Method and system for migrating a selected set of virtual machines between volumes

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon, computer executable instructions that, if executed by a computer system cause the computer system to perform a method comprising:

• receiving a list of virtual machines which are not migrating from a first volume to a second volume;
• accessing a host file system usage map of a host machine that indicates active blocks out of a plurality of blocks of the host file system on the first volume;
• accessing a plurality of virtual file system usage maps of a plurality of virtual machines that indicate active blocks of the virtual file systems out of a plurality of blocks of the first volume;
• generating a filter usage map that identifies the active blocks of the virtual machines which are not migrating, and based on the virtual file system usage maps and the host file system usage map;
• migrating the plurality of virtual machines from the first volume to the second volume, wherein the active blocks of the virtual file systems which are not migrating are skipped in accordance with the filter usage map;
• and
• processing metadata at the second volume to properly reflect the virtual machines which were not migrated.

A volume replication system, comprising:

• a computer system having a processor coupled to a computer-readable storage media and executing computer readable code which causes the computer system to implement a replication manager module, wherein the replication manager module operates to:
• receive a list of virtual machines which are not migrating from a first volume to a second volume;
• access a host file system usage map of a host machine that indicates active blocks out of a plurality of blocks of the host file system on the first volume;
• access a plurality of virtual file system usage maps of a plurality of virtual machines that indicate active blocks of the virtual file systems out of a plurality of blocks of the first volume;
• generate a filter usage map that identifies the active blocks of the virtual machines which are not migrating, and based on the virtual file system usage maps and the host file system usage map;
• migrate the plurality of virtual machines from the first volume to the second volume, wherein the active blocks of the virtual file systems which are not migrating are skipped in accordance with the filter usage map;
• and
• process metadata at the second volume to properly reflect the virtual machines which were not migrated.