[one-users] Backing up virtual machines.

[Tao Craig]

Hi,

I have a question about backing up and restoring virtual machines.

I am using OpenNebula 4.8 and the SSH transfer drivers as a means to deploy virtual machines. My images are not persistent and I am using the qcow2 image format. All of my virtual machines and physical hosts are running CentOS 6.5 and using ext3 file systems.

Is it possible in my current environment to back up a virtual machine without shutting it down?

I know I can snapshot a virtual machine, but what if that machine is suddenly deleted for some reason (i.e. physical host crashes and has to be rebuilt). I'm under the impression snapshots are only usable as long as the original virtual machine is still running.

I know I can also use the onevm saveas command, but that only works if you plan on shutting the virtual machine down at some point.

Ideally, I would like to do something like copy the (running) disk image to offline storage and then have the ability to swap that out with a new running virtual machine to restore the back up in case the original virtual machine is lost. Rebooting in the case of restoring is acceptable of course, but I can't shut my machines down every time I want to back them up.

Is something like this possible?

Thanks.



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