US 10,949,240 B2Granted

Live synchronization and management of virtual machines across computing and virtualization platforms and using live synchronization to support disaster recovery

AssigneeCommvault Systems, Inc.

InventorsHenry Wallace Dornemann, Ajay Venkat Nagrale, Rahul S. Pawar, Ananda Venkatesha

Life of this patent

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Abstract

An illustrative “Live Synchronization” feature in a data storage management system can reduce the downtime that arises in failover situations. The illustrative Live Sync embodiment uses backup data to create and maintain a ready (or “warm”) virtualized computing platform comprising one or more virtual machines (“VMs”) that are configured and ready to be activated and take over data processing from another data processing platform operating in the production environment. The “warm” computing platform awaits activation as a failover solution for the production system(s) and can be co-located at the production data center, or configured at a remote or disaster recovery site, which in some embodiments is configured “in the cloud.” Both local and remote illustrative embodiments are discussed herein. An “incremental forever” approach can be combined with deduplication and synthetic full backups to speed up data transfer and update the disaster recovery sites.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A system for synchronizing a virtual machine to another virtual machine, the system comprising:

a first virtual machine server comprising one or more processors and computer memory, wherein a first virtual machine executes over a first hypervisor operating on the first virtual machine server;
a first data agent associated with the first virtual machine server, wherein the first data agent executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory;
a second data agent associated with a second virtual machine server that is distinct from the first virtual machine server, wherein the second data agent executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory;
wherein the first data agent is configured to generate, at least in part, a first full backup copy of the first virtual machine,
wherein the first full backup copy is stored to a first secondary storage device, and
wherein the first full backup copy comprises, in a hypervisor-independent format, one or more configuration parameters of the first virtual machine converted into the hypervisor-independent format by the first data agent associated with the first virtual machine server;
wherein the second data agent is configured to cause a second virtual machine, based on the one or more configuration parameters of the first virtual machine, to be configured over a second hypervisor operating on the second virtual machine server;
wherein the second data agent is further configured to:
(a) obtain the one or more configuration parameters from the first full backup copy of the first virtual machine, (b) convert the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format into a format suitable for the second hypervisor, and (c) instruct the second virtual machine server to configure the second virtual machine according to the one or more configuration parameters converted into the format suitable for the second hypervisor;
wherein the second data agent is further configured to, at least in part, restore the first full backup copy to the second virtual machine in a native format accessible to the second virtual machine;
wherein the first data agent is further configured to generate, at least in part, successive incremental backup copies of the first virtual machine, each successive incremental copy comprising changes relative to a preceding backup copy of the first virtual machine;
and
wherein the second data agent is further configured to, at least in part, restore each successive incremental backup copy to the second virtual machine, thereby synchronizing the second virtual machine to the first virtual machine.

10 more elements

A system for synchronizing a virtual machine to another virtual machine, the system comprising:

a first virtual machine server comprising one or more processors and computer memory, wherein a first virtual machine executes over a first hypervisor operating on the first virtual machine server;
a first data agent associated with the first virtual machine server, wherein the first data agent executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory;
a second data agent associated with a second virtual machine server that is distinct from the first virtual machine server, wherein the second data agent executes on a computing device comprising one or more processors and computer memory;
wherein the first data agent is configured to generate in conjunction with a first media agent a first full backup copy of the first virtual machine,
wherein the first full backup copy is stored by the first media agent to a first secondary storage device, and
wherein the first full backup copy comprises, in a hypervisor-independent format, one or more configuration parameters of the first virtual machine converted into the hypervisor-independent format by the first data agent;
wherein the second data agent is configured to cause a second virtual machine, based on the one or more configuration parameters, to be configured over a second hypervisor operating on the second virtual machine server;
wherein the second data agent is further configured to:
(a) obtain the one or more configuration parameters from the first full backup copy of the first virtual machine, (b) convert the one or more configuration parameters from the hypervisor-independent format into a format suitable for the second hypervisor, and (c) instruct the second virtual machine server to configure the second virtual machine according to the converted one or more configuration parameters;
wherein the first data agent is further configured to generate in conjunction with the first media agent successive incremental backup copies of the first virtual machine, each successive incremental copy comprising changes relative to a preceding backup copy of the first virtual machine;
wherein the second data agent is further configured to in conjunction with a media agent restore the first full backup copy to the second virtual machine in a native format accessible to the second virtual machine;
and
wherein the second data agent is further configured to in conjunction with a media agent restore each successive incremental backup copy to the second virtual machine,
thereby making the second virtual machine ready to operate instead of the first virtual machine based on a most recent incremental backup copy of the first virtual machine restored to the second virtual machine.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/234,987Filed 28 Dec 2018 · continuation
Priority: 9 Dec 2015
Published: US 2019/0138342 A19 May 2019
Granted: 16 Mar 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06F 9/45558
Hypervisors; Virtual machine monitors: hypervisor-specific management and integration aspects
G06F 11/2038
Where processing functionality is redundant: with a single idle spare processing component
G06F 11/2048
Where processing functionality is redundant: where the redundant components share neither address space nor persistent storage
G06F 11/2097
Using active fault-masking, e.g. by switching out faulty elements or by switching in spare elements: maintaining the standby controller/processing…

Family

Application62/265,339Us provisional application · filed 9 Dec 2015
Application15/365,756Parent of this continuation · filed 30 Nov 2016
US 2019/0138342 A1Pre-grant publication · published 9 May 2019
US 10,228,962 B2Parent of this continuation
US 2017/0168903 A1Published application
US 10,949,240 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.