RAW format ?

XZed

Member
Sep 20, 2009
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0
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Hello,

i'm testing right now PVE 1.4 and noticed the new raw format....

But can't find in any documentation some article about this format (and why it's purposed by default instead of the qcow2 format)...

Thank you very much,

Sincerely,
 
'raw' is raw - there is no format - thats why there is no documentation.

raw is considered faster, and less error prone because there is no additional translation.
 
Oh ok, thank you very much !

Indeed it seems nice (sorry to compare raw format to lossless mp3 formats :D) but just one question :

- Does it function as qcow2 related to disk usage : it only uses space when virtual disk grows ?

- Is it so compressible ?


By the way, sorry to bother you but can i find somewhere documentation about new version PVE 1.4 ?

(how does work "shared" function in storage creations, etc. Indeed, what i need to do :

Restore backup clones from a shared folder to a virtual disk.

It works from a shared lan folder but how could i do this with a shared folder on proxmox ?)

Sincerely,
 
Oh ok, thank you very much !

Indeed it seems nice (sorry to compare raw format to lossless mp3 formats :D) but just one question :

- Does it function as qcow2 related to disk usage : it only uses space when virtual disk grows ?

we use a sparse file.

- Is it so compressible ?

yes.

By the way, sorry to bother you but can i find somewhere documentation about new version PVE 1.4 ?

http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Main_Page

and also take a look at the manual pages of individual command.

(how does work "shared" function in storage creations,

This is just a flag to indicate that the sorage is shared (available on all cluster members).

Indeed, what i need to do :

Restore backup clones from a shared folder to a virtual disk.

It works from a shared lan folder but how could i do this with a shared folder on proxmox ?)

What exactly is the problem?
 
Thank you very much for all these answers :p !

I'm pleased to learn about sparse files : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparse_file !

For my last need, let me explain more :

I need to migrate physical servers to virtual ones.

I found a tutorial ( http://www.montanalinux.org/physical-to-virtual.html ) but didn't like the various vm conversions....

So i found a successfull way :

I backup a physical server with Acronis.

Then, i boot to Acronis on KVM VM, and restore this Acronis backup to the virtual hard drive of my KVM VM.

But, to restore, i need to access this file...

On a classic cloning operation we could imagine :

PC ---> CLONE TO FILE ON USB DISK

+

RESTORE FROM FILE ON USB DISK ---> PC

As i didn't find the way (is it even possible ?) to attach an external USB drive to a KVM VM, i restore the backup file from a LAN shared folder (Acronis recognizes the virtual ethernet card).

Indeed, in this situation, Acronis is "closed" in the VM environment..

Hope i explained it better than previously :p !

Thank you very much !

P.S. : do i have well understood the -beautiful- functioning of sparse files : is it as "always compacted" (as "occulting" empty spaces) ?

P.S. 2 : does it also mean that qcow2 functions like this :

growing as the space used is growing in the virtual disk but never "recompacts itself" ?

(I'm thinking about lotus .nsf files, oe .dbx files, etc...)

Let imagine this qcow2 file :

- My OS setup took 1 Go : qcow2 = 1 Go

- I added 500 Mo files : qcow2 = 1.5 Go

- I deleted 200 Mo files : qcow2 = still 1.5 Go ?

(and if right, this means that, at step 3, RAW will itself reduce to 1.3 Go ?)
 
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As i didn't find the way (is it even possible ?) to attach an external USB drive to a KVM VM,

Only manually, see 'usbdev' option in 'man qm'

P.S. : do i have well understood the -beautiful- functioning of sparse files : is it as "always compacted" (as "occulting" empty spaces) ?

no, i guess you missunderstood that. Once a region is written the space is allocated.

P.S. 2 : does it also mean that qcow2 functions like this :

growing as the space used is growing in the virtual disk but never "recompacts itself" ?

yes, same behaviour as with sparse files.

(I'm thinking about lotus .nsf files, oe .dbx files, etc...)

Let imagine this qcow2 file :

- My OS setup took 1 Go : qcow2 = 1 Go

- I added 500 Mo files : qcow2 = 1.5 Go

- I deleted 200 Mo files : qcow2 = still 1.5 Go ?

yes,

(and if right, this means that, at step 3, RAW will itself reduce to 1.3 Go ?)

NO
 
Thank you very much dietmar !

Indeed, i think i had misunderstood it first time.

With your additional explanations, i understood it right now :p !

Thank you !

Sincerely,

XZed
 
Include the Acronis image (using UltraISO, etc) into the Acronis Recoveror ISO and use the resulting ISO to boot and restore into the KVM.

Sorry for late answer :/

Hey,what a good idea :p !!!

Unfortunately, acronis images are mainly big (much more than cd/dvd iso :p), so i don't think i can did it :(

....But wait... i'm thinking about using UNetbootin to put Acronis ISO on external usb drive and then use this same usb drive to stock acronis images !

Am i right :D ?
 
Just a feedback : how does it behave with raid controllers ? are these ones well detected by CloneZilla ?

Thank you,

Sincerely,

I just use a clonezilla live cd today to move a raid10 (4 x 250 GB) to a new raid10 (4 x 1 GB) disk, all connected to an adaptec 3805 raid controller. no issues (disk to disk copy of a full running Proxmox VE).
 
use qemu-img (see 'man qemu-img')

Command like: qemu-img convert -f qcow2 mydisk.qcow2 -O raw mydisk.raw

Then is possible to expand file dynamically and via web console?

Is there a speedup passing to raw?

Thank you for your reply.
 
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Command like: qemu-img convert -f qcow2 mydisk.qcow2 -O raw mydisk.raw

Then is possible to expand file dynamically and via web console?

Is there a speedup passing to raw?

Thank you for your reply.

depends, but basically yes as you eliminate one virtualization task.
 
Thank you all for your notes/advices :p !

What i reminded : use RAW and CloneZilla :D !

Thank you all !

Sincerely,
 

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