U.S. patent application number 16/775501 was filed with the patent office on 2020-05-28 for garbage collection of expired snapshots.
The applicant listed for this patent is Rubrik, Inc.. Invention is credited to ARPIT AGARWAL.
Application Number | 20200167277 16/775501 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 67140736 |
Filed Date | 2020-05-28 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20200167277 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
AGARWAL; ARPIT |
May 28, 2020 |
GARBAGE COLLECTION OF EXPIRED SNAPSHOTS
Abstract
Methods and systems for reclaiming disk space via consolidation
and deletion of expired snapshots are described. The expired
snapshots may comprise snapshots of a virtual machine that are no
longer required to be stored within a data storage domain (e.g., a
cluster of data storage nodes or a cloud-based data store). In some
cases, rather than storing an incremental file corresponding with a
particular snapshot of the virtual machine, a full image of the
particular snapshot may be generated and stored within the data
storage domain. The generation of the full image may allow a chain
of dependencies supporting the expired snapshots to be broken and
for the expired snapshots to be deleted or consolidated. The full
image of the particular snapshot may be generated using compute
capacity in the cloud or may be generated locally by a storage
appliance and uploaded to the data storage domain.
Inventors: |
AGARWAL; ARPIT; (Karnataka,
IN) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Rubrik, Inc. |
Palo Alto |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
67140736 |
Appl. No.: |
16/775501 |
Filed: |
January 29, 2020 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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15866242 |
Jan 9, 2018 |
10592411 |
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16775501 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 3/0608 20130101;
G06F 2212/7205 20130101; G06F 9/45558 20130101; G06F 12/0246
20130101; G06F 16/188 20190101; G06F 3/067 20130101; G06F 3/0652
20130101; G06F 12/0253 20130101; G06F 3/0664 20130101; G06F 3/061
20130101; G06F 16/128 20190101; G06F 3/064 20130101; G06F 3/0679
20130101; G06F 3/065 20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06F 12/02 20060101
G06F012/02; G06F 16/11 20060101 G06F016/11; G06F 3/06 20060101
G06F003/06; G06F 9/455 20060101 G06F009/455; G06F 16/188 20060101
G06F016/188 |
Claims
1. A method for operating a data management system, comprising:
acquiring a first full image snapshot and a first set of
incremental files associated with a first set of versions of a real
or virtual machine from a computing device; storing the first full
image snapshot and the first set of incremental files associated
with the first set of versions of the real or virtual machine;
transferring the first full image snapshot and the first set of
incremental files associated with the first set of versions of the
real or virtual machine to an archival source; acquiring a second
set of incremental files associated with a second set of versions
of the real or virtual machine from the computing device; detecting
that a data size corresponding with the first set of incremental
files and the second set of incremental files has exceeded a
threshold data size; generating a second full image snapshot
corresponding with a second version of the second set of versions
of the real or virtual machine in response to detecting that the
data size corresponding with the first set of incremental files and
the second set of incremental files has exceeded the threshold data
size; storing the second full image snapshot corresponding with the
second version of the real or virtual machine; and transferring the
second full image snapshot to the archival source.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting that ages
associated with the first full image snapshot and the first set of
incremental files have exceeded a threshold age and transferring
the first full image snapshot and the first set of incremental
files to the archival source in response to detecting that the ages
associated with the first full image snapshot and the first set of
incremental files have exceeded the threshold age; and transferring
an instruction to the archival source to delete the first set of
incremental files subsequent to transferring the second full image
snapshot to the archival source.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting that
generating the second full image snapshot does not cause the data
management system to concurrently generate more than a threshold
number of full image snapshots; and the generating the second full
image snapshot includes generating the second full image snapshot
in response to detecting that the data size corresponding with the
first set of incremental files and the second set of incremental
files has exceeded the threshold data size and detecting that
generating the second full image snapshot does not cause the data
management system to concurrently generate more than the threshold
number of full image snapshots.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein: the detecting that generating
the second full image snapshot does not cause the data management
system to concurrently generate more than the threshold number of
full image snapshots includes accessing a distributed semaphore for
limiting the number of full image snapshots concurrently generated
by the data management system.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting that an
amount of disk space for storing the first set of incremental files
and the second set of incremental files has exceeded a threshold
amount of disk space and generating the second full image snapshot
in response to detecting that the amount of disk space for storing
the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files has exceeded the threshold amount of disk
space.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting that the
combined file sizes of the first set of incremental files and the
second set of incremental files has exceeded a threshold data size
and generating the second full image snapshot in response to
detecting that the combined file sizes of the first set of
incremental files and the second set of incremental files has
exceeded the threshold data size.
7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting that the
combined file sizes of the first set of incremental files and the
second set of incremental files has exceeded a threshold fraction
of a file size corresponding with the first full image snapshot and
generating the second full image snapshot in response to detecting
that the combined file sizes of the first set of incremental files
and the second set of incremental files has exceeded the threshold
fraction of the file size corresponding with the first full image
snapshot.
8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting that the
combined file sizes of the first set of incremental files and the
second set of incremental files is greater than half the file size
of the first full image snapshot and generating the second full
image snapshot in response to detecting that the combined file
sizes of the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files is greater than half the file size of the first
full image snapshot.
9. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting that the
archival source does not have access to compute resources and
generating and transferring the second full image snapshot to the
archival source in response to detecting that the archival source
does not have access to compute resources.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein: the archival source comprises
one of a hardware data storage device, a storage area network
storage device, a networked-attached storage device, or a
cloud-based data storage repository.
11. A data management system, comprising: a network interface
configured to acquire a first full image snapshot and a first set
of incremental files associated with a first set of versions of a
real or virtual machine; and one or more processors configured to
detect that ages associated with the first full image snapshot and
the first set of incremental files are more than a threshold age
and cause the first full image snapshot and the first set of
incremental files associated with the first set of versions of the
real or virtual machine to be transferred to an archival source,
the network interface configured to acquire a second set of
incremental files associated with a second set of versions of the
real or virtual machine, the one or more processors configured to
detect that a data size corresponding with the first set of
incremental files and the second set of incremental files has
exceeded a threshold data size and generate a second full image
snapshot corresponding with a second version of the second set of
versions of the real or virtual machine in response to detection
that the data size corresponding with the first set of incremental
files and the second set of incremental files has exceeded the
threshold data size, the one or more processors configured to cause
the second full image snapshot corresponding with the second
version of the second set of versions of the real or virtual
machine to be transferred to the archival source subsequent to
generation of the second full image snapshot.
12. The data management system of claim 11, wherein: the one or
more processors configured to cause an instruction to be
transferred to the archival source to delete the first set of
incremental files and the at least the subset of the second set of
incremental files subsequent to the second full image snapshot
being transferred to the archival source.
13. The data management system of claim 11, wherein: the one or
more processors configured to generate the second full image
snapshot in response to detection that the data size corresponding
with the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files has exceeded the threshold data size and
detection that generating the second full image snapshot does not
cause the data management system to concurrently generate more than
a threshold number of full image snapshots.
14. The data management system of claim 13, wherein: the one or
more processors configured to access a distributed semaphore for
limiting the number of full image snapshots concurrently generated
by the data management system and detect that generating the second
full image snapshot does not cause the data management system to
concurrently generate more than the threshold number of full image
snapshots using the distributed semaphore.
15. The data management system of claim 11, wherein: the one or
more processors configured to generate the second full image
snapshot in response to detection that the amount of disk space for
storing the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files has exceeded a threshold amount of disk
space.
16. The data management system of claim 11, wherein: the one or
more processors configured to generate the second full image
snapshot in response to detection that the combined file sizes of
the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files has exceeded the threshold data size.
17. The data management system of claim 11, wherein: the one or
more processors configured to generate the second full image
snapshot in response to detection that the combined file sizes of
the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files has exceeded a threshold fraction of a file size
corresponding with the first full image snapshot.
18. The data management system of claim 11, wherein: the one or
more processors configured to generate and transfer the second full
image snapshot to the archival source in response to detection that
the archival source does not have access to compute resources.
19. The data management system of claim 11, wherein: the archival
source comprises one of a hardware data storage device, a storage
area network storage device, a networked-attached storage device,
or a cloud-based data storage system.
20. One or more storage devices containing processor readable code
for programming one or more processors to perform a method for
operating a data management system, the processor readable code
comprising: processor readable code configured to acquire a first
full image snapshot and a first set of incremental files associated
with a first set of versions of a virtual machine from a computing
device; processor readable code configured to store the first full
image snapshot and the first set of incremental files associated
with the first set of versions of the virtual machine; processor
readable code configured to detect that the first full image
snapshot and the first set of incremental files have exceeded a
threshold age and transfer the first full image snapshot and the
first set of incremental files to an archival source in response to
detection that the first full image snapshot and the first set of
incremental files have exceeded the threshold age; processor
readable code configured to acquire a second set of incremental
files associated with a second set of versions of the virtual
machine from the computing device; processor readable code
configured to detect that a combined data size associated with the
first set of incremental files and the second set of incremental
files has exceeded a threshold data size; processor readable code
configured to generate a second full image snapshot corresponding
with a second version of the second set of versions of the virtual
machine in response to detection that the data size corresponding
with the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files has exceeded the threshold data size; processor
readable code configured to generate the second full image
snapshot; processor readable code configured to store the second
full image snapshot corresponding with the second version of the
second set of versions of the virtual machine; and processor
readable code configured to transfer the second full image snapshot
to the archival source subsequent to generation of the second full
image snapshot.
Description
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This Application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 15/866,242, filed Jan. 9, 2018, which is hereby incorporated by
reference in its entirety.
[0002] Virtualization allows virtual hardware to be created and
decoupled from the underlying physical hardware. For example, a
hypervisor running on a host machine or server may be used to
create one or more virtual machines that may each run the same
operating system or different operating systems (e.g., a first
virtual machine may run a Windows.RTM. operating system and a
second virtual machine may run a Unix-like operating system such as
OS X.RTM.). A virtual machine may comprise a software
implementation of a physical machine. The virtual machine may
include one or more virtual hardware devices, such as a virtual
processor, a virtual memory, a virtual disk, or a virtual network
interface card. The virtual machine may load and execute an
operating system and applications from the virtual memory. The
operating system and applications executed by the virtual machine
may be stored using the virtual disk. The virtual machine may be
stored (e.g., using a datastore comprising one or more physical
storage devices) as a set of files including a virtual disk file
for storing the contents of the virtual disk and a virtual machine
configuration file for storing configuration settings for the
virtual machine. The configuration settings may include the number
of virtual processors (e.g., four virtual CPUs), the size of a
virtual memory, and the size of a virtual disk (e.g., a 10 GB
virtual disk) for the virtual machine.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0003] FIG. 1A depicts one embodiment of a networked computing
environment.
[0004] FIG. 1B depicts one embodiment of a server.
[0005] FIG. 1C depicts one embodiment of a storage appliance.
[0006] FIG. 1D depicts one embodiment of a portion of an integrated
data management and storage system that includes a plurality of
nodes in communication with each other and one or more storage
devices.
[0007] FIGS. 2A-2Q depict various embodiments of sets of files and
data structures associated with managing and storing snapshots of
virtual machines.
[0008] FIG. 3A is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for managing and storing virtual machine snapshots using a
data storage system.
[0009] FIG. 3B is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for determining the type of snapshot to be stored using a
data storage system.
[0010] FIG. 3C is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for restoring a version of a virtual machine using a data
storage system.
[0011] FIGS. 4A-4D depict various embodiments of electronic files
stored within a first storage domain (Domain A) and a second
storage domain (Domain B).
[0012] FIGS. 4E-4J depict various embodiments of electronic files
stored within a first storage domain (Domain A).
[0013] FIG. 5A is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for reclaiming disk space within an archival data
source.
[0014] FIG. 5B is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for generating one or more virtual machines for
consolidating expired snapshots.
[0015] FIG. 5C is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for consolidating expired snapshots.
[0016] FIG. 5D is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for generating one or more full image snapshots to enable
deletion of expired snapshots.
[0017] FIGS. 6A-6J depict various embodiments of different versions
of a virtual machine and their corresponding electronic files
stored using a first storage domain (Domain A) and a second storage
domain (Domain B).
[0018] FIG. 7A is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for transferring snapshots of a virtual machine from a
first storage domain to a second storage domain.
[0019] FIG. 7B is a flowchart describing another embodiment of a
process for transferring snapshots of a virtual machine from a
first storage domain to a second storage domain.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0020] Technology is described for reclaiming disk space by
consolidating and/or deleting expired snapshots stored within a
data storage domain. The data storage domain may correspond with a
cluster of data storage nodes or an archival data source. The
expired snapshots may comprise snapshots of a virtual machine, an
application, a database, or an electronic file that are no longer
required to be stored (e.g., the requirements of an SLA policy may
no longer require that the snapshots be stored or recoverable). The
snapshots may be stored or archived using an archival data store
(e.g., an NFS datastore), cloud storage, object storage (e.g., data
storage that manages or stores data as objects), or block storage.
The archival data source may comprise an archival data store, a
hardware data storage device, a storage area network storage
device, a networked-attached storage device, or a cloud-based data
storage system. The stored snapshots may include a full image
snapshot and one or more incremental files that derive from the
full image snapshot. Disk space within the data storage domain or
on the archival data source may be reclaimed by either
consolidating or merging consecutive expired snapshots or by
deleting expired snapshots. In some cases, rather than archiving an
incremental file corresponding with a particular snapshot, a full
image of the particular snapshot may be generated and stored within
the archival data source. The generation of the full image may
allow a chain of dependencies supporting the expired snapshots to
be broken and for the expired snapshots to be deleted or
consolidated on the archival data source. The generation of full
images may be performed periodically in order to reduce the size of
the dependency chains for the archived snapshots. One benefit of
reclaiming disk space by consolidating and/or deleting expired
snapshots is that available disk space may be increased and the
costs associated with storing the archived data may be reduced.
[0021] In one embodiment, a full image of a particular snapshot may
be generated using compute resources accessible by an archival data
source (e.g., compute on cloud capability may enable the
instantiation of a virtual machine to generate the full image in
the cloud). The particular snapshot stored within the archival data
source may be identified based on a maximum dependency size for
chains within the archival data source. In one example, the maximum
dependency size for a chain may comprise a maximum of ten
dependencies requiring that the maximum number of incrementals
between any two full image snapshots is not more than nine
incremental snapshots. The particular snapshot may be identified as
the most recently uploaded snapshot to the archival data source or
as the newest version of a virtual machine that is stored within
the archival data store. In some cases, the determination of
whether to generate the full image for the particular snapshot
using compute resources (e.g., a virtual machine) or to keep an
incremental snapshot may depend on the amount of available disk
space, the total number of expired snapshots, and/or the combined
data size for the expired snapshots. In one example, the full image
for the particular snapshot may be generated in response to
detecting that the total number of expired snapshots is greater
than a threshold number of snapshots, that the amount of available
disk space on the archival data source is below a threshold amount
of disk space, and/or that the combined data size of the expired
snapshots is greater than a threshold data size (e.g., more than
200 GB of disk space may be reclaimed on the archival data source
if the full image for the particular snapshot is generated).
[0022] In another embodiment, rather than transferring an
incremental file corresponding with a particular snapshot to an
archival data source, a full image of the particular snapshot may
be generated and uploaded to the archival data source (e.g., a
local storage appliance may generate the full image and then
transfer the full image to cloud storage). In one example, a full
image snapshot may be generated and uploaded to the archival data
source instead of an incremental file in response to detecting that
a time difference between the current snapshot to be uploaded and
the last uploaded full image snapshot is greater than a threshold
period of time (e.g., it has been more than 30 days since the last
full image snapshot was uploaded). In another example, the full
image snapshot may be generated and uploaded to the archival data
source in response to detecting that a number of archived snapshots
between the current snapshot to be uploaded and the last uploaded
full image snapshot is greater than a threshold number of snapshots
(e.g., there have been more than 200 snapshots archived since the
last full image snapshot was uploaded). In another example, the
image snapshot may be generated and uploaded to the archival data
source in response to detecting that an accumulated data size of
the archived snapshots uploaded since the last full image snapshot
was uploaded is greater than a threshold data size (e.g., is
greater than 1 TB or greater than the data size of the last
uploaded full image snapshot). In another example, the full image
snapshot may be generated and uploaded to the archival data source
in response to detecting that a combined data size of prior
incremental snapshots uploaded to the archival data source since
the last uploaded full image snapshot is greater than a threshold
data size (e.g., is greater than 500 GB) and/or more than a
threshold time period has passed since the last full image snapshot
was uploaded to the archival data source (e.g., more than 15 days
have passed since the last frill image snapshot was uploaded). In
another example, the full image snapshot may be generated and
uploaded to the archival data source in response to detecting that
a change rate computed as the summation of the physical disk sizes
of the incremental files uploaded to the archival data source since
the last full image snapshot was uploaded divided by the physical
disk size of the last full image snapshot is greater than a
threshold percentage (e.g., is greater than 100% of the size of the
last uploaded full image snapshot).
