Patent ID: 8495316
Filing Date: 2013-07-23
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: requesting one or more snapshots of a virtual machine according to a recovery point objective of the virtual machine, wherein a virtual machine monitor that controls the virtual machine responds to a request for snapshot by creating an incremental virtual disk file and directing subsequent disk write operations in the virtual machine to the incremental virtual disk file and by freezing a state of a previous virtual disk file, wherein the previous virtual disk file is either a base virtual disk file or another incremental virtual disk file, and wherein subsequent disk read operations in the virtual machine obtain data from a combination of the base virtual disk file and one or more incremental virtual disk files, and wherein the base virtual disk file and incremental virtual disk files remain on a storage device used by the virtual machine during operation and are used by the virtual machine during subsequent operation; to perform a backup of the virtual disk for the virtual machine, determining that the virtual disk is represented by the base virtual disk file and the one or more incremental virtual disk files; during the backup, invoking a merge operation to merge the one or more incremental virtual disk files into the base virtual disk file responsive to the determining, wherein the merge operation is performed from the one or more incremental virtual disk files on the storage device used by the virtual machine during execution and the base virtual disk file on the storage device used by the virtual machine during execution; and completing the backup by writing a backup image comprising the merged base virtual disk file to one or more archive media that are not used by the virtual machine during operation.