Method for instantaneously recovering VMware virtual machine

Abstract

The invention discloses a method for instantaneously recovering a VMware virtual machine. The method comprises the following steps: preparing backup data; the backup data are stored in a backup set; selecting a reduction point; backup data needing to be restored are selected from the backup set; starting an NFS service, and creating a folder required by the NFS service; the method comprises the following steps: mounting an NFS (Network File System) service as a Datastone on an ESXi (Electronic Security In a folder of the last backup point of the selected backup set, copying a. Vmx file of the virtual machine, renaming the. Vmx file, and then registering the virtual machine to ESXi; creating a snapshot, and copying a newly generated snapshot disk file to an independent folder; re-registering the virtual machine; according to the method and the device, the designated state is quickly recovered by backing up the data, creating the snapshot, selecting the recovery point and mounting the NFS for sharing, so that the recovery efficiency is improved, the system downtime is shortened, the original virtual machine data is effectively protected, and the risk of data loss is reduced.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of disk data recovery, and in particular relates to a method for instantaneously recovering a VMware virtual machine. Background Art

[0002] Virtual machine technology is profoundly changing the operation mode and management efficiency of data centers with its excellent server integration capabilities. With the rapid development of information technology, major companies and corporate organizations have realized that the traditional physical server architecture is no longer the best solution to meet their growing computing needs. In order to cope with the problems of rising costs, increased energy consumption and insufficient space utilization, more and more companies have begun to actively adopt virtualization technology to reduce the number of physical servers required. Through virtualization, multiple virtual machines can run efficiently on a physical server, greatly improving the resource utilization of the server. This not only reduces the cost of hardware investment, but also significantly reduces the power consumption and cooling requirements of the data center, thereby achieving a more environmentally friendly operation model.

[0003] In the prior art, for example, the technical solution described in the patent with publication number CN118132196A is a method for rapid recovery of VMware in a CDM scenario. The technical principle of this solution is mainly based on the characteristics of the ZFS file system and the recovery mechanism of the VMware virtualization environment. Through the efficient data management of ZFS and the virtual machine management function of VMware, combined with compression and snapshot technology, the recovery of the virtual machine is achieved.

[0004] In the prior art, from the perspective of data recovery efficiency, the recovery speed is slow due to the large size of the backup data files, and most of the time is spent on the data copy and transfer stage, and some may take several hours or even 1-2 days. Therefore, a technology of instant recovery is needed to quickly restore the virtual machine. Summary of the invention

[0005] The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method for instantaneous recovery of VMware virtual machines to solve the problem in the prior art proposed in the background technology that the recovery speed is slow due to the large backup data file, most of the time is spent in the data copy and transfer stage, and there is a long recovery time.

[0006] In order to solve the above technical problems, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is:

[0007] A method for instantaneously restoring a VMware virtual machine comprises the following steps:

[0008] Step S1, prepare backup data; the backup data is stored in a backup set;

[0009] Step S2, select a restore point; select the backup data to be restored from the backup set;

[0010] Step S3, start the NFS service and create a folder required by the NFS service. The folder is used to store data that ESXi needs to access remotely during instant recovery.

[0011] Step S4, mount the NFS share to ESXi; mount the NFS service as Datastore on ESXi;

[0012] Step S5, registering the virtual machine to ESXi; in the folder of the last backup point of the selected backup set, copy the .vmx file of the virtual machine, rename it, and then register the virtual machine to ESXi;

[0013] Step S6, creating a snapshot for data storage after the virtual machine is restored to avoid contamination of the original data; and copying the newly generated snapshot disk file to a separate folder for subsequent data storage after re-registering the virtual machine;

[0014] Step S7, re-register the virtual machine;

[0015] Step S8, start the virtual machine.

[0016] According to the above technical solution, the backup data is one of full backup, incremental backup and differential backup; wherein, if differential backup is selected during restoration, the full backup is found in the same parent directory (the same parent directory here refers to the parent directory of the selected differential backup directory) according to the backup time.

[0017] If you select incremental backup, all incremental backups will be found in the same parent directory according to the backup time until a full backup is found in the incremental backup.

