Thank you very much for all these answers
!
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
!
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 ?)