Emc IP Holding Company LLC

Kiran M V Kumar

Manjunath Jagannatha

Ravi Shankar Panem

Vladimir Mandic

Shelesh Chopra

Kumar Srikanta

One embodiment is related to a method for excluding files from a backup image file during a backup operation, comprising: determining files to be excluded from the backup image; taking a first snapshot of a source volume; exposing an iSCSI (Internet Small Computer System Interface) disk with the first snapshot being a target; deleting files to be excluded from the exposed iSCSI disk; taking a second snapshot of the exposed iSCSI disk; and streaming the second snapshot of the exposed iSCSI disk to create a save set in a virtual disk file on a backup medium.

Authorization-based file exclusion technique for block-based storage

Embodiments are directed to a method of performing incremental block based backups for volume and sub-file level backups by providing a change block tracking driver component, maintaining a context of the change block tracking driver as a driver context using a single bitmap that represents the volume being tracked, and maintaining the bitmap as the only element to track changes across the volume backups and multiple application backups involving different sub-file level backups.

Block changes framework for delta file incremental backup

Embodiments are directed to presenting virtual machine backup files for instant restore by creating a virtual volume on a local machine with files that emulate remote VM files, and setting up kernel mode interceptor hook system object and the user mode process for I/O redirection. The virtual volume created and the file extents table is passed as an input to the user mode process. The user mode process waits for events triggered by the kernel mode driver object. If the I/O is within defined file boundaries, the file is converted to relative extents and read from the remote storage node. Write requests are automatically accomplished by attaching a differencing disk created on the local machine to the last known incremental file and performing a native OS mount of that file.

Presenting virtual machine backup files for block and file level restore

First and second virtual hard disk files are accessed. The first virtual hard disk file corresponds to a backup of a file and includes a first set of payload blocks to store data associated with the backup. The second virtual hard disk file corresponds to an incremental backup of the file and includes a second set of payload blocks to store data associated with the incremental backup. Data from a payload block of the first set of payload blocks is merged with data from a payload block of a corresponding payload block of the second set of payload blocks to form a merged payload block. The merged payload block is streamed for storage as a synthetic full backup of the first and second virtual hard disk files. The merging does not alter the first and second virtual hard disk files.

Synthetic full backups for incremental file backups

Embodiments are directed to a virtual disk block consolidation process and system component that uses certain merging techniques to optimize the amount of disk space used by the incremental backup operations. The process merges the differencing disk at each user snapshot together so that a single backup copy is maintained. This helps reduce the space required to store the backups. A saveset consolidation is then performed so that the differencing disk representing the incremental backups are merged to a single backup that may represent either a synthetic full backup or a virtual full backup.

Virtual machine block and snapshot consolidation

A request is received to clone a primary backup copy. An identification is made of a disk image file including the primary backup copy. The disk image file is scanned to split an amount of data to be cloned among a set of hosts. The hosts are provisioned. The hosts are assigned a portion of the amount of data to be cloned. A host clones its respective portion in parallel with another host to create clone sets on a clone target. A clone set includes a copy of at most a portion of the primary backup copy.

Distributed data protection techniques with cloning

A file stored in a volume on a client is backed up in a mountable format by creating on the client a template virtual volume that corresponds to the volume in which the file is stored. A set of file extents occupied by the file is identified. A file extent in a backup stream is identified. If the file extent is not within the set of file extents, the template virtual volume is accessed to backup a data block associated with the virtual volume. If the file extent is within the set of file extents, the file is accessed to backup a data block of the file.

Growing community of inventors

Karnataka, India

Kiran M V Kumar