[0018] According to the above technical solution, in step S2, if the backup set is stored on another disk or stored on a remote share, it is necessary to create a soft link under the folder required for creating the nfs service, and the soft link is used to point to the location where the backup set is actually stored.

[0019] According to the above technical solution, the creation of soft link is specifically: MKLink / D "soft link directory address" "real directory address".

[0020] According to the above technical solution, in step S4, mounting the NFS share to ESXi is specifically as follows: using VMware vSphere API, using the CreateNasDatastore method in VMware vSphere API, and completing the creation after specifying corresponding parameters.

[0021] According to the above technical solution, when executing step S5 to register the virtual machine to ESXi, it is necessary to first determine the backup data contained in the recovery point selected during recovery; if the recovery point selected during recovery only contains a full backup, go directly to step S5. If the selected recovery point backup data contains one or more incremental backups, before loading the backup data, it is necessary to set the hierarchical relationship of the disk according to the order of the backups.

[0022] According to the above technical solution, the hierarchical relationship of the disks is set according to the backup sequence as follows:

[0023] Get the storage address of the corresponding Datastore after NFS mounting is successful. The address format is the disk path format of ESXi;

[0024] According to the restore point set selected in step S2, the restore points are sorted in positive order by folder, and then the .vmdk files in each backup folder are read cyclically;

[0025] If the restore point set is a full backup, record the value of the restore point CID and the directory address after the restore point set is converted into a datastore;

[0026] If the restore point set is an incremental backup or a differential backup, record the value of the restore point CID and modify the value of the node parentCID to the CID value of the corresponding disk file in the previous backup; modify the value of the node parentFileNameHint= to the ESXi file format address of the previous backup, and record the directory address after this backup point is converted into a datastore.

[0027] According to the above technical solution, step S5, registering the virtual machine to ESXi is specifically as follows:

[0028] Step S501, copy the .vmx file of the virtual machine and rename it with the original name of the .vmx file plus _ins;

[0029] Step S502, calling the RegisterVM_Task method in VMware vSpere API, passing the configuration file name in step S501 and the name of the virtual machine after instant recovery to complete the registration.

[0030] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects:

[0031] In the present invention, by backing up data and creating snapshots, selecting a restore point and mounting an NFS share, the system can be quickly restored to a specified state, thereby improving recovery efficiency, reducing system downtime, effectively protecting the original virtual machine data, and reducing the risk of data loss. Creating snapshots and isolating data can ensure that the data in the recovery process will not affect the original virtual machine, thereby protecting the integrity of the data. Through standardized recovery steps, the management process of virtual machine recovery can be simplified, making the operation more efficient and controllable. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0032] Figure 1 A flowchart of a method for restoring a virtual machine according to the present invention;

[0033] Figure 2 A flowchart of another method for restoring a virtual machine provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0035] Embodiment 1

[0036] like Figure 1 As shown, a method for instantaneously restoring a VMware virtual machine includes the following steps:

[0037] Step S1, prepare backup data; the backup data is stored in a backup set;

[0038] Step S2, select a restore point; select the backup data to be restored from the backup set;

[0039] Step S3, start the NFS service and create a folder required by the NFS service. The folder is used to store data that ESXi needs to access remotely during instant recovery.

[0040] Step S4, mount the NFS share to ESXi; mount the NFS service as Datastore on ESXi;

[0041] Step S5, registering the virtual machine to ESXi; in the folder of the last backup point of the selected backup set, copy the .vmx file of the virtual machine, rename it, and then register the virtual machine to ESXi;

[0042] Step S6, creating a snapshot for data storage after the virtual machine is restored to avoid contamination of the original data; and copying the newly generated snapshot disk file to a separate folder for subsequent data storage after re-registering the virtual machine;

[0043] Step S7, re-register the virtual machine;

[0044] Step S8, start the virtual machine.

[0045] In the present invention, by backing up data and creating snapshots, selecting a restore point and mounting an NFS share, the system can be quickly restored to a specified state, thereby improving recovery efficiency, reducing system downtime, effectively protecting the original virtual machine data, and reducing the risk of data loss. Creating snapshots and isolating data can ensure that the data in the recovery process will not affect the original virtual machine, thereby protecting the integrity of the data. Through standardized recovery steps, the management process of virtual machine recovery can be simplified, making the operation more efficient and controllable.

