Patent Application

App. No. 17/236,407

Abstract

Claims (55)

1 . A method for backing up virtual machines, the method comprising:

obtaining, by a backup storage, a virtual synthetic full backup request targeting virtual machine data of a virtual machine; and

in response to the virtual synthetic full backup request:

identifying, in the backup storage, backup extents using backup metadata;

generating an intermediate backup comprising the backup extents, wherein each of the backup extents is a reference to one of a plurality of virtual machine data blocks in a full backup;

obtaining modified virtual machine data blocks from a production host, wherein the modified virtual machine data blocks are obtained from a virtual machine snapshot of the virtual machine data; and

generating a virtual synthetic full backup using the intermediate backup and the modified virtual machine data blocks.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the virtual synthetic full backup comprises the backup extents and the modified virtual machine data blocks.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference specifies a storage location of the one of the plurality of virtual machine data blocks stored in the backup storage.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the modified virtual machine data blocks comprise virtual machine data blocks of the full backup that have been modified after generation of the full backup.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the full backup is one selected from a group consisting of a second virtual synthetic full backup and a non-virtual full backup.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

prior to obtaining the virtual synthetic full backup request:

obtaining a full backup request;

obtaining the plurality of virtual machine data blocks from the production host, wherein the plurality of virtual machine data blocks is associated with a second virtual machine snapshot of the virtual machine data;

storing the plurality of virtual machine data blocks to generate the full backup; and

updating the backup metadata based on the full backup.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the full backup comprises the plurality of virtual machine data blocks and sector bitmaps.

8 . A system for backing up virtual machines, comprising:

persistent storage for storing backup metadata; and

a file system manager of a backup storage, wherein the file system manager is programmed to:

obtain a virtual synthetic full backup request targeting virtual machine data of a virtual machine; and

in response to the virtual synthetic full backup request:

identify, in the backup storage, backup extents using the backup metadata;

generate an intermediate backup comprising the backup extents, wherein each of the backup extents is a reference to one of a plurality of virtual machine data blocks in a full backup;

obtain modified virtual machine data blocks from a production host, wherein the modified virtual machine data blocks from a virtual machine snapshot of the virtual machine data; and

generate a virtual synthetic full backup using the intermediate backup and the modified virtual machine data blocks.

9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the virtual synthetic full backup comprises the backup extents and the modified virtual machine data blocks.

10 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the reference specifies a storage location of the one of the plurality of virtual machine data blocks stored in the backup storage.

11 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the modified virtual machine data blocks comprise virtual machine data blocks of the full backup that have been modified after generation of the full backup.

12 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the full backup is one selected from a group consisting of a second virtual synthetic full backup and a non-virtual full backup.

13 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the file system manager is further programmed to:

prior to obtaining the virtual synthetic full backup request:

obtain a full backup request;

obtain the plurality of virtual machine data blocks from the production host, wherein the plurality of virtual machine data blocks is associated with a second virtual machine snapshot of the virtual machine data;

store the plurality of virtual machine data blocks to generate the full backup; and

update the backup metadata based on the full backup.

14 . The system of claim 13 , wherein the full backup comprises the plurality of virtual machine data blocks and sector bitmaps.

15 . 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 backing up virtual machines, the method comprising:

obtaining, by a backup storage, a virtual synthetic full backup request targeting virtual machine data of a virtual machine; and

in response to the virtual synthetic full backup request:

identifying, in the backup storage, backup extents using backup metadata;

generating an intermediate backup comprising the backup extents, wherein each of the backup extents is a reference to one of a plurality of virtual machine data blocks in a full backup;

obtaining modified virtual machine data blocks from a production host, wherein the modified virtual machine data blocks from a virtual machine snapshot of the virtual machine data; and

generating a virtual synthetic full backup using the intermediate backup and the modified virtual machine data blocks.

16 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the virtual synthetic full backup comprises the backup extents and the modified virtual machine data blocks.

17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the reference specifies a storage location of the one of the plurality of virtual machine data blocks stored in the backup storage.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the modified virtual machine data blocks comprise virtual machine data blocks of the full backup that have been modified after generation of the full backup.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the full backup is one selected from a group consisting of a second virtual synthetic full backup and a non-virtual full backup.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the method further comprises:

prior to obtaining the virtual synthetic full backup request:

obtaining a full backup request;

obtaining the plurality of virtual machine data blocks from the production host, wherein the plurality of virtual machine data blocks is associated with a second virtual machine snapshot of the virtual machine data;

storing the plurality of virtual machine data blocks to generate the full backup; and

updating the backup metadata based on the full backup.

Assignments (10)