Virtual Disk Image Application Data Cataloging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Backup and restore systems for virtual machines consume significant computing resources, leading to interference with primary applications and inefficiencies in data restoration, especially when dealing with large datasets.
Innovation Solution
The system catalogs application data within a virtual machine, generates a logical view of this data, and associates it with a backup of the virtual disk image, allowing for efficient restoration of specific application data without requiring full virtual machine restoration.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a separate backup of files within the virtual machine disk image is created to improve restoration flexibility, then application data can be restored independently, but additional computing resources are consumed during backup
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the backup process by creating a catalog that identifies and indexes specific application data files within the virtual machine disk image. This allows the backup system to treat the entire disk image as one unit for storage purposes, while enabling granular restoration of individual application files through the catalog structure, thus achieving restoration flexibility without requiring separate physical backups of each file.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a catalog as an intermediary data structure that sits between the virtual machine disk image and the restoration process. The catalog contains metadata about application data locations, file structures, and logical views, allowing the system to efficiently locate and restore specific application files without physically separating them from the disk image backup, thereby avoiding additional resource consumption.
2Reliability
If the entire virtual machine disk image is restored to recover application data, then complete data integrity is maintained, but significant time and resources are consumed
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the necessary application data from the virtual machine disk image during restoration by using the catalog to identify specific files and their locations. The restoration process retrieves only the required application files rather than the entire disk image, maintaining data integrity for the needed applications while dramatically reducing restoration time and resource consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial restoration by allowing users to restore only the specific application data needed rather than the complete virtual machine disk image. The catalog enables selective restoration of individual application files or subsets of data, performing just enough restoration action required to meet the user's needs while avoiding the excessive time and resources of full disk image restoration.
3Ease of operation
If redundant separate backups of application files are created, then restoration can be performed independently, but additional storage space and computing resources are consumed upfront
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the single virtual machine disk image backup serve multiple purposes: it acts as both the complete system backup and the source for individual application file restoration. The catalog structure enables the same backup image to support both full virtual machine restoration and selective application data restoration, eliminating the need for separate redundant backup files and optimizing storage space utilization.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method for restoring application data may include (1) identifying a virtual disk image used by a virtual machine to represent a volume of data within the virtual machine used for storage by an application within the virtual machine, (2) identifying a request to back up the virtual disk image, and, in response to the request, (3) identifying, within the volume of data, at least one file including application data used by the application, (4) generating application metadata and a catalog associating a logical view of the application data with the file, the logical view being based on application logic of the application, (5) backing up the virtual disk image, and (6) associating the catalog with the backed up virtual disk image. Various other methods and systems are also disclosed.