What Extent use with VM?

[jonaswm]

Oops.. sorry...
[h=2]What extension use with VM?[/h]Good afternoon .. at least in Brazil hehe
I need help...
What extension?

raw (disk image raw)?
qcow2 (qemu image format)?
vmdk (vmware image format)?

why? desvantanges and advantages of each?

thanks

 

[udo]

Oops.. sorry...
[h=2]What extension use with VM?[/h]Good afternoon .. at least in Brazil hehe
I need help...
What extension?

raw (disk image raw)?
qcow2 (qemu image format)?
vmdk (vmware image format)?

why? desvantanges and advantages of each?

thanks

Hi,
all choices have pro an cons.

I personal use raw only.

raw:
+ speed
+ no additional layer (the file is an 1:1 copy like on an hdd - you can also copy hdds with dd to an raw-file)
- no snapshots
- filesize (big as your vm-hdd)

qcow2:
+ snapshots
+ filesize (only used blocks are using space)
- additional layer

vmdk:
+ easy transfer from/to esx server
(transfer is also possible with qemu-img)



Udo

 

[jonaswm]

Hi,
all choices have pro an cons.

I personal use raw only.

raw:
+ speed
+ no additional layer (the file is an 1:1 copy like on an hdd - you can also copy hdds with dd to an raw-file)
- no snapshots
- filesize (big as your vm-hdd)

qcow2:
+ snapshots
+ filesize (only used blocks are using space)
- additional layer

vmdk:
+ easy transfer from/to esx server
(transfer is also possible with qemu-img)



Udo

Hello.

Nice!
Thank you for answering my question
All virtualization are compatible with .raw files?
I can use dd if=file.raw of=/dev/sda1, for exemple?
Someone has something else to add more information about each , or suggestions?

 

[udo]

Hello.

Nice!
Thank you for answering my question
All virtualization are compatible with .raw files?

Hi,
no - openvz work different (like chroot on steroids).

I can use dd if=file.raw of=/dev/sda1, for exemple?

yes, but mostly it's make no sense, because the raw-file ist handled inside the VM like a normal disk - so normaly you have an partitiontable on that "disk".
It's makes no sense to put an partitiontable with partitions inside an partition (sda1).
Following make more sense:

dd if=file.raw of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

Udo

 

[danitfk]

qcow2 , is more reliable than .raw. BCuz of snapshots and backup.