Information management of virtual machines having mapped storage devices

A method for creating and using a backup copy of a virtual machine, the method being performed by a processor executing instructions stored in a memory, the method comprising:

• determining that a virtual machine can directly read data and metadata from and write data and metadata to an external storage device via a logical mapping,
• wherein the logical mapping includes a logical unit number (LUN),
• wherein the LUN is used to identify a logical unit, and,
• wherein the virtual machine has a virtual disk;
• creating a snapshot of the virtual disk for the virtual machine;
• wherein the snapshot is a set of pointers that reference data and metadata as the data and metadata existed at a particular point in time;
• taking a snapshot of at least a portion of the mapped external storage device to create a snapshot copy of the mapped external storage device;
• associating the snapshot copy of the virtual disk with the snapshot copy of the mapped external storage device in a data structure;
• and
• using the snapshot copies to either revert or restore the virtual machine.

At least one tangible non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions in a memory, which when executed by at least one data processing device perform a method for creating a backup, copy of a virtual machine, comprising:

• discovering a virtual machine;
• discovering at least one virtual disk and a logical unit number (LUN) for the virtual machine,
• wherein the LUN is a number used to identify a logical unit,
• wherein the LUN is mapped to the virtual machine via a physical raw device mapping,
• wherein physical raw device mapping (PRDM) allows the virtual machine to directly read data and metadata from and write data and metadata to a virtual storage device;
• creating a tracking data structure that includes the virtual machine, the virtual disk, and the mapped LUN;
• taking at least one snapshot of the virtual disk and at least one snapshot of the mapped LUN to create snapshot copies,
• wherein the snapshot is a set of pointers that reference data and metadata as the data and metadata existed at a particular point in time
• mounting the snapshot copies at a proxy virtual host;
• and
• creating a non-production copy of the virtual machine from the proxy virtual host.