helpdti
asked on
Restore missing vhd-parent in a XenServer virtual machine
Hallo
My question:
Is it possible to extract a .vhd virtual disk from a .xva export created in XenServer (V5.6)?
Situation:
The original VM was stored in two .vhd files; the first (vhd-parent) is RO and is unchanged since 2010, the other is RW and contains all the changes since.
The vhd-parent has been accidentally deleted.
Since I have an .xva export of the VM from 2012, it should contain the segment that I need
By importing the .xva in a new VM, though, the content is merged in a single .vhd file and the changes can't be applied.
Thank you.
Roberto C.
My question:
Is it possible to extract a .vhd virtual disk from a .xva export created in XenServer (V5.6)?
Situation:
The original VM was stored in two .vhd files; the first (vhd-parent) is RO and is unchanged since 2010, the other is RW and contains all the changes since.
The vhd-parent has been accidentally deleted.
Since I have an .xva export of the VM from 2012, it should contain the segment that I need
By importing the .xva in a new VM, though, the content is merged in a single .vhd file and the changes can't be applied.
Thank you.
Roberto C.
ASKER
Thanks for the answer
Unfortunately the .vhd obtained as a result of the conversion can't be paired to the .vhd, that contains the changes, so I'm left with the old data.
What I don't understand is that I deleted the read-only file in October, and the VM continued to work fine until last Monday, when it was rebooted.
Is it possible that the second .vhd must exist as a requirement, but doesn't containd any important data?
Unfortunately the .vhd obtained as a result of the conversion can't be paired to the .vhd, that contains the changes, so I'm left with the old data.
What I don't understand is that I deleted the read-only file in October, and the VM continued to work fine until last Monday, when it was rebooted.
Is it possible that the second .vhd must exist as a requirement, but doesn't containd any important data?
Do you mean the RW? Well without it, you don't get personalized settings presented saved as long as the VM is up.
How are you presented with these .vhd? Is it through SAN? Then you might ask your storage admin to restore you the RO .vhd from a certain date.
How are you presented with these .vhd? Is it through SAN? Then you might ask your storage admin to restore you the RO .vhd from a certain date.
ASKER
I meant the read-only file. The VM continues to work fine without it, until rebooted.
No backup available other that the exported machine a year ago.
No backup available other that the exported machine a year ago.
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ASKER
I found the solution myself.
The expert's comments where helpful, although not conclusive
The expert's comments where helpful, although not conclusive
just as a note, since i've been tackling the ~same issue: the RW disk is a differentiating disk and this is the actual VDI used by the VM (can see this by UUID). as long as the VM is not touched (rebooted, migrated, etc) it will continue to run even without it's parent.
To get XenConvert visit this link:
http://www.citrix.com/downloads/xenserver/tools/conversion.html
For more info on how to do the conversion visit this link:
http://www.mytechrants.com/converting-citrix-xva-file-to-microsoft-hyper-v-vhd/
But how to really extract the RO part out of it is something I don't think is possible.