Virtual Machine Backup Disk Exclusion and Time Window Extension
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current snapshot backup systems in virtualized environments face challenges such as application-awareness protection issues, including failed backups due to timing constraints, unsupported disk types, and over-inclusion of disks, leading to potential data loss or corruption.
Innovation Solution
A data protection backup system with an in-guest data protection agent and a host-level snapshot data mover that coordinates with the copy service and virtual machine management center to manage snapshot generation, extend time windows, and exclude unnecessary disks, ensuring application-consistent backups without data loss.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the snapshot generation is completed within the prescribed time window, then the backup succeeds, but the time window is too short for certain disk types
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts the snapshot generation time window based on disk type. For unsupported disk types (e.g., RDM disks), the system extends the time window or excludes these disks from the snapshot operation, allowing flexible adaptation to different storage configurations while maintaining backup reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system identifies and extracts unsupported disk types from the snapshot operation. By detecting disk types that cannot be snapshotted (such as RDM disks) and excluding them from the backup process, the system prevents backup failures while successfully backing up supported disk types.
2Reliability
If all disks are included in the snapshot, then comprehensive backup is achieved, but unsupported disks cause backup failure
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and identifies unsupported disk types (such as RDM disks) from the set of all disks attached to the virtual machine. By separating supported and unsupported disks, the system includes only compatible disks in the snapshot operation, ensuring backup consistency without failure.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies different treatment to different disk types based on their capabilities. Supported disk types are included in the snapshot with full backup operations, while unsupported disk types are excluded or handled differently, allowing the system to adapt to local characteristics of each disk type.
3Reliability
If the copy service times out before snapshot generation is completed, then the backup is marked as failed, but this may indicate false failure
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary identification of disk types before initiating the snapshot operation. By pre-assessing which disks are supported and which are unsupported, the system avoids timeout failures caused by attempting to snapshot incompatible disks, thereby preventing false failure indications.
Data Source
AI summary
A data protection agent is installed within a virtual machine (VM). A request to perform a backup is received. The request includes identifications of virtual machine disks (VMDKs) associated with the virtual machine. Communications are exchanged with a disk manager of a guest operating system of the VM to generate a map that maps the VMDKs to volumes attached to the VM. Communications are exchanged with an application in the VM to be protected to identify which of the volumes contain application databases associated with the application. A copy service is instructed to prepare the application for backup. A request is issued to a snapshot data mover for a snapshot of the application. The snapshot request includes identifications of a subset of the VMDKs mapped to corresponding volumes that contain the application databases. VMDKs mapped to corresponding volumes not containing the application databases are excluded from the snapshot request.