VM Failover Snapshot Linking for GEO-Redundant Data Centers

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing systems fail to differentiate between replicated virtual machine snapshots and newly managed virtual machines during failover in geo-redundant data centers, leading to duplicative processing and memory consumption.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a partitioning system that separates hosts into different management platforms to facilitate incremental snapshotting and incremental snapshots of a virtual machine failover management for geo-redundant data centers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If the system captures full snapshots of virtual machines during failover to ensure data completeness, then data reliability is improved, but processing overhead and memory consumption increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata reliabilityVSAvoidprocessing overhead

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by capturing incremental snapshots during normal operations before failover occurs. These incremental snapshots are stored and prepared in advance, so when failover happens, the system can directly use the pre-captured incremental data rather than capturing full snapshots during the critical failover moment, reducing processing overhead while maintaining data reliability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The snapshot capturing process is segmented into incremental portions rather than capturing the entire virtual machine state at once. Each incremental snapshot captures only the changes since the previous snapshot, dividing the large-scale data capture task into smaller, manageable segments that can be processed efficiently during failover

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Reliability

If the system captures full snapshots of virtual machines during failover to ensure data completeness, then data reliability is improved, but memory consumption increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata reliabilityVSAvoidmemory consumption

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by capturing incremental snapshots during normal operations before failover occurs. These incremental snapshots are stored and prepared in advance, so when failover happens, the system can directly use the pre-captured incremental data rather than capturing full snapshots during the critical failover moment, reducing processing overhead while maintaining data reliability

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The snapshot capturing process is segmented into incremental portions rather than capturing the entire virtual machine state at once. Each incremental snapshot captures only the changes since the previous snapshot, dividing the large-scale data capture task into smaller, manageable segments that can be processed efficiently during failover

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Ease of operation

If the system treats replicated virtual machines as new machines during failover, then system simplicity is maintained, but duplicative processing occurs

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvesystem simplicityVSAvoidprocessing efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements feedback mechanisms to track the provenance of virtual machines during failover. By maintaining metadata that records whether a virtual machine is a replication or a new instance, the system can make informed decisions about snapshot capturing. This feedback loop allows the system to automatically identify replicated machines and apply optimized incremental snapshotting, balancing operational simplicity with processing efficiency

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS20260064547A1Virtual machine failover management for GEO-redundant data centers

Publication Date: 2026.03.05 RUBRIK INC

AI summary

A data storage infrastructure may establish a partition that includes a first data center and a second data center that is geographically separated from the first data center. The data storage infrastructure may replicate a full snapshot and one or more incremental snapshots of a virtual machine from a first data management platform to a second data management platform, where the virtual machine is migrated from a first host of the first host group to a second host of the second host group upon a failover event occurring at the first data center. The data storage infrastructure may then capture an incremental snapshot of the virtual machine based on linking a first instance of the virtual machine that was replicated from the first data management platform and a second instance of the virtual machine that is managed by the second data management platform.