Efficient live-mount of a backed up virtual machine in a storage management system

A system for executing a backed up virtual machine on a host computing device in a live-mount configuration without restoring an entire backup copy of the virtual machine, based on pre-staging certain backed up data blocks to a media agent, the system comprising:

• the host computing device configured to execute the virtual machine based on a recovery point, wherein the host computing device comprises at least one central processing unit and corresponding computer memory;
• a secondary storage computing device in communication with the host computing device, wherein the secondary storage computing device comprises the media agent, a read-cache, and a shared file system that is configured as the recovery point for the virtual machine, wherein the secondary storage computing device comprises at least one central processing unit and corresponding computer memory;
• a secondary storage device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the secondary storage device comprises a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk;
• a virtualization-client computing device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the virtualization-client computing device comprises a data agent, wherein the virtualization-client computing device comprises at least one central processing unit and corresponding computer memory;
• and
• wherein the media agent is configured to:
• receive the profile of the virtual machine from the data agent,
• determine a first set of data blocks to be copied from the backup copy, based on the profile of the virtual machine received from the data agent, and
• pre-stage the first set of data blocks by copying the first set of data blocks from the backup copy to the read-cache, and
• serve the pre-staged first set of data blocks to the host computing device via the recovery point when execution of the virtual machine is launched;
• and
• resulting in the virtual machine operating in a live-mount configuration on the host computing device and executing from the pre-staged first set of data blocks without the entire backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine being restored to a primary storage device serving the host computing device;
• and
• wherein continuing execution of the virtual machine in the live-mount configuration on the host computing device is based on the media agent serving further data blocks copied from the backup copy without restoring the entire backup copy of the virtual machine.

A system for executing a backed up virtual machine on a host computing device, based on pre-staging certain backed up data blocks to a media agent without fully restoring a backup copy of the virtual machine, the system comprising:

• the host computing device, which comprises at least one central processing unit and corresponding computer memory, and which is configured to, in response to a request for access to the virtual machine, execute the virtual machine based on a recovery point configured as the data source for the virtual machine;
• a secondary storage computing device, which comprises at least one central processing unit and corresponding computer memory, and which is in communication with the host computing device, wherein the secondary storage computing device comprises the media agent, a read-cache, and a shared file system that is configured as the recovery point for the virtual machine;
• a secondary storage device in communication with the secondary storage computing device, wherein the secondary storage device comprises a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk;
• wherein the media agent is configured to:
• copy a first set of data blocks from the backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine to the read-cache, wherein the first set of data blocks is based on a profile of the virtual machine, and wherein the first set of data blocks is sufficient to respond to the request for access to the virtual machine,
• wherein a launch of execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device is based on the first set of data blocks served by the media agent via the recovery point;
• and
• wherein the media agent is further configured to, during execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device:
• serve a read request for a data block to the virtual machine by:
• (i) copying the requested data block from the backup copy to the read-cache if the requested data block is not found in the read-cache, and
• (ii) transmitting the requested data block from the read-cache, via the recovery point, in response to the read request, and (iii) without the entire backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine being restored to a primary storage device serving the host computing device;
• wherein continuing execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device is based on the media agent transmitting further data blocks copied from the backup copy without restoring the entire backup copy of the virtual machine.