[0023] Technology is also described for managing the transfer of
snapshot data between two different data storage domains. In some
cases, snapshot data stored using a local data storage cluster may
be transferred to cloud-based data storage or to a remote data
storage cluster in order to store archived snapshot data or to
allow non-archived snapshot data to be used by the cloud-based data
storage or the remote data storage cluster. In one example, the
most recent snapshot of a virtual machine (e.g., the last captured
snapshot for the virtual machine) that has not yet been archived
may be prematurely uploaded to cloud-based data storage or to the
remote data storage cluster in order to facilitate testing or
development using the most recent snapshot of the virtual machine.
In this case, the most recent snapshot of the virtual machine may
be transferred to cloud-based data storage or to the remote data
storage cluster by transferring an out-of-order incremental file
for the most recent version of the virtual machine.
[0024] An out-of-order incremental file may correspond with data
differences between the most recent version of the virtual machine
stored using a local data storage cluster (e.g., corresponding with
the last captured snapshot of the virtual machine stored within a
first data storage domain) and a second snapshot of the virtual
machine stored using a remote data storage cluster (e.g.,
corresponding with the last uploaded snapshot of the virtual
machine transferred to a second data storage domain). The most
recent snapshot of the virtual machine may be associated with a
first point in time version of the virtual machine and the second
snapshot of the virtual machine may be associated with a second
point in time version of the virtual machine that does not directly
precede the first point in time version of the virtual machine. In
one example, the most recent snapshot of the virtual machine may
correspond with a tenth version of the virtual machine and the
second snapshot of the virtual machine may correspond with a third
version of the virtual machine. In this case, the out-of-order
incremental file may comprise data differences between the tenth
version of the virtual machine and the third version of the virtual
machine. In contrast, an in-order incremental file may comprise
data differences between the tenth version of the virtual machine
and the ninth version of the virtual machine(i.e., the version of
the virtual machine that directly precedes the tenth version of the
virtual machine).
[0025] After the out-of-order incremental file has been transferred
to the second data storage domain, a full image for the most recent
snapshot of the virtual machine may be generated using a chain of
snapshots that are already stored within the second data storage
domain. The full image for the most recent snapshot of the virtual
machine may be used to generate a virtual machine instance. One
benefit of transferring out-of-order incremental files is that by
leveraging the chain of snapshots that have already been archived
or otherwise transferred to cloud-based data storage or to the
remote data storage cluster, the most recent version of a virtual
machine that has not yet been archived may be made available to
computing resources within the cloud-based data storage or the
remote data storage cluster with reduced upload time and reduced
network congestion. Another benefit of transferring out-of-order
incremental files is that future data transfers from the first data
storage domain to the second data storage domain may leverage the
additional out-of-order incremental files that were previously
transferred to the second storage domain to reduce the data size of
future incremental file transfers and to reduce the disk space
required to store the archived snapshots of the virtual machine in
the second data storage domain.
[0026] An integrated data management and storage system may be
configured to manage the automated storage, backup, deduplication,
replication, recovery, and archival of data within and across
physical and virtual computing environments. The integrated data
management and storage system may provide a unified primary and
secondary storage system with built-in data management that may be
used as both a backup storage system and a "live" primary storage
system for primary workloads. In some cases, the integrated data
management and storage system may manage the extraction and storage
of historical snapshots associated with different point in time
versions of virtual machines and/or real machines (e.g., a hardware
server, a laptop, a tablet computer, a smartphone, or a mobile
computing device) and provide near instantaneous recovery of a
backed-up version of a virtual machine, a real machine, or one or
more files residing on the virtual machine or the real machine. The
integrated data management and storage system may allow backed-up
versions of real or virtual machines to be directly mounted or made
accessible to primary workloads in order to enable the near
instantaneous recovery of the backed-up versions and allow
secondary workloads (e.g., workloads for experimental or analytics
purposes) to directly use the integrated data management and
storage system as a primary storage target to read or modify past
versions of data.
[0027] The integrated data management and storage system may
include a distributed cluster of storage nodes that presents itself
as a unified storage system even though numerous storage nodes may
be connected together and the number of connected storage nodes may
change over time as storage nodes are added to or removed from the
cluster. The integrated data management and storage system may
utilize a scale-out node based architecture in which a plurality of
data storage appliances comprising one or more nodes are in
communication with each other via one or more networks. Each
storage node may include two or more different types of storage
devices and control circuitry configured to store, deduplicate,
compress, and/or encrypt data stored using the two or more
different types of storage devices. In one example, a storage node
may include two solid-state drives (SSDs), three hard disk drives
(HDDs), and one or more processors configured to concurrently read
data from and/or write data to the storage devices. The integrated
data management and storage system may replicate and distribute
versioned data, metadata, and task execution across the distributed
cluster to increase tolerance to node and disk failures (e.g.,
snapshots of a virtual machine may be triply mirrored across the
cluster). Data management tasks may be assigned and executed across
the distributed cluster in a fault tolerant manner based on the
location of data within the cluster (e.g., assigning tasks to nodes
that store data related to the task) and node resource availability
(e.g., assigning tasks to nodes with sufficient compute or memory
capacity for the task).
[0028] The integrated data management and storage system may apply
a data backup and archiving schedule to backed-up real and virtual
machines to enforce various backup service level agreements (SLAs),
recovery point objectives (RPOs), recovery time objectives (RTOs),
data retention requirements, and other data backup, replication,
and archival policies across the entire data lifecycle. For
example, the data backup and archiving schedule may require that
snapshots of a virtual machine are captured and stored every four
hours for the past week, every day for the past six months, and
every week for the past five years.
[0029] As virtualization technologies are adopted into information
technology (IT) infrastructures, there is a growing need for
recovery mechanisms to support mission critical application
deployment within a virtualized infrastructure. However, a
virtualized infrastructure may present a new set of challenges to
the traditional methods of data management due to the higher
workload consolidation and the need for instant, granular recovery.
The benefits of using an integrated data management and storage
system include the ability to reduce the amount of data storage
required to backup real and virtual machines, the ability to reduce
the amount of data storage required to support secondary or
non-production workloads, the ability to provide a non-passive
storage target in which backup data may be directly accessed and
modified, and the ability to quickly restore earlier versions of
virtual machines and files stored locally or in the cloud.
[0030] FIG. 1A depicts one embodiment of a networked computing
environment 100 in which the disclosed technology may be practiced.
As depicted, the networked computing environment 100 includes a
data center 150, a storage appliance 140, and a computing device
154 in communication with each other via one or more networks 180.
The networked computing environment 100 may include a plurality of
computing devices interconnected through one or more networks 180.
The one or more networks 180 may allow computing devices and/or
storage devices to connect to and communicate with other computing
devices and/or other storage devices. In some cases, the networked
computing environment may include other computing devices and/or
other storage devices not shown. The other computing devices may
include, for example, a mobile computing device, a non-mobile
computing device, a server, a workstation, a laptop computer, a
tablet computer, a desktop computer, or an information processing
system. The other storage devices may include, for example, a
storage area network storage device, a networked-attached storage
device, a hard disk drive, a solid-state drive, or a data storage
system. The one or more networks 180 may include a cellular
network, a mobile network, a wireless network, a wired network, a
secure network such as an enterprise private network, an unsecure
network such as a wireless open network, a local area network
(LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and the Internet.
[0031] The data center 150 may include one or more servers, such as
server 160, in communication with one or more storage devices, such
as storage device 156. The one or more servers may also be in
communication with one or more storage appliances, such as storage
appliance 170. The server 160, storage device 156, and storage
appliance 170 may be in communication with each other via a
networking fabric connecting servers and data storage units within
the data center to each other. The server 160 may comprise a
production hardware server. The storage appliance 170 may include a
data management system for backing up virtual machines, real
machines, virtual disks, real disks, and/or electronic files within
the data center 150. The server 160 may be used to create and
manage one or more virtual machines associated with a virtualized
infrastructure. The one or more virtual machines may run various
applications, such as a database application or a web server. The
storage device 156 may include one or more hardware storage devices
for storing data, such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a magnetic tape
drive, a solid-state drive (SSD), a storage area network (SAN)
storage device, or a networked-attached storage (NAS) device. In
some cases, a data center, such as data center 150, may include
thousands of servers and/or data storage devices in communication
with each other. The data storage devices may comprise a tiered
data storage infrastructure (or a portion of a tiered data storage
infrastructure). The tiered data storage infrastructure may allow
for the movement of data across different tiers of a data storage
infrastructure between higher-cost, higher-performance storage
devices (e.g., solid-state drives and hard disk drives) and
relatively lower-cost, lower-performance storage devices (e.g.,
magnetic tape drives).
[0032] A server, such as server 160, may allow a client to download
information or files (e.g., executable, text, application, audio,
image, or video files) from the server or to perform a search query
related to particular information stored on the server. In some
cases, a server may act as an application server or a file server.
In general, a server may refer to a hardware device that acts as
the host in a client-server relationship or a software process that
shares a resource with or performs work for one or more clients.
One embodiment of server 160 includes a network interface 165,
processor 166, memory 167, disk 168, and virtualization manager 169
all in communication with each other. Network interface 165 allows
server 160 to connect to one or more networks 180. Network
interface 165 may include a wireless network interface and/or a
wired network interface. Processor 166 allows server 160 to execute
computer readable instructions stored in memory 167 in order to
perform processes described herein. Processor 166 may include one
or more processing units, such as one or more CPUs and/or one or
more GPUs. Memory 167 may comprise one or more types of memory
(e.g., RAM, SRAM, DRAM, ROM, EEPROM, Flash, etc.). Disk 168 may
include a hard disk drive and/or a solid-state drive. Memory 167
and disk 168 may comprise hardware storage devices.
[0033] The virtualization manager 169 may manage a virtualized
infrastructure and perform management operations associated with
the virtualized infrastructure. For example, the virtualization
manager 169 may manage the provisioning of virtual machines running
within the virtualized infrastructure and provide an interface to
computing devices interacting with the virtualized infrastructure.
The virtualization manager 169 may also perform various virtual
machine related tasks, such as cloning virtual machines, creating
new virtual machines, monitoring the state of virtual machines,
moving virtual machines between physical hosts for load balancing
purposes, and facilitating backups of virtual machines.
[0034] One embodiment of storage appliance 170 includes a network
interface 175, processor 176, memory 177, and disk 178 all in
communication with each other. Network interface 175 allows storage
appliance 170 to connect to one or more networks 180. Network
interface 175 may include a wireless network interface and/or a
wired network interface. Processor 176 allows storage appliance 170
to execute computer readable instructions stored in memory 177 in
order to perform processes described herein. Processor 176 may
include one or more processing units, such as one or more CPUs
and/or one or more GPUs. Memory 177 may comprise one or more types
of memory (e g., RAM, SRAM, DRAM, ROM, EEPROM, NOR Flash, NAND
Flash, etc.). Disk 178 may include a hard disk drive and/or a
solid-state drive. Memory 177 and disk 178 may comprise hardware
storage devices.
[0035] In one embodiment, the storage appliance 170 may include
four machines. Each of the four machines may include a multi-core
CPU, 64 GB of RAM, a 400 GB SSD, three 4 TB HDDs, and a network
interface controller. In this case, the four machines may be in
communication with the one or more networks 180 via the four
network interface controllers. The four machines may comprise four
nodes of a server cluster. The server cluster may comprise a set of
physical machines that are connected together via a network. The
server cluster may be used for storing data associated with a
plurality of virtual machines, such as backup data associated with
different point in time versions of one or more virtual
machines.
[0036] In another embodiment, the storage appliance 170 may
comprise a virtual appliance that comprises four virtual machines.
Each of the virtual machines in the virtual appliance may have 64
GB of virtual memory, a 12 TB virtual disk, and a virtual network
interface controller. In this case, the four virtual machines may
be in communication with the one or more networks 180 via the four
virtual network interface controllers. The four virtual machines
may comprise four nodes of a virtual cluster.
[0037] The networked computing environment 100 may provide a cloud
computing environment for one or more computing devices. In one
embodiment, the networked computing environment 100 may include a
virtualized infrastructure that provides software, data processing,
and/or data storage services to end users accessing the services
via the networked computing environment. In one example, networked
computing environment 100 may provide cloud-based work productivity
or business related applications to a computing device, such as
computing device 154. The computing device 154 may comprise a
mobile computing device or a tablet computer. The storage appliance
140 may comprise a cloud-based data management system for backing
up virtual machines and/or files within a virtualized
infrastructure, such as virtual machines running on server 160 or
files stored on server 160.
[0038] In some embodiments, the storage appliance 170 may manage
the extraction and storage of virtual machine snapshots associated
with different point in time versions of one or more virtual
machines running within the data center 150. A snapshot of a
virtual machine may correspond with a state of the virtual machine
at a particular point in time. In some cases, the snapshot may
capture the state of various virtual machine settings and the state
of one or more virtual disks for the virtual machine. In response
to a restore command from the server 160, the storage appliance 170
may restore a point in time version of a virtual machine or restore
point in time versions of one or more files located on the virtual
machine and transmit the restored data to the server 160. In
response to a mount command from the server 160, the storage
appliance 170 may allow a point in time version of a virtual
machine to be mounted and allow the server 160 to read and/or
modify data associated with the point in time version of the
virtual machine. To improve storage density, the storage appliance
170 may deduplicate and compress data associated with different
versions of a virtual machine and/or deduplicate and compress data
associated with different virtual machines. To improve system
performance, the storage appliance 170 may first store virtual
machine snapshots received from a virtualized environment in a
cache, such as a flash-based cache. The cache may also store
popular data or frequently accessed data (e.g., based on a history
of virtual machine restorations), incremental files associated with
commonly restored virtual machine versions, and current day
incremental files or incremental files corresponding with snapshots
captured within the past 24 hours.
[0039] An incremental file may comprise a forward incremental file
or a reverse incremental file. A forward incremental file may
include a set of data representing changes that have occurred since
an earlier point in time snapshot of a virtual machine. To generate
a snapshot of the virtual machine corresponding with a forward
incremental file, the forward incremental file may be combined with
an earlier point in time snapshot of the virtual machine (e.g., the
forward incremental file may be combined with the last fill image
of the virtual machine that was captured before the forward
incremental was captured and any other forward incremental files
that were captured subsequent to the last full image and prior to
the forward incremental file). A reverse incremental file may
include a set of data representing changes from a later point in
time snapshot of a virtual machine. To generate a snapshot of the
virtual machine corresponding with a reverse incremental file, the
reverse incremental file may be combined with a later point in time
snapshot of the virtual machine (e.g., the reverse incremental file
may be combined with the most recent snapshot of the virtual
machine and any other reverse incremental files that were captured
prior to the most recent snapshot and subsequent to the reverse
incremental file).
[0040] The storage appliance 170 may provide a user interface
(e.g., a web-based interface or a graphical user interface) that
displays virtual machine information, such as identifications of
the virtual machines protected and the historical versions or time
machine views for each of the virtual machines protected, and
allows an end user to search, select, and control virtual machines
managed by the storage appliance. A time machine view of a virtual
machine may include snapshots of the virtual machine over a
plurality of points in time. Each snapshot may comprise the state
of the virtual machine at a particular point in time. Each snapshot
may correspond with a different version of the virtual machine
(e.g., Version 1 of a virtual machine may correspond with the state
of the virtual machine at a first point in time and Version 2 of
the virtual machine may correspond with the state of the virtual
machine at a second point in time subsequent to the first point in
time).
[0041] FIG. 1B depicts one embodiment of server 160 in FIG. 1A. The
server 160 may comprise one server out of a plurality of servers
that are networked together within a data center. In one example,
the plurality of servers may be positioned within one or more
server racks within the data center. As depicted, the server 160
includes hardware-level components and software-level components.
The hardware-level components include one or more processors 182,
one or more memory 184, and one or more disks 185. The
software-level components include a hypervisor 186, a virtualized
infrastructure manager 199, and one or more virtual machines, such
as virtual machine 198. The hypervisor 186 may comprise a native
hypervisor or a hosted hypervisor. The hypervisor 186 may provide a
virtual operating platform for running one or more virtual
machines, such as virtual machine 198. Virtual machine 198 includes
a plurality of virtual hardware devices including a virtual
processor 192, a virtual memory 194, and a virtual disk 195. The
virtual disk 195 may comprise a file stored within the one or more
disks 185. In one example, a virtual machine may include a
plurality of virtual disks, with each virtual disk of the plurality
of virtual disks associated with a different file stored on the one
or more disks 185. Virtual machine 198 may include a guest
operating system 196 that runs one or more applications, such as
application 197. The virtualized infrastructure manager 199, which
may correspond with the virtualization manager 169 in FIG. 1A, may
run on a virtual machine or natively on the server 160. The
virtualized infrastructure manager 199 may provide a centralized
platform for managing a virtualized infrastructure that includes a
plurality of virtual machines.
