Abstract: A system may include multiple computing nodes, each including a hypervisor, a controller virtual machine and multiple virtual machines. The hypervisor may include a host agent configured to start a service and determine whether a performance of the service has met a criteria. If the performance of the service has met the criteria, the hypervisor may further determine whether the service has any pending critical operations, and if no critical operations are pending, stop the service. In some examples, each service may create a process configured to monitor the performance of the service. Examples of the performance of the service may include memory utilization and the service response time.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is a method including receiving, by a controller virtual machine (CVM) and from a hypervisor, a request to clone a virtual machine (VM) state. The VM state includes a parent state and a snapshot. The method further includes cloning, by the CVM, the parent state and the snapshot to generate a cloned parent state and a cloned snapshot, respectively, and sending, by the CVM and to the hypervisor, data indicating successful cloning of the parent state and the snapshot.

Abstract: Techniques for virtual proxy based backup of virtual machines in a cluster environment are disclosed. In some embodiments, each of a subset of virtual machines hosted by physical nodes in a cluster environment is configured as a virtual proxy dedicated to backup operations. During backup, data rollover of each virtual machine in the cluster environment that is subjected to backup is performed using a virtual proxy.

Abstract: Techniques to protect against data loss are disclosed. In various embodiments, an amount of data that has changed since a last backup of at least a defined subset of a save set is determined. The determined amount of changed data is compared to a corresponding threshold. A backup is performed based at least part on a determination that the determined amount of changed data equals or exceeds the threshold.

Abstract: A cluster includes cluster shared volumes and nodes. A subset of the nodes are designated as being backup proxy nodes responsible for backing up the cluster shared volumes. The cluster shared volumes are divided into groups, each group having a number of cluster shared volumes that is less than a total number of cluster shared volumes in the cluster. Generation is initiated for a particular snapshot for a number of cluster shared volumes belonging to a particular group. The backup proxy nodes backup data from the particular cluster shared volumes belong to the particular group using the particular snapshot. After the backup, the steps initiating snapshot generation and backing up are repeated until each group of cluster shared volumes has been backed up.

Abstract: An illustrative embodiment disclosed herein is a method including receiving, by a controller virtual machine (CVM) and from a hypervisor, a request to clone a virtual machine (VM) state. The VM state includes a parent state and a snapshot. The method further includes cloning, by the CVM, the parent state and the snapshot to generate a cloned parent state and a cloned snapshot, respectively, and sending, by the CVM and to the hypervisor, data indicating successful cloning of the parent state and the snapshot.

Abstract: Techniques to protect against data loss are disclosed. In various embodiments, an amount of data that has changed since a last backup of at least a defined subset of a save set is determined. The determined amount of changed data is compared to a corresponding threshold. A backup is performed based at least part on a determination that the determined amount of changed data equals or exceeds the threshold.

Abstract: Examples described herein may provide cluster check services which may determine whether at least one infrastructure dependent virtual machine (e.g., at least one domain controller and/or at least one DNS server) is located outside of a cluster. In this manner, the storage utilized by at least one of the infrastructure dependent virtual machines may not be part of the cluster itself, which may reduce and/or avoid failure and/or downtime caused by unavailability of the service(s) provided by the infrastructure dependent virtual machine.

Abstract: Techniques to protect against data loss are disclosed. In various embodiments, an amount of data that has changed since a last backup of at least a defined subset of a save set is determined. The determined amount of changed data is compared to a corresponding threshold. A backup is performed based at least part on a determination that the determined amount of changed data equals or exceeds the threshold.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to a method of backing up virtual machines coupled to a backup server in a large-scale data storage system, by installing a single instance of a backup management program on the backup server; pushing, by the backup management program, a backup agent to each virtual machine; detecting, through the backup agent, all applications running on a respective virtual machine; taking a snapshot of each application after freezing the applications and prior to thawing the applications, by the backup agent; and saving the snapshot of the each applications on a storage medium. The pushing step comprises creating a shared folder and exposing the shared folder to all the virtual machines for remote invocation by the backup program.

Abstract: A method is provided for backing up and restoring a web applications platform. The method includes backing up web applications platform databases to a backup system. A search index of the web application platform is backed up. An application programming interface (API) is queried to discover internet information services (IIS) virtual directories associated with the web applications platform. Discovered IIS virtual directories associated with the web applications platform are backed up to the backup system. IIS configuration data, IIS metabase data and registry data for the web applications platform are then backed up to the backup system. A similar process enables the restoration of this data to allow for disaster recovery for the web applications platform.

