System and method for agentless backup of virtual machines

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9996425-B2
Application number	US-201615131872-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 18, 2016
Priority date	Apr 18, 2016
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for performing agentless backup of a virtual machine using a temporary attached virtual disk. An example method includes creating a virtual machine disk in a datastore, loading a software application in the virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine, communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine, collecting the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine, generating a snapshot of the virtual machine, and storing a backup of the virtual machine in a backup archive based on the snapshot.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for generating a backup of a virtual machine, the method comprising:
creating, by a processor, a virtual machine disk with a plurality of partitions in a datastore;
creating at least one partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-only partition and at least another partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-write partition;
loading, by the processor, a software application in the read-only partition of the virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine;
communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine;
collecting, by the software application, the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine and storing the metadata in a portion of the read-write partition, in order to facilitate recovery of the at least one application from a backup archive;
generating a snapshot of the virtual machine;
performing post-snapshot operations on the snapshot; and
storing, by the processor, a backup of the virtual machine in the backup archive based on the snapshot.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising recovering the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine in the event of an error of the at least one application executing based on the collected metadata.

3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising deleting, by the processor, the snapshot of the virtual machine after the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup archive.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
creating, by a processor, another virtual machine disk in the datastore;
allocating the virtual machine disk for read-only operations and the another virtual machine disk for read-write operations;
loading, by the processor, the software application in the virtual machine disk allocated for read-only operations.

5. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine in an independent mode.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the post-snapshot operations comprises executing service batch files.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
restoring the snapshot from the backup device to the virtual machine; and
mapping the metadata corresponding to the at least one application into their original location.

8. A system for generating a backup of a virtual machine, the system comprising:
a datastore; and
a processor configured to:
create a virtual machine disk with a plurality of partitions in a datastore;
create at least one partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-only partition and at least another partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-write partition;
load a software application in the read-only virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine;
communicatively couple the datastore to the virtual machine;
send at least one instruction to the software application in the virtual machine disk to collect the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine and to store the metadata in a portion of the read-write partition, in order to facilitate recovery of the at least one application from a backup archive;
cause a snapshot of the virtual machine to be generated;
perform post-snapshot operations on the snapshot; and
store a backup of the virtual machine in the backup archive based on the snapshot.

9. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to recover the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine in the event of an error of the at least one application executing based on the collected metadata.

10. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to delete the snapshot of the virtual machine after the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup archive.

11. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to:
create another virtual machine disk in the datastore;
allocate the virtual machine disk for read-only operations and the another virtual machine disk for read-write operations;
load the software application in the virtual machine disk allocated for read-only operations.

12. The system according to claim 8 , wherein the processor is further configured to communicatively couple the datastore to the virtual machine in an independent mode.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the post-snapshot operations comprises executing service batch files.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions for generating a backup of a virtual machine, including instructions for:
creating a virtual machine disk with a plurality of partitions in a datastore;
creating at least one partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-only partition and at least another partition of the plurality of partitions as a read-write partition,
loading a software application in the read-only virtual machine disk, the software application being configured to collect metadata relating to at least one application executing in an operating system of the virtual machine;
communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine;
collecting the metadata relating to the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine and storing the metadata in a portion of the read-write partition, in order to facilitate recovery of the at least one application from a backup archive;
generating a snapshot of the virtual machine;
performing post-snapshot operations on the snapshot; and
storing a backup of the virtual machine in the backup archive based on the snapshot.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14 , further including instructions for recovering the at least one application executing in the operating system of the virtual machine in the event of an error of the at least one application executing based on the collected metadata.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14 , further including instructions for deleting the snapshot of the virtual machine after the backup of the virtual machine is stored in the backup archive.

17. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14 , further including instructions for:
creating, by a processor, another virtual machine disk in the datastore;
allocating the virtual machine disk for read-only operations and the another virtual machine disk for read-write operations;
loading, by the processor, the software application in the virtual machine disk allocated for read-only operations.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 14 , further including instructions for communicatively coupling the datastore to the virtual machine in an independent mode.

Assignees

• Acronis Int Gmbh

Inventors

• Shulga Victor
• Semyonov Vasily
• Protasov Stanislav
• Shumlevich Mark
• Beloussov Serguei

Classifications

• G06F2201/815

  Virtual · CPC title

• G06F11/1438

  Restarting or rejuvenating · CPC title

• G06F9/45558 Primary

  Hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects · CPC title

• G06F11/1484

  involving virtual machines · CPC title

• G06F11/1451 Primary

  by selection of backup contents · CPC title