US 8,135,748 B2 · Virtual machine data replication

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and system for selectively restoring file-level data from a disk image backup. In embodiments, a virtual machine backup may be performed by dividing a virtual machine virtual disk file into a plurality of discrete fixed-sized data blocks sharing a common index file that is stored on a backup medium, such as a hard drive, to form a backup set. Upon restoration of data from the backup set, individual blocks of the data set are compared to corresponding blocks of the target virtual machine file. Redundant data and unchanged blocks are skipped, and only those block which have changed are restored to the target file. In this manner network bandwidth and processor resources are conserved, and replication times decreased.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A method for restoring to a first storage device a virtual machine file data from a second storage device containing a backup set of the virtual machine data file, the backup set including at least one backup datablock and an index file, comprising the steps of:

identifying a backup data block of the backup set corresponding to a target data block of the virtual machine file;
evaluating whether a corresponding target data block has changed since a previous restoration;
writing the backup data block to the target data block in response to an evaluation that the corresponding target data block has changed since a previous restoration;
computing a hash value corresponding to a stored datablock;
determining whether the computed hash value is equal to a stored hash value corresponding to the stored datablock;
and
causing the entirety of the backup set to be written to the first storage device responsive to a determination that the computed hash value does not equal the stored hash value.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Virtual machine data replication

Life of this patent

Virtual machine data replication

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15