[0042] In one embodiment, the server 160 may use the virtualized
infrastructure manager 199 to facilitate backups for a plurality of
virtual machines (e.g., eight different virtual machines) running
on the server 160. Each virtual machine running on the server 160
may run its own guest operating system and its own set of
applications. Each virtual machine running on the server 160 may
store its own set of files using one or more virtual disks
associated with the virtual machine (e.g., each virtual machine may
include two virtual disks that are used for storing data associated
with the virtual machine).
[0043] In one embodiment, a data management application running on
a storage appliance, such as storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A or
storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1A, may request a snapshot of a
virtual machine running on server 160. The snapshot of the virtual
machine may be stored as one or more files, with each file
associated with a virtual disk of the virtual machine. A snapshot
of a virtual machine may correspond with a state of the virtual
machine at a particular point in time. The particular point in time
may be associated with a time stamp. In one example, a first
snapshot of a virtual machine may correspond with a first state of
the virtual machine (including the state of applications and files
stored on the virtual machine) at a first point in time (e.g., 6:30
p.m. on Jun. 29, 2017) and a second snapshot of the virtual machine
may correspond with a second state of the virtual machine at a
second point in time subsequent to the first point in time (e.g.,
6:30 p.m. on Jun. 30, 2017).
[0044] In response to a request for a snapshot of a virtual machine
at a particular point in time, the virtualized infrastructure
manager 199 may set the virtual machine into a frozen state or
store a copy of the virtual machine at the particular point in
time. The virtualized infrastructure manager 199 may then transfer
data associated with the virtual machine (e.g., an image of the
virtual machine or a portion of the image of the virtual machine)
to the storage appliance. The data associated with the virtual
machine may include a set of files including a virtual disk file
storing contents of a virtual disk of the virtual machine at the
particular point in time and a virtual machine configuration file
storing configuration settings for the virtual machine at the
particular point in time. The contents of the virtual disk file may
include the operating system used by the virtual machine, local
applications stored on the virtual disk, and user files (e.g.,
images and word processing documents). In some cases, the
virtualized infrastructure manager 199 may transfer a full image of
the virtual machine to the storage appliance or a plurality of data
blocks corresponding with the full image (e.g., to enable a full
image-level backup of the virtual machine to be stored on the
storage appliance). In other cases, the virtualized infrastructure
manager 199 may transfer a portion of an image of the virtual
machine associated with data that has changed since an earlier
point in time prior to the particular point in time or since a last
snapshot of the virtual machine was taken. In one example, the
virtualized infrastructure manager 199 may transfer only data
associated with changed blocks stored on a virtual disk of the
virtual machine that have changed since the last snapshot of the
virtual machine was taken. In one embodiment, the data management
application may specify a first point in time and a second point in
time and the virtualized infrastructure manager 199 may output one
or more changed data blocks associated with the virtual machine
that have been modified between the first point in time and the
second point in time.
[0045] FIG. 1C depicts one embodiment of a storage appliance, such
as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1A. The storage appliance may
include a plurality of physical machines that may be grouped
together and presented as a single computing system. Each physical
machine of the plurality of physical machines may comprise a node
in a cluster (e.g., a failover cluster). As depicted, the storage
appliance 170 includes hardware-level components and software-level
components. The hardware-level components include one or more
physical machines, such as physical machine 120 and physical
machine 130. The physical machine 120 includes a network interface
121, processor 122, memory 123, and disk 124 all in communication
with each other. Processor 122 allows physical machine 120 to
execute computer readable instructions stored in memory 123 to
perform processes described herein. Disk 124 may include a hard
disk drive and/or a solid-state drive. The physical machine 130
includes a network interface 131, processor 132, memory 133, and
disk 134 all in communication with each other. Processor 132 allows
physical machine 130 to execute computer readable instructions
stored in memory 133 to perform processes described herein. Disk
134 may include a hard disk drive and/or a solid-state drive. In
some cases, disk 134 may include a flash-based SSD or a hybrid
HDD/SSD drive. In one embodiment, the storage appliance 170 may
include a plurality of physical machines arranged in a cluster
(e.g., eight machines in a cluster). Each of the plurality of
physical machines may include a plurality of multi-core CPUs, 128
GB of RAM, a 500 GB SSD, four 4 TB HDDs, and a network interface
controller.
[0046] As depicted in FIG. 1C, the software-level components of the
storage appliance 170 may include data management system 102, a
virtualization interface 104, a distributed job scheduler 108, a
distributed metadata store 110, a distributed file system 112, and
one or more virtual machine search indexes, such as virtual machine
search index 106. In one embodiment, the software-level components
of the storage appliance 170 may be run using a dedicated
hardware-based appliance. In another embodiment, the software-level
components of the storage appliance 170 may be run from the cloud
(e.g., the software-level components may be installed on a cloud
service provider).
[0047] In some cases, the data storage across a plurality of nodes
in a cluster (the data storage available from the one or more
physical machines) may be aggregated and made available over a
single file system namespace (e.g., /snapshots/). A directory for
each virtual machine protected using the storage appliance 170 may
be created (e.g., the directory for Virtual Machine A may be
/snapshots/VM_A). Snapshots and other data associated with a
virtual machine may reside within the directory for the virtual
machine. In one example, snapshots of a virtual machine may be
stored in subdirectories of the directory (e.g., a first snapshot
of Virtual Machine A may reside in /snapshots/VM_A/s1/ and a second
snapshot of Virtual Machine A may reside in
/snapshots/VM_A/s2/).
[0048] The distributed file system 112 may present itself as a
single file system, in which as new physical machines or nodes are
added to the storage appliance 170, the duster may automatically
discover the additional nodes and automatically increase the
available capacity of the file system for storing files and other
data. Each file stored in the distributed file system 112 may be
partitioned into one or more chunks. Each of the one or more chunks
may be stored within the distributed file system 112 as a separate
file. The files stored within the distributed file system 112 may
be replicated or mirrored over a plurality of physical machines,
thereby creating a load-balanced and fault tolerant distributed
file system. In one example, storage appliance 170 may include ten
physical machines arranged as a failover cluster and a first file
corresponding with a full-image snapshot of a virtual machine
(e.g., /snapshots/VM_A/s1/s1.full) may be replicated and stored on
three of the ten machines. In some cases, the data chunks
associated with a file stored in the distributed file system 112
may include replicated data (e.g., due to n-way mirroring) or
parity data (e.g., due to erasure coding). When a disk storing one
of the data chunks fails, then the distributed file system may
regenerate the lost data and store the lost data using a new
disk.
[0049] In one embodiment, the distributed file system 112 may be
used to store a set of versioned files corresponding with a virtual
machine. The set of versioned files may include a first file
comprising a full image of the virtual machine at a first point in
time and a second file comprising an incremental file relative to
the full image. The set of versioned files may correspond with a
snapshot chain for the virtual machine. The distributed tile system
112 may determine a first set of data chunks that includes
redundant information for the first file (e.g., via application of
erasure code techniques) and store the first set of data chunks
across a plurality of nodes within a cluster. The placement of the
first set of data chunks may be determined based on the locations
of other data related to the first set of data chunks (e.g., the
locations of other chunks corresponding with the second file or
other files within the snapshot chain for the virtual machine). In
some embodiments, the distributed file system 112 may also
co-locate data chunks or replicas of virtual machines discovered to
be similar to each other in order to allow for cross virtual
machine deduplication. In this case, the placement of the first set
of data chunks may be determined based on the locations of other
data corresponding with a different virtual machine that has been
determined to be sufficiently similar to the virtual machine.
[0050] The distributed metadata store 110 may comprise a
distributed database management system that provides high
availability without a single point of failure. The distributed
metadata store 110 may act as a quick-access database for various
components in the software stack of the storage appliance 170 and
may store metadata corresponding with stored snapshots using a SSD
or a Flash-based storage device. In one embodiment, the distributed
metadata store 110 may comprise a database, such as a distributed
document oriented database. The distributed metadata store 110 may
be used as a distributed key value storage system. In one example,
the distributed metadata store 110 may comprise a distributed NoSQL
key value store database, in some cases, the distributed metadata
store 110 may include a partitioned row store, in which rows are
organized into tables or other collections of related data held
within a structured format within the key value store database. A
table (or a set of tables) may be used to store metadata
information associated with one or more files stored within the
distributed file system 112. The metadata information may include
the name of a file, a size of the file, file permissions associated
with the file, when the file was last modified, and file mapping
information associated with an identification of the location of
the file stored within a cluster of physical machines. In one
embodiment, a new file corresponding with a snapshot of a virtual
machine may be stored within the distributed file system 112 and
metadata associated with the new file may be stored within the
distributed metadata store 110. The distributed metadata store 110
may also be used to store a backup schedule for the virtual machine
and a list of snapshots for the virtual machine that are stored
using the storage appliance 170.
[0051] In some cases, the distributed metadata store 110 may be
used to manage one or more versions of a virtual machine. Each
version of the virtual machine may correspond with a full image
snapshot of the virtual machine stored within the distributed file
system 112 or an incremental snapshot of the virtual machine (e.g.,
a forward incremental or reverse incremental) stored within the
distributed file system 112. In one embodiment, the one or more
versions of the virtual machine may correspond with a plurality of
files. The plurality of files may include a single full image
snapshot of the virtual machine and one or more incrementals
derived from the single full image snapshot. The single full image
snapshot of the virtual machine may be stored using a first storage
device of a first type (e.g., a HDD) and the one or more
incrementals derived from the single full image snapshot may be
stored using a second storage device of a second type (e.g., an
SSD). In this case, only a single full image needs to be stored and
each version of the virtual machine may be generated from the
single full image or the single full image combined with a subset
of the one or more incrementals. Furthermore, each version of the
virtual machine may be generated by performing a sequential read
from the first storage device (e.g., reading a single file from a
HDD) to acquire the full image and, in parallel, performing one or
more reads from the second storage device (e.g., performing fast
random reads from an SSD) to acquire the one or more incrementals.
In some cases, a first version of a virtual machine corresponding
with a first snapshot of the virtual machine at a first point in
time may be generated by concurrently reading a full image for the
virtual machine corresponding with a state of the virtual machine
prior to the first point in time from the first storage device
while reading one or more incrementals from the second storage
device different from the first storage device (e.g., reading the
full image from a HDD at the same time as reading 64 incrementals
from an SSD).
[0052] The distributed job scheduler 108 may comprise a distributed
fault tolerant job scheduler, in which jobs affected by node
failures are recovered and rescheduled to be run on available
nodes. In one embodiment, the distributed job scheduler 108 may be
fully decentralized and implemented without the existence of a
master node. The distributed job scheduler 108 may run job
scheduling processes on each node in a cluster or on a plurality of
nodes in the cluster and each node may independently determine
which tasks to execute. The distributed job scheduler 108 may be
used for scheduling backup jobs that acquire and store virtual
machine snapshots for one or more virtual machines over time. The
distributed job scheduler 108 may follow a backup schedule to
backup an entire image of a virtual machine at a particular point
in time or one or more virtual disks associated with the virtual
machine at the particular point in time.
[0053] The job scheduling processes running on at least a plurality
of nodes in a cluster (e.g., on each available node in the cluster)
may manage the scheduling and execution of a plurality of jobs. The
job scheduling processes may include run processes for running
jobs, cleanup processes for cleaning up failed tasks, and rollback
processes for rolling-back or undoing any actions or tasks
performed by failed jobs. In one embodiment, the job scheduling
processes may detect that a particular task for a particular job
has failed and in response may perform a cleanup process to clean
up or remove the effects of the particular task and then perform a
rollback process that processes one or more completed tasks for the
particular job in reverse order to undo the effects of the one or
more completed tasks. Once the particular job with the failed task
has been undone, the job scheduling processes may restart the
particular job on an available node in the cluster.
[0054] The virtualization interface 104 may provide an interface
for communicating with a virtualized infrastructure manager
managing a virtualization infrastructure, such as virtualized
infrastructure manager 199 in FIG. 1B, and requesting data
associated with virtual machine snapshots from the virtualization
infrastructure. The virtualization interface 104 may communicate
with the virtualized infrastructure manager using an API for
accessing the virtualized infrastructure manager (e.g., to
communicate a request for a snapshot of a virtual machine).
[0055] The virtual machine search index 106 may include a list of
files that have been stored using a virtual machine and a version
history for each of the files in the list. Each version of a file
may be mapped to the earliest point in time snapshot of the virtual
machine that includes the version of the file or to a snapshot of
the virtual machine that includes the version of the file (e.g.,
the latest point in time snapshot of the virtual machine that
includes the version of the file). In one example, the virtual
machine search index 106 may be used to identify a version of the
virtual machine that includes a particular version of a file (e.g.,
a particular version of a database, a spreadsheet, or a word
processing document). In some cases, each of the virtual machines
that are backed up or protected using storage appliance 170 may
have a corresponding virtual machine search index.
[0056] The data management system 102 may comprise an application
running on the storage appliance that manages the capturing,
storing, deduplication, compression (e.g., using a lossless data
compression algorithm such as LZ4 or LZ77), and encryption (e.g.,
using a symmetric key algorithm such as Triple DES or AES-256) of
data for the storage appliance 170. In one example, the data
management system 102 may comprise a highest level layer in an
integrated software stack running on the storage appliance. The
integrated software stack may include the data management system
102, the virtualization interface 104, the distributed job
scheduler 108, the distributed metadata store 110, and the
distributed file system 112. In some cases, the integrated software
stack may run on other computing devices, such as a server or
computing device 154 in FIG. 1A. The data management system 102 may
use the virtualization interface 104, the distributed job scheduler
108, the distributed metadata store 110, and the distributed file
system 112 to manage and store one or more snapshots of a virtual
machine. Each snapshot of the virtual machine may correspond with a
point in time version of the virtual machine. The data management
system 102 may generate and manage a list of versions for the
virtual machine. Each version of the virtual machine may map to or
reference one or more chunks and/or one or more files stored within
the distributed file system 112. Combined together, the one or more
chunks and/or the one or more files stored within the distributed
file system 112 may comprise a full image of the version of the
virtual machine.
[0057] In some embodiments, a plurality of versions of a virtual
machine may be stored as a base file associated with a complete
image of the virtual machine at a particular point in time and one
or more incremental files associated with forward and/or reverse
incremental changes derived from the base file. The data management
system 102 may patch together the base file and the one or more
incremental files in order to generate a particular version of the
plurality of versions by adding and/or subtracting data associated
with the one or more incremental files from the base file or
intermediary files derived from the base file. In some embodiments,
each version of the plurality of versions of a virtual machine may
correspond with a merged file. A merged file may include pointers
or references to one or more files and/or one or more chunks
associated with a particular version of a virtual machine. In one
example, a merged file may include a first pointer or symbolic link
to a base file and a second pointer or symbolic link to an
incremental file associated with the particular version of the
virtual machine. In some embodiments, the one or more incremental
files may correspond with forward incrementals (e.g., positive
deltas), reverse incrementals (e.g., negative deltas), or a
combination of both forward incrementals and reverse
incrementals.
[0058] FIG. 1D depicts one embodiment of a portion of an integrated
data management and storage system that includes a plurality of
nodes in communication with each other and one or more storage
devices via one or more networks 180. The plurality of nodes may be
networked together and present themselves as a unified storage
system. The plurality of nodes includes node 141 and node 147. The
one or more storage devices include storage device 157 and storage
device 158. Storage device 157 may correspond with a cloud-based
storage (e.g., private or public cloud storage). Storage device 158
may comprise a hard disk drive (HDD), a magnetic tape drive, a
solid-state drive (SSD), a storage area network (SAN) storage
device, or a networked-attached storage (NAS) device. The
integrated data management and storage system may comprise a
distributed cluster of storage appliances in which each of the
storage appliances includes one or more nodes. In one embodiment,
node 141 and node 147 may comprise two nodes housed within a first
storage appliance, such as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1C. In
another embodiment, node 141 may comprise a first node housed
within a first storage appliance and node 147 may comprise a second
node housed within a second storage appliance different from the
first storage appliance. The first storage appliance and the second
storage appliance may be located within a data center, such as data
center 150 in FIG. 1A, or located within different data
centers.
[0059] As depicted, node 141 includes a network interface 142, a
node controller 143, and a first plurality of storage devices
including HDDs 144-145 and SSD 146. The first plurality of storage
devices may comprise two or more different types of storage
devices. The node controller 143 may comprise one or more
processors configured to store, deduplicate, compress, and/or
encrypt data stored within the first plurality of storage devices.
