Vmware, Inc.

Veritas Technologies LLC

Symantec Corporation

Pooja Sarda

Satish Kumar Kashi Visvanathan

Anish A Vaidya

Ilya Langouev

Arun Kandambakkam

Manjunath Mageswaran

Tushar Doshi

Manjiri R Patwardhan

Michael Zucca

Dipen Modi

Disclosed are methods and the like that provide for transforming replicated data for consumption in the cloud, for example. Such methods can include attaching a target gateway node at a secondary site to a storage device at the secondary site, searching for an identifier stored in the storage device, and storing replicated data in the replication volume. The identifier is associated with an offset stored in the storage device, and the offset identifies a starting location of a replication volume in the storage device. The replicated data is received by the target gateway node from a source gateway node at a primary site. A starting location is received with the replicated data. The target gateway node stores the replicated data at a first location in the storage volume, and the first location is determined based, at least in part, on the starting location and the first storage location.

Low cost, heterogeneous method of transforming replicated data for consumption in the cloud

Techniques for managing overwrites when archiving data in cloud/object storage are provided. In one set of embodiments, a computer system can overwrite a chunk of data residing in cloud/object storage, where the cloud/object storage only guarantees eventual consistency for overwrites, and where the overwriting is associated with a sequence number. Upon overwriting the chunk of data, the computer system create a new instance of a file in the cloud/object storage, where the new instance of the file has a version number corresponding to the sequence number.

Managing overwrites when archiving data in cloud/object storage

Presented herein is functionality for using a recovery computing system to perform a failover where the recovery computing system is communicatively coupled to a homogeneous and/or heterogeneous primary computing system. In one embodiment, this functionality allows the recovery computing system to disconnect a first recovery application node from a contiguous storage volume after the contiguous storage volume had been created by the first recovery application node, and to then use a recovery gateway node to store replicated data on the continguous storage volume, where the recovery gateway node and the contiguous storage volume are both coupled to the recovery computing system. In response to detecting a failure on the primary computing system, performing a failover to the recovery computing system, where performing the failover comprises attaching the contiguous storage volume to a second recovery application node and bringing the second recovery application node online.

According to one set of embodiments, a computer system can receive a request or command to delete a snapshot from among a plurality of snapshots of a dataset, where the plurality of snapshots are stored in cloud/object storage. In response, the computer system can add the snapshot to a batch of pending snapshots to be deleted and can determine whether the size of the batch has reached a threshold. If the size of the batch has not reached the threshold, the computer system return a response to an originator of the request or command indicating that the snapshot has been deleted, without actually deleting the snapshot from the cloud/object storage.

Batch-based deletion of snapshots archived in cloud/object storage

Techniques for archiving data in cloud/object storage using local metadata staging are provided. In one set of embodiments, a computer system residing at an on-premises site comprising on-premises storage can receive a snapshot of a dataset to be archived. The computer system can package data in the snapshot into one or more fixed-size data chunks and upload the one or more fixed-size data chunks to cloud/object storage. Further, concurrently with the packaging and the uploading, the computer system can stage metadata for the snapshot in the on-premises storage. Then, upon uploading all of the data of the snapshot, the computer system can upload the metadata staged in the on-premises storage to the cloud/object storage.

Archiving data in cloud/object storage using local metadata staging

Techniques for supporting glacier tiering of archived data in cloud/object storage are provided. In one set of embodiments, a computer system can identify one or more snapshots of a data set archived in the cloud/object storage that are scheduled to be migrated from a standard tier of the cloud/object storage to a glacier tier of the cloud/object storage. The computer system can further determine one or more data objects of the one or more snapshots that are referred to by at least one child snapshot and clone the one or more data objects in the standard tier.

Supporting glacier tiering of archived data in cloud/object storage

Techniques for handling fragmentation of archived data in cloud/object storage are provided. In one set of embodiments, a computer system can upload a new snapshot of a data set to the cloud/object storage, where the new snapshot comprises a plurality of data blocks, and where the new snapshot is uploaded as one or more data objects and one or more metadata objects. For each data block in the plurality of data blocks, the computer system can identify an existing data object in the cloud/object storage where the data block is currently stored. The computer system can further select, from among the identified existing data objects, a subset of the existing data objects that are part of a snapshot created in the cloud/object storage at least a predefined number of snapshots before the new snapshot, and select one or more data blocks of one or more data objects in the subset that have not be overwritten by another snapshot. The computer system can then upload the one or more data blocks as part of the new snapshot.

