vzdump optimization idea?

[dswartz]

One thing that annoys me about backing up VM disk images, is that the size is based on how big the image is. This isn't just a proxmox annoyance - ESXi does it too. It would be nice if vzdump could use something like clonezilla to copy the filesystems within the disk. Obviously not clonezilla itself, since that is a "distro", but it uses things like partclone and such to copy partitions to images...

 

[tom]

I do not believe that this is possible as vzdump uses LVM snapshots.

 

[dswartz]

Yeah, for a running VM, true. If it isn't you could...

 

[tom]

as far as I remember clonezilla shutdown/deactivates all LVM volumes, how should this work on Proxmox VE?

 

[dswartz]

Ah, I see the confusion. Sorry, I wasn't clear. Clonezilla is a booting distro, so I didn't mean to use it. What I meant was: use the tools it uses (for example, partclone, which is documented at partclone.org)

 

[dietmar]

Oh, partclone looks interesting - thanks for that hint.