Node 147 includes a network interface 148, a node controller 149,
and a second plurality of storage devices including HDDs 151-152
and SSD 153. The second plurality of storage devices may comprise
two or more different types of storage devices. The node controller
149 may comprise one or more processors configured to store,
deduplicate, compress, and/or encrypt data stored within the second
plurality of storage devices. In some cases, node 141 may
correspond with physical machine 120 in FIG. 1C and node 147 may
correspond with physical machine 130 in FIG. 1C.
[0060] FIGS. 2A-2Q depict various embodiments of sets of files and
data structures (e.g., implemented using merged files) associated
with managing and storing snapshots of virtual machines.
[0061] FIG. 2A depicts one embodiment of a set of virtual machine
snapshots stored as a first set of files. The first set of files
may be stored using a distributed file system, such as distributed
file system 112 in FIG. 1C. As depicted, the first set of files
includes a set of reverse incrementals (R1-R4), a full image
(Base), and a set of forward incrementals (F1-F2). The set of
virtual machine snapshots includes different versions of a virtual
machine (versions V1-V7 of Virtual Machine A) captured at different
points in time (times T1-T7). In some cases, the file size of the
reverse incremental R3 and the file size of the forward incremental
F2 may both be less than the file size of the base image
corresponding with version V5 of Virtual Machine A. The base image
corresponding with version V5 of Virtual Machine A may comprise a
full image of Virtual Machine A at point in time T5. The base image
may include a virtual disk file for Virtual Machine A at point in
time T5. The reverse incremental R3 corresponds with version V2 of
Virtual Machine A and the forward incremental F2 corresponds with
version V7 of Virtual Machine A. The forward incremental F1 may be
associated with the data changes that occurred to Virtual Machine A
between time T5 and time T6. The forward incremental F1 may include
one or more changed data blocks.
[0062] In some embodiments, each snapshot of the set of virtual
machine snapshots may be stored within a storage appliance, such as
storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1A. In other embodiments, a first set
of the set of virtual machine snapshots may be stored within a
first storage appliance and a second set of the set of virtual
machine snapshots may be stored within a second storage appliance,
such as storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A. In this case, a data
management system may extend across both the first storage
appliance and the second storage appliance. In one example, the
first set of the set of virtual machine snapshots may be stored
within a local cluster repository (e.g., recent snapshots of the
file may be located within a first data center) and the second set
of the set of virtual machine snapshots may be stored within a
remote cluster repository (e.g., older snapshots or archived
snapshots of the file may be located within a second data center)
or a cloud repository.
[0063] FIG. 2B depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V7 of Virtual Machine A using the first set of
files depicted in FIG. 2A. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase) that references the base image Base (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s5/s5.full), a second pointer (pF1) that references
the forward incremental F1 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s6/s6.delta), and a third pointer (pF2) that
references the forward incremental F2 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s7/s7.delta). In one embodiment, to generate the
full image of version V7 of Virtual Machine A, the base image may
be acquired, the data changes associated with forward incremental
F1 may be applied to (or patched to) the base image to generate an
intermediate image, and then the data changes associated with
forward incremental F2 may be applied to the intermediate image to
generate the full image of version V7 of Virtual Machine A.
[0064] FIG. 2C depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V2 of Virtual Machine A using the first set of
files depicted in FIG. 2A. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase) that references the base image Base (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s5/s5.full), a second pointer (pR1) that references
the reverse incremental R1 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s4/s4.delta), a third pointer (pR2) that references
the reverse incremental R2 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s3/s3.delta), and a fourth pointer (pR3) that
references the reverse incremental R3 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s2/s2.delta). In one embodiment, to generate the
full image of version V2 of Virtual Machine A, the base image may
be acquired, the data changes associated with reverse incremental
R1 may be applied to the base image to generate a first
intermediate image, the data changes associated with reverse
incremental R2 may be applied to the first intermediate image to
generate a second intermediate image, and then the data changes
associated with reverse incremental R3 may be applied to the second
intermediate image to generate the full image of version V2 of
Virtual Machine A.
[0065] FIG. 2D depicts one embodiment of a set of virtual machine
snapshots stored as a second set of files after a rebasing process
has been performed using the first set of files in FIG. 2A. The
second set of files may be stored using a distributed file system,
such as distributed file system 112 in FIG. 1C. The rebasing
process may generate new files R12, R11, and Base2 associated with
versions V5-V7 of Virtual Machine A in order to move a full image
closer to a more recent version of Virtual Machine A and to improve
the reconstruction time for the more recent versions of Virtual
Machine A. The data associated with the full image Base in FIG. 2A
may be equivalent to the new file R12 patched over 111 and the full
image Base2. Similarly, the data associated with the full image
Base2 may be equivalent to the forward incremental F2 in FIG. 2A
patched over F1 and the full image Base in FIG. 2A.
[0066] The process of moving the full image snapshot for the set of
virtual machine snapshots to correspond with the most recent
snapshot version may be performed in order to shorten or reduce the
chain lengths for the newest or most recent snapshots, which may
comprise the snapshots of Virtual Machine A that are the most
likely to be accessed. In some cases, a rebasing operation (e.g.,
that moves the full image snapshot for a set of virtual machine
snapshots to correspond with the most recent snapshot version) or a
reverse operation may be triggered when a number of forward
incremental files is greater than a threshold number of forward
incremental files for a snapshot chain (e.g., more than 200 forward
incremental files). In other cases, a rebasing operation or a
reverse operation may be triggered when the total disk size for the
forward incremental files exceeds a threshold disk size (e.g., is
greater than 200 GB) or is greater than a threshold percentage
(e.g., is greater than 20%) of the base image for the snapshot
chain.
[0067] In some cases, the rebasing process may be part of a
periodic rebasing process that is applied at a rebasing frequency
(e.g., every 24 hours) to each virtual machine of a plurality of
protected virtual machines to reduce the number of forward
incremental files that need to be patched to a base image in order
to restore the most recent version of a virtual machine.
Periodically reducing the number of forward incremental files may
reduce the time to restore the most recent version of the virtual
machine as the number of forward incremental files that need to be
applied to a base image to generate the most recent version may be
limited. In one example, if a rebasing process is applied to
snapshots of a virtual machine every 24 hours and snapshots of the
virtual machine are acquired every four hours, then the number of
forward incremental files may be limited to at most five forward
incremental files.
[0068] As depicted, the second set of files includes a set of
reverse incrementals (R11-R12 and R1-R4) and a full image (Base2).
The set of virtual machine snapshots includes the different
versions of the virtual machine (versions V1-V7 of Virtual Machine
A) captured at the different points in time (times T1-T7) depicted
in FIG. 2A. In some cases, the file size of the reverse incremental
R2 may be substantially less than the file size of the base image
Base2. The reverse incremental R2 corresponds with version V2 of
Virtual Machine A and the base image Base2 corresponds with version
V7 of Virtual Machine A. In this case, the most recent version of
Virtual Machine A (i.e., the most recent restore point for Virtual
Machine A) comprises a full image. To generate earlier versions of
Virtual Machine A, reverse incrementals may be applied to (or
patched to) the full image Base2. Subsequent versions of Virtual
Machine A may be stored as forward incrementals that depend from
the full image Base2.
[0069] In one embodiment, a rebasing process may be applied to a
first set of files associated with a virtual machine in order to
generate a second set of files to replace the first set of files.
The first set of files may include a first base image from which a
first version of the virtual machine may be derived and a first
forward incremental file from which a second version of the virtual
machine may be derived. The second set of files may include a
second reverse incremental file from which the first version of the
virtual machine may be derived and a second base image from which
the second version of the virtual machine may be derived. During
the rebasing process, data integrity checking may be performed to
detect and correct data errors in the files stored in a file
system, such as distributed file system 112 in FIG. 1C, that are
read to generate the second set of files.
[0070] FIG. 2E depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V7 of Virtual Machine A using the second set of
files depicted in FIG. 2D. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase2) that references the base image Base2 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s7/s7.full). In this case, the full image of
version V7 of Virtual Machine A may be directly acquired without
patching forward incrementals or reverse incrementals to the base
image Base2 corresponding with version V7 of Virtual Machine A.
[0071] FIG. 2F depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V2 of Virtual Machine A using the second set of
files depicted in FIG. 2D. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase2) that references the base image Base2 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s7/s7.full), a second pointer (pR11) that
references the reverse incremental R11 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s6/s6.delta), a third pointer (pR12) that
references the reverse incremental R12 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s5/s5.delta), a fourth pointer (pR1) that
references the reverse incremental R1 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s4/s4.delta), a fifth pointer (pR2) that references
the reverse incremental R2 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s3/s3.delta), and a sixth pointer (pR3) that
references the reverse incremental R3 (e.g., via the path
/snapshots/VM_A/s2/s2.delta). In one embodiment, to generate the
full image of version V2 of Virtual Machine A, the base image may
be acquired, the data changes associated with reverse incremental
R11 may be applied to the base image to generate a first
intermediate image, the data changes associated with reverse
incremental R12 may be applied to the first intermediate image to
generate a second intermediate image, the data changes associated
with reverse incremental R1 may be applied to the second
intermediate image to generate a third intermediate image, the data
changes associated with reverse incremental R2 may be applied to
the third intermediate image to generate a fourth intermediate
image, and then the data changes associated with reverse
incremental R3 may be applied to the fourth intermediate image to
generate the lull image of version V2 of Virtual Machine A.
[0072] FIG. 2G depicts one embodiment of a set of files associated
with multiple virtual machine snapshots. The set of files may be
stored using a distributed file system, such as distributed file
system 112 in FIG. 1C. As depicted, the set of files includes a set
of reverse incrementals (R1-R3), a full image (Base), and a set of
forward incrementals (F1-F2, F3, and F5-F6). In this case, a first
version of Virtual Machine B may be generated using a forward
incremental F3 that derives from Version VX of Virtual Machine A
and a second version of Virtual Machine C may be generated using
forward incrementals F5-F6 that are derived from Version VZ of
Virtual Machine A. In one example, Virtual Machine B may have been
initially cloned from Version VX of Virtual Machine A and Virtual
Machine C may have been initially cloned from Version VZ of Virtual
Machine A.
[0073] In one embodiment, in response to a failure of a first
virtual machine in a production environment (e.g., due to a failure
of a physical machine running the first virtual machine), a most
recent snapshot of the first virtual machine stored within a
storage appliance, such as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1C, may be
mounted and made available to the production environment. In some
cases, the storage appliance may allow the most recent snapshot of
the first virtual machine to be mounted by a computing device
within the production environment, such as server 160 in FIG. 1A.
Once the most recent snapshot of the first virtual machine has been
mounted, data stored within the most recent snapshot of the first
virtual machine may be read and/or modified and new data may be
written without the most recent snapshot of the first virtual
machine being fully restored and transferred to the production
environment. In some cases, a server within the production
environment may boot up a failed virtual machine directly from a
storage appliance, such as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1C, acting
as an NFS datastore to minimize the recovery time to recover the
failed virtual machine.
[0074] FIG. 2H depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V1 of Virtual Machine B using the set of files
depicted in FIG. 2G. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase) that references the base image Base, a second pointer (pR1)
that references the reverse incremental R1, a third pointer (pR2)
that references the reverse incremental R2, and a fourth pointer
(pF3) that references the forward incremental F3. In one
embodiment, to generate the full image of version V1 of Virtual
Machine B, the base image associated with Version VY of Virtual
Machine A may be acquired, the data changes associated with reverse
incremental R1 may be applied to the base image to generate a first
intermediate image, the data changes associated with reverse
incremental R2 may be applied to the first intermediate image to
generate a second intermediate image, and the data changes
associated with forward incremental F3 may be applied to the second
intermediate image to generate the full image of version V1 of
Virtual Machine B.
[0075] FIG. 2I depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V2 of Virtual Machine C using the set of files
depicted in FIG. 2G. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase) that references the base image Base, a second pointer (pF1)
that references the forward incremental F1, a third pointer (pF5)
that references the forward incremental F5, and a fourth pointer
(pF6) that references the forward incremental F6. In one
embodiment, to generate the full image of version V2 of Virtual
Machine C, a base image (e.g., the base image associated with
Version VY of Virtual Machine A) may be acquired, the data changes
associated with forward incremental may be applied to the base
image to generate a first intermediate image, the data changes
associated with forward incremental F5 may be applied to the first
intermediate image to generate a second intermediate image, and the
data changes associated with forward incremental F6 may be applied
to the second intermediate image to generate the full image of
version V2 of Virtual Machine C.
[0076] FIG. 2J depicts one embodiment of a set of files associated
with multiple virtual machine snapshots after a rebasing process
has been performed using the set of files in FIG. 2G. The set of
files may be stored using a distributed file system, such as
distributed file system 112 in FIG. 1C. The rebasing process may
generate new files R12, R11, and Base2. As depicted, the set of
files includes a set of reverse incrementals (R11-R12 and R1-R3), a
full image (Base2), and a set of forward incrementals (F3 and
F5-F7). In this case, a first version of Virtual Machine B may be
generated using a forward incremental F3 that derives from Version
VX of Virtual Machine A and a second version of Virtual Machine C
may be generated using forward incrementals F5-F6 that are derived
from Version VZ of Virtual Machine A. In one example, Virtual
Machine B may have been initially cloned from Version VX of Virtual
Machine A and Virtual Machine C may have been initially cloned from
version VZ of Virtual Machine A. Forward incremental file F7 may
include changes to Version VW of Virtual Machine A that occurred
subsequent to the generation of the full image file Base2. In some
cases, the forward incremental file F7 may comprise a writeable
file or have file permissions allowing modification of the file,
while all other files associated with earlier versions of Virtual
Machine A comprise read only files.
[0077] FIG. 2K depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V1 of Virtual Machine B using the set of files
depicted in FIG. 2J. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase2) that references the base image Base2, a second pointer
(pR11) that references the reverse incremental R11, a third pointer
(pR12) that references the reverse incremental R12, a fourth
pointer (pR1) that references the reverse incremental R1, a fifth
pointer (pR2) that references the reverse incremental R2, and a
sixth pointer (pF3) that references the forward incremental F3. In
one embodiment, to generate the full image of version V1 of Virtual
Machine B, a base image (e.g., the base image associated with
Version VW of Virtual Machine A) may be acquired, the data changes
associated with reverse incremental R11 may be applied to the base
image to generate a first intermediate image, the data changes
associated with reverse incremental R12 may be applied to the first
intermediate image to generate a second intermediate image, the
data changes associated with reverse incremental R1 may be applied
to the second intermediate image to generate a third intermediate
image, the data changes associated with reverse incremental R2 may
be applied to the third intermediate image to generate a fourth
intermediate image, and the data changes associated with forward
incremental F3 may be applied to the fourth intermediate image to
generate the full image of version V1 of Virtual Machine B.
[0078] FIG. 2L depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version V2 of Virtual Machine C using the set of files
depicted in FIG. 2J. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBase2) that references the base image Base2, a second pointer
(pR11) that references the reverse incremental R11, a third pointer
(pF5) that references the forward incremental F5, and a fourth
pointer (pF6) that references the forward incremental F6. In one
embodiment, to generate the full image of version V2 of Virtual
Machine C, a base image (e.g., the base image associated with
Version VW of Virtual Machine A) may be acquired, the data changes
associated with reverse incremental R11 may be applied to the base
image to generate a first intermediate image, the data changes
associated with forward incremental F5 may be applied to the first
intermediate image to generate a second intermediate image, and the
data changes associated with forward incremental F6 may be applied
to the second intermediate image to generate the full image of
version V2 of Virtual Machine C.
[0079] In some cases, a backed-up version of a first virtual
machine may be generated by concurrently reading a full image of a
second virtual machine different from the first virtual machine
from a first storage device (e.g., a HDD) while reading one or more
incrementals associated with the first virtual machine from a
second storage device (e.g., an SSD) different from the first
storage device.
[0080] FIG. 2M depicts one embodiment of a set of files associated
with multiple virtual machine snapshots. The set of files may be
stored using a distributed file system, such as distributed file
system 112 in FIG. 1C. As depicted, the set of files includes a
second full image (BaseB), a set of forward incrementals (F1-F2 and
F5-F6) that derive from the second full image (BaseB), and a set of
reverse incrementals (R1-R3) that derive from the second full image
(BaseB). The set of files also includes a first full image (BaseA)
and a reverse incremental (R4) that derives from the first full
image (BaseA). In this case, the depicted snapshots for Virtual
Machine A include two different full image snapshots (BaseA and
BaseB). Each of the full image snapshots may comprise an anchor
snapshot for a snapshot chain. The first full image (BaseA) and the
reverse incremental (R4) may comprise a first snapshot chain with
the first full image acting as the anchor snapshot. A second
snapshot chain may comprise the second full image (BaseB), the set
of forward incrementals (F1-F2), and the set of reverse
incrementals (R1-R3). The first snapshot chain and the second
snapshot chain may be independent of each other and independently
managed. For example, the base image associated with the second
snapshot chain for Virtual Machine A may be repositioned (e.g., via
rebasing) without impacting the first snapshot chain for Virtual
Machine A.
