Comm Vault Systems, Inc.

Ashwin Gautamchand Sancheti

Henry Wallace Dornemann

Sumer Dilip Deshpande

Rahul S Pawar

Ananda Venkatesha

Rajiv Kottomtharayil

Amit Mitkar

Sri Karthik Bhagi

Deepak Raghunath Attarde

Rajesh Polimera

Kuldeep Kumar

Pratik S Rana

Sarath Cheriyan Joseph

Chitra Ramaswamy

Venkata Chalapathi Sucheth Ramgiri

Madhumitha Mani

Virtual machine (VM) proliferation may be reduced through the use of Virtual Server Agents (VSAs) assigned to a group of VM hosts that may determine the availability of a VM to perform a task. Tasks may be assigned to existing VMs instead of creating a new VM to perform the task. Furthermore, a VSA coordinator may determine a grouping of VMs or VM hosts based on one or more factors associated with the VMs or the VM hosts, such as VM type or geographical location of the VM hosts. The VSA coordinator may also assign one or more VSAs to facilitate managing the group of VM hosts. In some embodiments, the VSA coordinators may facilitate load balancing of VSAs during operation, such as during a backup operation, a restore operation, or any other operation between a primary storage system and a secondary storage system.

Virtual server agent load balancing

Virtual machine (VM) proliferation may be reduced by determining the availability of existing VMs to perform a task. Tasks may be assigned to existing VMs instead of creating a new VM to perform the task. Furthermore, a coordinator may determine a grouping of VMs or VM hosts based on one or more factors associated with the VMs or the VM hosts, such as VM type or geographical location of the VM hosts. The coordinator may also assign one or more Virtual Server Agents (VSAs) to facilitate managing the group of VM hosts. In some embodiments, the coordinators may facilitate load balancing of VSAs during operation, such as during a backup operation, a restore operation, or any other operation between a primary storage system and a secondary storage system.

Virtual machine load balancing

Snapshot-based disaster recovery (DR) orchestration systems and methods for virtual machine (VM) failover and failback do not require that VMs or their corresponding datastores be actively operating at the DR site before a DR orchestration job is initiated, i.e., before failover. An illustrative data storage management system deploys proprietary components at source data center(s) and at DR site(s). The proprietary components (e.g., storage manager, data agents, media agents, backup nodes, etc.) interoperate with each other and with the source and DR components to ensure that VMs will successfully failover and/or failback. DR orchestration jobs are suitable for testing VM failover scenarios ('clone testing'), for conducting planned VM failovers, and for unplanned VM failovers. DR orchestration jobs also handle failback and integration of DR-generated data into the failback site, including restoring VMs that never failed over to fully re-populate the source/failback site.

Snapshot-based disaster recovery orchestration of virtual machine failover and failback operations

An illustrative approach accelerates file indexing operations for block-level backup copies in a data storage management system. A cache storage area is maintained for locally storing and serving key data blocks, thus relying less on retrieving data on demand from the backup copy. File indexing operations are used for populating the cache storage area for speedier retrieval during subsequent live browsing of the same backup copy, and vice versa. The key data blocks cached while file indexing and/or live browsing an earlier backup copy help to pre-fetch corresponding data blocks of later backup copies, thus producing a beneficial learning cycle. The approach is especially beneficial for cloud and tape backup media, and is available for a variety of data sources and backup copies, including block-level backup copies of virtual machines (VMs) and block-level backup copies of file systems, including UNIX-based and Windows-based operating systems and corresponding file systems.

Enhancing file indexing of block-level backup copies of virtual machines and/or file systems by populating and tracking a cache storage area and a backup index

According to certain aspects, a method can include creating a backup copy of data associated with a virtual machine (VM) on one or more secondary storage devices, wherein the backup copy includes corresponding secondary copies of a plurality of files associated with the VM; analyzing metadata associated with the secondary copies to determine which of the plurality files are eligible to be removed from the primary storage device; in response determining that one or more files are eligible to be removed from the primary storage device, for respective file of the one or more files: determining whether the respective file has been changed since a first time at which the backup copy of the data associated with the VM was created; in response to determining that the respective file has not changed since the first time, removing the respective file; and adding a file placeholder for the removed file.

Volume or virtual machine level backup and generating placeholders for virtual machine files

An illustrative approach accelerates live browse operations for block-level backup copies in a data storage management system. A cache storage area is maintained for locally storing and serving key data blocks, thus relying less on retrieving data on demand from backup copies. Live browse operations are used for populating the cache storage area for speedier retrieval during subsequent live browsing and/or file indexing of the same backup copy, and vice versa. The key data blocks cached while file indexing and/or live browsing an earlier backup copy help to pre-fetch corresponding data blocks of later backup copies, thus producing a beneficial learning cycle. The approach is especially beneficial for cloud and tape backup media, and is available for a variety of data sources and backup copies, including block-level backup copies of virtual machines (VMs) and block-level backup copies of file systems, including UNIX-based and Windows-based operating systems and corresponding file systems.

Live browse cache enhacements for live browsing block-level backup copies of virtual machines and/or file systems

System and techniques for performing snapshot and backup copy operations for individual virtual machines in a shared storage. The system can also include one or more shared physical computer storage devices communicatively coupled to the hypervisor to store the plurality of virtual machines. A plurality of storage volumes can be provided in the one or more shared physical computer storage devices where each storage volume uniquely corresponding to one of the virtual machines. The system can issue a command to a hypervisor to perform a snapshot or backup copy operation with a particular information management policy.

Snapshot and backup copy operations for individual virtual machines

A data storage environment can include one or more virtual machines instantiated on a host computing device. Based on physical location data of the one or more virtual machines received from the host computing device, a storage manager can control the performance of a secondary copy operation on one or more storage units that store virtual machine data associated with the one or more virtual machines and/or the performance of a secondary copy operation on the one or more virtual machines.

Targeted snapshot based on virtual machine location

System and techniques for performing selective snapshot and backup copy operations for individual virtual machines in a shared storage. The system can include a hypervisor configured to create and operate a plurality of virtual machines. The system can also include one or more shared physical computer storage devices communicatively coupled to the hypervisor to store the plurality of virtual machines. A plurality of storage volumes can be provided in the one or more shared physical computer storage devices, each storage volume uniquely corresponding to one of the virtual machines. The system can also include a virtual server agent configured to issue a command to the hypervisor to perform a snapshot or backup copy operation for a selected one of the plurality of virtual machines without performing the operation for any other unselected virtual machine in the one or more shared physical computer storage devices.

Selective snapshot and backup copy operations for individual virtual machines in a shared storage

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.

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Ocean, NJ, United States of America

Ashwin Gautamchand Sancheti