Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for selectively restoring file-level data from a disk image backup. In embodiments, a virtual machine backup may be performed by dividing a virtual machine virtual disk file into a plurality of discrete fixed-sized data blocks sharing a common index file that is stored on a backup medium, such as a hard drive, to form a backup set. The index file is referenced to determine which fixed-sized block contains volume information, such as a partition table, of the backed-up virtual machine file. The individual blocks are processed as a virtual filesystem which is mounted and presented to an access module, which traverses the filesystem and provide access to individual files in the image backup to a client process. The restore files may be delivered to the client in a container file, which may be compressed to increase transfer speed. The container file may include executable instructions for automatically restoring the files to a desired location.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for selectively restoring file-level data from a disk image backup. In embodiments, a virtual machine backup may be performed by dividing a virtual machine virtual disk file into a plurality of discrete fixed-sized data blocks sharing a common index file that is stored on a backup medium, such as a hard drive, to form a backup set. The index file is referenced to determine which fixed-sized block contains volume information, such as a partition table, of the backed-up virtual machine file. The individual blocks are processed as a virtual filesystem which is mounted and presented to an access module, which traverses the filesystem and provide access to individual files in the image backup to a client process. The restore files may be delivered to the client in a container file, which may be compressed to increase transfer speed. The container file may include executable instructions for automatically restoring the files to a desired location.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for selectively restoring file-level data from a disk image backup. In embodiments, a virtual machine backup may be performed by dividing a virtual machine virtual disk file into a plurality of discrete fixed-sized data blocks sharing a common index file that is stored on a backup medium, such as a hard drive, to form a backup set. Upon restoration of data from the backup set, individual blocks of the data set are compared to corresponding blocks of the target virtual machine fide. Redundant data and unchanged blocks are skipped, and only those block which have changed are restored to the target file. In this manner network bandwidth and processor resources are conserved, and replication times decreased.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for selectively restoring file-level data from a disk image backup. In embodiments, a virtual machine backup may be performed by dividing a virtual machine virtual disk file into a plurality of discrete fixed-sized data blocks sharing a common index file that is stored on a backup medium, such as a hard drive, to form a backup set. Upon restoration of data from the backup set, individual blocks of the data set are compared to corresponding blocks of the target virtual machine file. Redundant data and unchanged blocks are skipped, and only those block which have changed are restored to the target file. In this manner network bandwidth and processor resources are conserved, and replication times decreased.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for selectively restoring file-level data from a disk image backup. In embodiments, a virtual machine backup may be performed by dividing a virtual machine virtual disk file into a plurality of discrete fixed-sized data blocks sharing a common index file that is stored on a backup medium, such as a hard drive, to form a backup set. Upon restoration of data from the backup set, individual blocks of the data set are compared to corresponding blocks of the target virtual machine file. Redundant data and unchanged blocks are skipped, and only those block which have changed are restored to the target file. In this manner network bandwidth and processor resources are conserved, and replication times decreased.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for selectively restoring file-level data from a disk image backup. In embodiments, a virtual machine backup may be performed by dividing a virtual machine virtual disk file into a plurality of discrete fixed-sized data blocks sharing a common index file that is stored on a backup medium, such as a hard drive, to form a backup set. The index file is referenced to determine which fixed-sized block contains volume information, such as a partition table, of the backed-up virtual machine file. The individual blocks are processed as a virtual filesystem which is presented to an access module, which traverses the filesystem and provide access to individual files in the image backup to a client process, the restore files may be delivered to the client in a container file, which may be compressed to increase transfer speed. The container file may include executable instructions for automatically restoring the files to a desired location.

Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for efficiently backing up a virtual machine file. A virtual machine file is logically divided into a plurality of fixed-size blocks of similar size, for example, a number of 1 MB data blocks. An MD5 hash value is generated from the contents of each block. Each block is written to a file having a filename that includes a filesystem-compliant form (e.g., hexadecimal form) of the computed MD5 hash value. A backup device includes a directory hierarchy having a plurality of first-level directories corresponding to the first two bytes of the hash value, and a plurality of second-level directories corresponding to the next two bytes of the hash value. The blocks are uniquely stored in the directory corresponding to the byte value pairs of the hash. The present disclosure provides data integrity checking and reduces storage requirements for duplicative, redundant, or null data.

Abstract: A system and method for creating computer system backups, particularly well-suited for performing backups of virtual machines. The method starts by reading the current state of the machine, in blocks of a constant size, and creates a “FULL” index of block numbers and a hash value associated with the data within that block, while at the same time creating a FULL backup of the machine (the FULL backup then stored at an off-site target location). Once the FULL index map is defined, subsequent DELTA backups are created by reading the current state of the device in the same block fashion and generating updated hash values for each data block. The newly-generated hash values are compared against the values stored in the FULL index map. If the hash numbers for a particular block do not match, this is an indication that the data within that block has changed since the last FULL backup was created.