Systems and methods to load applications and application data into a virtual machine using hypervisor-attached volumes

A data management system, comprising:

• a plurality of storage volumes;
• a hypervisor configured to operate a plurality of virtual machines having secondary storage volumes, wherein the virtual machines include virtual machine agent running which start based on an attach-triggering event;
• and
• a virtual machine manager configured to identify selected storage volumes to be attached to the plurality of virtual machines based on a request generated by the virtual agent in response to the attach-triggering event, wherein the hypervisor is configured to dynamically attach the storage volumes to the secondary storage volumes associated with the plurality of virtual machines.

A computer readable medium having program instruction stored thereon for operating a data management system, wherein the program instructions, when executed by the data management system, direct the data management system to:

• a virtual machine agent running within a virtual machine responding to an attach-triggering event;
• determine selected storage volumes to be attached to the virtual machine based on a request generated by the virtual agent in response to the attach-triggering event;
• and
• dynamically attach the selected storage volumes to the virtual machine.