DYNAMICALLY CONFIGURING A PROXY SERVER USING CONTAINERIZATION FOR CONCURRENT AND/OR OVERLAPPING BACKUP, RESTORE, AND/OR TEST OPERATIONS

An illustrative data storage management system relies on a specially configured proxy server to operate software containers on a proxy server, maintain resources needed by the software containers, and interwork with other system components. Illustratively, a catalog service on the proxy server maintains a software cache according to maintenance rules and also maintains an associated cache catalog. The software containers are generally managed and operated by an illustrative container manager also hosted by the proxy server. The illustrative software cache comprises contents needed by the software containers, such as pre-configured container templates, DBMS software components, lightervisors representing target operating systems, and storage management software for performing test and storage operations. The maintenance rules govern when cache contents should be purged and moved into offline archive copies.