Efficiency of virtual machines that use de-duplication as primary data storage

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

• upon detecting an input/output operation associated with a virtual machine running on a hypervisor:
• instantiating the virtual machine with data read from a first storage apparatus, the first storage apparatus being configured to store data using data de-duplication;
• selecting a second storage apparatus from which a data storage operation using data de-duplication should be satisfied, the second storage apparatus being selected from the first storage apparatus and a non-de-duplication storage device, the second storage apparatus being selected as a function of an efficiency condition;
• producing a first snapshot of the virtual machine in the second storage apparatus, the second storage apparatus being configured to store data without using data de-duplication;
• upon detecting another input/output operation that can be satisfied from the second storage apparatus, the other input/output operation being associated with the virtual machine, satisfying the other input/output operation from the second storage apparatus;
• upon detecting that a transfer condition exists for the second storage apparatus, updating the first storage apparatus from the second storage apparatus, where the transfer condition is a fullness level of the first snapshot, a fullness level of the second storage apparatus, termination of the virtual machine, termination of an operating system running on the virtual machine, termination of an application running on the virtual machine, or an idleness level of the second storage apparatus;
• where updating the first storage apparatus from the second storage apparatus includes producing a second snapshot before updating the first storage apparatus from the second storage apparatus, where producing the second snapshot includes writing at least a portion of virtual memory associated with the virtual machine to a third storage apparatus, the third storage apparatus being configured to store data without using data de-duplication;
• and
• where updating the first storage apparatus from the second storage apparatus includes transferring segments of data from the second storage apparatus to the first storage apparatus, where the segments are larger than segments associated with a file system associated with the virtual machine, and where the segments are transferred using sparse-aware sequential input/output.