SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FILE-BASED VIRTUAL MACHINE INCREMENTAL BACKUP

A source virtual machine (VM) disk file associated with a VM is parsed to generate metadata representing files stored in a virtual storage device of the VM, where the VM is one of VMs hosted by a VM monitor (VMM). In response to a request for an incremental backup of files stored in the source VM disk file, a file attribute of each of the files is examined based on the metadata to identify one or more files that have been modified within a predetermined past period of time. File records associated with the identified files are determined based on the metadata that have been modified within the predetermined past period of time. The identified file records are then backed up from the source VM disk file to a target VM disk file, without having to back up unmodified files in the source VM disk file.