Migrating VM when upgrading SCALE

[buswedg]

I'm running SCALE 22.02.4, and thinking about doing a fresh install of the latest version. Note that I'm not running any 'apps' etc. on SCALE and only have a few cron jobs and samba file services. So basically, SCALE isn't doing much other than maintaining and serving ZFS storage data. But, I do have a VM on the machine (through SCALEs virtualization) which is doing a lot of work for me.

After a bit of a search, I couldn't find any easy references on how to migrate a VM when doing a complete fresh install/ upgrade of SCALE. So, curious if anyone can point me to a guide or highlight some key steps to make sure I don't lose anything. Also note that I'd prefer to do a fresh upgrade rather than using the built in update functionality.

 

[Patrick_3000]

A fresh install would only wipe out the boot pool, which depending on your setup could either be a single drive or a multi-drive pool. Your storage pool(s) would remain intact (assuming that I'm understanding what you plan to do), and you'd just need to import them after doing the fresh install.

After importing the storage pool(s), the zvol that contains the VM operating system disk would be in a storage pool. You could verify that by looking in the datasets tab. I'm pretty sure that you could then get your VM back as follows:

Go to the virtualization tab and add a VM. When adding the VM, I believe that somewhere you are asked if you'd like to create a disk. It's probably best to answer "no" and not create a disk. After the VM is created, go to Devices and add a disk, and when doing so, under "zvol," SCALE will give you the option to choose from among the existing zvols. Choose the zvol for your VM, and that should do it.

 

[buswedg]

A fresh install would only wipe out the boot pool, which depending on your setup could either be a single drive or a multi-drive pool. Your storage pool(s) would remain intact (assuming that I'm understanding what you plan to do), and you'd just need to import them after doing the fresh install.

After importing the storage pool(s), the zvol that contains the VM operating system disk would be in a storage pool. You could verify that by looking in the datasets tab. I'm pretty sure that you could then get your VM back as follows:

Go to the virtualization tab and add a VM. When adding the VM, I believe that somewhere you are asked if you'd like to create a disk. It's probably best to answer "no" and not create a disk. After the VM is created, go to Devices and add a disk, and when doing so, under "zvol," SCALE will give you the option to choose from among the existing zvols. Choose the zvol for your VM, and that should do it.

Great overview -- thanks for that

 

[systract]

TO backup VM:

How to backup and restore a VM

I know there have been other threads about this subject, but I do not manage / understand any how .. Assume the particular VM is situated in dataset 'test_vm' If you create a snapshot of a VM or any other zvol, that snapshot does refer to a delta not the whole zvol. And I want to make a copy...

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