11/1448

  Management of the data involved in backup or backup restore · CPC title