Comments on: Cloning VM’s with VirtualBox, LVM and Snapshots! http://www.parkingdenied.com/2009/05/15/cloning-vm%e2%80%99s-with-virtualbox-lvm/ Redline is just a suggestion Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:46:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Ross http://www.parkingdenied.com/2009/05/15/cloning-vm%e2%80%99s-with-virtualbox-lvm/comment-page-1/#comment-510 Ross Mon, 14 Jun 2010 12:46:58 +0000 http://www.parkingdenied.com/?p=205#comment-510 No this is completely independent. It would be nice if it did but then it would be less cross platform :( No this is completely independent. It would be nice if it did but then it would be less cross platform :(

]]> By: Chris http://www.parkingdenied.com/2009/05/15/cloning-vm%e2%80%99s-with-virtualbox-lvm/comment-page-1/#comment-509 Chris Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:00:31 +0000 http://www.parkingdenied.com/?p=205#comment-509 Interesting article. Does VirtualBox support VM snapshots when using an LVM storage backend? i.e. if you click the snapshot button in the GUI will it actually work and generate an LVM snapshot along with the memory snapshot? Interesting article. Does VirtualBox support VM snapshots when using an LVM storage backend? i.e. if you click the snapshot button in the GUI will it actually work and generate an LVM snapshot along with the memory snapshot?

]]> By: Ross http://www.parkingdenied.com/2009/05/15/cloning-vm%e2%80%99s-with-virtualbox-lvm/comment-page-1/#comment-188 Ross Sat, 23 Jan 2010 10:58:40 +0000 http://www.parkingdenied.com/?p=205#comment-188 Whilst it is a fast way of getting VM's up and running it does rely on you keeping an eye on things so that your VM doesn't grow past the maximum space allocated for changes. So for short term testing its fine. For more long term fun I've been testing lessFS which does data de-duplication. So using the standard VirtualBox interface and VDI files and letting the filesystem do dedupe to save on space. Whilst not "quite" the same speed for building new VM's its a little nicer for long term VM storage. And the dedupe massively saves on disk if your VM's are similar operating systems. Whilst it is a fast way of getting VM’s up and running it does rely on you keeping an eye on things so that your VM doesn’t grow past the maximum space allocated for changes. So for short term testing its fine.

For more long term fun I’ve been testing lessFS which does data de-duplication. So using the standard VirtualBox interface and VDI files and letting the filesystem do dedupe to save on space. Whilst not “quite” the same speed for building new VM’s its a little nicer for long term VM storage. And the dedupe massively saves on disk if your VM’s are similar operating systems.

]]> By: Alexandre Dumont http://www.parkingdenied.com/2009/05/15/cloning-vm%e2%80%99s-with-virtualbox-lvm/comment-page-1/#comment-153 Alexandre Dumont Tue, 19 May 2009 13:36:20 +0000 http://www.parkingdenied.com/?p=205#comment-153 I've just read this post, and although I have tryed it yet, I find it a really nice way of cloning VBox machines. No doubt it's also the fastest way of doing it. I'm also using VBox at home, on 2 boxes, one geing Vista, the other Opensolaris 2008.11 (hence why I choose VBox over VMware, for interoperability between those OSes). In none of them I'll be able to do LVM snapshots, for obvious reason (no LVM support under Vista yet, neither in Opensolaris), but I think the same idea may probably be working with ZFS volumes and snapshots. I'll try when time allows me to... Thanks for sharing the idea! I’ve just read this post, and although I have tryed it yet, I find it a really nice way of cloning VBox machines. No doubt it’s also the fastest way of doing it.

I’m also using VBox at home, on 2 boxes, one geing Vista, the other Opensolaris 2008.11 (hence why I choose VBox over VMware, for interoperability between those OSes). In none of them I’ll be able to do LVM snapshots, for obvious reason (no LVM support under Vista yet, neither in Opensolaris), but I think the same idea may probably be working with ZFS volumes and snapshots.
I’ll try when time allows me to…

Thanks for sharing the idea!

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