Patent ID: 7725669

Claim:
A method for performing scheduled backups of data generated by one or more production applications operating on a first platform located on two or more host computers in a coherency group, the first platform operating on an operating system of each of the two or more host computers the data being stored on one or more production volumes in a primary storage that is remote from the two or more host computers, the first platform using a first protocol to create one or more clone volumes of the production volume, the operating system booting off a local hard drive of each of the two or more host computers and the first platform booting off of the one or more production volumes in the remote primary storage such that the operating system of each of the two or more host computers cannot access the first platform or the one or more production applications to perform backup operations, the method comprising: receiving a backup command from a backup server at a proxy host that is seperate from the two or more host computers in the coherency group; sending a split command to the two or more host computers in a coherency group to initiate splitting of one or more production volumes and one or more clone volumes using the first protocol, the two or more host computers being instructed to perform the split at substantially the same time, wherein the split command allows the proxy host to communicate directly with the primary storage including the one or more production volumes and the one or more clone volumes; receiving an identification of the one or more clone volumes at the proxy host; initiating the one or more clone volumes for surfacing and mounting from the proxy host; and initiating a backup of the surfaced and mounted one or more clone volumes to a backup storage from the proxy host.