Virtual Disk Backup Image Excluding Invalid Sectors
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current backup solutions for virtual machines require unnecessary resource allocation and storage of unused or invalid data, leading to increased costs in terms of time, data transmission bandwidth, and storage space.
Innovation Solution
An optimized backup image is generated by excluding invalid sectors of the virtual disk, which involves creating a snapshot of the virtual machine, quiescing the volumes, and identifying and excluding unallocated sectors through an extent list and sector imaging process, thereby reducing the data to be backed up to only valid sectors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all storage allocated to a container file is backed up, then complete data protection is achieved, but storage space and time are wasted on unused or invalid sectors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and identifies valid data sectors from the virtual disk by analyzing the file system structure and locating actual file data. Only these identified valid sectors are included in the backup image, while invalid or unused sectors are excluded. This extraction approach maintains complete data protection for all actual files while eliminating waste from backing up empty or deleted sectors.
2Reliability
If all storage allocated to a container file is backed up, then complete data protection is achieved, but storage space is wasted on unused or invalid sectors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and identifies valid data sectors from the virtual disk by analyzing the file system structure and locating actual file data. Only these identified valid sectors are included in the backup image, while invalid or unused sectors are excluded. This extraction approach maintains complete data protection for all actual files while eliminating waste from backing up empty or deleted sectors.
3Reliability
If all storage allocated to a container file is backed up, then complete data protection is achieved, but data transmission bandwidth is wasted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and identifies valid data sectors from the virtual disk by analyzing the file system structure and locating actual file data. Only these identified valid sectors are included in the backup image, while invalid or unused sectors are excluded. This extraction approach maintains complete data protection for all actual files while eliminating waste from backing up empty or deleted sectors.
4Productivity
If an optimized backup image excluding invalid sectors is generated, then resource efficiency is improved, but backup system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a file system analysis intermediary layer that sits between the virtual disk and the backup process. This intermediary analyzes the file system structure, identifies valid data sectors, and generates a map of which sectors contain actual data. This intermediary approach automates the complexity of identifying valid sectors, making the optimized backup process manageable while maintaining high efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The backup system performs self-analysis of the virtual disk's file system structure to automatically identify valid data sectors without requiring manual intervention or external tools. The system uses its own resources to analyze and map the data layout, enabling autonomous optimization of the backup process while reducing overall system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
An optimized backup image of a virtual machine is generated. The virtual machine is associated with a virtual disk. The virtual disk includes one or more virtual volumes. Generating the optimized backup image includes excluding one or more invalid sectors of the virtual disk from the optimized backup image.