[0046] Embodiment 2

[0047] This embodiment is a further refinement of the first embodiment.

[0048] The backup data is one of full backup, incremental backup and differential backup. If differential backup is selected during restore, the full backup is found in the same parent directory (the same parent directory here refers to the parent directory of the selected differential backup directory) according to the backup time.

[0049] If you select incremental backup, all incremental backups will be found in the same parent directory according to the backup time until a full backup is found in the incremental backup.

[0050] In step S2, if the backup set is stored on another disk or stored on a remote share, it is necessary to create a soft link under the folder required for creating the nfs service, and the soft link is used to point to the location where the backup set is actually stored.

[0051] The creation of soft links is specifically as follows: MKLink / D "soft link directory address" "real directory address".

[0052] In step S4, mounting the NFS share to ESXi specifically includes: using VMware vSphere API, using the CreateNasDatastore method in VMware vSphere API, and completing the creation after specifying corresponding parameters.

[0053] When executing step S5 to register the virtual machine to ESXi, it is necessary to first determine the backup data contained in the recovery point selected during recovery; if the recovery point selected during recovery only contains a full backup, go directly to step S5. If the selected recovery point backup data contains one or more incremental backups, before loading the backup data, it is necessary to set the hierarchical relationship of the disks according to the order of the backups.

[0054] The hierarchical relationship of disks is set according to the backup sequence:

[0055] Get the storage address of the corresponding Datastore after NFS mounting is successful. The address format is the disk path format of ESXi;

[0056] According to the restore point set selected in step S2, the restore points are sorted in positive order by folder, and then the .vmdk files in each backup folder are read cyclically;

[0057] If the restore point set is a full backup, record the value of the restore point CID and the directory address after the restore point set is converted into a datastore;

[0058] If the restore point set is an incremental backup or a differential backup, record the value of the restore point CID and modify the value of the node parentCID to the CID value of the corresponding disk file in the previous backup; modify the value of the node parentFileNameHint= to the ESXi file format address of the previous backup, and record the directory address after this backup point is converted into a datastore.

[0059] Step S5, registering the virtual machine to ESXi is as follows:

[0060] Step S501, copy the .vmx file of the virtual machine and rename it with the original name of the .vmx file plus _ins;

[0061] Step S502, calling the RegisterVM_Task method in VMware vSpere API, passing the configuration file name in step S501 and the name of the virtual machine after instant recovery to complete the registration.

[0062] Embodiment 3

[0063] The inventive concept of the present invention is:

[0064] 1. Prepare backup data. Backup data is divided into full backup, incremental backup and differential backup; the storage method is one folder for each virtual machine, and each backup (full, incremental, differential) corresponds to a separate subfolder in this folder. In each subfolder, each disk corresponds to a .vmdk file, and contains the original .vmx file of the virtual machine at the time of backup. The name of each subfolder contains the backup timestamp for easy sorting.

[0065] 2. Select a restore point; select the full backup, incremental backup, or differential backup to be restored from the backup set.

[0066] If you select differential backup, find the full backup in the same parent directory based on the backup time.

[0067] If you choose incremental backup, in the same parent directory, find all incremental backups according to the backup time until the complete backup is found.

[0068] The backup set can be stored on the local machine where the recovery software is located, or it can be a remote share.

[0069] 3. Start the NFS service; if the backup set itself is stored on the NFS server, ignore this step.

[0070] The NFS service software and recovery software are deployed on the same computer.

[0071] When creating an NFS service, you need to specify a folder. During instant recovery, all data that ESXi needs to access remotely is in this folder. If the backup set is stored on another disk or stored on a remote share, you need to create a soft link in the folder specified by the nfs service. One instant recovery task corresponds to one soft link, which points to the actual storage location of the backup set.

[0072] In Windows, create a soft link using the following command:

[0073] MKLink / D "Soft link directory address" "Real directory address".

