Abstract:
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.
Abstract:
Systems and methods enable a virtual machine, including 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 moves data blocks from backup to a primary storage destination that becomes the virtual machine's primary data store after relocation completes. An enhanced data agent, operating in conjunction with an enhanced media agent in a storage management system, coordinates restoring the virtual machine and launching the relocation operation. The enhanced media agent pre-stages certain backed up data blocks based on predictive analysis pertaining to the virtual machine's operational profile. The enhanced media agent also pre-stages backed up data blocks for the relocation operation, based on the operation's relocation scheme. The media agent tracks read requests and maintains the contents of an associated read cache.
Abstract:
A system according to certain aspects may include a client computing device including: a database application configured to output a database file in a primary storage device(s), the database application outputting the database file as a series of application-level blocks; and a data agent configured to divide the database file into a plurality of first blocks having a first granularity larger than a second granularity of the application-level blocks such that each of the first blocks spans a plurality of the application-level blocks. The system may include a secondary storage controller computer(s) configured to: in response to instructions to create a secondary copy of the database file: copy the plurality of first blocks to a secondary storage device(s) to create a secondary copy of the database file; and create a table that provides a mapping between the copied plurality of first blocks and corresponding locations on the secondary storage device(s).
Abstract:
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.
Abstract:
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.
Abstract:
A storage manager that interoperates with a file manager application that integrates with virtualization substantially enables end-user control and storage management of virtual machines (VMs). The storage manager may manage information management operations relative to virtual machines based on and/or in response to messages and/or instructions received from the file manager application. The storage manager may further report results to the file manager application for presentation to the user. The file manager application, which may operate as a plug-in for a legacy file manager executing on a user's client computing device, may comprise: displaying the VMs associated with the user, including their respective properties; enabling viewing/browsing of information about storage management operations for a VM such as backups and/or archiving, including files associated with the VM and searching and filtering criteria; control features that enable the user to control existing VMs, such as shut down, restart/activate/power-on, suspend, and/or re-configure, and also perform storage management of a VM and/or its associated files, such as create snapshot, back up, archive, restore VM from secondary storage, restore and overwrite VM, restore file(s)/folder(s) to user's client computing device, restore file(s)/folder(s) to a production VM in primary storage, etc.; control features that enable the user to provision additional VMs, such as create a new VM, create a clone VM, configure a VM, etc.
Abstract:
Uploads of restored virtual machine (“VM”) data to cloud storage, e.g., VM restore-to-cloud operations, are performed without having to write whole restored virtual disk files to a proxy server before the virtual disk data begins uploading to cloud. Restored data blocks from a backup source are locally cached, staged for efficiency, and asynchronously uploaded to the cloud page-by-page without tapping mass storage resources on the proxy. Downloads of VM data from cloud storage, e.g., VM backup-from-cloud, are performed without having to download a virtual disk file in its entirety to the proxy server before the backup operation begins generating a backup copy. This speeds up “pulling” VM data from the cloud by pre-fetching and locally caching downloaded data blocks. The cached data blocks are processed for backup and stored page-by-page directly into a secondary copy of the cloud VM virtual-disk file without tapping mass storage resource at the proxy.
Abstract:
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.
Abstract:
Uploads of restored virtual machine (“VM”) data to cloud storage, e.g., VM restore-to-cloud operations, are performed without having to write whole restored virtual disk files to a proxy server before the virtual disk data begins uploading to cloud. Restored data blocks from a backup source are locally cached, staged for efficiency, and asynchronously uploaded to the cloud page-by-page without tapping mass storage resources on the proxy. Downloads of VM data from cloud storage, e.g., VM backup-from-cloud, are performed without having to download a virtual disk file in its entirety to the proxy server before the backup operation begins generating a backup copy. This speeds up “pulling” VM data from the cloud by pre-fetching and locally caching downloaded data blocks. The cached data blocks are processed for backup and stored page-by-page directly into a secondary copy of the cloud VM virtual-disk file without tapping mass storage resource at the proxy.
Abstract:
A system according to certain aspects improves the process of restoring database objects and converting those objects into another database file format. According to certain aspects, a database file is backed up in a block-level fashion. Instead of restoring the entire backup file, the information management system may restore a particular database object from a backup database file that is stored as multiple blocks or other granular units. Then, the information management system can extract the desired data from the restored block(s). By using block-level mapping and storage techniques described herein, the system can restore a database object in a backup database file without restoring the entire backup database file, thereby speeding up restore operations and reducing consumption of storage and processing resources. In addition, the information management system can convert the blocks, using a staging memory, to another database file format as desired.