[0081] A third snapshot chain for Virtual Machine C may comprise
the second full image (BaseB) and forward incrementals (F1 and
F5-F6). The first snapshot chain for Virtual Machine A and the
third snapshot chain for Virtual Machine C may be independent of
each other and independently managed. However, as Virtual Machine C
is a dependent virtual machine that depends from the second
snapshot chain for Virtual Machine A, changes to the second
snapshot chain may impact the third snapshot chain. For example,
repositioning of the base image for the second snapshot chain due
to rebasing may require the merged files for the third snapshot
chain to be updated.
[0082] In some embodiments, each of the snapshot chains for Virtual
Machine A may have a maximum incremental chain length (e.g., no
more than 100 total incremental files), a maximum reverse
incremental chain length (e.g., no more than 50 reverse incremental
files), and a maximum forward incremental chain length (e.g., no
more than 70 forward incremental files. In the event that a new
snapshot will cause one of the snapshot chains to violate the
maximum incremental chain length, the maximum reverse incremental
chain length, or the maximum forward incremental chain length, then
a new snapshot chain may be created for Virtual Machine A and a new
full-image base file may be stored for the new snapshot chain.
[0083] FIG. 2N depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version VS of Virtual Machine A using the set of files
depicted in FIG. 2M. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBaseA) that references the first base image BaseA and a second
pointer (pR4) that references the reverse incremental R4. In one
embodiment, to generate the full image of version VS of Virtual
Machine A, the first base image associated with Version VT of
Virtual Machine A may be acquired and the data changes associated
with reverse incremental R4 may be applied to the first base image
to generate the full image of version VS of Virtual Machine A.
[0084] FIG. 2O depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version VU of Virtual Machine A using the set of files
depicted in FIG. 2M. The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBaseB) that references the second base image BaseB, a second
pointer (pR1) that references the reverse incremental R1, a third
pointer (pR2) that references the reverse incremental R2, and a
fourth pointer (pR3) that references the reverse incremental R3. In
one embodiment, to generate the full image of version VU of Virtual
Machine A, the second base image associated with Version VY of
Virtual Machine A may be acquired, the data changes associated with
reverse incremental R1 may be applied to the second base image to
generate a first intermediate image, the data changes associated
with reverse incremental R2 may be applied to the first
intermediate image to generate a second intermediate image, and the
data changes associated with reverse incremental R3 may be applied
to the second intermediate image to generate the full image of
version VU of Virtual Machine A.
[0085] FIG. 2P depicts one embodiment of a set of files associated
with multiple virtual machine snapshots after a rebasing process
has been performed to a snapshot chain using the set of files in
FIG. 2M. The set of files may be stored using a distributed file
system, such as distributed file system 112 in FIG. 1C. The
rebasing process may generate new files R12, R11, and BaseB2. As
depicted, the set of files includes a set of reverse incrementals
(R11-R12 and R1-R2), a full image (BaseB2), and a set of forward
incrementals (F5-F7). In this case, a second version of Virtual
Machine C may be generated using forward incrementals F5-F6 that
are derived from Version VZ of Virtual Machine A. Forward
incremental file F7 may include changes to Version VW of Virtual
Machine A that occurred subsequent to the generation of the full
image file BaseB2. In some cases, the forward incremental file F7
may comprise a writeable file or have file permissions allowing
modification of the file, while all other files associated with
earlier versions of Virtual Machine A comprise read only files.
[0086] FIG. 2Q depicts one embodiment of a merged file for
generating version VU of Virtual Machine A using the set of files
depicted in FIG. 2P, The merged file includes a first pointer
(pBaseA) that references the first base image BaseA and a second
pointer (pF9) that references the forward incremental F9. In one
embodiment, to generate the full image of version VU of Virtual
Machine A, the first base image associated with Version VT of
Virtual Machine A may be acquired and the data changes associated
with forward incremental F9 may be applied to the first base image
to generate the full image of version VU of Virtual Machine A.
[0087] In some embodiments, upon detection that a second snapshot
chain has reached a maximum incremental chain length (e.g., no more
than 500 total incremental files), a maximum reverse incremental
chain length (e.g., no more than 400 reverse incremental files), or
a maximum forward incremental chain length (e.g., no more than 150
forward incremental files), an existing snapshot chain (e.g., the
first snapshot chain depicted in FIG. 2P) may have its chain length
extended or snapshots previously assigned to the second snapshot
chain may be moved to the existing snapshot chain. For example, the
first snapshot chain depicted in FIG. 2.M comprises two total
snapshots, while the first snapshot chain depicted in FIG. 2P
comprises three total snapshots as the snapshot corresponding with
version VU of Virtual Machine A has moved from the second snapshot
chain to the first snapshot chain.
[0088] In some embodiments, the number of snapshots in a snapshot
chain may decrease over time as older versions of a virtual machine
are consolidated, archived, deleted, or moved to a different
storage domain (e.g., to cloud storage) depending on the data
backup and archiving schedule for the virtual machine. In some
cases, the maximum incremental chain length or the maximum number
of snapshots for a snapshot chain may be increased over time as the
versions stored by the snapshot chain age. In one example, if the
versions of a virtual machine stored using a snapshot chain are all
less than one month old, then the maximum incremental chain length
may be set to a maximum of 200 incrementals; however, if the
versions of the virtual machine stored using the snapshot chain are
all greater than one month old, then the maximum incremental chain
length may be set to a maximum of 1000 incrementals.
[0089] In some embodiments, the maximum incremental chain length
for a snapshot chain may be increased over time as the number of
allowed snapshots in a snapshot chain may be increased as the
backed-up versions of a virtual machine get older. For example, the
maximum incremental chain length for a snapshot chain storing
versions of a virtual machine that are less than one year old may
comprise a maximum incremental chain length of 200 incrementals,
while the maximum incremental chain length for a snapshot chain
storing versions of a virtual machine that are more than one year
old may comprise a maximum incremental chain length of 500
incrementals.
[0090] In some embodiments, the maximum incremental chain length,
the maximum reverse incremental chain length, or the maximum
forward incremental chain length for a snapshot chain may be
adjusted over time as nodes or disks are added to or removed from a
cluster or upon an update to a data backup and archiving schedule
for a virtual machine due to the assignment of a new backup class
or a new backup, replication, and archival policy. In one example,
the maximum incremental chain length may be increased from 200
incrementals to 500 incrementals if the number of nodes or disks
falls below a threshold number (e.g., is less than four nodes). In
another example, the maximum incremental chain length may be
increased from 100 incrementals to 200 incrementals if the
available disk storage falls below a threshold amount if disk space
(e.g., the amount of available disk space is less than 20 TB).
[0091] FIG. 3A is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for managing and storing virtual machine snapshots using a
data storage system. In one embodiment, the process of FIG. 3A may
be performed by a storage appliance, such as storage appliance 170
in FIG. 1A.
[0092] In step 302, a schedule for backing up a first virtual
machine is determined. In one example, the schedule for backing up
the first virtual machine may comprise periodically backing up the
first virtual machine every four hours. The schedule for backing up
the first virtual machine may be derived from a new backup,
replication, and archival policy or backup class assigned to the
first virtual machine. In step 304, a job scheduler is configured
to implement the schedule for backing up the first virtual machine.
In one example, a distributed job scheduler, such as distributed
job scheduler 108 in FIG. 1C, may be configured to schedule and run
processes for capturing and storing images of the first virtual
machine over time according the schedule. In step 306, a snapshot
process for acquiring a snapshot of the first virtual machine is
initiated. The snapshot process may send an instruction to a
virtualized infrastructure manager, such as virtualization manager
169 in FIG. 1A, that requests data associated with the snapshot of
the first virtual machine. In step 308, a type of snapshot to be
stored is determined. The type of snapshot may comprise a full
image snapshot or an incremental snapshot. In some cases, a full
image snapshot may be captured and stored in order to serve as an
anchor snapshot for a new snapshot chain. Versions of the first
virtual machine may be stored using one or more independent
snapshot chains, wherein each snapshot chain comprises a full image
snapshot and one or more incremental snapshots. One embodiment of a
process for determining the type of snapshot to be stored (e.g.,
storing either a full image snapshot or an incremental snapshot) is
described later in reference to FIG. 3B.
[0093] In step 310, it is determined whether a full image of the
first virtual machine needs to be stored in order to store the
snapshot of the first virtual machine. The determination of whether
a full image is required may depend on whether a previous full
image associated with a prior version of the first virtual machine
has been acquired. The determination of whether a full image is
required may depend on the determination of the type of snapshot to
be stored in step 308. If a full image needs to be stored, then
step 311 is performed. Otherwise, if a full image does not need to
be stored, then step 312 is performed, in step 311, the full image
of the first virtual machine is acquired. The full image of the
first virtual machine may correspond with a file or one or more
data chunks. In step 312, changes relative to a prior version of
the first virtual machine or relative to another virtual machine
(e.g., in the case that the first virtual machine comprises a
dependent virtual machine whose snapshots derive from a full image
snapshot of a second virtual machine different from the first
virtual machine) are acquired. The changes relative to the prior
version of the first virtual machine or relative to a version of a
different virtual machine may correspond with a file or one or more
data chunks. In step 313, the full image of the first virtual
machine is stored using a distributed file system, such as
distributed file system 112 in FIG. 1C. In step 314, the changes
relative to the prior version of the first virtual machine or
relative to another virtual machine are stored using a distributed
file system, such as distributed file system 112 in FIG. 1C. In one
embodiment, the full image of the first virtual machine may be
stored using a first storage device of a first type (e.g., a HDD)
and the changes relative to the prior version of the first virtual
machine may be stored using a second storage device of a second
type (e.g., an SSD).
[0094] In some embodiments, snapshots of the first virtual machine
may be ingested at a snapshot capture frequency (e.g., every 30
minutes) by a data storage system. When a snapshot of the first
virtual machine is ingested, the snapshot may be compared with
other snapshots stored within the data storage system in order to
identify a candidate snapshot from which the snapshot may depend.
In one example, a scalable approximate matching algorithm may be
used to identify the candidate snapshot whose data most closely
matches the data associated with the snapshot or to identify the
candidate snapshot whose data has the fewest number of data
differences with the snapshot. In another example, an approximate
matching algorithm may be used to identify the candidate snapshot
whose data within a first portion of the candidate snapshot most
closely matches data associated with a first portion of the
snapshot. In some cases, a majority of the data associated with the
snapshot and the candidate snapshot may be identical (e.g., both
the snapshot and the candidate snapshot may be associated with
virtual machines that use the same operation system and have the
same applications installed). Once the candidate snapshot has been
identified, then data differences (or the delta) between the
snapshot and the candidate snapshot may be determined and the
snapshot may be stored based on the data differences. In one
example, the snapshot may be stored using a forward incremental
file that includes the data differences between the snapshot and
the candidate snapshot. The forward incremental file may be
compressed prior to being stored within a file system, such as
distributed file system 112 in FIG. 1C.
[0095] In step 316, a merged file associated with the snapshot is
generated. The merged file may reference one or more files or one
or more data chunks that have been acquired in either step 311 or
step 312. In one example, the merged file may comprise a file or a
portion of a file that includes pointers to the one or more files
or the one or more data chunks. In step 318, the merged file is
stored in a metadata store, such as distributed metadata store 110
in FIG. 1C. In step 320, a virtual machine search index for the
first virtual machine is updated. The virtual machine search index
for the first virtual machine may include a list of files that have
been stored in the first virtual machine and a version history for
each of the files in the list. In one example, the virtual machine
search index for the first virtual machine may be updated to
include new files that have been added to the first virtual machine
since a prior snapshot of the first virtual machine was taken
and/or to include updated versions of files that were previously
stored in the first virtual machine.
[0096] FIG. 3B is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for determining the type of snapshot to be stored using a
data storage system. The process described in FIG. 3B is one
example of a process for implementing step 308 in FIG. 3A. In one
embodiment, the process of FIG. 3B may be performed by a storage
appliance, such as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1A.
[0097] In step 332, a snapshot chain for a first virtual machine is
identified. The snapshot chain may comprise a full image snapshot
for the first virtual machine and one or more incremental snapshots
that derive from the full image snapshot. Backed-up versions of the
first virtual machine may correspond with one or more snapshot
chains. Each of the one or more snapshot chains may include a full
image snapshot or a base image from which incremental snapshots may
derive. One example of backed-up versions of a virtual machine
being stored using one or more snapshot chains is depicted in FIG.
2P in which the versions of Virtual Machine A are stored using a
first snapshot chain anchored by full image BaseA and a second
snapshot chain anchored by full image BaseB2.
[0098] In step 334, it is determined whether the snapshot chain
includes a dependent base file. In this case, the first virtual
machine may comprise a dependent virtual machine that has snapshots
that derive from a full image snapshot of a different virtual
machine. In one embodiment, the first virtual machine and the
different virtual machine from which the first virtual machine
depends may each have different virtual machine configuration files
for storing configuration settings for the virtual machines. In one
example, the first virtual machine may have a first number of
virtual processors (e.g., two processors) and the different virtual
machine may have a second number of virtual processors different
from the first number of virtual processors (e.g., four
processors). In another example, the first virtual machine may have
a first virtual memory size (e.g., 1 GB) and the different virtual
machine may have a second virtual memory size different from the
first virtual memory size (e.g., 2 GB). In another example, the
first virtual machine may run a first guest operating system and
the different virtual machine may run a second guest operating
system different from the first guest operating system.
[0099] In step 336, a maximum incremental chain length for the
snapshot chain is determined based on whether the snapshot chain
includes a dependent base file. In one example, if the first
virtual machine comprises a dependent virtual machine, then the
maximum incremental chain length may be set to a maximum length of
200 snapshots; however if the first virtual machine is independent
and is not a dependent virtual machine, then the maximum
incremental chain length may be set to a maximum length of 500
snapshots.
[0100] In one embodiment, the maximum incremental chain length for
the snapshot chain may be determined based on an age of the
backed-up versions within the snapshot chain. In one example, the
maximum incremental chain length for a snapshot chain storing
versions of the first virtual machine that are less than one year
old may comprise a maximum incremental chain length of 100
incrementals, while the maximum incremental chain length for a
snapshot chain storing versions of the first virtual machine that
are more than one year old may comprise a maximum incremental chain
length of 200 incrementals.
[0101] In step 338, it is determined whether a new snapshot chain
should be created based on the maximum incremental chain length. In
step 340, a type of snapshot to be stored for the first virtual
machine is determined based on the maximum incremental chain
length. The type of snapshot may comprise either a full image
snapshot or an incremental snapshot. In one embodiment, if the
snapshot chain for the first virtual machine exceeds the maximum
incremental chain length for the snapshot chain, then the type of
snapshot to be stored for the first virtual machine may comprise a
full image snapshot. In this case, an additional snapshot chain may
be created for the first virtual machine.
[0102] FIG. 3C is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for restoring a version of a virtual machine using a data
storage system. In one embodiment, the process of FIG. 3C may be
performed by a storage appliance, such as storage appliance 170 in
FIG. 1A.
[0103] In step 382, a particular version of a virtual machine to be
restored is identified. In step 384, a base image from which the
particular version may be derived is determined. In step 386, a set
of incremental files for generating the particular version is
determined. In one embodiment, the base image and the set of
incremental files may be determined from a merged file associated
with the particular version of the virtual machine. In some cases,
the set of incremental files may include one or more forward
incremental tiles and one or more reverse incremental files. In
step 388, a file associated with the particular version is
generated using the base image and the set of incremental files.
The file may be generated by patching the set of incremental files
onto the base image.
[0104] In one example, referring to FIG. 2G, if the particular
version corresponds with Version V2 of Virtual Machine C, then the
base image may correspond with the file Base in FIG. 2G and the set
of incremental files may correspond with tiles F1, F5, and F6 of
FIG. 2G. In another example, referring to FIG. 2G, if the
particular version corresponds with Version V1 of Virtual Machine
then the base image may correspond with the file Base in FIG. 2G
and the set of incremental files may correspond with files R1, R2,
and F3 of FIG. 2G. In step 390, at least a portion of the file is
outputted. The at least a portion of the file may be electronically
transferred to a computing device, such as computing device 154 in
FIG. 1A, or to a virtualization manager, such as virtualization
manager 169 in FIG. 1A.
