Method for automatic instant access mount point cleanup

1. A method for automatically removing a mount point, comprising:

determining whether a vMotion live migration has been completed for a virtual machine (VM) recovered through Instant Access from a backup storage system;

after the vMotion live migration has been completed, determining whether a datastore corresponding to a backup image of the VM on the backup storage system is empty, wherein in response to the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system being not empty, a user is prompted to free up contents of the datastore;

in response to determining that the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system is empty, removing automatically a mount point corresponding to the datastore, wherein prior to the removal of the mount point, the backup image was mounted at a production server over a network as the datastore at the mount point, wherein if the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system and/or its contents is inaccessible, the mount point corresponding to the datastore is forcibly removed; and

after removing the mount point, freeing up storage space on the backup storage system corresponding to the datastore.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein if the vMotion live migration has not been initiated, a user is prompted to initiate the vMotion live migration to migrate the backup image of the VM from the backup storage system to the production server.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the recovered VM keeps running during the vMotion live migration.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein Instant Access enables booting of the VM directly from the backup storage system.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the datastore is a Network File System (NFS) datastore.

6. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having instructions stored therein which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform recovery operations, the operations comprising:

determining whether a vMotion live migration has been completed for a virtual machine (VM) recovered through Instant Access from a backup storage system;

after the vMotion live migration has been completed, determining whether a datastore corresponding to a backup image of the VM on the backup storage system is empty, wherein in response to the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system being not empty, a user is prompted to free up contents of the datastore;

in response to determining that the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system is empty, removing automatically a mount point corresponding to the datastore, wherein prior to the removal of the mount point, the backup image was mounted at a production server over a network as the datastore at the mount point, wherein if the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system and/or its contents is inaccessible, the mount point corresponding to the datastore is forcibly removed; and

after removing the mount point, freeing up storage space on the backup storage system corresponding to the datastore.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein if the vMotion live migration has not been initiated, a user is prompted to initiate the vMotion live migration to migrate the backup image of the VM from the backup storage system to the production server.

8. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the recovered VM keeps running during the vMotion live migration.

9. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein Instant Access enables booting of the VM directly from the backup storage system.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 6 , wherein the datastore is a Network File System (NFS) datastore.

11. A data processing system, comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform recovery operations, the operations including:

determining whether a vMotion live migration has been completed for a virtual machine (VM) recovered through Instant Access from a backup storage system;

after the vMotion live migration has been completed, determining whether a datastore corresponding to a backup image of the VM on the backup storage system is empty, wherein in response to the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system being not empty, a user is prompted to free up contents of the datastore;

in response to determining that the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system is empty, removing automatically a mount point corresponding to the datastore, wherein prior to the removal of the mount point, the backup image was mounted at a production server over a network as the datastore at the mount point, wherein if the datastore corresponding to the backup image of the VM on the backup storage system and/or its contents is inaccessible, the mount point corresponding to the datastore is forcibly removed; and

after removing the mount point, freeing up storage space on the backup storage system corresponding to the datastore.

12. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein if the vMotion live migration has not been initiated, a user is prompted to initiate the vMotion live migration to migrate the backup image of the VM from the backup storage system the production server.

13. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the recovered VM keeps running during the vMotion live migration.

14. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein Instant Access enables booting of the VM directly from the backup storage system.

15. The data processing system of claim 11 , wherein the datastore is a Network File System (NFS) datastore.