Abstract: Technology is disclosed for backing up data to and recovering data from a destination storage system that stores data in a format different form that of a primary storage system (“the technology”). A replication stream having the data of multiple files, metadata of the files, and reference maps including a mapping of the corresponding file to a portion of the data of the corresponding file is generated at the primary storage system. The replication stream is sent to a parser to map or convert the data, the files, and the reference maps to multiple storage objects in a format the destination storage system is configured to store. Various types of storage objects are generated, including a first type of the storage objects having the data, a second type of storage objects storing the reference maps, and a third type of the storage objects storing metadata of the files.

Abstract: One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for non-disruptively addressing misalignment between a virtual data format and an underlying data format. Virtual data, such as a guest operating system of a virtual machine, may be stored within a virtual structure, such as a virtual machine disk, according to a virtual data format. The virtual structure may be stored within a storage device according to a storage data format. If misalignment is detected, then a new data container may be created within the storage device. A shim, sized according to a misalignment offset, may be inserted into the new data container in order to align the new data container with the storage device. Virtual data may be migrated from the virtual structure to the new data container to achieve alignment. During the migration, the virtual data may remain available from the virtual structure (e.g., a virtual machine may still execute).