Cross-hypervisor live mount of backed up virtual machine data

A system comprising:

• a first computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, wherein a first hypervisor executes thereon;
• a second computing device in communication with the first computing device, wherein the second computing device comprises one or more processors and computer memory and further comprises cache storage;
• a backup copy of a second virtual machine that executed over a second hypervisor of a different type from the first hypervisor,
• wherein the backup copy was generated in a hypervisor-independent format by a block-level backup operation of a second virtual disk of the second virtual machine;
• and
• wherein the second computing device is configured to:
• cause the cache storage to be mounted to the first hypervisor as native storage for one or more virtual machines that will execute over the first hypervisor, including a first virtual machine,
• configure within the cache storage a first virtual disk for storing data for the first virtual machine,
• associate the backup copy of the second virtual machine with the first virtual disk,
• intercept from the first hypervisor a first read request issued by the first virtual machine for a first data block to be obtained from the first virtual disk,
• based on determining that the first data block is not in the first virtual disk:
• (i) read the first data block from the backup copy, and (ii) store the first data block to the first virtual disk, and
• based on determining that the first data block is in the first virtual disk, serve the first data block from the first virtual disk to the first hypervisor,
• thereby providing the first data block to the first virtual machine on the first hypervisor from the backup copy of the second virtual machine, which used the second hypervisor of a different type from the first hypervisor.

A system comprising:

• a first computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory, wherein a first hypervisor executes thereon;
• a second computing device in communication with the first computing device, wherein a media agent in communication with the first hypervisor executes on the second computing device, and wherein the second computing device comprises one or more processors and computer memory and further comprises cache storage maintained by the media agent;
• a backup copy of a second virtual machine that executed over a second hypervisor, wherein the backup copy was generated in a hypervisor-independent format by a block-level backup operation of a second virtual disk of the second virtual machine;
• wherein the second computing device is configured to:
• by the media agent, cause the cache storage to be mounted to the first hypervisor, thereby providing native data storage to the first hypervisor for one or more virtual machines to execute over the first hypervisor, including a first virtual machine,
• by the media agent, configure within the cache storage a first virtual disk for storing data for the first virtual machine,
• by the media agent, associate the backup copy of the second virtual machine with the first virtual disk,
• by the media agent, intercepting from the first hypervisor a first read request issued by the first virtual machine for a first data block to be read from the first virtual disk,
• based on determining by the media agent that the first data block is not in the first virtual disk, by the media agent:
• (i) reading the first data block from the backup copy, and (ii) storing the first data block to the first virtual disk,
• based on determining by the media agent that first data block is in the first virtual disk, serving the first data block from the first virtual disk to the first hypervisor, thereby providing the first data block from the backup copy of the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine to use.