Abstract: Communications are exchanged with a copy service of a host to identify writers associated with the copy service. The identification includes a type of a writer as being a system or application writer. Writers identified as system writers are added to a list of writers that should participate in a backup operation. For writers identified as application writers, components of an application writer are iterated through to determine whether a component of the application writer has a name or logical path that includes a name of a system service. When any component has the name or logical path that includes the name of the system service, the application writer is promoted to be of type system writer by adding the application writer to the list of writers that should participate in the backup operation. Components of each writer listed in the list of writers are backed up.

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: A system enables selection of application hosts which meet update requirements, then downloads an update for instances of an application agent corresponding to selected application hosts. The system puts selected application hosts in maintenance mode, which prevents selected application hosts from beginning execution of any operations, until updating selected application hosts is completed. The system creates backup copy of configuration files used to configure instances of application agent. The system initiates update sessions which install update in instances of application agent corresponding to selected application hosts. If update sessions failed to install update in any of instances of application agent in cluster of application hosts, then system restores configuration files which were used to configure instances of application agents.

Abstract: System enables selection of application hosts which meet update requirements, then downloads update for instances of application agent corresponding to selected application hosts. System puts selected application hosts in maintenance mode, which prevents selected application hosts from beginning execution of any operations, until updating selected application hosts is completed. System creates copy of instructions, which when executed, installs update in instance of application agent in one of application hosts, and reports on update process to server which communicates with application hosts. System launches worker process from copy of instructions. System initiates update sessions which install update in instances of application agent corresponding to selected application hosts.

Abstract: Agent lifecycle management for backup and restore applications is described. A system enables selection of application hosts, each of which meets installation requirements for installing instances of application agents from a backup and restore application, then downloads, in parallel, the instances of the application agent to the corresponding selected application hosts. The system installs, in parallel, the instances of the application agent in the corresponding selected application hosts, then registers, in parallel, the instances of the application agent with the backup and restore application. The system subsequently initiates sessions which download and install, in parallel, an update in instances of the application agent in in corresponding application hosts. The system unregisters at least one of the instances of the application agent, in at least one application host, from the backup and restore application.

Abstract: System selects application hosts which meet update requirements, then downloads update for instances of application agent corresponding to selected application hosts. System puts selected application hosts in maintenance mode, which prevents selected application hosts from beginning execution of any operations, until updating selected application hosts is completed. System creates backup copy of state of instances of application agent. System generates installation instructions that, when executed by update sessions to install update, enable roll back from updated instances of application agent to state of instances of application agent recorded in backup copy. System initiates update sessions which install update in instances of application agent corresponding to selected application hosts.

Abstract: Updating application hosts in a cluster are described. A system enables a selection of an application host which meet update requirements, and then determines whether the selected application host is in a cluster of application hosts. If the selected application host is in a cluster, then the system determines whether each application host in the cluster is selected for updating. If each application host in the cluster is not selected for updating, then the system enables the selection of all application hosts in the cluster for updating. If each application host in the cluster is selected for updating, then the system initiates update sessions which install updates in components of the cluster. If at least some of the application hosts in the cluster are not updated, then the system rolls back all updated application hosts in the cluster to previous conditions of the updated application hosts.

Abstract: Automatically updating agents from backup and restore applications is described. A system enables selection of application hosts which meet update requirements, then downloads an update for instances of an application agent corresponding to selected application hosts. The system puts selected application hosts in maintenance mode, which prevents selected application hosts from beginning execution of any operations, until updating selected application hosts is completed. The system initiates update sessions which install update in instances of application agent corresponding to selected application hosts. If update sessions did not fail to install update in any of instances of application agent in cluster of application hosts, then the system stores the updated instances of the application agents in a non-volatile storage.

Abstract: Selecting, authenticating, and installing individual components of agent software stacks is described. A system enables a selection of a component of an application agent software stack from a backup and restore application, from displayed components of multiple application agent software stacks. The system downloads the selected component of the application agent software stack from the backup and restore application. The system downloads a digital certificate from a vendor of the backup and restore application or the backup and restore application. The system uses a public key from the downloaded digital certificate to authenticate the selected component of the application agent software stack. The system installs an instance of the authenticated component of the application agent software stack in an application host, which executes the instance of the authenticated component to create a backup copy of data generated by an application executed by the application host.

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: 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.

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: 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: 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 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: Described is a system (and method) for specialized data management when performing incremental backups to a cloud-based object storage. When backing up client data, the server may utilize incremental backups to conserve the amount of storage space required on the object storage. However, the server may implement a configuration that enables full reconstruction of the client data at the time of recovery. To provide such capabilities, the server may leverage a specialized metadata database. The metadata database may be an embedded database maintained by the server. The server may leverage the metadata database to provide further storage efficiencies by storing certain incremental backup data exclusively within the metadata database. Accordingly, the server may implement a data management configuration as part of a backup service that conserves storage usage, and as a result, storage costs when using on a third-party cloud-based object storage.

Abstract: Described is a system for managing backup data stored on a cloud-based object storage irrespective of the storage provider. The system may include a server (or gateway) that provides a backup service, and acts as an intermediary between a client device and object storage. To provide such capabilities, the system may manage an application programming interface (API) that provides a uniform set of methods to a client device irrespective of the destination object storage provider. A function library may include provider-specific functions that invoke corresponding storage-layer operations provided by the destination object storage. The server may also manage an operation pool to schedule operations and saturate bandwidth to the object storage. The server may also implement a specialized metadata database to provide further storage efficiencies by storing certain backup data exclusively within the metadata database.

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.