View source for Live-disk-backup-with-active-blockcommit

= Efficient live disk backup with active blockcommit =

Purpose: Perform efficient live disk backups using "active blockcommit". 

"Active blockcommit" is a two phase operation: (1) once an external snapshot (which results in a qcow2 overlay that tracks the new writes from then on) is taken, the content from the overlay can be copied into its backing file (e.g. 'base'); then (2) pivot live QEMU to 'base'. All of this while the guest is running.

This is possible with versions: QEMU 2.1 (and above), libvirt-1.2.9 (and above).

== Procedure ==

Start with a single disk image, with any format:

<pre>[base] (live QEMU)</pre>
List the current block device in use:

<pre>$ virsh domblklist vm1
Target     Source
------------------------------------------------
vda        /export/images/base.img </pre>
Create an external disk snapshot:

<pre>$ virsh snapshot-create-as --domain vm1 guest-state1 \
    --diskspec vda,file=/export/images/overlay1.qcow2 \
    --disk-only --atomic </pre>
Now, the disk image chain is:

<pre>[base.img] &lt;-- [overlay1.qcow2] (live QEMU)</pre>
'''NOTE-1''': Above, if you have QEMU guest agent installed in your virtual machine, try '--quiesce' option with <code>virsh snapshot-create-as[. . .]</code> to ensure you have a consistent disk state.

'''NOTE-2''': Optionally, you can also supply '--no-metadata' option to tell libvirt to not track the snapshot metadata -- this is useful currently, as otherwise at a later point when you decide to merge snapshot files, you have to explicitly clean the libvirt metadata (by invoking: <code>virsh snapshot-delete vm1 --metadata [name|--current]</code> -- repeat this as needed.)

Take a backup of the original disk in background using your favourite tool:

<pre>$ cp /export/images/base.img /export/images/copy.img

[or]

$ rsync -avhW --progress /export/images/base.img \
        /export/images/copy.img</pre>
List the current block device in use, again. It can be noticed, 'overlay1.qcow2' is the current disk in use:

<pre>$ virsh domblklist vm1
Target     Source
------------------------------------------------
vda        /export/images/overlay1.qcow2</pre>

Now that the backup is finished, perform active blockcommit by live merging contents of 'overlay1.qcow2' into 'base.img':

<pre>$ virsh blockcommit vm1 vda --active --verbose --pivot</pre>
List the current block device in use, again. It can be noticed, once the blockcommit operation is completed, the live QEMU is ''pivoted'' to the base image:

<pre>$ virsh domblklist vm1
Target     Source
------------------------------------------------
vda        /export/images/base.img</pre>
The final resulting disk image chain (a single consolidated disk image):

<pre>[base.img] (live QEMU)</pre>