Abstract: A method, computer program product, computing system, and system for backing up a virtual machine using a snapshot with memory are described. The method may include receiving a selection of a virtual machine to be backed up, wherein the virtual machine reads from a source virtual disk. The method may further include creating a non-quiesced snapshot with memory of the virtual machine that captures a state of the virtual machine. The method may also include creating a linked clone of the virtual machine and reverting the linked clone back to the state of the virtual machine using the non-quiesced snapshot with memory. Additionally, the method may include gracefully shutting down the linked clone of the virtual machine such that the linked clone is in a consistent state. Moreover, the method may include reading data from one or more virtual disks associated with the linked clone and saving the data.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, computing system, and system for recovering a virtual machine while running the virtual machine from a backup archive are described. The method may include emulating the virtual machine in preparation for finalizing the recovery of the virtual machine. The method may include creating a snapshot of the emulated virtual machine to redirect changes to the emulated virtual machine to a second delta file in the production datastore. The method may include cloning an original base virtual disk, including the first delta file, to the production datastore to create a cloned base virtual disk. The method may include patching a virtual disk file descriptor of the second delta file of the emulated virtual machine. The patching operation may include replacing links to the original base virtual disk of the emulated virtual machine, including the first delta file, with links to the cloned base virtual disk.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, computing system, and system for snapshotless backup are described. The method may include receiving, via a backup agent, an indication of a virtual machine to be backed up in a backup archive file. The backup agent may run outside of the virtual machine. The virtual machine may be hosted by a virtualization host device. The method may further include identifying, via the backup agent, a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine indicated to be backed up. The method may also include tracking, via a virtualization host agent running on the virtualization host device outside the virtual machine, changes to the virtual disk associated with the virtual machine on a sector level basis. The method may additionally include reading the virtual disk and transmitting sectors from the virtual disk to the backup archive file on a first pass.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, and computing system for hot recovery of virtual machines are described. The method may include initiating a recovery process to transfer data, from a backup archive of a virtual machine to be restored, to a virtual disk at the virtual machine host computer. The method may further include booting the virtual machine to be restored. The method may also include intercepting a read request from the virtual machine to the virtual disk at the virtual machine host computer. The method may additionally include determining if the read request from the virtual machine requested data from the virtual disk which has not yet been restored from the backup archive to the virtual disk by the recovery process. Moreover, the method may include, in response to determining that the requested data has not been restored from the backup archive to the virtual disk, returning the requested data.