[0074] After starting the NFS service, you need to record the corresponding folder path or alias.

[0075] 4. Mount the NFS share to ESXi. Only when the NFS service is mounted as a datastore on ESXi can ESXi correctly identify and read the backup files.

[0076] There are two ways to mount the NFS service on ESXi:

[0077] Use VMware vSphere API; this API has a CreateNasDatastore method that can be created by specifying the corresponding parameters.

[0078] Enable the ESXi SSH service and use the background command; the command format is: vim-cmd hostsvc / datastore / nas_create [datastoreName] [NFS version number] [nfs monitoring folder] [whether read-only] [nfs server ip].

[0079] 5. Set up the disk chain. If the recovery point selected during recovery only contains the full backup, you can ignore the step of setting up the disk chain.

[0080] If the selected restore set contains one or more incremental backups, you need to set the disk hierarchy according to the backup sequence before loading the backup data. If you do not set it, the restore will fail or the computer will not be able to boot after the restore.

[0081] Here’s how to set it up:

[0082] 1) After the NFS mount is successful, the corresponding Datastore storage address is obtained. The address format is the ESXi disk path format, for example: / vmfs / volumes / 08fce38f-78bdbbf8

[0083] 2) According to the selected backup point set, sort by folder in positive order, and then read the .vmdk files in each backup point folder in a loop.

[0084] If the backup point is a full backup, record the value of the node CID and the directory address after the backup point is converted to the datastore, that is, the address format of step 1.

[0085] If it is an incremental backup or differential backup, record the value of the node CID, and modify the value of the node parentCID to the CID value of the corresponding disk file in the previous backup; modify the value of the node parentFileNameHint= to the ESXi file format address of the previous backup, that is, the address format in step 1. At the same time, record the directory address after this backup point is converted into datastore.

[0086] 6. Register the virtual machine to ESXi;

[0087] 1) In the folder of the last backup point of the selected backup set, clone the .vmx file of the virtual machine and rename it with _ins added to the original name. For example, if the original name is test.vmx, the cloned name will be test_ins.vmx.

[0088] 2) Register the virtual machine to ESXi, including the following two methods:

[0089] The first method: Call the RegisterVM_Task method in VMware vSpere API, pass the configuration file name in the first step, and the name of the virtual machine after instant recovery.

[0090] The second method: Open ESXi SSH and call the command vim-cmd solo / registervm test_ins.vmx.

[0091] 7. Create a snapshot. After successfully registering the virtual machine, do not power it on first, and then create a snapshot. This is to prevent the original backup data from being contaminated after the machine is powered on later.

[0092] 8. Move the latest snapshot file to the recovery directory;

[0093] Since the snapshot disk file path cannot be specified when a virtual machine creates a snapshot, the default path is the path of the virtual machine's current disk file before the snapshot is created. That is, in the present invention, a new snapshot disk file will be generated by default on the backup server, and other data generated after startup will be stored under the last backup point, polluting the storage result.

[0094] Therefore, after creating the snapshot, you need to copy the newly generated snapshot disk file (the master disk file name is 00000X.vmdk, where X is a number starting from 1) to a separate folder. Since ESXi does not support the same disk file across datastores, a new folder is created by default in the same parent directory of the selected backup set. It is named after the instantaneously restored virtual machine, and then the snapshot disk file and test_ins.vmx file generated in step g) are moved to the newly created folder.

[0095] 9. Re-register the virtual machine; unregister the virtual machine registered in step 6 from ESXi, and then re-register the virtual machine with the configuration file address in step 8. In this way, subsequent snapshot files and temporary files will be generated in this instant recovery directory.

[0096] 10. Start the virtual machine and boot the restored virtual machine.

[0097] Embodiment 4

[0098] like Figure 2 As shown, this embodiment provides another specific implementation method.

[0099] 1. Prepare backup data. Backup data is divided into full backup, incremental backup and differential backup; the storage method is one folder for each virtual machine, and each backup (full, incremental, differential) corresponds to a separate subfolder in this folder. In each subfolder, each disk corresponds to a .vmdk file, and contains the original .vmx file of the virtual machine at the time of backup. The name of each subfolder contains the backup timestamp for easy sorting.

