Managing virtual machine snapshots

Access the virtual machine command line through one of the consoles or by SSH.

Install the QEMU guest agent on the virtual machine:

$ yum install -y qemu-guest-agent

Ensure the service is persistent and start it:

$ systemctl enable --now qemu-guest-agent

Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.

Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.

If the virtual machine is running, click Actions → Stop to power it down.

Click the Snapshots tab and then click Take Snapshot.

Fill in the Snapshot Name and optional Description fields.

Expand Disks included in this Snapshot to see the storage volumes to be included in the snapshot.

If your VM has disks that cannot be included in the snapshot and you still wish to proceed, select the I am aware of this warning and wish to proceed checkbox.

Click Save.

Create a YAML file to define a VirtualMachineSnapshot object that specifies the name of the new VirtualMachineSnapshot and the name of the source VM.

apiVersion: snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1
kind: VirtualMachineSnapshot
metadata:
  name: my-vmsnapshot (1)
spec:
  source:
    apiGroup: kubevirt.io
    kind: VirtualMachine
    name: my-vm (2)

Create the VirtualMachineSnapshot resource. The snapshot controller creates a VirtualMachineSnapshotContent object, binds it to the VirtualMachineSnapshot and updates the status and readyToUse fields of the VirtualMachineSnapshot object.

$ oc create -f <my-vmsnapshot>.yaml

Optional: If you are taking an online snapshot, you can use the wait command and monitor the status of the snapshot:

Verify that the VirtualMachineSnapshot object is created and bound with VirtualMachineSnapshotContent. The readyToUse flag must be set to true.

$ oc describe vmsnapshot <my-vmsnapshot>

apiVersion: snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1
kind: VirtualMachineSnapshot
metadata:
  creationTimestamp: "2020-09-30T14:41:51Z"
  finalizers:
  - snapshot.kubevirt.io/vmsnapshot-protection
  generation: 5
  name: mysnap
  namespace: default
  resourceVersion: "3897"
  selfLink: /apis/snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1/namespaces/default/virtualmachinesnapshots/my-vmsnapshot
  uid: 28eedf08-5d6a-42c1-969c-2eda58e2a78d
spec:
  source:
    apiGroup: kubevirt.io
    kind: VirtualMachine
    name: my-vm
status:
  conditions:
  - lastProbeTime: null
    lastTransitionTime: "2020-09-30T14:42:03Z"
    reason: Operation complete
    status: "False" (1)
    type: Progressing
  - lastProbeTime: null
    lastTransitionTime: "2020-09-30T14:42:03Z"
    reason: Operation complete
    status: "True" (2)
    type: Ready
  creationTime: "2020-09-30T14:42:03Z"
  readyToUse: true (3)
  sourceUID: 355897f3-73a0-4ec4-83d3-3c2df9486f4f
  virtualMachineSnapshotContentName: vmsnapshot-content-28eedf08-5d6a-42c1-969c-2eda58e2a78d (4)

Check the spec:volumeBackups property of the VirtualMachineSnapshotContent resource to verify that the expected PVCs are included in the snapshot.

Display the output from the snapshot indications by doing one of the following:

Verify the status of your online VM snapshot:

Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.

Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.

If the virtual machine is running, click Actions → Stop to power it down.

Click the Snapshots tab. The page displays a list of snapshots associated with the virtual machine.

Choose one of the following methods to restore a VM snapshot:

In the confirmation pop-up window, click Restore to restore the VM to its previous configuration represented by the snapshot.

Create a YAML file to define a VirtualMachineRestore object that specifies the name of the VM you want to restore and the name of the snapshot to be used as the source.

apiVersion: snapshot.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1
kind: VirtualMachineRestore
metadata:
  name: my-vmrestore (1)
spec:
  target:
    apiGroup: kubevirt.io
    kind: VirtualMachine
    name: my-vm (2)
  virtualMachineSnapshotName: my-vmsnapshot (3)

Create the VirtualMachineRestore resource. The snapshot controller updates the status fields of the VirtualMachineRestore object and replaces the existing VM configuration with the snapshot content.

$ oc create -f <my-vmrestore>.yaml

Click Virtualization → VirtualMachines from the side menu.

Select a virtual machine to open the VirtualMachine details page.

Click the Snapshots tab. The page displays a list of snapshots associated with the virtual machine.

Click the Options menu of the virtual machine snapshot that you want to delete and select Delete VirtualMachineSnapshot.

In the confirmation pop-up window, click Delete to delete the snapshot.