US 12,373,313 B2
Virtual machine backup from computing environment to storage environment
Abhishek Naidu, San Jose, CA (US); Jose Mathew, Santa Clara, CA (US); Ling Zheng, Saratoga, CA (US); and Ravindra Kuramkote, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to NetApp, Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed by NetApp Inc., San Jose, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 14, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/540,196.
Application 18/540,196 is a continuation of application No. 16/856,367, filed on Apr. 23, 2020, granted, now 11,853,104.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/867,504, filed on Jun. 27, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2024/0134759 A1, Apr. 25, 2024
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 9/455 (2018.01); G06F 3/06 (2006.01); G06F 11/14 (2006.01)
CPC G06F 11/1469 (2013.01) [G06F 3/0619 (2013.01); G06F 3/065 (2013.01); G06F 3/0664 (2013.01); G06F 3/0673 (2013.01); G06F 9/45558 (2013.01); G06F 11/1451 (2013.01); G06F 11/1458 (2013.01); G06F 11/1464 (2013.01); G06F 11/1484 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45562 (2013.01); G06F 2009/45575 (2013.01); G06F 2201/80 (2013.01); G06F 2201/815 (2013.01); G06F 2201/84 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
generating, by a first agent, a first snapshot of a virtual machine of a computing environment and metadata associated with the first snapshot in a first format used by the computing environment, the metadata comprising a snapshot identifier identifying the first snapshot and virtual storage layout used by the virtual machine to store information captured by the first snapshot;
temporarily storing the first snapshot and the metadata in the computing environment;
transforming, by the first agent, a metadata image received from the computing environment, into a metafile for storage in a storage environment, a second agent transferring the metafile to the storage environment, wherein the metafile is interpretable and usable by an agent or service hosted by the storage environment and the computing environment serializes the metadata into the metadata image;
generating, by the first agent, a snapshot package by converting the first snapshot from the first format to a storage format, the storage format utilized by the storage environment for storing the first snapshot; and
transferring the snapshot package to the storage environment, upon transfer of the metafile.