Creation of virtual machine packages using incremental state updates

In a data management and storage (DMS) cluster comprising a plurality of peer DMS nodes that service a compute infrastructure and a distributed data store implemented across the peer DMS nodes, a method comprising:

• pulling and saving a first snapshot at a first point in time of a first state of a target machine in the compute infrastructure;
• creating a first virtual machine (VM) package associated with the first snapshot, by creating a first storage volume on a first destination VM platform, writing the first snapshot into the first storage volume, and converting the first storage volume for the first VM package usable on the first destination VM platform, wherein the first VM package includes associated information to instantiate a VM emulating the target machine with the first state on the first destination VM platform, the first VM package further including software that is ready to run on the first destination VM platform;
• pulling and saving a second snapshot at a second point in time of a second state of the target machine, wherein the second state occurs after the first state;
• creating a second VM package associated with the second snapshot for use on a second destination VM platform by creating a second storage volume based on the first storage volume, and updating the second storage volume on the destination VM platform based on offsets and data size differences between the first snapshot and the second snapshot, wherein the second VM package is sufficient to instantiate the VM emulating the target machine with the second state usable on the second destination VM platform;
• and
• launching a VM instance using a virtual machine image of the first VM package in the first destination VM platform or using the second VM package in the second destination VM platform.

A data management and storage (DMS) cluster for managing machine backups usable on different virtual machine (VM) platforms, the DMS cluster comprising:

• a plurality of peer DMS nodes that autonomously service a compute infrastructure;
• a distributed data store implemented across the peer DMS nodes;
• wherein each of the peer DMS nodes includes a software stack for:
• pulling a first snapshot at a first point in time of a first state of a target machine in the compute infrastructure;
• creating a first virtual machine (VM) package associated with the first snapshot, by creating a first storage volume on a first destination VM platform, writing the first snapshot into the first storage volume, and converting the first storage volume for the first VM package usable on the first a destination VM platform, wherein the first VM package includes associated information to instantiate a VM emulating the target machine with the first state on the first destination VM platform, the first VM package further including software that is ready to run on the first destination VM platform,
• pulling a second snapshot at a second point in time of a second state of the target machine, wherein the second state occurs after the first state;
• creating a second VM package associated with the second snapshot, for use on a second destination VM platform by creating a second storage volume based on the first storage volume, and updating the second storage volume on the destination VM platform based on offsets and data sizes differences between the first snapshot and the second snapshot, wherein the second VM package sufficient to instantiate the VM emulating the target machine with the second state on the second destination VM platform;
• and
• launching a VM instance using a virtual machine image of the first VM package in the first destination VM platform or using the second VM package in the second destination VM platform.