Abstract: A target host is booted into a preinstallation environment. A request to register as a recovery agent is issued from a REST API of the target host to a backup management server. A TLS certificate to establish a secure channel is received from the backup management server. A request identifying a backup copy to be stored on the target host is issued from the REST API of the target host and over the secure channel to the backup management server. Credentials required to access a backup storage at which the backup copy is stored is received. Using the credentials, the backup copy is retrieved from the backup storage.

Abstract: A data protection agent is installed as a guest within a virtual machine (VM) hosted by a host and a snapshot data mover is installed external to the VM on the host. Upon receiving a command to conduct a backup, a first request is issued to a copy service of the VM indicating that an application in the VM is to be backed up. A second request for a snapshot is issued to the snapshot data mover. The snapshot data mover passes the snapshot request to a virtual machine manager. Upon the snapshot data mover receiving an identifier for the snapshot, the snapshot data mover passes the snapshot identifier to the agent thereby allowing the agent to locate the snapshot and conduct the backup.

Abstract: Techniques described herein relate to a method for performing data protection services for limited access cloud data. The method includes identifying, by a cloud service provider (CSP) proxy, a backup generation event associated with a virtual machine (VM); in response to identifying the backup generation event: obtaining VM information associated with the VM; instantiating a VM agent within the VM; obtaining a metadata file from the VM agent; obtaining VM data from limited access cloud data; storing the VM data and a copy of the metadata file in a backup storage to generate a backup of the VM; generating indexing metadata associated with the backup using the metadata file; and providing the indexing metadata to a data manager.

Abstract: Techniques described herein relate to a method for performing data protection services for limited access cloud data. The method includes identifying, by a data manager, a protection policy assignment event; in response to identifying the protection policy assignment event: identifying subscriptions associated with cloud resources; identifying services associated with each subscriptions; assigning protection policy types to the subscriptions based on the associated services; and initiating performance of data protection services based on the protection policy assignments associated with each subscription.

Abstract: Techniques described herein relate to a method for performing data protection services for limited access cloud data. The method includes identifying, by a cloud service provider (CSP) proxy, a protection policy event associated with an incremental approximation backup of an object; in response to identifying the protection policy event: obtaining previous object metadata associated with the object; obtaining object data from on-premises cloud resources associated with the object; generating slices of the object data; generating current checksums and current object metadata associated with each slice; selecting a first slice of the slices; making a first determination that a first current checksum of the current checksums and a first previous checksum associated with the first slice do not match; in response to the first determination: storing the first slice in a backup storage; and updating a first portion of the current object metadata associated with the first slice.

Abstract: Techniques described herein relate to a method for performing data protection services for limited access cloud data. The method includes obtaining, by a data manager, an initial cloud service provider (CSP) proxy generation request from a user; in response to obtaining the initial (CSP) proxy generation request: creating an authentication account in a CSP directory based on the initial CSP proxy generation request; instantiating a CSP proxy in an on-premises CSP using authentication information associated with the authentication account; storing the authentication information; and associating the user with the authentication information and the CSP proxy, wherein after the associating the CSP proxy can access limited access cloud data and cloud resources of the on-premises CSP.

Abstract: A first request is issued to a copy service of a virtual machine (VM) to indicate that an application running in the VM is to be backed up. The request triggers a first time window within which the application is frozen and a second time window, inside the first time window, within which a file system of the VM is frozen. A second request is issued to a snapshot data mover for a snapshot of the application. Prior to expiration of the second time window and without having received an indication that snapshot generation was successful, the copy service is notified that generation of the snapshot has been successful. A call, responsive to the notification, is received from the copy service indicating that a cleanup operation on the snapshot can proceed. Returning the call from the copy service is delayed thereby providing additional time for generating the snapshot.

Abstract: 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.

Abstract: A data protection agent is installed within a virtual machine (VM). A request to freeze an application in the VM is issued to a copy service. A request for a snapshot is issued to a snapshot data mover, external to the VM. Upon receiving an identifier for the snapshot, communications are exchanged with the copy service to thaw the application, the snapshot identifier is passed to the agent thereby allowing the agent to access the snapshot and rollover data from the snapshot to secondary storage for the backup, and notification to the copy service about a success of the backup is withheld. During the rollover, listening begins for status updates concerning a progress of the rollover. Based on the status updates, the copy service is notified that the backup failed or succeeded.

Abstract: A command is received by a data protection agent to conduct an application-consistent backup of an application. The agent and application are installed as guests in a virtual machine (VM) provided by a hypervisor of a host. The VM is connected to a virtual machine guest network. The hypervisor is connected to an infrastructure network, separate from the virtual machine guest network. A socket communication channel is established between the agent and a snapshot data mover running on the host and outside the VM. A request for a snapshot is issued over the socket communication channel to the snapshot data mover. The snapshot request is passed to a virtual machine manager connected to the infrastructure network.

