Patent ID: 9436555
Filing Date: 2016-09-06
CPC Classification: G06F

Claim Text:
1. A method for executing a backed up virtual machine on a host computing device without restoring an entire backup copy of the virtual machine, based on pre-staging certain backed up data blocks to a media agent component of a storage management system, the method comprising: prior to execution of the virtual machine, receiving, by the media agent from a data agent component of the storage management system, a profile of the virtual machine, wherein the media agent resides on a secondary storage computing device; determining, by the media agent, based on the profile of the virtual machine, a first set of data blocks to be copied from a backup copy of data associated with the virtual machine, wherein the backup copy is stored on a secondary storage device in communication with the media agent, and wherein the backup copy comprises at least one of a configuration file and a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine; copying the first set of data blocks, by the media agent from the backup copy to a read-cache associated with the media agent on the secondary storage computing device; and launching execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device, based on the first set of data blocks, which set of blocks is served by the media agent from the read-cache without restoring the entire backup copy of the virtual machine; wherein continuing execution of the virtual machine on the host computing device is based on the media agent serving further read requests without restoring the entire backup copy of the virtual machine; and wherein the profile of the virtual machine comprises at least one indication of a file associated with the virtual machine, which file is selected by a user via a file manager application, and wherein the backup copy also comprises a representation of the file selected by the user.