Patent attributes
Embodiments are directed to a large-scale data backup system and method. A backup process accesses a defined policy defining how the virtual machines are to be grouped into a plurality of groups, and groups the plurality of virtual machines into the plurality of groups according to the defined policy with each group containing a number of virtual machines that can be backed up in a single backup operation without causing a system error. It then takes a snapshot backup of each group of the plurality of groups in a respective data rollover operation, and saves the snapshot backup of each group to a storage media. The policy may be a user-defined policy or a dynamic system-defined policy, and may be based on characteristics such as total number of virtual machines, system characteristics, and backup system constraints.
