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: 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 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: 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 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: 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: 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 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 of performing data recovery of a first virtual machine (VM) hosted on a first hypervisor to a second hypervisor that is different from the first hypervisor is provided. The method identifies information indicating format of a first virtual disk in a backup of the first VM, and creates a second virtual disk using the information indicating format of the first virtual disk. The method also accesses information indicating configuration of the first VM and metadata of the first virtual disk, and creates a second VM hosted on the second hypervisor using the information indicating configuration of the first VM and the metadata of the first virtual disk. The method further attaches the second virtual disk to the second VM.

Abstract: A method of performing data recovery of a first virtual machine (VM) hosted on a first hypervisor to a second hypervisor that is different from the first hypervisor is provided. The method identifies information indicating format of a first virtual disk in a backup of the first VM, and creates a second virtual disk using the information indicating format of the first virtual disk. The method also accesses information indicating configuration of the first VM and metadata of the first virtual disk, and creates a second VM hosted on the second hypervisor using the information indicating configuration of the first VM and the metadata of the first virtual disk. The method further attaches the second virtual disk to the second VM.

Abstract: A remote backup agent that provides data storage services to virtual machines includes a persistent storage and a processor. The persistent storage stores workflows for the virtual machines. The processor performs a first remote backup of the virtual machines based on the workflows using production agents hosted by production hosts that also host the virtual machines; obtains a workflow update; updates the workflows based on the workflow update to obtain updated workflows; and performs a second remote backup of the virtual machines based on the updated workflows using the production hosts without modifying the production agents.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a system in response to a request to back up a virtual machine (VM) to a backup storage system, retrieves history data from the backup storage system. The history data has been previously backed up in the backup storage system during a previous backup operation of the VM. The history data includes a change tracking identifier (ID) associated with a consistent state of a VM disk attached to the VM at the point-in-time of the previous backup operation. The system validates the history data against a current configuration of the VM. The current configuration includes information of one or more current consistent states of the VM disk. The system determines a backup type for each of the current consistent states based on the validated history data. The system backs up each of the current consistent states based on the backup type.

Abstract: A remote backup agent that provides data storage services to virtual machines includes a persistent storage and a processor. The persistent storage stores workflows for the virtual machines. The processor performs a first remote backup of the virtual machines based on the workflows using production agents hosted by production hosts that also host the virtual machines; obtains a workflow update; updates the workflows based on the workflow update to obtain updated workflows; and performs a second remote backup of the virtual machines based on the updated workflows using the production hosts without modifying the production agents.

Abstract: According to one embodiment, a system in response to a request to back up a virtual machine (VM) to a backup storage system, retrieves history data from the backup storage system. The history data has been previously backed up in the backup storage system during a previous backup operation of the VM. The history data includes a change tracking identifier (ID) associated with a consistent state of a VM disk attached to the VM at the point-in-time of the previous backup operation. The system validates the history data against a current configuration of the VM. The current configuration includes information of one or more current consistent states of the VM disk. The system determines a backup type for each of the current consistent states based on the validated history data. The system backs up each of the current consistent states based on the backup type.