Cross-backup application diskless data migration

1. A method comprising:

identifying legacy data backups eligible for migration in a legacy backup environment, wherein the legacy data backups are generated in the legacy backup environment by a legacy file level backup application;

receiving application specific information regarding the legacy data backups eligible for migration, wherein the application specific information is received from a legacy backup client program of the legacy backup environment in response to a query sent to the legacy backup client program, and wherein the application specific information comprises application specific commands and application specific interfaces;

filtering the application specific information to indicate only legacy backup data that must be migrated representing a type of migration desired;

presenting the application specific information corresponding to the legacy backup data that must be migrated as a virtual filesystem mounted within an operating system such that the application specific information is seen as live local data; and

migrating the backup data indicated by the filtering to a new backup environment by performing a file level backup of the virtual filesystem mounted within the operating system, wherein the backup reads files in the backup data indicated by the filtering from the virtual filesystem and stores read files in the backup data in the new backup environment, wherein the file level backup comprises passing an individual data file directly from the legacy backup client program to a read process of a new backup client program in the new backup environment consuming no disk storage at all.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

mapping the application specific information regarding the legacy data backups into a common data format prior to the filtering of the application specific information to represent the type of migration desired.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

querying the legacy backup environment to determine a data retention period for the legacy data backups eligible for migration.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether a read request was received for the individual data file on the virtual filesystem;

responsive to determining that the read request was received for the individual data file on the virtual filesystem, pulling information corresponding to the individual data file from the virtual filesystem; and

retrieving the individual data file from the legacy backup environment based on the information corresponding to the individual data file pulled from the virtual filesystem.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

writing the individual data file to a new backup environment from the read process of the new backup client program.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

setting a retention period for the individual data file in the new backup environment equal to a remaining retention period of the individual data file in the legacy backup environment.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual filesystem is mounted within the operating system as read only, and wherein the operating system is similar to an operating system of legacy backup environment.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual filesystem represents one historical data backup.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the legacy data backups are filtered based on regulatory rules.

10. A computer system comprising:

a bus system;

a storage device connected to the bus system, wherein the storage device stores program instructions; and

a processor connected to the bus system, wherein the processor executes the program instructions to:

identify legacy data backups eligible for migration in a legacy backup environment, wherein the legacy data backups are generated in the legacy backup environment by a legacy file level backup application;

receive application specific information regarding the legacy data backups eligible for migration, wherein the application specific information is received from a legacy backup client program of the legacy backup environment in response to a query sent to the legacy backup client program, and wherein the application specific information comprises application specific commands and application specific interfaces;

filter the application specific information to indicate only legacy backup data that must be migrated representing a type of migration desired;

present the application specific information corresponding to the legacy backup data that must be migrated as a virtual filesystem mounted within an operating system such that the application specific information is seen as live local data; and

migrate the backup data indicated by the filtering to a new backup environment by performing a file level backup of the virtual filesystem mounted within the operating system, wherein the backup reads files in the backup data indicated by the filtering from the virtual filesystem and stores read files in the backup data in the new backup environment, wherein the file level backup comprises passing an individual data file directly from the legacy backup client program to a read process of a new backup client program in the new backup environment consuming no disk storage at all.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a computer to cause the computer to perform a method comprising:

identifying legacy data backups eligible for migration in a legacy backup environment, wherein the legacy data backups are generated in the legacy backup environment by a legacy file level backup application;

receiving application specific information regarding the legacy data backups eligible for migration, wherein the application specific information is received from a legacy backup client program of the legacy backup environment in response to a query sent to the legacy backup client program, and wherein the application specific information comprises application specific commands and application specific interfaces;

filtering the application specific information to indicate only legacy backup data that must be migrated representing a type of migration desired;

presenting the application specific information corresponding to the legacy backup data that must be migrated as a virtual filesystem mounted within an operating system such that the application specific information is seen as live local data; and

migrating the backup data indicated by the filtering to a new backup environment by performing a backup of the virtual filesystem mounted within the operating system, wherein the backup reads files in the backup data indicated by the filtering from the virtual filesystem and stores read files in the backup data in the new backup environment, wherein the file level backup comprises passing an individual data file directly from the legacy backup client program to a read process of a new backup client program in the new backup environment consuming no disk storage at all.

12. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

mapping the application specific information regarding the legacy data backups into a common data format prior to the filtering of the application specific information to represent the type of migration desired.

13. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

querying the legacy backup environment to determine a data retention period for the legacy data backups eligible for migration.

14. The computer program product of claim 11 further comprising:

determining whether a read request was received for the individual data file on the virtual filesystem;

responsive to determining that the read request was received for the individual data file on the virtual filesystem, pulling information corresponding to the individual data file from the virtual filesystem; and

retrieving the individual data file from the legacy backup environment based on the information corresponding to the individual data file pulled from the virtual filesystem.

15. The computer program product of claim 14 further comprising:

writing the individual data file to a new backup environment from the read process of the new backup client program.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 further comprising:

setting a retention period for the individual data file in the new backup environment equal to a remaining retention period of the individual data file in the legacy backup environment.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the legacy backup environment and the new backup environment are operable on the same data processing system.

18. The computer program product of claim 11 wherein the legacy backup environment and the new backup environment are operable on the same data processing system.

19. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the virtual filesystem is mounted within the operating system as read only, and wherein the operating system is similar to an operating system of legacy backup environment.

20. The computer program product of claim 11 , wherein the virtual filesystem represents one historical data backup.