According to certain aspects, a system includes a client device that includes a virtual machine (VM) executed by a hypervisor, a driver located within the hypervisor, and a data agent. The VM may include a virtual hard disk file and a change block bitmap file. The driver may intercept a first write operation generated by the VM to store data in a first sector, determine an identity of the first sector based on the intercepted write operation, determine an entry in the change block bitmap file that corresponds with the first sector, and modify the entry in the change block bitmap file to indicate that data in the first sector has changed. The data agent may generate an incremental backup of the VM based on the change block bitmap file in response to an instruction from a storage manager, where the incremental backup includes the data in the first sector.

Virtual machine change block tracking

Systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including any applications executing thereon, to quickly start executing and servicing users based on pre-staged data blocks supplied from a backup copy in secondary storage. An enhanced media agent may pre-stage certain backed up data blocks which may be needed to launch the virtual machine, based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine's operational profile. The enhanced media agent may also pre-stage backed up data blocks for a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation, based on the operation's relocation scheme. Servicing read requests to the virtual machine may take priority over ongoing pre-staging of backed up data. Read requests may be tracked so that the media agent may properly maintain the contents of an associated read cache. Some embodiments of the illustrative storage management system may lack, or may simply not require, the relocation operation, and may operate in a “live mount” configuration.

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

The data storage system according to certain aspects can manage the archiving of virtual machines to (and restoring of virtual machines from) secondary storage. The system can determine whether to archive virtual machines based on usage data or information. The usage information may include storage usage, CPU usage, memory usage, network usage, events defined by a virtual machine software or application, etc. The system may archive virtual machines that are determined to have a low level of utilization. For example, a virtual machine can be archived when its usage level falls below a threshold level. The system may create a virtual machine placeholder for an archived virtual machine, which may be a “light” or minimal version of the virtual machine that acts as if it is the actual virtual machine. By using a virtual machine placeholder, a virtual machine may appear to be active and selectable by the user.

Archiving virtual machines in a data storage system

The disclosed systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including any applications executing thereon, to quickly start executing and servicing users based on pre-staged data blocks supplied from a backup copy in secondary storage. Substantially concurrently with the ongoing execution of the virtual machine, a virtual-machine-file-relocation operation may move data blocks originating in the backup copy to a primary storage destination that becomes the virtual machine's primary data store after the relocation operation completes. An enhanced data agent, operating in conjunction with an enhanced media agent in a storage management system, coordinates restoring of the virtual machine and the launch of the relocation operation. The enhanced media agent may pre-stage certain backed up data blocks which may be needed to launch the virtual machine, based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine's operational profile. The enhanced media agent may also pre-stage backed up data blocks for the relocation operation, based on the operation's relocation scheme. Servicing read requests to the virtual machine may take priority over ongoing pre-staging of backed up data. Read requests may be tracked so that the media agent may properly maintain the contents of an associated read cache. Some embodiments of the illustrative storage management system may lack, or may simply not require, the relocation operation, and may operate in a “live mount” configuration.

Efficiently restoring execution of a backed up virtual machine based on coordination with virtual-machine-file-relocation operations

According to certain aspects, a method can include, at a first time, performing an incremental backup of first data associated with a virtual machine (VM) residing on a source client computing device from the source client computing device to one or more secondary storage devices to create a backup copy of the VM, where the VM is associated with a hypervisor of a first type; receiving an instruction to restore the first data associated with the VM from the one or more secondary storage devices; retrieving the first data from the one or more secondary storage devices; and applying the first data to second data associated with a replicated VM running on the destination client computing device, where the replicated VM is a replicated version of the VM, and where the second data corresponds to data of the VM at a time before the first time.

Cross-platform virtual machine backup and replication

Provisioning an Internet Protocol address is disclosed. A request to provision an Internet Protocol address to a virtual resource is received. An Internet Protocol address is automatically determined to allocate to the virtual resource. An Internet Protocol Address Management appliance is used to automatically allocate the determined Internet Protocol address to the virtual resource.

Ip address and domain name automation of virtual infrastructure

Processing infrastructure metadata information about a virtual resource of a virtual cloud is disclosed. Infrastructure metadata information is collected. The collected metadata information is about a virtual resource of a virtual cloud. A storage of infrastructure metadata information is updated. The updating of the storage of infrastructure metadata information is performed using the collected information.

Soheil Eizadi

Papers

Ip address and domain name automation of virtual infrastructure

Internet protocol address management (ipam) integration with a plurality of virtualization tiers in the virtual cloud

Internet protocol address management (IPAM) integration with a plurality of virtualization tiers in the virtual cloud using infrastructure metadata