Restoring the state of paused virtual machine environments with external attached volumes

1. A method comprising:

receiving a pause request from a system user to pause a virtual environment that includes one or more idling virtual machines, each respective virtual machine having a mounting point connected to at least one corresponding block level storage volume;

building a model and a dependency graph of components in the virtual environment in response to receiving the pause request;

storing the model, the dependency graph and a snapshot of each corresponding block level storage volume, which enables resuming the one or more idling virtual machines in the virtual environment;

stopping the components in accordance with dependency logic of the dependency graph; and

stopping the one or more idling virtual machines.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein building the dependency graph comprises:

determining a first component in the virtual environment relies on at least one of functionality and data of a second component in the virtual environment;

generating at least a first portion of the dependency logic indicating a restart priority of the second component being restarted before the first component; and

generating at least a second portion of the dependency logic indicating a stop priority of the first component being stopped before the second component.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein storing the snapshot of each corresponding block level storage volume comprises:

for each corresponding block level storage volume:

detaching the corresponding block level storage volume from a virtual machine mounting point;

capturing a snapshot of the detached corresponding block level storage volume to back-up a state and data of the block level storage volume;

tagging the captured snapshot;

deleting the detached corresponding block level storage volume; and

storing the tagged snapshot.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein tagging the captured snapshot comprises:

for each snapshot of a corresponding block level storage volume:

generating an identification string to represent a snapshot tag, the identification string indicating an identifier of the corresponding block level storage volume, an identifier of the virtual environment, an identifier of a virtual machine to which the corresponding block level storage volume was connected, and a block device mapping; and

creating an association between the identification string and the captured snapshot.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving a resume request to restart the virtual environment;

building the virtual environment according to the model by instantiating each component with stored component data;

creating one or more block level storage volumes based on the stored snapshots;

restarting the stopped virtual machines associated with the virtual environment;

attaching the created block level storage volumes to mounting points of the restarted virtual machines; and

restarting the instantiated components according to the dependency graph.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein creating one or more block level storage volumes based on the stored snapshots comprises:

identifying one or more stored snapshots based on one or more tag queries related to the virtual environment;

accessing one or more stored snapshots identified in search results of the one or more tag queries; and

creating the one or more block level storage volumes according to backed-up state and data represented in the one or more accessed stored snapshots.

7. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

wherein the pause request and the resume request are sent by one or more users that have access to the virtual environment and a multi-tenant database system, the virtual environment being hosted by the multi-tenant database system.

8. A computer program product comprising computer-readable program code to be executed by one or more processors when retrieved from a non-transitory computer-readable medium, the program code including instructions to:

receiving a pause request from a system user to pause a virtual environment that includes one or more idling virtual machines, each respective virtual machine having a mounting point connected to at least one corresponding block level storage volume;

building a model and a dependency graph of components in the virtual environment in response to receiving the pause request;

storing the model, the dependency graph and a snapshot of each corresponding block level storage volume, which enables resuming the one or more idling virtual machines in the virtual environment;

stopping the components in accordance with dependency logic of the dependency graph; and

stopping the one or more idling virtual machines.

9. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein building the dependency graph comprises:

determining a first component in the virtual environment relies on at least one of functionality and data of a second component in the virtual environment;

generating at least a first portion of the dependency logic indicating a restart priority of the second component being restarted before the first component; and

generating at least a second portion of the dependency logic indicating a stop priority of the first component being stopped before the second component.

10. The computer program product of claim 8 , wherein storing the snapshot of each corresponding block level storage volume comprises:

for each corresponding block level storage volume:

detaching the corresponding block level storage volume from a virtual machine mounting point;

capturing a snapshot of the detached corresponding block level storage volume to back-up a state and data of the block level storage volume;

tagging the captured snapshot;

deleting the detached corresponding block level storage volume; and

storing the tagged snapshot.

11. The computer program product of claim 10 , wherein tagging the captured snapshot comprises:

for each snapshot of a corresponding block level storage volume:

generating an identification string to represent a snapshot tag, the identification string indicating an identifier of the corresponding block level storage volume, an identifier of the virtual environment, an identifier of a virtual machine to which the corresponding block level storage volume was connected, and a block device mapping; and

creating an association between the identification string and the captured snapshot.

12. The computer program product of claim 8 further comprising:

receiving a resume request to restart the virtual environment;

building the virtual environment according to the model by instantiating each component with stored component data;

creating one or more block level storage volumes based on the stored snapshots;

restarting the stopped virtual machines associated with the virtual environment;

attaching the created block level storage volumes to mounting points of the restarted virtual machines; and

restarting the instantiated components according to the dependency graph.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein creating one or more block level storage volumes based on the stored snapshots comprises:

identifying one or more stored snapshots based on one or more tag queries related to the virtual environment;

accessing one or more stored snapshots identified in search results of the one or more tag queries; and

creating the one or more block level storage volumes according to backed-up state and data represented in the one or more accessed stored snapshots.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 , further comprising:

wherein the pause request and the resume request are sent by one or more users that have access to the virtual environment and a multi-tenant database system, the virtual environment being hosted by the multi-tenant database system.

15. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions, which when executed, cause the one or more processors to:

receiving a pause request from a system user to pause a virtual environment that includes one or more idling virtual machines, each respective virtual machine having a mounting point connected to at least one corresponding block level storage volume;

building a model and a dependency graph of components in the virtual environment in response to receiving the pause request;

storing the model, the dependency graph and a snapshot of each corresponding block level storage volume, which enables resuming the one or more idling virtual machines in the virtual environment;

stopping the components in accordance with dependency logic of the dependency graph; and

stopping the one or more idling virtual machines.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein building the dependency graph comprises:

determining a first component in the virtual environment relies on at least one of functionality and data of a second component in the virtual environment;

generating at least a first portion of the dependency logic indicating a restart priority of the second component being restarted before the first component; and

generating at least a second portion of the dependency logic indicating a stop priority of the first component being stopped before the second component.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein storing the snapshot of each corresponding block level storage volume comprises:

for each corresponding block level storage volume:

detaching the corresponding block level storage volume from a virtual machine mounting point;

capturing a snapshot of the detached block level storage volume to back-up a state and data of the block level storage volume;

tagging the captured snapshot;

deleting the detached block level storage volume; and

storing the tagged snapshot.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein tagging the captured snapshot comprises:

for each snapshot of a corresponding block level storage volume:

generating an identification string to represent a snapshot tag, the identification string indicating an identifier of the corresponding block level storage volume, an identifier of the virtual environment, an identifier of a virtual machine to which the corresponding block level storage volume was connected, and a block device mapping; and

creating an association between the identification string and the captured snapshot.

19. The system of claim 15 , further comprising:

receiving a resume request to restart the virtual environment;

building the virtual environment according to the model by instantiating each component with stored component data;

creating one or more block level storage volumes based on the stored snapshots;

restarting the stopped virtual machines associated with the virtual environment;

attaching the created block level storage volumes to mounting points of the restarted virtual machines; and

restarting the instantiated components according to the dependency graph.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein creating one or more block level storage volumes

based on the stored snapshots comprises:

identifying one or more stored snapshots based on one or more tag queries related to the virtual environment;

accessing one or more stored snapshots identified in search results of the one or more tag queries; and

creating the one or more block level storage volumes according to backed-up state and data represented in the one or more accessed stored snapshots.