KVM : how to take snapshots

Here’s an example of how to take snapshots.

# libvirtd --version libvirtd (libvirt) 0.9.8 # qemu-system-x86_64 --version QEMU emulator version 1.0 (qemu-kvm-1.0), Copyright (c) 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard # uname -ri 3.2.0-31-generic x86_64 # tail -1 /etc/lsb-release DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS"

take snapshots of the VM called ubuntu12-04-vm1.

# virsh list --all | grep 10 10 ubuntu12-04-vm1      running

# time virsh snapshot-create ubuntu12-04-vm1

[ while taking snapshots ]

The VM will be suspended while taking the snapshots.

# virsh list --all | grep 10 10 ubuntu12-04-vm1      paused

check the status

# virsh snapshot-list ubuntu12-04-vm1 Name                 Creation Time             State ------------------------------------------------------------ 1349063425           2012-09-29 12:50:25 +0900 running

[ after finishing taking the snapshots ]

In my environment, it took about 13 minutes to take the snapshots.

# time virsh snapshot-create ubuntu12-04-vm1 Domain snapshot 1349063425 created real    13m32.901s user    0m0.052s sys     0m0.016s

# virsh list --all | grep ubuntu12-04-vm1 10 ubuntu12-04-vm1      running

# virsh snapshot-list ubuntu12-04-vm1 Name                 Creation Time             State ------------------------------------------------------------ 1349063425           2012-09-29 12:50:25 +0900 running

[ revert the snapshots ]

# virsh list --all | grep ubuntu12-04-vm1 11 ubuntu12-04-vm1      running # virsh snapshot-list ubuntu12-04-vm1 Name                 Creation Time             State ------------------------------------------------------------ 1349063425           2012-09-29 12:50:25 +0900 running

# time virsh snapshot-revert ubuntu12-04-vm1 1349063425 real    0m5.784s user    0m0.000s sys     0m0.008s

delete the snapshot

# time virsh snapshot-delete ubuntu12-04-vm1 1349063425 Domain snapshot 1349063425 deleted real    0m1.330s user    0m0.008s sys     0m0.000s