Patent ID: 9348702
Filing Date: 2016-05-24
CPC Classification: G06F,H04L

Claim Text:
1. A computer-implemented method to back up virtual machines, the method comprising: receiving a request at a first storage system for an incremental backup of a virtual machine (VM) from a backup application server over a network, the request including a VM identifier identifying the VM to be backed up from the first storage system to a second storage system, wherein the VM is hosted by a first host system communicatively coupled to the first storage system over a storage network, wherein the backup application server is a separate server configured to manage backups of a plurality of storage systems, including the first storage system and the second storage system; in response to the request, identifying by backup logic of the first storage system a first VM disk image file from a persistent storage device of the first storage system based on the VM identifier, wherein the first VM disk image file represents a first snapshot of the VM that was captured by the first host system; determining, by a disk change tracker of the first storage system, a difference between the first VM disk image file and a second VM disk image file representing a second snapshot of the VM, wherein the second VM disk image file has been previously backed up from the first storage system to the second storage system; and transmitting, by the backup logic of the first storage system, the difference between the first and second VM disk image files to the second storage system operating as a target backup storage system directly without going through the backup application server.