Seamless virtual machine recall in a data storage system

摘要

The data storage system according to certain aspects can manage the archiving of virtual machines to (and restoring of virtual machines from) secondary storage. The system may archive virtual machines (VMs) that are determined to have a low level of utilization. The system may create a virtual machine placeholder for an archived VM, which may be a “light” or minimal version of the VM that acts like the actual VM. By using a VM placeholder, a VM may appear to be active and selectable by the user. When the user selects the VM, the VM placeholder can interact with the user in similar manner as the VM. Accessing the VM placeholder may trigger restore of the archived VM from secondary storage. The restore of the archived VM may be “seamless” to the user since the VM remains available while it is being restored.

主权项

1. A method of archiving and restoring virtual machines in a networked data storage system, comprising:
using one or more computing devices comprising computer hardware:
determining whether to archive a virtual machine (VM) executing on one or more client computing devices residing in a primary storage subsystem, the VM associated with a virtualization application, said determining based at least in part on usage data associated with the VM;in response to determining that the VM should be archived, instructing one or more secondary storage controller computers comprising computer hardware to copy the VM and its associated data from one or more primary storage devices residing in the primary storage subsystem to one or more secondary storage devices residing in a secondary storage subsystem;creating a VM placeholder for the VM and storing the VM placeholder on the one or more primary storage devices, the VM placeholder including information usable in restoring the VM from the one or more secondary storage devices;deleting the VM and the associated data from the one or more primary storage devices;subsequent to the deletion of the VM and the associated data, receiving an indication that the VM placeholder is accessed, wherein the VM placeholder is recognized as the VM by the virtualization application; andin response to receiving the indication that the VM placeholder is accessed, instructing the one or more secondary storage controller computers to restore at least a portion of the VM and the associated data from the one or more secondary storage devices to the one or more primary storage devices,wherein said copying of the VM and its associated data, said creating the VM placeholder, and said deleting the VM and the associated data occur during a backup of data from the primary storage subsystem to the secondary storage subsystem.