problem: blockcommit only works if the guest is running. what we want: reliable and automated backups. a fair selection of old versions. backuppc seems pretty good. but it begs the question of how best to backup qcow2 files. currently i'm using: virsh snapshot-create-as <guest> <snap> --atomic --no-metadata --disk-only --diskspec=<diskspec-from-virsh-domblklist> mkdir -p /mnt/point guestmount -iroallow_root -a<guest.qcow2> /mnt/point rsync... (backuppc) guestunmount /mnt/point virsh blockcommit <guest> <guest.snap> --active --pivot --delete but blockcommit only works if the guest is running. is there an approach that works, whether the guest is running, stopped, or stops or starts during the backup? methods i'm not considering: just copy the qcow2 files. copy files out from inside a running vm. stop the vm and then copy files. "QCOW2 backing files & overlays" (https://kashyapc.fedorapeople.org/virt/lc-2012/snapshots-handout.html) ...discusses internal snapshots, which to me raises the question, how might i mount (or guestmount) an internal snapshot so i can copy files out of it? anyone here know a good answer, or a better place to ask? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20210316/104f0cad/attachment.htm>