Virtual machine data backup

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and system for efficiently backing up a virtual machine file. A virtual machine file is logically divided into a plurality of fixed-size blocks of similar size, for example, a number of 1 MB data blocks. An MD5 hash value is generated from the contents of each block. Each block is written to a file having a filename that includes a filesystem-compliant form (e.g., hexadecimal form) of the computed MD5 hash value. A backup device includes a directory hierarchy having a plurality of first-level directories corresponding to the first two bytes of the hash value, and a plurality of second-level directories corresponding to the next two bytes of the hash value. The blocks are uniquely stored in the directory corresponding to the byte value pairs of the hash. The present disclosure provides data integrity checking and reduces storage requirements for duplicative, redundant, or null data.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]The present application claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 168,315, filed on Apr. 10, 2009, entitled “VIRTUAL MACHINE DATA BACKUP”; U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 168,318, filed on Apr. 10, 2009, entitled “VIRTUAL MACHINE FILE-LEVEL RESTORATION”; and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 172,435, filed on Apr. 24, 2009, entitled “VIRTUAL MACHINE DATA REPLICATION”; the entirety of each are hereby incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.BACKGROUND[0002]1. Technical Field[0003]The present disclosure relates to computer data backup, and in particular, to a system and method for performing block-level backups of virtual machine, wherein backed up data is stored in de-duplicated form in a hierarchical directory structure.[0004]2. Background of Related Art[0005]Continuing advances in storage technology allow vast amounts of digital data to be stored cheaply and efficiently. Howev...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, in the event of a failure or catastrophe, equally vast amounts of data can be lost.

In installations having many machines, traditional methods of performing backups may become burdensome and tend to be unduly resource-intensive, particularly in a virtual environment.

In addition, backing up multiple instances of essentially identical virtual servers (as typically found in, e.g., “server farms” or in clustered systems”) often results in large amounts of redundant backup data, which becomes difficult to manage and store.

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