Spinning .vhd up in XenCenter
Hi experts,
I am going to explain my setup in short then will ask the question regarding to the backup process.
I have 2 physical servers grouped in the same pool under XenCenter.
I am using Xenserver as my platform to host VMs. When I installed Xenserver, I selected thin provisioning (instead of using LVM, I want to use the ext). After I installed xenserver I was able to spin up VMs. When I use the xe commands to locate my VMs, can see the associated .vhd files associated with each VM. I can simply copy the .vhd file from a local drive of phyiscal server (server 1) and import that .vhd file via XenCenter and spin it up in another physical server (server 2).
I wish to know if I have like 5 copies of snapshots with one of my VM on physical server (server 1) and I can see each snapshot is associated with a corresponding .vhd file. I tried to spin those .vhd files in physical server (server 2) but I got an error message: the selected file is not a valid virtual disk file. I am wondering if I can actually spin it up from the .vhd of snapshots?
I was able to spin one up without the snapshots but with the snapshots I assume that I can select the proper .vhd of the snapshot that I want and the system will be able to spin that up automatically. I am wondering if there is a different method to spin snapshot or it is impossible to spin up the snapshot? Thanks
I am going to explain my setup in short then will ask the question regarding to the backup process.
I have 2 physical servers grouped in the same pool under XenCenter.
I am using Xenserver as my platform to host VMs. When I installed Xenserver, I selected thin provisioning (instead of using LVM, I want to use the ext). After I installed xenserver I was able to spin up VMs. When I use the xe commands to locate my VMs, can see the associated .vhd files associated with each VM. I can simply copy the .vhd file from a local drive of phyiscal server (server 1) and import that .vhd file via XenCenter and spin it up in another physical server (server 2).
I wish to know if I have like 5 copies of snapshots with one of my VM on physical server (server 1) and I can see each snapshot is associated with a corresponding .vhd file. I tried to spin those .vhd files in physical server (server 2) but I got an error message: the selected file is not a valid virtual disk file. I am wondering if I can actually spin it up from the .vhd of snapshots?
I was able to spin one up without the snapshots but with the snapshots I assume that I can select the proper .vhd of the snapshot that I want and the system will be able to spin that up automatically. I am wondering if there is a different method to spin snapshot or it is impossible to spin up the snapshot? Thanks
ASKER
Hi Dirk,
Is it possible to copy the snapshot without using the "Export role" or "save template" but rather just to compress all those .vhd files into a single file again?
Is it possible to copy the snapshot without using the "Export role" or "save template" but rather just to compress all those .vhd files into a single file again?
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
Thanks Dirk!
to use a snapshot for a new VM i go to the snapshot within xencenter and select "Export to fole" or "save as template".