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  1. RHEL
  2. RHEL-7528

RFE: libvirt - improve support for external snapshots (merge, delete, virsh, etc)

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      .External snapshots for virtual machines

      This update introduces the external snapshot mechanism for virtual machines (VMs), which replaces the previously deprecated internal snapshot mechanism. As a result, you can create, delete, and revert to VM snapshots that are fully supported. External snapshots work more reliably both in the command-line interface and in the RHEL web console. This also applies to snapshots of running VMs, known as live snapshots. 

      Note, however, that some commands and utilities might still create internal snapshots. To verify that your snapshot is fully supported, ensure that it is configured as `external`. For example:

      ----
      # virsh snapshot-dumpxml VM-name snapshot-name | grep external
      <disk name='vda' snapshot='external' type='file'>
      ----
      Show
      .External snapshots for virtual machines This update introduces the external snapshot mechanism for virtual machines (VMs), which replaces the previously deprecated internal snapshot mechanism. As a result, you can create, delete, and revert to VM snapshots that are fully supported. External snapshots work more reliably both in the command-line interface and in the RHEL web console. This also applies to snapshots of running VMs, known as live snapshots.  Note, however, that some commands and utilities might still create internal snapshots. To verify that your snapshot is fully supported, ensure that it is configured as `external`. For example: ---- # virsh snapshot-dumpxml VM-name snapshot-name | grep external <disk name='vda' snapshot='external' type='file'> ----
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    • 9.9.0
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      +++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #1402581 +++

      Description of problem:
      For historical reasons, 'virsh snapshot-create' defaults to internal snapshots, because external snapshots were not implemented for several years. However, these days the qemu team recommends the use of external snapshots, and upper levels like RHEV prefer external snapshots. It would be nice if there were a way to set up configuration defaults for virsh, so that typing 'virsh snapshot-create' could consult the configuration file on whether to default to internal or external, instead of forcing the user to remember to pass extra flags to get an external snapshot.

      Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
      libvirt-2.5.0-1.el7

      How reproducible:
      100%

      Steps to Reproduce:
      1.
      2.
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      Actual results:

      Expected results:

      Additional info:

      — Additional comment from Laszlo Ersek on 2017-02-24 20:50:15 BRT —

      When designing this feature for virsh (and virt-manager), please don't forget about the UEFI varstore files (under /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram), which are technically raw drives, but have very different storage properties from normal drives. They don't live in storage pools, they are not on shared storage, and also not subject to storage migration. QEMU automatically writes them out fully on the target host after migration finishes.

      I'm unsure how this interacts with external snapshots, but I figure I'd better raise it. Thanks.

            phrdina@redhat.com Pavel Hrdina
            areis@redhat.com Ademar Reis (Inactive)
            Nannan Li
            Meina Li Meina Li
            Jiří Herrmann Jiří Herrmann
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