Abstract: A method, system, and computer-readable storage medium for providing an adaptive tap for a virtual machine protection are disclosed. In one embodiment, an Input/Output (I/O) write is received from one of virtual machines. The virtual machines are executed on a server, and each virtual machine is configured to generate I/O writes to a VMFS file system on a primary storage. The I/O write includes data and an offset at which the data is to be stored in the VMFS file system. The server, and primary and secondary storage are coupled to a network. A virtual machine indicator is determined using the offset. A secondary write to a secondary storage is generated based on the I/O write. The secondary write includes the data and the VM indicator associated with the I/O write. The secondary storage is then accessed to write/store the secondary write.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for implementing a storage lifecycle policy based on a hierarchy of storage destinations to improve storage lifecycle management is described. In one embodiment, the method comprises specifying at least one source copy for at least one storage lifecycle operation in a storage lifecycle policy to generate a storage destination hierarchy using the at least one specified source copy and performing the at least one storage lifecycle operation using the storage destination hierarchy.