Efficient backup of virtual data

摘要

A method, article of manufacture, and apparatus for protecting data. In some embodiments, this includes taking a snapshot of a virtual machine, parsing the virtual machine to determine a header section and a file system, indexing the virtual machine based on the parsing, storing the index in a storage device, and storing the snapshot in a deduplicated data storage device.

主权项

1. A method for protecting data, the method comprising:
taking a snapshot of a virtual machine; determining, based at least in part on a changed block list, that at least a portion of the virtual machine has changed since a previous snapshot of the virtual machine; identifying a header section and a file system associated with the virtual machine; determining a range of blocks comprising a Master File Table (“MFT”) associated with the file system of the virtual machine; determining, based at least in part on the changed block list and the range of blocks comprising the MFT, at least one common range between the changed block list and the range of blocks comprising the MFT, wherein the at least one common range comprises one or more portions of the MFT that have changed since the previous snapshot; parsing the at least one common range comprising the one or more portions of the MFT that have changed since the previous snapshot; identifying, based at least in part on the parsed portions of the MFT, files in the file system that have changed since the previous snapshot; updating an index of files in the virtual machine including by storing a list comprising the changed files to the index, wherein the index comprises one or more file records; storing the snapshot in a deduplicated data storage device; determining a file to recover; isolating the file in the snapshot of the virtual machine including by locating a record of the file in the updated index; and reconstructing the file from the snapshot stored in the deduplicated data storage device.