[0100] 2. Select a restore point; select the full backup, incremental backup, or differential backup to be restored from the backup set.

[0101] If you select differential backup, find the full backup in the same parent directory based on the backup time.

[0102] If you choose incremental backup, in the same parent directory, find all incremental backups according to the backup time until the complete backup is found.

[0103] The backup set can be stored on the local machine where the recovery software is located, or it can be a remote share.

[0104] 3. Start the NFS service; if the backup set itself is stored on the NFS server, ignore this step.

[0105] The NFS service software and recovery software are deployed on the same computer.

[0106] When creating an NFS service, you need to specify a folder. During instant recovery, all data that ESXi needs to access remotely is in this folder. If the backup set is stored on another disk or stored on a remote share, you need to create a soft link in the folder specified by the nfs service. One instant recovery task corresponds to one soft link, which points to the actual storage location of the backup set.

[0107] In Windows, create a soft link using the following command:

[0108] MKLink / D "Soft link directory address" "Real directory address".

[0109] After starting the NFS service, you need to record the corresponding folder path or alias.

[0110] 4. Mount the NFS share to ESXi. Only when the NFS service is mounted as a datastore on ESXi can ESXi correctly identify and read the backup files.

[0111] There are two ways to mount the NFS service on ESXi:

[0112] Use VMware vSphere API; this API has a CreateNasDatastore method that can be created by specifying the corresponding parameters.

[0113] Enable the ESXi SSH service and use the background command; the command format is: vim-cmd hostsvc / datastore / nas_create [datastoreName] [NFS version number] [nfs monitoring folder] [read-only] [nfs server ip].

[0114] 5. First create a directory for instant recovery, and then copy all vmdk files in the backup chain that do not end with -falt.vmdk, -ctk.vmdk, or -delta.vmdk to the recovery directory.

[0115] 6. For any file ending with -falt.vmdk, -ctk.vmdk, or -delta.vmdk, create a soft link or hard link with the same name to the recovery directory.

[0116] 7. In the folder of the last backup point of the selected backup set, clone the .vmx file of the virtual machine and rename it with the original name plus _ins. For example, if the original name is test.vmx, the cloned file will be test_ins.vmx. If the configuration file name contains non-ASCII characters, name it vmcfg.xml.

[0117] 9. Register the virtual machine to Esxi using the .vmx file in the recovery directory as a parameter.

[0118] 10. Create a snapshot to prevent the original backup data from being contaminated after the computer is restarted.

[0119] 11. If a hard link is created in step 6, ignore this step; if a soft link is created in step 6, lock all vmdk files ending with -falt.vmdk, -ctk.vmdk, -delta.vmdk under the backup point. The locking method is to open these files using shared file streams, keep the handles of these files in memory, and start a timer to regularly check whether the restored virtual machine has been deleted. If it has been deleted, delete the soft link created in step II and close the handles of the -falt.vmdk, -ctk.vmdk, -delta.vmdk files corresponding to this virtual machine.

[0120] Explanation of professional terms:

[0121] ESXi: is a free to install and secure open source operating system software developed by VMware, which is designed to run a cluster of virtual machines. It is a component of VMware vSphere, a server virtualization platform used to manage and run virtual machines. .

[0122] NFS: stands for Network File System, which is a protocol for sharing files and directories between computer systems. NFS is widely used in UNIX and Linux operating systems. It allows remote computers to access and operate remote files as if they were local files, thus facilitating file sharing and collaboration between multiple computers.

[0123] To solve the above problems, the present invention includes the following main functional modules:

[0124] Create NFS service module: This function module is mainly responsible for converting local or remote backup sets to NFS so that VMware ESXi can access the backup data normally;

[0125] Backup set selection module: This module is mainly responsible for displaying the backup sets on the backup server and allowing users to select a recovery point;

[0126] Disk file relationship processing and virtual machine creation module: This functional module is mainly used to process disk hierarchical relationships, create virtual machines, and create snapshots.

