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 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 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 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 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 production host includes a persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores virtual machine data and a service group list associated with an application service group. The backup manager obtains a backup generation request for the application service group that includes virtual machines, and each of the virtual machines uses a copy of the virtual machine data; in response to obtaining the backup generation request: identifies a first virtual machine the virtual machines that is prioritized for generating a backup for the application service group based on the service group list; attempts to generate the backup using the first virtual machine and the copy of the virtual machine data; and stores the backup in backup storage.

Abstract: An agent for managing backup generation for virtual machines includes a persistent storage stores backup policies and a backup manager that obtains request for generating a backup for a first virtual machine of the virtual machines and, in response to obtaining the request, generates a backup load prediction for generating the backup; performs a resource availability analysis of a host computing device hosting the first virtual machine to determine computing resources availability for generating the backup; makes a first determination, using the backup load prediction and the computing resource availability, that the host computing device has insufficient resources for generating the backup; and, in response to the first determination, performs a backup type analysis on existing backups associated with the first virtual machine to obtain at least one updated backup policy; and generates a reduced-resource cost backup for the virtual machine using at least one of the updated backup policies.

Abstract: A backup storage includes a persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores backups of entities and a global application data map. The backup manager obtains a restoration request for restoration of an application hosted by an entity of the entities; makes a determination to accelerate the restoration based, at least in part, on the application; in response to the determination: identifies a virtual disk level backup of the entity that is associated with the application using the global application data map; obtains the virtual disk level backup from the backups of the entities; and restores the application using the virtual disk level backup.

Abstract: A method for providing an application service to clients includes identifying a failure of the application service that causes the application service to be suspended; in response to identifying the failure: instantiating an instance of an application for providing the application service in a production host; identifying at least one virtual disk level backup that is: associated with the application and is a portion of deduplicated backups; extracting the at least one virtual disk level backup from deduplicated backups to obtain a copy of the at least one virtual disk level backup; identifying application data associated with the application within the copy of the at least one virtual disk level backup; transitioning an application service session for a client of the clients to the instance of the application; and resuming the application service for the client using the instance of the application and the application data.

Abstract: A backup storage includes persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores backups of entities and an entity list that lists the entities. The backup manager obtains a restoration availability request from a user; filters the entity list based on an identity of the user to obtain an available entity list; identifies, based on user input obtain based on the available entity list, an entity of the entities; and restores the entity using the backups.

Abstract: A method for managing backups that includes generating a full backup of a database and, after generating the full backup, generating N incremental backups of the database and generating a first differential backup of the database after the N incremental backups have been generated, wherein the first differential backup is generated relative to the full backup.

Abstract: A backup storage includes persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores backups of entities and an entity list that lists the entities. The backup manager obtains a restoration availability request from a user; filters the entity list based on an identity of the user to obtain an available entity list; identifies, based on user input obtain based on the available entity list, an entity of the entities; and restores the entity using the backups.

Abstract: A production host includes a persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores virtual machine data and a service group list associated with an application service group. The backup manager obtains a backup generation request for the application service group that includes virtual machines, and each of the virtual machines uses a copy of the virtual machine data; in response to obtaining the backup generation request: identifies a first virtual machine the virtual machines that is prioritized for generating a backup for the application service group based on the service group list; attempts to generate the backup using the first virtual machine and the copy of the virtual machine data; and stores the backup in backup storage.

Abstract: A method for providing an application service to clients includes identifying a failure of the application service that causes the application service to be suspended; in response to identifying the failure: instantiating an instance of an application for providing the application service in a production host; identifying at least one virtual disk level backup that is: associated with the application and is a portion of deduplicated backups; extracting the at least one virtual disk level backup from deduplicated backups to obtain a copy of the at least one virtual disk level backup; identifying application data associated with the application within the copy of the at least one virtual disk level backup; transitioning an application service session for a client of the clients to the instance of the application; and resuming the application service for the client using the instance of the application and the application data.

Abstract: A backup storage includes a persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores backups of entities and a global application data map. The backup manager obtains a restoration request for restoration of an application hosted by an entity of the entities; makes a determination to accelerate the restoration based, at least in part, on the application; in response to the determination: identifies a virtual disk level backup of the entity that is associated with the application using the global application data map; obtains the virtual disk level backup from the backups of the entities; and restores the application using the virtual disk level backup.

Abstract: A backup storage includes a persistent storage for storing backups of entities and a backup data map. The backup storage also includes a backup manager that obtains a search request for data; obtains at least two data maps associated with at least two of the entities; generates the backup data map using the at least two data maps; searches the backups for the data using the backup data map to identify a copy of the data; and provides the copy of the data in response to the search request.

Abstract: A backup storage includes a persistent storage and a backup manager. The persistent storage stores virtual machine level backups and application level backups. The backup manager obtains a request for a point in time restoration of an application; identifies, based on the application, a virtual machine level backup of the virtual machine level backups that is associated with: a virtual machine that hosted an instance of the application and a first point in time prior to a restoration point in time specified by the request for the point in time restoration; identifies, based on the application, an application level backup of the application level backups that is associated with the restoration point in time; generates a point in time backup using: the identified virtual machine level backup, and the identified application level backup; and services the request using the point in time backup.

Abstract: A method for managing backups that includes generating a full backup of a database and, after generating the full backup, generating N incremental backups of the database and generating a first differential backup of the database after the N incremental backups have been generated, wherein the first differential backup is generated relative to the full backup.