Abstract: An in-guest agent receives a command to conduct a backup of a virtual machine (VM) having a copy service. A discovery is initiated of disk types attached to the VM. Based on the discovery, at least first and second disks are identified. The first disk is identified as a virtual machine disk (VMDK) and the second disk is identified as a raw device mapping (RDM) disk. After the identification, a request is issued to the copy service to prepare the applications for a snapshot operation. A first request for a snapshot of the VMDK disk is issued over a socket communication channel. A second request for a snapshot of the RDM disk is issued over a TCP network to a controller of a storage array responsible for presenting the second disk to the VM. Responses to the first and second requests are managed to conduct the backup.

Abstract: A data protection agent is installed as a guest within a virtual machine (VM) hosted by a host and a snapshot data mover is installed external to the VM on the host. Upon receiving a command to conduct a backup, a first request is issued to a copy service of the VM indicating that an application in the VM is to be backed up. A second request for a snapshot is issued to the snapshot data mover. The snapshot data mover passes the snapshot request to a virtual machine manager. Upon the snapshot data mover receiving an identifier for the snapshot, the snapshot data mover passes the snapshot identifier to the agent thereby allowing the agent to locate the snapshot and conduct the backup.

Abstract: Network configuration details associated with a host are collected with each bare metal recovery (BMR) backup of the host. The network configuration details are stored in backup storage with each BMR backup copy. A target host is booted into a preinstallation environment. The target host is configured into a DHCP mode to allow the target host to establish a network connection to a backup management server. Details about the host are received from a user. A listing of BMR backup copies corresponding to the host details are retrieved from the backup management server. A selection of a BMR backup copy to be restored onto the target host is received. Network configuration details corresponding to the selected BMR backup copy are downloaded from backup storage. A recovery wizard at the target host is populated with the network configuration details.

Abstract: A command is received by a data protection agent to conduct a file system-consistent backup of a virtual machine (VM) having a copy service. A first request is issued to the copy service indicating that all files of the VM are to be backed up and that archive attributes of all the files should remain unchanged. A second request is issued to a snapshot data mover for a snapshot of the VM. The snapshot request is passed to a virtual machine manager. Upon the snapshot data mover receiving an identifier identifying the snapshot from the virtual machine manager, the snapshot identifier is passed to the data protection agent, thereby allowing the agent to locate the snapshot and conduct the backup.

Abstract: A method and system for stream optimized backups to a cloud object store. When considering data protection, many prominent applications engage in backup operations by streaming their respective data to the cloud; however, the stream(s) is/are often ill-optimized (e.g., non-uniform data rates, non-uniform block sizes, different backup types, non-uniform data types or formats, etc.) to be written into cloud storage. The disclosed method and system, accordingly, propose a dynamic framework through which any arbitrary backup stream may be optimized according to the profile of any specific cloud-based object data store.

Abstract: Network configuration details associated with a host are collected with each bare metal recovery (BMR) backup of the host. The network configuration details are stored in backup storage with each BMR backup copy. A target host is booted into a preinstallation environment. The target host is configured into a DHCP mode to allow the target host to establish a network connection to a backup management server. Details about the host are received from a user. A listing of BMR backup copies corresponding to the host details are retrieved from the backup management server. A selection of a BMR backup copy to be restored onto the target host is received. Network configuration details corresponding to the selected BMR backup copy are downloaded from backup storage. A recovery wizard at the target host is populated with the network configuration details.

Abstract: A data structure is generated to store information about a set of writers associated with a copy service. The information is gathered from the copy service and populated into the data structure. The information includes names of the writers, writer types as being system or application writers, and system writer subtypes as being one of bare metal recovery (BMR) writers or system state recovery (SSR) writers. The data structure is reviewed to determine whether a particular writer should participate in the backup. Based on the review, a list is generated including a subset of the participating writers. Instructions are issued, via the copy service, for the writers in the list to prepare for creation of a snapshot. Upon creation of the snapshot, data is backed up from the snapshot to secondary storage.

Abstract: A registry writer is instructed via a copy service on a host to prepare for generation of a snapshot. The registry writer is responsible for saving system hive files to disk before the snapshot is generated. A reporting of the system hive files is received from the registry writer. Communications are exchanged with an API exposed by an operating system of the host to identify user hive files. The system hive files reported by the registry writer and the user hive files identified using the API exposed by the operating system are backed up from the snapshot to secondary storage.

Abstract: Writers participating in a backup are identified. A mapping is generated between the writers and associated files. The mapping includes file properties. The mapping is initialized by tagging the writers with a full backup tag. A base backup copy of the writers is created by conducting a full backup of each writer tagged with the full backup tag. At a current backup operation after creating the base backup, a list of current files that will participate in the current backup operation is generated. The list of current files is compared against the files in the mapping to determine whether a particular writer associated with a current file should be tagged with the full backup tag or an incremental backup tag. The particular writer is tagged with the incremental backup tag when file properties associated with the current file have changed.

Abstract: Writers on a host and associated with a copy service are identified. The identification includes names of the writers and writer types as being system or application writers. For each writer identified as a system writer, a size of the system writer is calculated and a check is made as to whether a volume associated with the system writer includes system data. When the volume include system data, the volume is marked as a critical volume and a size of the critical volume is obtained. A tally is maintained summing the sizes of the system writer and critical volume.