[0105] In some embodiments, the base image and a subset of the set
of incremental files may correspond with a second virtual machine
different from the virtual machine. In this case, the base image
may comprise the base image for the second virtual machine and the
set of incremental files may include a dependent base file that
comprises data differences between the base image for the second
virtual machine and a previously acquired base image for the
virtual machine. Data deduplication techniques may be applied to
identify a candidate base image from which a dependent base file
may depend and to generate the dependent base file.
[0106] FIG. 4A depicts one embodiment of a first set of files
stored in a first storage domain (Domain A) and a second set of
files stored in a second storage domain (Domain B). The first set
of files may correspond with different point in time versions of a
virtual machine, different point in time versions of electronic
file, or different point in time versions of a database. In one
embodiment, the different point in time versions may comprise
different point in time versions of a virtual machine captured at
times t0-t5. In one example, versions V0-V5 of the virtual machine
may correspond with times t0-t5 or have been captured at times
t0-t5.
[0107] As depicted in FIG. 4A, the first set of files includes a
first full image snapshot 410 (Full1) and a first set of
incremental files (files I1-I5). The first set of incremental files
may derive from the first full image snapshot. As an example, the
first full image snapshot 410 may correspond with the full image
(Base) in FIG. 2A and the first set of incremental files may
correspond with the foreword incrementals F1-F2 in FIG. 2A. The
second set of files includes a second full image snapshot 408
(Full1) and a second set of incremental files (files I1-I5). In one
embodiment, the second set of files may be stored within a storage
appliance, such as storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A. In another
embodiment, the second set of files may be stored using a storage
appliance and the first set of files may be stored within a cloud
repository or within a remote cluster of data storage nodes. In
this case, the second storage domain may correspond with the
storage appliance and the first storage domain may correspond with
the remote cluster of data storage nodes. In another embodiment,
the first storage domain may correspond with a first cluster of
data storage nodes and the second storage domain may correspond
with a second cluster of data storage nodes. In one example, the
first cluster of data storage nodes may be associated with a first
cloud-based data storage service and the second cluster of data
storage nodes may be associated with a second cloud-based data
storage service. In another example, the first cluster of data
storage nodes may be located within a first data center and the
second cluster of data storage nodes may be located within a second
data center. In some cases, the first storage domain may correspond
with a first cloud computing or data storage platform (e.g., Amazon
Web Services.RTM.) and the second storage domain may correspond
with a second cloud computing or data storage platform (e.g.,
Microsoft Azure). The first storage domain and the second storage
domain may comprise a multi-cloud environment. The first set of
files and the second set of files may correspond with replicated
data files or archived data files for different point in time
versions of a virtual machine that are stored using two or more
different data storage domains.
[0108] In one embodiment, a storage appliance, such as storage
appliance 140 in FIG. 1A, may acquire a full image snapshot and a
first set of incremental files corresponding with different point
in time versions of a virtual machine. As the point in time
versions of the virtual machine age, the full image snapshot and
the first set of incremental files may be transferred to a second
storage domain, in some cases, after the different point in time
versions of the virtual machine have been captured and stored for
more than a threshold amount of time (e.g., are older than a
threshold number of days or have aged more than ten days from being
captured), the full image snapshot and a set of incremental files
that derive from the full image snapshot may be transferred to a
second storage domain or moved to cloud-based data storage. In one
example, an archival threshold parameter for determining when to
move files to the second storage domain or to cloud-based data
storage may be set based on requirements from an SLA policy (e.g.,
specifying that snapshots older than ten days be moved to archival
data storage).
[0109] FIG. 4B depicts one embodiment of the two data storage
domains depicted in FIG. 4A in which a consolidation operation has
been performed in one storage domain (Domain A) of the two data
storage domains. As depicted, a subset 402 of the first set of
files comprising files I2-I4 stored using the first storage domain
(Domain A) have been consolidated to form a new incremental file
404 (I4'). The new incremental file 404 may be generated by merging
the subset 402 of the first set of files into a single consolidated
incremental file comprising data changes made to the virtual
machine between time t1 and time t4. In some cases, a consolidation
operation may be performed in only one of the two data storage
domains. Consolidation operations may be performed independently
depending on the benefits (e.g., freeing up disk space) of
performing the consolidation operation within each of the data
storage domains.
[0110] In one embodiment, the determination of whether to
consolidate or merge two or more incremental files into a new
incremental file may depend upon an amount of available disk space
for storing files within a particular storage domain, a combined
disk size for the two or more incremental files, an amount of disk
space savings if the consolidation of the two or more incremental
files is performed, an amount of CPU usage or available bandwidth,
and/or the availability of processing resources within the
particular storage domain to perform the consolidation
operation.
[0111] FIG. 4C depicts one embodiment of the two data storage
domains depicted in FIG. 4B in which a third full image snapshot
406 (Full2) has been generated and stored to take the place of
incremental file I4 in the second storage domain (Domain B). In one
embodiment, the third full image snapshot 406 may be generated by
combining the first full image snapshot 408 and the incremental
files I1-I4 stored within the second storage domain. The third hill
image snapshot 406 may be generated by patching the incremental
files I1-I4 to the first full image snapshot 408.
[0112] FIG. 4D depicts one embodiment of the two data storage
domains depicted in FIG. 4C in which the incremental files I1-I4
stored within the second storage domain have been deleted and the
first full image snapshot 408 has been deleted. One benefit of
generating and storing the third full image snapshot 406 within the
second storage domain is that incremental files corresponding with
point in time versions occurring before the version V4 of the
virtual machine corresponding with the third full image snapshot
406 may be deleted to free-up disk space or to increase the amount
of available disk space within the second storage domain. In some
cases, the consolidation and/or deletion of files stored within the
first storage domain and the second storage domain may be performed
independently such that the first storage domain may store a
particular version of a virtual machine (e.g., corresponding with
time t4 in FIG. 4D) using a first full image snapshot (e.g., full
image snapshot 410 in FIG. 4D) and two forward incremental files
(e.g., incremental files I1 and I4' in FIG. 4D), while the second
storage domain may store the particular version of the virtual
machine (e.g., version V4) using only a full image snapshot (e.g.,
full image snapshot 406 in FIG. 4D).
[0113] FIG. 4E depicts one embodiment of a set of files stored
within a first storage domain (Domain A). In one embodiment, the
first storage domain may correspond with a storage appliance, such
as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1A. In another embodiment, the
first storage domain may correspond with cloud-based data storage.
The set of files includes a first full image snapshot 416 (Full1)
and a set of forward incremental files (I1-I8) that derive from the
first full image snapshot 416. In some cases, a storage appliance
may acquire and store snapshots of a virtual machine over time. As
the snapshots age, electronic files corresponding with the aged
snapshots may be moved from the storage appliance to the first
storage domain. An archival threshold parameter may be set to a
particular number of days (e.g., seven days) such that snapshots of
the virtual machine that are older than the particular number of
days are moved or archived to the first storage domain. For
example, the storage appliance may store 16 snapshots of the
virtual machine locally and then transfer nine snapshots of the
virtual machine that are older than seven days to the first storage
domain. The nine snapshots of the virtual machine that are older
than seven days may correspond with the set of files depicted in
FIG. 4E.
[0114] In some cases, an SLA policy may require that the three most
recent snapshots (e.g., corresponding with incremental files I6-I8)
transferred to the first storage domain remain as individually
accessible snapshots. The SLA policy may also provide that
snapshots of the virtual machine older than the three most recent
snapshots stored within the first storage domain must be retained
at a particular frequency. In one example, the set of files stored
within the first storage domain may correspond with daily snapshots
of the virtual machine. The SLA policy may require that daily
snapshots of the virtual machine be preserved for ten days and
thereafter one snapshot must be preserved every three days. In
another example, the set of files stored within the first storage
domain may correspond with snapshots of a virtual machine taken
every eight hours for three days and then retaining one a day for
one week.
[0115] FIG. 4F depicts one embodiment of the first storage domain
of FIG. 4E in which two consolidation operations have been
performed to generate incremental file 412 (I2') and incremental
file 414 (I5'). The incremental file 412 may be generated by
merging the incremental files I1-I2 in FIG. 4E. The incremental
file 414 may be generated by merging the incremental files I3-I5 in
FIG. 4E. After the incremental files 412 and 414 have been
generated to preserve the point in time snapshots corresponding
with the incremental files I2 and I5 in FIG. 4E, the original
incremental files I1-I5 in FIG. 4E may be deleted from the first
storage domain to free-up disk space. In some cases, the
incremental file 412 may correspond with a version of a virtual
machine that has been pinned or prevented from being deleted (e.g.,
due to an application requiring that version of the virtual
machine).
[0116] FIG. 4G depicts another embodiment of the first storage
domain of FIG. 4E in which a consolidated incremental file 412
(I2') and a second full image snapshot 418 (Full2) have been
generated and stored. The incremental file 412 may be generated by
merging the incremental files I1-I2 in FIG. 4E. The second full
image snapshot 418 may be generated by merging the first full image
snapshot 416 and the incremental files I1-I5 in FIG. 4E. After
patching the incremental files I1-I5 to the first frill image
snapshot 416 and storing the second full image snapshot 418 within
the first storage domain, the original incremental files in FIG. 4E
may be deleted from the first storage domain to free-up disk space.
One benefit of generating the second full image snapshot 418 is
that the first full image snapshot 416 and the incremental file 412
may be deleted after expiration without affecting the downstream
incremental files, such as incremental files I6-I8.
[0117] In one embodiment, computing resources within the first
storage domain or accessible by the first storage domain (e.g., the
first storage domain may comprise a cloud-based data storage
repository with access to an elastic compute cloud or to a
cloud-based computing platform) may be used to generate the second
full image snapshot 418 after acquiring the first full image
snapshot 416 and the original incremental files I1-I5 in FIG. 4E.
In another embodiment, a storage appliance that captures or stores
snapshots of the virtual machine may locally generate the second
frill image snapshot 418 and transfer the second full image
snapshot 418 to the first storage domain rather than transferring
the incremental file corresponding with incremental file I5 in FIG.
4E. In one example, a storage appliance, such as storage appliance
170 in FIG. 1A, may generate and transfer full image snapshots of
the virtual machine to the first storage domain on a periodic basis
(e.g., once a day or every 100 snapshots). In another example, a
storage appliance may detect that a combined data size of a set of
incremental files that have been transferred to the first storage
domain has exceeded a threshold data size (e.g., the combined file
sizes for the set of incremental files may exceed 1 TB of data) and
in response may generate and transfer a full image snapshot of the
virtual machine to the first storage domain. In this case, the
maximum data size between any two full image snapshots of the
virtual machine within the first storage domain may be set or
regulated by the storage appliance. After the full image snapshot
of the virtual machine has been transferred to the first storage
domain, consolidation and deletion operations may be performed in
order to free-up disk space as the snapshots age within the first
storage domain.
[0118] FIG. 4H depicts one embodiment of the first storage domain
of FIG. 4G in which the archived snapshots older than the point in
time corresponding with the second full image snapshot 418 have
been deleted. Thus, the second full image snapshot 418 comprises
the oldest available snapshot within the first storage domain.
Incremental files I9-I13 have been archived to the first storage
domain.
[0119] FIG. 4I depicts one embodiment of the first storage domain
of FIG. 4H in which a third full image snapshot 419 (Full3) has
been generated and replaced the incremental file I8 in the first
storage domain. The incremental files I8-I10 have been deleted from
the first storage domain. A consolidated incremental file I11' has
been generated by merging incremental files I9-I11. The third full
image snapshot 419 may have been generated in response to detecting
that the total number of expired snapshots within the first storage
domain that are older than the point in time corresponding with the
third full image snapshot 419 is greater than a threshold number of
snapshots, that the amount of available disk space for storing
files within the first storage domain is below a threshold amount
of disk space, and/or that the combined data size of the expired
snapshots within the first storage domain is greater than a
threshold data size (e.g., more than 1 TB of disk space may be
reclaimed by generating the third full image snapshot and deleting
expired snapshots older than the third full image snapshot).
[0120] FIG. 4J depicts one embodiment of the first storage domain
of FIG. 4I in which incremental files I6-I7 and 112 have been
deleted and the second full image snapshot 418 has been deleted in
order to reclaim disk space within the first storage domain.
[0121] In one embodiment, a hybrid local/remote data management
system may include a replication system that replicates data
between a local storage appliance and a remote storage appliance
and/or a cloud-based storage service. The data may be deduplicated
and compressed prior to being transferred from the local storage
appliance to the remote storage appliance or the cloud-based
storage service. In some embodiments, the local storage appliance
may transfer or write full image snapshots and incremental files
deriving from the full image snapshots to two or more remote
storage appliance and/or two or more cloud-based storage
services.
[0122] FIG. 5A is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for reclaiming disk space within an archival data source
(or an archival data store). In one embodiment, the process of FIG.
5A may be performed by a storage appliance, such as storage
appliance 170 or storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A. The process of
FIG. 5A may also be performed using cloud-based computing resources
or by generating and running virtual machines within a virtualized
infrastructure.
[0123] In step 502, it is determined whether an archival data
source has access to compute resources. The archival data source
may comprise a hardware data storage device, a storage area network
storage device, a networked-attached storage device, or a
cloud-based data storage system. The archival data source may
comprise a cloud-based data storage infrastructure with the ability
to instantiate virtual machines that have the ability to modify
data stored within the cloud-based data storage infrastructure. If
it is determined that the archival data source has access to
compute resources, then step 504 is performed. Otherwise, if it is
determined that the archival data source does not have access to
the compute resources, then step 512 is performed. In step 504, a
first number of temporary virtual machines running on the compute
resources is determined. The first number of temporary virtual
machines may correspond with the number of virtual machines running
within a virtualized infrastructure for performing consolidation
and/or deletion of expired snapshots. In step 506, a second number
of snapshots that have been transferred to the archival data source
is determined. In one example, the second number of snapshots may
correspond with the number of snapshots that were transferred to
the archival data source since a last full image snapshot was
uploaded. In step 507, an expired data size for expired snapshots
on the archival data source is determined. In some cases, the
expired data size may correspond with the maximum amount of disk
space that may be reclaimed on the archival data source.
[0124] In step 508, it is detected that a temporary virtual machine
should be generated using the compute resources based on the first
number of temporary virtual machines running on the compute
resources, the second number of snapshots that were previously
transferred to the archival data source, and/or the expired data
size for the expired snapshots on the archival data source. In one
example, the temporary virtual machine may be generated in response
to detecting that the second number of snapshots that were
previously transferred to the archival data source has exceeded a
threshold number of snapshots (e.g., 100 snapshots were previously
transferred). In another example, the temporary virtual machine may
be generated in response to detecting that the expired data size
for the expired snapshots on the archival data source has exceeded
a threshold data size (e.g., is more than 500 GB). In step 510, an
instruction to cause the temporary virtual machine to be generated
is transmitted. The instruction may be transmitted to a cloud-based
data storage infrastructure in order to generate the temporary
virtual machine within the cloud-based data storage infrastructure.
In one example, the temporary virtual machine may comprise an
instance of a virtual server for running applications within a
virtualized infrastructure. The cloud-based data storage
infrastructure may provide resizable compute capacity in the cloud.
In some cases, the temporary virtual machine may correspond with a
cloud computing instance (e.g., an EC2 instance) with access to
cloud-based data storage (e.g., the S3 cloud-based data storage
service).
[0125] In step 512, a first number of full image snapshots being
generated is determined. The first number of full image snapshots
may correspond with the number of full image snapshots being
concurrently generated by a storage appliance, such as storage
appliance 170 in FIG. 1A. In some cases, the number of full image
snapshots being generated by a storage appliance or the number of
full image snapshots that are being transferred to the archival
data source may be restricted or limited(e.g., no more than four
full image snapshots may be generated and/or transferred from the
storage appliance at the same time). In some cases, a distributed
semaphore may be used to throttle or limit the number of full image
snapshots that are generated and transferred to the archival data
source. Before a new fill(image snapshot is generated, the job for
generating the new full image snapshot may need to access the
semaphore. If the job fails to allocate from the semaphore, then
the job may proceed and upload an incremental snapshot instead of
the new full image snapshot.
[0126] In step 514, a second number of snapshots that were
previously transferred to the archival data source is determined.
In one example, the second number of snapshots may comprise the
total number of snapshots that were previously transferred to the
archival data source after the last full image snapshots was
transferred to the archival data source (e.g., transferred to a
cloud-based data storage repository). In step 516, an expired data
size for expired snapshots on the archival data source is
determined. In step 518, it is detected that a full image snapshot
should be generated and transferred to the archival data source
based on the first number, the second number, and the expired data
size. In step 519, the frill image snapshot is transferred to the
archival data source. In one embodiment, the full image snapshot
may be generated and transferred in response to detecting that the
second number of snapshots that were previously transferred to the
archival data source has exceeded a threshold number of snapshots
(e.g., 200 snapshots were previously transferred). In another
embodiment, the full image snapshot may be generated and
transferred in response to detecting that the expired data size for
the expired snapshots on the archival data source has exceeded a
threshold data size (e.g., the expired data size is greater than 1
TB).
