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diff --git a/docs/system/images.rst b/docs/system/images.rst new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..ff26bf9587 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/system/images.rst @@ -0,0 +1,85 @@ +.. _disk_005fimages: + +Disk Images +----------- + +QEMU supports many disk image formats, including growable disk images +(their size increase as non empty sectors are written), compressed and +encrypted disk images. + +.. _disk_005fimages_005fquickstart: + +Quick start for disk image creation +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +You can create a disk image with the command:: + + qemu-img create myimage.img mysize + +where myimage.img is the disk image filename and mysize is its size in +kilobytes. You can add an ``M`` suffix to give the size in megabytes and +a ``G`` suffix for gigabytes. + +See the qemu-img invocation documentation for more information. + +.. _disk_005fimages_005fsnapshot_005fmode: + +Snapshot mode +~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +If you use the option ``-snapshot``, all disk images are considered as +read only. When sectors in written, they are written in a temporary file +created in ``/tmp``. You can however force the write back to the raw +disk images by using the ``commit`` monitor command (or C-a s in the +serial console). + +.. _vm_005fsnapshots: + +VM snapshots +~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +VM snapshots are snapshots of the complete virtual machine including CPU +state, RAM, device state and the content of all the writable disks. In +order to use VM snapshots, you must have at least one non removable and +writable block device using the ``qcow2`` disk image format. Normally +this device is the first virtual hard drive. + +Use the monitor command ``savevm`` to create a new VM snapshot or +replace an existing one. A human readable name can be assigned to each +snapshot in addition to its numerical ID. + +Use ``loadvm`` to restore a VM snapshot and ``delvm`` to remove a VM +snapshot. ``info snapshots`` lists the available snapshots with their +associated information:: + + (qemu) info snapshots + Snapshot devices: hda + Snapshot list (from hda): + ID TAG VM SIZE DATE VM CLOCK + 1 start 41M 2006-08-06 12:38:02 00:00:14.954 + 2 40M 2006-08-06 12:43:29 00:00:18.633 + 3 msys 40M 2006-08-06 12:44:04 00:00:23.514 + +A VM snapshot is made of a VM state info (its size is shown in +``info snapshots``) and a snapshot of every writable disk image. The VM +state info is stored in the first ``qcow2`` non removable and writable +block device. The disk image snapshots are stored in every disk image. +The size of a snapshot in a disk image is difficult to evaluate and is +not shown by ``info snapshots`` because the associated disk sectors are +shared among all the snapshots to save disk space (otherwise each +snapshot would need a full copy of all the disk images). + +When using the (unrelated) ``-snapshot`` option +(:ref:`disk_005fimages_005fsnapshot_005fmode`), +you can always make VM snapshots, but they are deleted as soon as you +exit QEMU. + +VM snapshots currently have the following known limitations: + +- They cannot cope with removable devices if they are removed or + inserted after a snapshot is done. + +- A few device drivers still have incomplete snapshot support so their + state is not saved or restored properly (in particular USB). + +.. include:: qemu-block-drivers.rst.inc |