Handling fragmentation of archived data in cloud/object storage

According to one set of embodiments, a computer system can receive a request/command to delete a snapshot from among a plurality of snapshots of a dataset that are stored in cloud/object storage. In response, the computer system can determine a first minimum chunk identifier (ID) and a first maximum chunk ID of a range of data chunks referred to by the first snapshot, and a second minimum chunk ID and a second maximum chunk ID of a range of data chunks referred to by an immediate child snapshot of the first snapshot. The computer system can then, for each data chunk identified by a chunk ID spanning from the second minimum chunk ID to the first maximum chunk ID, check whether the data chunk is referred to by the immediate child snapshot and if not, delete the data chunk from the cloud/object storage.

Range-based deletion of snapshots archived in cloud/object storage

Techniques for deleting a snapshot of a data set archived in cloud/object storage are provided. In one set of embodiments, a computer system can identify data blocks that are part of the snapshot and are referred to by an incremental child snapshot of the snapshot. The computer system can further create a new metadata object that includes metadata entries for the identified data blocks, each metadata entry comprising an identifier of the incremental child snapshot, an identifier of a data block, and an identifier of a data object of the incremental child snapshot where the data block is stored. The computer system can then associate the new metadata object with the incremental child snapshot in the cloud/object storage.

Deletion and restoration of archived data in cloud/object storage

Techniques for archiving a data set in cloud/object storage are provided. In one set of embodiments, a computer system can receive an incremental snapshot of the data set and package the incremental snapshot into one or more data objects and one or more metadata objects. The one or more data objects can include data blocks of the incremental snapshot, and the one or more metadata objects can include a metadata entry for each data block, the metadata entry comprising an identifier of the incremental snapshot, an identifier of the data block, and an identifier of a data object in which the data block is stored. The computer system can then write the one or more data objects and the one or more metadata objects to the cloud/object storage.

Object format and upload process for archiving data in cloud/object storage

Various systems, methods and apparatuses for replicating data from homogeneous and/or heterogeneous primary computing systems to a single recovery computing system are presented. In one embodiment, the methods, systems and apparatuses described herein allow a computing system to receive information from a remote computing system, where the information contains at least data and a logical storage location corresponding to the location of the data in a logical storage unit of the remote computing system. Upon receiving the data and associated logical storage location, the methods, systems and apparatuses described herein can store the information at a specific location in a storage device such as, for example, a block storage device. The specific location can be determined, for example, based on the logical storage location provided by the remote computing system and an offset associated with the starting location of the relevant logical storage unit on the storage device.

A computer-implemented method for virtual machine boot disk restoration may include (1) identifying a hypervisor that hosts at least one virtual machine, where a replication system is configured to replicate virtual machine data stored by the virtual machine, including a virtual machine boot disk used by the virtual machine, to a data repository that is separate from the hypervisor, (2) determining that the replication system is to restore the replicated virtual machine data back to the hypervisor for the virtual machine, including boot disk data replicated from the virtual machine boot disk, (3) attaching, at the hypervisor, the virtual machine boot disk to a storage proxy virtual machine hosted by the hypervisor, and (4) restoring, from the replication system and via the storage proxy virtual machine, the boot disk data back to the virtual machine boot disk. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Systems and methods for virtual machine boot disk restoration

Various systems and methods for performing clustering operations in distributed systems are disclosed. For example, one method involves performing a clustering operation that uses a virtual machine (VM). This VM is hosted by a first node. The method involves receiving an indication that indicates a migration of the virtual machine from the first node to a second node. The method also involves, in response to a receipt of this indication, suspending performance of the clustering operation using the virtual machine. The method can also involve resuming performance of the clustering operation using the virtual machine in response to receiving an indication of a successful migration of this virtual machine.

Handling of virtual machine migration while performing clustering operations

A computer-implemented method for managing failover clusters. The method may include maintaining a failover cluster comprising first and second cluster nodes, identifying a first instance of a service group on the first cluster node, and initiating failover of the first cluster node to the second cluster node. The method may also include bringing at least a portion of a second instance of the service group online before taking the first instance of the service group completely offline. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Growing community of inventors

Cupertino, CA, United States of America

Pooja Sarda