Note: "permalinks" may not be as permanent as we would like,
direct links of old sources may well be a few messages off.
Felix Frank wrote: > >> > > > > lv_home_snapshot is a snapshot form a normal LV which has a > filesystem. > > My question is: I like to install vm's using KVM into plain > lv's which have no filesystem. > > How can i backup a partition which has no filesystem > without using dd > > ? DD is slow and copies _every_ sector of a 50GB lv, > although just e.g. 20GB are occupied. > > Do it using kpartx. I thought that much was obvious from my > previous response. Please read it up. > > No, it's not supposed to work with single partitions. It > works with partitioned drives/images. That's what you need. > You need no tool that helps you with a single partition > containing a filesystem. You want nodes for the partitions > contained in a block device (your LV snapshot) that > represents a partitioned disk. > > Test it with the kind of block device you actually need to > interact with, not some random LV you've got lying around. > I think i get it. Procedure: Create a plain lv for my VM. Create the VM with KVM into this plain lv, install the guest OS, during installation create one or more partitions. VM is running. Create a snapshot from the lv in which the vm resides, let's call it vm_snapshot. Frank, your idea is that the lv (and also the snapshot) contains one or more partitions, depending on the guest OS setup. For these partitions, i create nodes in /dev using kpartx -a /dev/vgxxx/vm_snapshot. These nodes can now be mounted. Now my backup software in the host (Legato Networker client) is able to save the partitions of my guest, right ? Is that your idea ? Two questions: 1. Are you sure that kpartx is able to read the raw data written by KVM into the lv's, that it is able to recognize the partitions ? 2. What is if my guest OS contains lv's, not only physical partitions ? Bernd