[0127] FIG. 5B is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for generating one or more virtual machines for
consolidating and/or deleting expired snapshots. In one embodiment,
the process of FIG. 5B may be performed by a storage appliance,
such as storage appliance 170 or storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A.
The process of FIG. 5B may also be performed using cloud-based
computing resources or by generating and running virtual machines
within a virtualized infrastructure.
[0128] The process of FIG. 5B may be performed by a local storage
appliance that is used for capturing and storing snapshots of a
virtual machine. The local storage appliance may control the
generation of a temporary virtual machine within a cloud computing
environment in order to generate full image snapshots within the
cloud computing environment, consolidate incremental files within
the cloud computing environment, and delete expired snapshots
within the cloud computing environment.
[0129] In step 522, a first full image snapshot and a first set of
incremental files associated with snapshots of a virtual machine
are transmitted to a first domain. The first domain may comprise a
cloud-based data storage domain. In step 524, it is detected that a
number of the snapshots of the virtual machine correspond with ages
greater than a threshold age (e.g., more than 100 snapshots were
captured more than three months ago). In step 526, it is detected
that an amount of disk space for storing the first set of
incremental files has exceeded a threshold amount of disk space. In
step 528, it is detected that a virtual machine instance for
consolidating a subset of the snapshots of the virtual machine
should be generated based on the number of the snapshots of the
virtual machine with ages greater than the threshold age and/or the
amount of disk space for storing the first set of incremental
files. In step 530, an instruction is transmitted to the first
domain to generate the virtual machine instance for consolidating
the subset of the snapshots of the virtual machine. In one example,
a cloud-based service may provide the ability to run virtual
machine instances such that a virtual machine may be created or
spun up to perform consolidation and/or deletion operations on
archived data and then removed. In some cases, a previously
uploaded image that contains the latest binaries for performing the
consolidation and/or deletion operations and various credentials
for accessing the archived data may be used to launch the virtual
machine instance. In step 532, a completion of the consolidation of
the subset of the snapshots of the virtual machine is detected. In
step 534, a second instruction is transmitted to the first domain
to terminate the virtual machine instance.
[0130] FIG. 5C is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for consolidating expired snapshots. In one embodiment, the
process of FIG. 5C may be performed by a storage appliance, such as
storage appliance 170 or storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A. The
process of FIG. 5C may be performed using cloud-based computing
resources or by generating and running virtual machines within a
virtualized infrastructure.
[0131] In step 542, a first full image snapshot and a first set of
incremental files associated with versions of the virtual machine
are acquired. The first full image snapshot may correspond with
full image snapshot 416 stored using the first storage domain in
FIG. 4E and the first set of incremental files may correspond with
incremental files I1-I8 stored using the first storage domain in
FIG. 4E. In step 544, the first full image snapshot and the first
set of incremental files are stored. In step 546, it is detected
that an amount of available disk space is below a threshold amount
of disk space. In one example, it may be detected that the amount
of available disk space within a first storage domain is less than
10 TB. In step 548, it is detected that a number of the versions of
the virtual machine correspond with ages exceeding a threshold age.
In one example, it may be detected that at least 2.0 snapshots of
the virtual machine correspond with versions that are more than one
month old.
[0132] In step 550, it is determined whether a second full image
snapshot needs to be generated for storing a second subset of the
first set of incremental files. In some cases, the second full
image snapshot may allow a dependency chain to be broken and allow
the second subset of the first set of incremental files to be
stored while a first subset of the first set of incremental files
is deleted or no longer accessible. In one example, the first set
of incremental files may correspond with incremental files I1-I8
stored using the first storage domain in FIG. 4E, the first subset
of the first set of incremental files may correspond with
incremental tiles I1-I4, and the second subset of the first set of
incremental files may correspond with incremental files I5-I8. The
determination of whether the second full image snapshot needs to be
generated may depend on an amount of available disk space for
storing the second subset of the first set of incremental files
and/or the first subset of the first set of incremental files
(e.g., the amount of available disk space within a data storage
device comprising a first storage domain), a virtual machine change
rate for the virtual machine, detection of an increase in the
amount of data changes occurring to the virtual machine, the total
number of snapshots captured for the virtual machine, and/or a
combined data size for the first set of incremental files. If it is
determined that the second full image snapshot needs to be
generated, then step 551 is performed. Otherwise, if it is
determined that the second full image snapshot does not need to be
generated, then step 554 is performed.
[0133] In step 551, the second full image snapshot is identified,
in one embodiment, the second full image snapshot may be identified
as the oldest snapshot that has not yet expired or the oldest
snapshot of a virtual machine that cannot be deleted and must be
recoverable. In another embodiment, the second full image snapshot
may be identified as the next snapshot of a virtual machine to be
archived or transferred from a first data storage domain to a
second data storage domain. In step 552, the second full image
snapshot is generated. In one example, the second full image
snapshot may correspond with full image snapshot 418 in FIG. 4G.
The second full image snapshot may be generated by applying
incremental files to the first full image snapshot. In one example,
the second full image snapshot 418 in FIG. 4G may be generated by
applying or patching incremental files I1-I5 in FIG. 4E to the
first full image snapshot 416 in FIG. 4E.
[0134] In step 553, the second full image snapshot is stored. The
second full image snapshot may be stored using a volatile memory or
a non-volatile memory. The second full image snapshot may be stored
using a HDD or an SSD. In step 554, a consolidated incremental file
is generated. In step 555, the consolidated incremental file is
stored. In one example, the consolidated incremental file may
correspond with incremental file 414 in FIG. 4F and the
consolidated incremental file may be generated by merging
incremental files I3-I5 in FIG. 4E. In step 556, a first subset of
the first set of incremental files is deleted. In one example, the
first set of incremental files may correspond with incremental
files I1-I8 in FIG. 4E. The first subset of the first set of
incremental files may comprise incremental files I3-I4 in FIG. 4E
and the second subset of the first set of incremental files may
comprise incremental files I6-I8 in FIG. 4E. In step 558, the
second full image snapshot or the consolidated incremental file may
be outputted. The second full image snapshot may be outputted by
transferring the second full image snapshot or a portion of the
second full image snapshot to a hardware data storage device, a
computing device, or to cloud-based data storage.
[0135] In one embodiment, the second frill image snapshot may be
generated by a storage appliance, such as storage appliance 170 in
FIG. 1A, and transmitted from the storage appliance to a remote
storage appliance or to cloud-based data storage. In another
embodiment, the consolidated incremental file may be generated by
the storage appliance and transmitted from the storage appliance to
the remote storage appliance or to cloud-based data storage.
[0136] FIG. 5D is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for generating one or more full image snapshots to enable
deletion of expired snapshots. In one embodiment, the process of
FIG. 5D may be performed by a storage appliance, such as storage
appliance 170 or storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A. The process of
FIG. 5D may also be performed using cloud-based computing resources
or by generating and running virtual machines within a virtualized
infrastructure.
[0137] The process of FIG. 5D may be performed by a local storage
appliance that is used for capturing and storing snapshots of a
virtual machine. The local storage appliance may control the
generation and uploading of periodic full image snapshots in order
to facilitate the deletion of expired snapshots within an archival
data source.
[0138] In step 562, a first full image snapshot and a first set of
incremental files associated with a first set of versions of a
virtual machine are acquired. In step 564, the first full image
snapshot and the first set of incremental files are stored. In one
example, the first full image snapshot may correspond with the
first full image snapshot 416 in FIG. 4E and the first set of
incremental files may correspond with incremental files I1-I4 in
FIG. 4E. In step 566, the first frill image snapshot and the first
set of incremental files are transferred to a first domain. In one
example, the first domain may correspond with the first storage
domain (Domain A) in FIG. 4E. In step 568, a second set of
incremental files associated with a second set of versions of the
virtual machine are acquired. The second set of versions of the
virtual machine may comprise point in time versions of the virtual
machine that are captured subsequent to the first set of versions
of the virtual machine. In one embodiment, a storage appliance,
such as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1A, may acquire the first set
of incremental files and the second set of incremental files from a
server, such as server 160 FIG. 1A. The first set of incremental
files may correspond with incremental files I1-I4 in FIG. 4E and
the second set of incremental files may correspond with incremental
files I5-I8 in FIG. 4E.
[0139] In step 570, it is detected that a number of the first set
of incremental files and/or the second set of incremental files is
greater than a threshold number of incremental files. In one
example, it may be detected that the combined number of the first
set of incremental files and the second set of incremental files
acquired from a server is greater than the threshold number of
incremental files (e.g., is greater than 100 incremental tiles). In
step 572, it is detected that an amount of disk space for storing
the first set of incremental files and/or the second set of
incremental files has exceeded a threshold amount of disk space. In
one example, it may be detected that the amount of disk space for
storing the first of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files using a storage appliance has exceeded the
threshold amount of disk space (e.g., is greater than 1 TB of disk
space).
[0140] In step 574, a second full image snapshot corresponding with
a second version of the virtual machine is generated using at least
a subset of the second set of incremental files and the first frill
image snapshot. The second full image snapshot may correspond with
the second full image snapshot 418 in FIG. 4G, the subset of the
second set of incremental files may correspond with the incremental
file I5 in FIG. 4E, and the first full image snapshot may
correspond with the first full image snapshot 416 in FIG. 4E. In
step 576, the second full image snapshot is stored. In some cases,
a storage appliance may store or retain the second full image
snapshot even after the second full image snapshot has been
transferred to a first storage domain for archiving (e.g., to a
first cloud-based data storage service). In step 578, the second
full image snapshot is transferred to the first domain. The second
full image snapshot may be outputted or electronically transmitted
to a server within the first domain. In one example, the first
domain may comprise a portion of a data center and the second full
image snapshot may be transmitted to a server within the data
center used for managing, archiving, or storing snapshots of
virtual machines. In some cases, a full upload threshold parameter
for determining when to generate and upload a full image snapshot
to a data archival source may be set based on a snapshot frequency
for capturing snapshots of a real or virtual machine or based on
requirements from an SLA policy assigned to the real or virtual
machine.
[0141] In one embodiment, the second full image snapshot may be
generated and uploaded to a data archival source in response to
detecting that the number of the first set of incremental files and
the second set of incremental files is greater than the threshold
number of incremental files. In another embodiment, the second full
image snapshot may be generated and uploaded to a data archival
source in response to detecting that the amount of disk space for
storing the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files has exceeded the threshold amount of disk space.
In another embodiment, the second full image snapshot may be
generated and uploaded to a data archival source in response to
detecting that the combined file sizes of the first set of
incremental files and/or the second set of incremental files has
exceeded a threshold data size (e.g., has exceeded 1 TB). In
another embodiment, the second full image snapshot may be generated
and uploaded to a data archival source in response to detecting
that the combined data size for the first set of incremental files
and the second set of incremental files has exceeded a threshold
fraction of a file size corresponding with the first full image
snapshot. In one example, the first full image snapshot may
comprise a file of size 1 TB and the second full image snapshot may
be generated in response to detecting that the combined data size
of the first set of incremental files and the second set of
incremental files is greater than 50% of the file size for the
first full image snapshot (i.e., the combined data size is greater
than 500 GB if the first full image snapshot comprises 1 TB of
data). In some cases, the second full image snapshot may be
generated and uploaded to a data archival source in response to
detecting that a combined data size associated with incremental
files transmitted from a storage appliance to a remote storage
appliance or transmitted to a first cloud-based data storage
service has exceeded a threshold data size (e.g., is greater than
500 GB).
[0142] FIG. 6A depicts one embodiment of a first set of point in
time versions of a virtual machine that have been stored using a
first storage domain (Domain A) and a second set of point in time
versions of the virtual machine that have been stored using a
second storage domain (Domain B). The initial version of the
virtual machine may correspond with version V0 of the virtual
machine and the most recent version of the virtual machine may
correspond with version V22 of the virtual machine. As depicted,
the first 16 versions of the virtual machine corresponding with
versions V0-V15 have been stored using the first storage domain and
the last seven versions of the virtual machine corresponding with
versions V16-V22 have been stored using the second storage domain.
In order to transfer version V16 612 of the virtual machine from
the second storage domain to the first storage domain, a first
incremental file corresponding with the data differences 602
between version V16 612 and version V15 616 may be transferred from
the second storage domain to the first storage domain. The first
incremental file may comprise an in-order incremental file.
[0143] An incremental file may include the changed data blocks
between two different versions of the virtual machine. The
incremental file may be compressed prior to transmission to the
first storage domain. The incremental file may have an associated
fingerprint file that includes signatures for each of the changed
data blocks. The signatures may be generated using a fingerprinting
algorithm such as the Rabin fingerprint algorithm or a
cryptographic hashing algorithm (e.g., MD5 or one of the SHA-family
of algorithms). In one example, a virtual disk of the virtual
machine may be partitioned into a plurality of blocks (e.g., blocks
with 64 MB sizes) and signatures may be generated for each of the
plurality of blocks.
[0144] In order to transfer the most recent version of the virtual
machine from the second storage domain (e.g., a local storage
appliance) to the first storage domain (e.g., a cloud-based data
storage service) a second incremental file corresponding with the
data differences 604 between version V22 614 and version V15 616
may be transferred from the second storage domain to the first
storage domain. The second incremental file may comprise an
out-of-order incremental file.
[0145] FIG. 6B depicts one embodiment of a first set of files
stored in the first storage domain (Domain A) and a second set of
files stored in the second storage domain (Domain B). The first set
of files may correspond with the versions V0-V15 of the virtual
machine depicted in FIG. 6A. The second set of files may correspond
with the versions V16-V22 of the virtual machine depicted in FIG.
6A. The first full image snapshot 642 (Full1) may comprise a full
image snapshot of version V0 610 of the virtual machine. The
version V15 616 of the virtual machine may be generated by patching
incremental file 644 (I15) to incremental files I1-I14 and the
first full image snapshot 642. The version V16 612 of the virtual
machine may correspond with incremental file 646 (I16), which may
comprise data differences between version V15 616 and version V16
612 of the virtual machine. The version V22 614 of the virtual
machine may correspond with incremental file 648 (I22), which may
comprise data differences between version V22 614 and version V21
of the virtual machine.
[0146] FIG. 6C depicts one embodiment of the different versions of
the virtual machine depicted in FIG. 6A in which an out-of-order
incremental file has been transferred from the second storage
domain to the first storage domain. FIG. 6D depicts one embodiment
of two sets of files used for storing the versions of the virtual
machine depicted in FIG. 6C within the two different data storage
domains. Version V22 of the virtual machine now resides in both the
first storage domain and the second storage domain due to the
transfer of the out-of-order incremental file. Version V22 618 in
the first storage domain of FIG. 6C may correspond with incremental
file 652 (I22') in FIG. 6D and version V22 614 in the second
storage domain of FIG. 6C may correspond with incremental file 648
(I22) in FIG. 6D. Version V22 618 in the first storage domain of
FIG. 6C and version V22 614 in the second storage domain of FIG. 6C
may comprise the same point in time version of the virtual machine.
The version V22 618 of the virtual machine in the first storage
domain may be generated by patching incremental files I1-I15 and
122' to the first full image snapshot 642. The version V22 614 of
the virtual machine in the second storage domain may be generated
by patching incremental files I1-I15 in the first storage domain
and incremental files I16-I21 in the second storage domain to the
first full image snapshot 642.
[0147] In one embodiment, on a periodic basis (e.g., every night at
11 PM), the most recent version of the virtual machine may be
transferred from the second storage domain to the first storage
domain. The most recent version of the virtual machine may be
transferred to the first storage domain by identifying a version of
the virtual machine that is stored within the first storage domain
and determining an out-of-order incremental file corresponding with
data differences between the version of the virtual machine stored
within the first storage domain and the most recent version of the
virtual machine stored within the second storage domain.
[0148] FIG. 6E depicts one embodiment of the different versions of
the virtual machine depicted in FIG. 6C in which version V16 of the
virtual machine has been transferred or archived from the second
storage domain to the first storage domain. FIG. 6F depicts one
embodiment of two sets of files used for storing the versions of
the virtual machine depicted in FIG. 6E within the two different
data storage domains. In one embodiment, an in-order incremental
file corresponding with data differences between the version V16
622 of the virtual machine and version V15 616 of the virtual
machine may be transferred from the second storage domain to the
first storage domain. In another embodiment, an out-of-order
incremental file corresponding with data differences between
version V16 622 of the virtual machine and version V22 618 of the
virtual machine may be transferred from the second storage domain
to the first storage domain. The determination of whether to
transfer the in-order incremental file or the out-of-order
incremental file may depend on the file size or the data size for
the incremental files. In one example, if the out-of-order
incremental file comprises a smaller file size or a smaller data
size than the in-order incremental file, then the out-of-order
incremental file may be transferred to the first storage domain in
order to conserve disk space within the first storage domain. In
another example, if the in-order incremental file has a first file
size and the out-of-order incremental file has a second file size,
then the in-order incremental file may be transferred to the first
storage domain if the first file size is less than the second file
size. If the out-of-order incremental file is comparable in size or
equal in size to the in-order incremental file, then it may be
preferable to transfer the out-of-order incremental file as a later
version of the virtual machine will likely expire later (e.g.,
version V22 618 of the virtual machine will likely expire after
version V15 616 of the virtual machine expires).