[0127] It should be noted that, in this article, relational terms such as first and second, etc. are only used to distinguish one entity or operation from another entity or operation, and do not necessarily require or imply any such actual relationship or order between these entities or operations. Moreover, the terms "include", "comprise" or any other variants thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion, so that a process, method, article or device including a series of elements includes not only those elements, but also other elements not explicitly listed, or also includes elements inherent to such process, method, article or device.

[0128] Finally, it should be noted that the above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention. Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the aforementioned embodiments, those skilled in the art can still modify the technical solutions described in the aforementioned embodiments or replace some of the technical features therein by equivalents. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present invention shall be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A method for instantaneous recovery of a VMware virtual machine, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: Step S1, prepare backup data; the backup data is stored in a backup set; Step S2, select a restore point; select the backup data to be restored from the backup set; Step S3, start the NFS service and create a folder required by the NFS service. The folder is used to store data that ESXi needs to access remotely during instant recovery. Step S4, mount the NFS share to ESXi; mount the NFS service as Datastore on ESXi; Step S5, registering the virtual machine to ESXi; in the folder of the last backup point of the selected backup set, copy the .vmx file of the virtual machine, rename it, and then register the virtual machine to ESXi; Step S6, creating a snapshot for data storage after the virtual machine is restored to avoid contamination of the original data; and copying the newly generated snapshot disk file to a separate folder for subsequent data storage after re-registering the virtual machine; Step S7, re-register the virtual machine; Step S8, start the virtual machine.

2. The method for instantaneously restoring a VMware virtual machine according to claim 1, characterized in that: The backup data is one of full backup, incremental backup and differential backup. If differential backup is selected during restore, the full backup will be found in the same parent directory according to the backup time. If you select incremental backup, all incremental backups will be found in the same parent directory according to the backup time until a full backup is found in the incremental backup.

3. The method for instantaneous recovery of a VMware virtual machine according to claim 2, characterized in that: In step S2, if the backup set is stored on another disk or stored on a remote share, it is necessary to create a soft link under the folder required for creating the nfs service, and the soft link is used to point to the location where the backup set is actually stored.

4. The method for instantaneous recovery of a VMware virtual machine according to claim 3, characterized in that: The creation of soft link is specifically: MKLink / D "soft link directory address" "real directory address".

5. The method for instantaneous recovery of a VMware virtual machine according to claim 1, characterized in that: In step S4, mounting the NFS share to ESXi specifically includes: using VMware vSphere API, using the CreateNasDatastore method in VMware vSphere API, and completing the creation after specifying corresponding parameters.

6. The method for instantaneous recovery of a VMware virtual machine according to claim 1, characterized in that: When executing step S5 to register the virtual machine to ESXi, it is necessary to first determine the backup data contained in the recovery point selected during recovery; if the recovery point selected during recovery only contains a full backup, go directly to step S5. If the selected recovery point backup data contains one or more incremental backups, before loading the backup data, it is necessary to set the hierarchical relationship of the disks according to the order of the backups.

7. The method for instantaneous recovery of a VMware virtual machine according to claim 6, characterized in that: The hierarchical relationship of disks is set according to the backup sequence: Get the storage address of the corresponding Datastore after NFS mounting is successful. The address format is the disk path format of ESXi; According to the restore point set selected in step S2, the restore points are sorted in positive order by folder, and then the .vmdk files in each backup folder are read cyclically; If the restore point set is a full backup, record the value of the restore point CID and the directory address after the restore point set is converted into a datastore; If the restore point set is an incremental backup or a differential backup, record the value of the restore point CID and modify the value of the node parentCID to the CID value of the corresponding disk file in the previous backup; modify the value of the node parentFileNameHint= to the ESXi file format address of the previous backup, and record the directory address after this backup point is converted into a datastore.

8. The method for instantaneous recovery of a VMware virtual machine according to claim 1, characterized in that: Step S5, registering the virtual machine to ESXi is as follows: Step S501, copy the .vmx file of the virtual machine and rename it with the original name of the .vmx file plus _ins; Step S502, calling the RegisterVM_Task method in VMware vSpere API, passing the configuration file name in step S501 and the name of the virtual machine after instant recovery to complete the registration.

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