[Cialug] VMs & Replication

[Paul Gray]

On 03/16/2011 02:03 PM, L. V. Lammert wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Mar 2011, Paul Gray wrote:
>
>> Never do snapshots with VirtualBox as a type of backup - the disks
>> aggregate and next thing you know you have 5 or more disk images that
>> all need to be kept around to maintain the current image.  Trying to
>> merge snapshots can take more than a day, too...
>>
> I was told that the new version allows snapshots to be consolidated, .. ??
>

Sure - but consolidation can take upwards of a day or more to 
perform...from my experience, it's a very inode-intense procedure that 
runs through all snapshots and can push the limits of your LVM capacity. 
  During this time the virtual image must remain powered off, so it's 
not something that can be done "on demand."

Do a simple test and see how it works for you.

For me, it was a disaster when I started a VirtualBox consolidation on 
Friday with a system that had 4 snapshots.  I simply wanted to 
consolidate the most recent snapshot, but the process didn't finish by 
Monday morning.  There's not a gracious way to interrupt the procedure 
either.  In my haste to get the virtual instance up and running by start 
of business, the state of the consolidation was unusable to a point 
where I restored from the most recent backup.

-- 
Paul Gray                                         -o)
314 East Gym, Dept. of Computer Science           /\\
University of Northern Iowa                      _\_V
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