Method and system for instant recovery of application data using virtual machine backups

1. A method for recovering data, the method comprising:

obtaining, by an application manager of a backup storage system, a recovery request for application data stored on a production host;

identifying a backup associated with the recovery request;

generating a placeholder disk associated with the backup, wherein the placeholder disk comprises one of a differencing disk and a temporary virtual disk,

wherein the differencing disk is generated using changes in the backup during a period of time, and

wherein the temporary virtual disk is generated using a plurality of references associated with the backup and not data associated with the backup;

generating a template virtual machine associated with the placeholder disk;

generating an application-based virtual disk based on the placeholder disk;

generating a file extent map based on the recovery request,

wherein the file extent map comprises a plurality of file extents, and wherein the plurality of file extents each comprise an offset and a range associated with a contiguous portion of the backup, and

wherein the application data comprises the portion of the backup;

populating the application-based virtual disk using the backup, the placeholder disk, and the file extent map to obtain a populated application-based virtual disk, wherein populating the application-based virtual disk comprises:

generating a copy of data blocks associated with each of the plurality of file extents;

updating the application-based virtual disk using the copy of the data blocks to obtain the populated application-based virtual disk, wherein the data blocks are obtained from the production host;

replacing the placeholder disk with the populated application-based virtual disk; and

after replacing the placeholder disk with the populated application-based virtual disk, initiating a migration of the template virtual machine,

wherein the production host is operatively connected to the backup storage system.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein initiating the migration of the template virtual machine comprises prompting a hypervisor of the production host to install the template virtual machine in the production host.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein a virtual machine associated with the application data is deleted after initiating the migration of the template virtual machine.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the backup is stored in a deduplication-capable storage system.

5. A system, comprising:

a production host

a processor; and

memory comprising instructions which, when executed by the processor, perform a method, the method comprising:

obtaining, by an application manager of a backup storage system, a recovery request for application data stored on the production host;

identifying a backup associated with the recovery request;

generating a placeholder disk associated with the backup, wherein the placeholder disk comprises one of a differencing disk and a temporary virtual disk,

wherein the differencing disk is generated using changes in the backup during a period of time, and

wherein the temporary virtual disk is generated using a plurality of references associated with the backup and not data associated with the backup;

generating a template virtual machine associated with the placeholder disk;

generating an application-based virtual disk based on the placeholder disk;

generating a file extent map based on the recovery request;

populating the application-based virtual disk using the backup, the placeholder disk, and the file extent map to obtain a populated application-based virtual disk,

wherein the file extent map comprises a plurality of file extents, and wherein the plurality of file extents comprise references to a portion of the backup, and

wherein the application data comprises the portion of the backup,

wherein populating the application-based virtual disk comprises:

generating a copy of data blocks associated with each of the plurality of file extents;

updating the application-based virtual disk using the copy of the data blocks to obtain the populated application-based virtual disk, wherein the data blocks are obtained from the production host;

replacing the placeholder disk with the populated application-based virtual disk; and

after replacing the placeholder disk with the populated application-based virtual disk, initiating a migration of the template virtual machine,

wherein the production host is operatively connected to the backup storage system.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein initiating the migration of the template virtual machine comprises prompting a hypervisor of the production host to install the template virtual machine in the production host.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein a virtual machine associated with the application data is deleted after initiating the migration of the template virtual machine.

8. The system of claim 5 , wherein the backup is stored in a deduplication-capable storage system.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code, which when executed by a computer processor enables the computer processor to perform a method for performing a backup operation, the method comprising:

obtaining, by an application manager of a backup storage system, a recovery request for application data stored on a production host;

identifying a backup associated with the recovery request;

generating a placeholder disk associated with the backup, wherein the placeholder disk comprises one of a differencing disk and a temporary virtual disk,

wherein the differencing disk is generated using changes in the backup during a period of time, and

wherein the temporary virtual disk is generated using a plurality of references associated with the backup and not data associated with the backup;

generating a template virtual machine associated with the placeholder disk;

generating an application-based virtual disk based on the placeholder disk;

generating a file extent map based on the recovery request;

populating the application-based virtual disk using the backup, the placeholder disk, and the file extent map to obtain a populated application-based virtual disk,

wherein the file extent map comprises a plurality of file extents, and wherein the plurality of file extents comprise references to a portion of the backup, and

wherein the application data comprises the portion of the backup,

wherein populating the application-based virtual disk comprises:

generating a copy of data blocks associated with each of the plurality of file extents;

updating the application-based virtual disk using the copy of the data blocks to obtain the populated application-based virtual disk,

wherein the data blocks are obtained from the production host;

replacing the placeholder disk with the populated application-based virtual disk; and after replacing the placeholder disk with the populated application-based virtual disk,

initiating a migration of the template virtual machine, wherein the production host is operatively connected to the backup storage system.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein initiating the migration of the template virtual machine comprises prompting a hypervisor of the production host to install the template virtual machine in the production host.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10 , wherein a virtual machine associated with the application data is deleted after initiating the migration of the template virtual machine.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the backup is stored in a deduplication-capable storage system, and wherein the placeholder disk is generated by copying a plurality of references from the backup.