[0149] Version V16 62.2 in the first storage domain of FIG. 6E may
correspond with incremental file 654 (I16') in FIG. 6F. In one
embodiment, the incremental file 654 (I16') may include data
differences between version V16 622 of the virtual machine and
version V22 618 of the virtual machine. The incremental file 654
may include one or more changed data blocks in which data changes
occurred to the virtual machine between version V16 of the virtual
machine and version V22 of the virtual machine. The version V16 622
of the virtual machine in the first storage domain may be generated
by patching incremental files I1-I15, I22', and I16' to the first
full image snapshot 642.
[0150] FIG. 6G depicts one embodiment of the different versions of
the virtual machine depicted in FIG. 6E in which version V22 of the
virtual machine has been transferred or archived from the second
storage domain to the first storage domain. FIG. 6H depicts one
embodiment of two sets of files used for storing the versions of
the virtual machine depicted in FIG. 6G within the two different
data storage domains. In one embodiment, an in-order incremental
file corresponding with version V22 of the virtual machine has been
transferred to the first storage domain.
[0151] Version V22 614 in the first storage domain of FIG. 6G may
correspond with incremental file 662 (I22) in FIG. 6H. The
incremental file 662 (I22) may include data differences between
version V22 614 of the virtual machine and version V21 of the
virtual machine. The incremental file 662 may include one or more
changed data blocks in which data changes occurred to the virtual
machine between version V21 of the virtual machine and version V22
of the virtual machine. The incremental file 652 (I22') in FIG. 6D
may be deleted from the first storage domain. Versions V23-V29 of
the virtual machine in FIG. 6G may correspond with incremental
files I23-I29 stored using the second storage domain in FIG. 6H.
The most recent snapshot of the virtual machine may comprise
version V29 634 of the virtual machine that corresponds with
incremental file 668 (I29). The next snapshot of the virtual
machine to be transferred from the second storage domain to the
first storage domain may comprise version V23 632 of the virtual
machine that corresponds with incremental file 669 (I23). The
in-order incremental file 664 (I16) in the first storage domain
depicted in FIG. 6H may have replaced the out-of-order incremental
file 654 (I16') in the first storage domain depicted in FIG.
6F.
[0152] FIG. 6I depicts one embodiment of the different versions of
the virtual machine depicted in FIG. 6A in which version V22 of the
virtual machine needs to be transferred from the second storage
domain to the first storage domain prior to being archived. In some
cases, a first incremental file corresponding with data changes or
data differences 602 that occurred between version V15 616 of the
virtual machine and V16 612 of the virtual machine and a second
incremental file corresponding with data changes or data
differences 674 that occurred between version V22 614 of the
virtual machine and V16 612 of the virtual machine may be generated
and transferred to the first storage domain.
[0153] FIG. 6J depicts one embodiment of the different versions of
the virtual machine depicted in FIG. 6I in which version V16 676
and version V22 678 have been moved or transferred to the first
storage domain. In one embodiment, the first incremental file
corresponding with data differences 602 that occurred between
version V15 616 of the virtual machine and V16 612 of the virtual
machine may be transferred as a full image snapshot for version V16
of the virtual machine. The second incremental file corresponding
with data differences 674 that occurred between version V22 614 of
the virtual machine and V16 612 of the virtual machine may be
transferred as an incremental snapshot for version V22 of the
virtual machine. In another embodiment, both the first incremental
file and the second incremental file may be transferred as
incremental snapshot files. Both the first incremental file and the
second incremental file may be concurrently generated and/or
transferred to the first storage domain.
[0154] FIG. 7A is a flowchart describing one embodiment of a
process for transferring snapshots of a virtual machine from a
first storage domain to a second storage domain. In one embodiment,
the process of FIG. 7A may be performed by a storage appliance,
such as storage appliance 170 or storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A.
The process of FIG. 7A may also be performed using cloud-based
computing resources or by generating and running virtual machines
within a virtualized infrastructure.
[0155] In step 702, a first incremental file corresponding with
data differences between a first snapshot of a virtual machine and
a second snapshot of the virtual machine are acquired. The first
incremental file may correspond with data differences between a
first point in time version of the virtual machine and a second
point in time version of the virtual machine that is captured or
acquired subsequent to the first point in time. In step 704, the
first incremental file is stored within the first storage domain.
In step 706, it is detected that the second snapshot of the virtual
machine stored within the first storage domain should be
transmitted to a second storage domain. In one example, the second
snapshot of the virtual machine may comprise the most recent
snapshot of the virtual machine. In step 708, an anchor snapshot
stored within the second storage domain is identified. In one
example, the second snapshot of the virtual machine may correspond
with version V22 614 of the virtual machine in FIG. 6A and the
anchor snapshot may correspond with version V15 616 of the virtual
machine in FIG. 6A. In one embodiment, the anchor snapshot stored
within the second storage domain may be identified as the last
uploaded snapshot to the second storage domain. In another
embodiment, the anchor snapshot stored within the second storage
domain may be identified as one of the last ten snapshots uploaded
to the second storage domain in which the fewest number of changed
blocks have occurred between a version of the virtual machine
corresponding with the second snapshot and another version of the
virtual machine corresponding with the anchor snapshot.
[0156] In step 710, a second incremental file corresponding with
data differences between the anchor snapshot and the second
snapshot of the virtual machine is generated. The second
incremental file may correspond with incremental file 652 (I22') in
FIG. 6D. The second incremental file may include one or more
changed data blocks that changed between a first point in time
version of the virtual machine associated with the anchor snapshot
and a second point in time version of the virtual machine
associated with the second snapshot. In some cases, the anchor
snapshot may be acquired from the second storage domain prior to
generating the second incremental file. In other cases, the anchor
snapshot may reside within the first storage domain as the last
updated snapshot transferred to the second storage domain may not
have been deleted from the first storage domain.
[0157] In step 712, the second incremental file is transmitted to
the second storage domain. In one example, the second incremental
file may be electronically transferred from a local storage
appliance to a remote storage appliance. In another example, the
second incremental file may be electronically transferred from a
local storage appliance, such as storage appliance 170 in FIG. 1A,
to cloud-based data storage or cloud storage. In step 714, it is
detected that the second snapshot of the virtual machine stored
within the first storage domain should be archived to the second
storage domain. In step 716, it is detected that a disk size of the
second incremental file is greater than a disk size of the first
incremental file. In step 718, the first incremental file is
transferred to the second storage domain. The first incremental
file may be transferred to the second storage domain in response to
detecting that the disk size (or file size) of the second
incremental file is greater than the disk size (or file size) of
the first increment file and/or in response to detecting that the
second snapshot of the virtual machine should be archived to the
second storage domain, in step 720, the second incremental file is
deleted from the second storage domain. In some cases, the second
incremental file may be replaced by the first incremental file in
order to reduce the amount of disk space required to store the
second snapshot of the virtual machine within the second storage
domain.
[0158] In some embodiments, on a periodic basis (e.g., every 24
hours), the most recent version of a virtual machine may be
transferred to an archival data source (e.g., to cloud storage)
prematurely in order to allow testing or development of the most
recent version of the virtual machine to be performed directly from
the archival data source. Over time, the most recent version of the
virtual machine that was transferred to the archival data source
will age and eventually be moved or archived from the first storage
domain to the archival data source (or to a second storage domain)
depending on an archival threshold (e.g., snapshots that are more
than ten days old may be archived from the first storage domain to
the archival data source). When it comes time to transfer the aged
snapshot to the archival data source, a decision may be made to
either keep the already transferred out-of-order incremental file
for the aged snapshot or to transfer an in-order incremental file
for the aged snapshot.
[0159] In one example, the in-order incremental file may be
transferred to the second storage domain if a file size of the
in-order incremental file is less than a file size of the
out-of-order incremental file. By transferring the in-order
incremental file to the first storage domain, a disk space
reduction may occur by deleting the out-of-order incremental file
from the first storage domain. In another example, if a threshold
number of snapshots has occurred between the anchor snapshot and
the second snapshot, then the in-order incremental file may be
transferred to the second storage domain. In this case, as the
out-of-order incremental file includes data changes relative to an
earlier version of the virtual machine as compared with the
in-order incremental file, transferring the in-order incremental
file may allow additional expired snapshots to be deleted within
the first storage domain. In another example, if a threshold time
difference has occurred between the anchor snapshot and the second
snapshot (e.g., the difference in time between the anchor snapshot
and the second snapshot is more than one week), then the in-order
incremental file may be transferred to the second storage
domain.
[0160] FIG. 7B is a flowchart describing another embodiment of a
process for transferring snapshots of a virtual machine from a
first storage domain to a second storage domain. In one embodiment,
the process of FIG. 7B may be performed by a storage appliance,
such as storage appliance 170 or storage appliance 140 in FIG. 1A.
The process of FIG. 7B may also be performed using cloud-based
computing resources or by generating and running virtual machines
within a virtualized infrastructure.
[0161] In step 732, a first incremental file corresponding with
data differences (or data changes) between a first snapshot of a
virtual machine and a second snapshot of the virtual machine are
acquired. In step 734, the first incremental file is stored within
the first storage domain. In step 736, it is detected that the
first snapshot of the virtual machine stored within the first
storage domain should be transmitted to a second storage domain. In
one example, the first snapshot of the virtual machine may comprise
a recent snapshot of the virtual machine (e.g., the most recently
captured snapshot of the virtual machine) that has not yet been
archived or transferred to the second storage domain. The second
storage domain may act as an archival data source. In step 738, an
anchor snapshot stored within the first storage domain is
identified. In one example, the anchor snapshot may be identified
as the oldest snapshot stored within the first storage domain. In
another example, the anchor snapshot may be identified as the next
snapshot that is to be archived to the second storage domain.
[0162] In step 740, a second incremental file corresponding with
data differences between the anchor snapshot and the first snapshot
of the virtual machine is generated. In step 742, the second
incremental file and a third incremental file associated with the
anchor snapshot are transferred or transmitted to the second
storage domain. In one example, the anchor snapshot may correspond
with version V16 of the virtual machine in FIG. 6J and the first
snapshot may correspond with version V22 of the virtual machine in
FIG. 6J.
[0163] In step 744, it is detected that a data size of the second
incremental file is greater than a data size of the first
incremental file. In this case, an in-order incremental file
corresponding with version V22 614 of the virtual machine in FIG.
6J may have a smaller file size or consume less disk space than an
out-of-order incremental file corresponding with version V22 676 of
the virtual machine in FIG. 6J. In step 746, the first incremental
file is transferred to the second storage domain in response to
detecting that the data size of the second incremental file is
greater than the data size of the first incremental file. In step
748, the second incremental file is deleted from the second storage
domain. In this case, transferring the first incremental file to
the second storage domain and deleting the second incremental file
from the second storage domain may free up disk space within the
second storage domain.
[0164] One embodiment of the disclosed technology includes
acquiring a first full image snapshot and a set of incremental
files corresponding with different point in time versions of a
virtual machine, storing the first full image snapshot and the set
of incremental files, detecting that a data size for a first subset
of the set of incremental files has exceeded a threshold data size,
generating a second full image snapshot using the first full image
snapshot and the first subset of the set of incremental files in
response to detecting that the data size for the first subset of
the set of incremental files has exceeded the threshold data size,
and replacing a first incremental file of the first subset of the
set of incremental files with the second full image snapshot.
[0165] One embodiment of the disclosed technology includes
acquiring a first incremental file corresponding with data
differences between a first snapshot of a virtual machine and a
second snapshot of the virtual machine, storing the first
incremental file within a first data storage domain, detecting that
the first snapshot of the virtual machine should be transmitted to
a second data storage domain different from the first data storage
domain, identifying an anchor snapshot stored within the first data
storage domain, generating a second incremental file corresponding
with data differences between the anchor snapshot and the first
snapshot of the virtual machine, and transmitting the second
incremental file and a third incremental file associated with the
anchor snapshot to the second data storage domain.
[0166] One embodiment of the disclosed technology includes a memory
(e.g., a volatile or non-volatile memory) in communication with one
or more processors. The memory configured to store a first full
image snapshot and a set of incremental snapshots corresponding
with different point in time versions of a virtual machine. The one
or more processors configured to detect that a data size for a
first subset of the set of incremental snapshots has exceeded a
threshold data size and generate a second full image snapshot using
the first full image snapshot and the first subset of the set of
incremental snapshots in response to detection that the data size
for the first subset of the set of incremental snapshots has
exceeded the threshold data size. The one or more processors
configured to store the second full image snapshot and delete a
first incremental snapshot of the first subset of the set of
incremental snapshots subsequent to the second full image snapshot
being stored.
[0167] One embodiment of the disclosed technology includes a memory
(e.g., a volatile or non-volatile memory) in communication with one
or more processors. The memory configured to store a first
incremental file corresponding with data differences between a
first snapshot of a virtual machine and a second snapshot of the
virtual machine. The one or more processors configured to detect
that the first snapshot of the virtual machine should be
transmitted from a first data storage domain to a second data
storage domain and identify an anchor snapshot residing within the
first data storage domain. The one or more processors configured to
generate a second incremental file corresponding with data
differences between the anchor snapshot and the first snapshot of
the virtual machine and transmit the second incremental file and a
third incremental file associated with the anchor snapshot to the
second storage domain.
[0168] One embodiment of the disclosed technology includes
acquiring a first full image snapshot and a first set of
incremental files associated with a first set of versions of a real
or virtual machine from a computing device, storing the first full
image snapshot and the first set of incremental files associated
with the first set of versions of the real or virtual machine,
transferring the first full image snapshot and the first set of
incremental files associated with the first set of versions of the
real or virtual machine to an archival source, acquiring a second
set of incremental files associated with a second set of versions
of the virtual machine from the computing device, detecting that a
data size corresponding with the first set of incremental files and
the second set of incremental files has exceeded a threshold data
size, and generating a second full image snapshot corresponding
with a second version of the real or virtual machine in response to
detecting that the data size corresponding with the first set of
incremental files and the second set of incremental files has
exceeded the threshold data size. The generating the second full
image includes applying at least a subset of the second set of
incremental files and the first set of incremental files to the
first full image snapshot. The method further comprises storing the
second full image snapshot corresponding with the second version of
the real or virtual machine and transferring the second full image
snapshot to the archival source.
[0169] The disclosed technology may be described in the context of
computer-executable instructions, such as software or program
modules, being executed by a computer or processor. The
computer-executable instructions may comprise portions of computer
program code, routines, programs, objects, software components,
data structures, or other types of computer-related structures that
may be used to perform processes using a computer. In some cases,
hardware or combinations of hardware and software may be
substituted for software or used in place of software.
[0170] Computer program code used for implementing various
operations or aspects of the disclosed technology may be developed
using one or more programming languages, including an object
oriented programming language such as Java or C++, a procedural
programming language such as the "C" programming language or Visual
Basic, or a dynamic programming language such as Python or
JavaScript. In some cases, computer program code or machine-level
instructions derived from the computer program code may execute
entirely on an end user's computer, partly on an end user's
computer, partly on an end user's computer and partly on a remote
computer, or entirely on a remote computer or server.
[0171] For purposes of this document, it should be noted that the
dimensions of the various features depicted in the Figures may not
necessarily be drawn to scale.
[0172] For purposes of this document, reference in the
specification to "an embodiment," "one embodiment," "some
embodiments," or "another embodiment" may be used to describe
different embodiments and do not necessarily refer to the same
embodiment.
[0173] For purposes of this document, a connection may be a direct
connection or an indirect connection(e.g., via another part). In
some cases, when an element is referred to as being connected or
coupled to another element, the element may be directly connected
to the other element or indirectly connected to the other element
via intervening elements. When an element is referred to as being
directly connected to another element, then there are no
intervening elements between the element and the other element.
[0174] For purposes of this document, the term "based on" may be
read as "based at least in part on."
[0175] For purposes of this document, without additional context,
use of numerical terms such as a "first" object, a "second" object,
and a "third" object may not imply an ordering of objects, but may
instead be used for identification purposes to identify different
objects.
[0176] For purposes of this document, the term "set" of objects may
refer to a "set" of one or more of the objects.
[0177] Although the subject matter has been described in language
specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is
to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended
claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts
described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described
above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the
claims.
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