Datacenter Recovery System Automating Virtual Infrastructure Recreation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current datacenter recovery solutions do not provide complete recovery for enterprise applications, as they often require manual configuration and lack automated methods to restore the specific startup order of virtual machines and network configurations, leading to potential execution failures during recovery.
Innovation Solution
A recovery system that includes program modules to gather metadata from a primary datacenter, replicate it to a recovery datacenter, and recreate the virtual infrastructure, networks, and virtual machines in the correct startup order, minimizing manual reconfiguration and ensuring seamless recovery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual configuration is used to restore datacenter components and settings, then flexibility and control are improved, but time consumption and operational complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by capturing and storing metadata about the primary datacenter's virtual infrastructure, networks, and VM configurations before failures occur. This pre-captured metadata is then automatically applied during recovery, eliminating the need for manual reconfiguration and significantly reducing recovery time while maintaining configuration accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a copy of the primary datacenter's state by extracting and storing metadata that represents the virtual infrastructure, network configurations, and VM settings. This metadata copy can be rapidly replicated to recovery datacenters and applied automatically, providing both speed and fidelity in the recovery process without requiring manual intervention.
2Reliability
If complete metadata including virtual infrastructure and network configurations is replicated, then recovery completeness is improved, but data transmission and storage requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential metadata required for recovery from the primary datacenter, separating critical configuration information (virtual infrastructure definitions, network topology, VM settings) from unnecessary data. This selective extraction ensures complete recovery capability while minimizing the volume of data that needs to be transmitted and stored at recovery datacenters.
Solution Approach 2:
The metadata structure is designed to be universal and multi-functional, capturing configuration information that serves multiple purposes: virtual infrastructure definition, network configuration, VM settings, and startup ordering. This consolidated metadata approach provides complete recovery capability without requiring separate data sets for each function, reducing overall metadata volume.
3Productivity
If VMs are recovered without proper startup ordering, then recovery speed is improved, but execution failures occur due to incorrect dependencies
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by capturing the correct startup ordering and dependencies of virtual machines during the metadata extraction phase from the primary datacenter. This pre-captured ordering information is stored in the metadata and automatically applied during recovery, enabling VMs to be started in the correct sequence without manual intervention, thus maintaining both speed and execution success.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the primary datacenter's operational state to determine proper VM startup ordering. By monitoring and capturing dependency relationships and startup sequences during normal operation, the system builds a feedback model that guides the recovery process, ensuring VMs are restarted in the correct order to prevent execution failures while maintaining efficient recovery speed.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments include a recovery system, a computer-readable storage medium, and a method of recreating a state of a datacenter. The embodiments include a plurality of program modules that is executable by a processor to gather metadata from a first datacenter that includes at least one virtual machine (VM), wherein the metadata includes data representative of a virtual infrastructure of the first datacenter. The program modules are also executable by the processor to recreate a state of the first datacenter within a second datacenter using the metadata upon a determination that a failure occurred within the first datacenter, and to recreate the VM within the second datacenter.