Abstract: A system may include multiple computing nodes, each including a hypervisor, a controller virtual machine and multiple virtual machines. The hypervisor may include a host agent configured to start a service and determine whether a performance of the service has met a criteria. If the performance of the service has met the criteria, the hypervisor may further determine whether the service has any pending critical operations, and if no critical operations are pending, stop the service. In some examples, each service may create a process configured to monitor the performance of the service. Examples of the performance of the service may include memory utilization and the service response time.

Abstract: A virtual machine backup process where a plurality of types of snapshots of the virtual machine coexist includes: obtaining a list of files comprising virtual hard disks and differencing virtual hard disks associated with the virtual machine; sorting the list of files to identify relationships and to generate a current tree in which differencing virtual hard disks point to corresponding parent virtual hard disks; comparing the current tree with a previous tree associated with the virtual machine from the last backup of the virtual machine; identifying differencing virtual hard disks in the current tree that are not present in the previous tree as incremental backup data; and backing up the incremental data. The incremental data is merged with a previous synthetic full backup of the virtual machine to generate a new synthetic full backup of the virtual machine.

Abstract: In one embodiment, a sender process on a node of a node cluster communicates a live object to a receiver process. The sender process determines a shared binary file and a shared file location. The sender process serializes the live object to be communicated to a receiver process, into a binary data stream and writes the binary data stream into the predetermined shared binary file. The receiver process receives a shared binary filename and the shared location associated with the shared binary file. The receiver process de-serializes the binary data stream and reconstructs the live object. The communication is independent of the type of proxy, i.e., virtual or physical, and operating systems of the proxies, such as Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. The live objects may be VM configurations and VHD information metadata.

Abstract: A distributed systems backup configuration wizard is described. A computer executes a wizard. The wizard receives an identifier of a distributed setup for backup configuration via a user interface. The wizard identifies each system which comprises the distributed setup. The wizard retrieves information associated with each system for configuring backup of the distributed setup. The wizard outputs configuration options based on retrieved information via the user interface. The wizard configures backup of the distributed setup based on the retrieved information and user selected configuration options received via the user interface.

Abstract: Examples described herein may provide cluster check services which may determine whether at least one infrastructure dependent virtual machine (e.g., at least one domain controller and/or at least one DNS server) is located outside of a cluster. In this manner, the storage utilized by at least one of the infrastructure dependent virtual machines may not be part of the cluster itself, which may reduce and/or avoid failure and/or downtime caused by unavailability of the service(s) provided by the infrastructure dependent virtual machine.

Abstract: Embodiments are directed to a large-scale data backup system and method. A backup process accesses a defined policy defining how the virtual machines are to be grouped into a plurality of groups, and groups the plurality of virtual machines into the plurality of groups according to the defined policy with each group containing a number of virtual machines that can be backed up in a single backup operation without causing a system error. It then takes a snapshot backup of each group of the plurality of groups in a respective data rollover operation, and saves the snapshot backup of each group to a storage media. The policy may be a user-defined policy or a dynamic system-defined policy, and may be based on characteristics such as total number of virtual machines, system characteristics, and backup system constraints.

Abstract: A system identifies availability group database replicas and a single instance database scheduled for backup. The system configures backup storage based on an identifier of a cluster of nodes associated with the availability group database replicas. The system backs up the availability group database replicas based on their corresponding preferred nodes and the single instance database from a node in the cluster of nodes based on the identifier of the cluster of nodes. The system outputs information associated with the single instance database and a database replica in any availability group that is backed up based on the identifier of the cluster of nodes in response to a user request for the information. The system restores a user-selected single instance database and/or a user-selected database replica to a user-selected node in the cluster of nodes based on a user selecting at least some of the information.

Abstract: In one embodiment, for each of the nodes forming a cluster that share a cluster shared volume (CSV), a remote connection is established with an operating system (OS) management interface of an operating system of the node to query and to obtain OS configuration information concerning a VMM hosting one or more virtual machine (VMs) within the node. A remote connection is established with a VMM interface of the VMM of the node to query and to obtain VM information concerning each of the VMs hosted by the VMM in the node. An analysis is performed on the OS configuration information and the VM information in view of a set of management rules. A report is generated based on the analysis, the report including information indicating which of the management rules has been violated.

Abstract: A backup of an application stored in a container on a backup media server is accessed. The container is formatted as a virtual hard disk and in a read-only mode. A differencing virtual hard disk is created at a recovery server. The differencing disk is pointed to the container. A size of the differencing disk is increased. The differencing disk is mounted onto the recovery server. Writes are allowed to be made to the differencing disk mounted at the recovery server while the virtual hard disk formatted container remains in the read-only mode on the backup media server.