<div dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:monospace;font-size:12.8px">As I see it you have two options:<br>- In backup use '<span class="gmail-il">dd</span>' with 'conv=sparse' (or similar tool that allows sparse).<div>- After backup use virt-sparsify [1] to reduce the size to the real used size prior to restore.</div><div><br><div>To make this extra efficient you can use virt-sparsify anyways after backup to make the file even smaller.</div><div>Have you considered this approach?</div><div><br></div><div>[1] <a href="http://libguestfs.org/virt-sparsify.1.html" target="_blank">http://libguestfs.org/<wbr>virt-sparsify.1.html</a><br></div></div><div><br></div></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><pre cols="72"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Yaniv Dary
Technical Product Manager
Red Hat Israel Ltd.
34 Jerusalem Road
Building A, 4th floor
Ra'anana, Israel 4350109
Tel : +972 (9) 7692306
8272306
Email: <a href="mailto:ydary@redhat.com" target="_blank">ydary@redhat.com</a>
IRC : ydary</span></pre>
</div></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 27, 2016 at 4:01 PM, Sven Achtelik <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Sven.Achtelik@mailpool.us" target="_blank">Sven.Achtelik@mailpool.us</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div lang="DE" link="blue" vlink="purple"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">Hi Yaniv, <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">how can this be done with DD ? Since it doesn’t know if the block is free space ? I’ve been looking for such a solution for a long time now. Everything I could find out was that I have to use a utility that understands the FS and therefore knows where the free space is. <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">Thank you, <u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:#1f497d">Sven<a name="m_-6373295545161251140__MailEndCompose"><u></u><u></u></a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Von:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> <a href="mailto:users-bounces@ovirt.org" target="_blank">users-bounces@ovirt.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:users-bounces@ovirt.org" target="_blank">users-bounces@ovirt.<wbr>org</a>] <b>Im Auftrag von </b>Yaniv Dary<br><b>Gesendet:</b> Dienstag, 27. September 2016 14:38<br><b>An:</b> Maton, Brett <<a href="mailto:matonb@ltresources.co.uk" target="_blank">matonb@ltresources.co.uk</a>><br><b>Cc:</b> vasily.lamykin@MegaFon.ru; Ovirt Users <<a href="mailto:users@ovirt.org" target="_blank">users@ovirt.org</a>><br><b>Betreff:</b> Re: [ovirt-users] VM incremental backup<u></u><u></u></span></p><div><div class="h5"><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal">Full VM disk backup. If you use dd you can drop the 0 parts of the disk. <u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><br clear="all"><u></u><u></u></p><div><div><div><div><div><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Yaniv Dary<u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Technical Product Manager<u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Red Hat Israel Ltd.<u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">34 Jerusalem Road<u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Building A, 4th floor<u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Ra'anana, Israel 4350109<u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"><u></u> <u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Tel : <a href="tel:%2B972%20%289%29%207692306" value="+97297692306" target="_blank">+972 (9) 7692306</a><u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif"> 8272306<u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Email: <a href="mailto:ydary@redhat.com" target="_blank">ydary@redhat.com</a><u></u><u></u></span></pre><pre><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">IRC : ydary</span><u></u><u></u></pre></div></div></div></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><p class="MsoNormal">2016-09-27 15:27 GMT+03:00 Maton, Brett <<a href="mailto:matonb@ltresources.co.uk" target="_blank">matonb@ltresources.co.uk</a>>:<u></u><u></u></p><blockquote style="border:none;border-left:solid #cccccc 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0cm"><div><p class="MsoNormal">Is there a preferred or recommended backup method in the meantime ?<u></u><u></u></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal">2016-09-22 10:30 GMT+01:00 <a href="mailto:vasily.lamykin@MegaFon.ru" target="_blank">vasily.lamykin@MegaFon.ru</a> <<a href="mailto:vasily.lamykin@megafon.ru" target="_blank">vasily.lamykin@megafon.ru</a>>:<u></u><u></u></p></div></div><blockquote style="border:none;border-left:solid #cccccc 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 0cm 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0cm"><div><div><div><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Hello!</span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">I would like to understand the existence of the possibility of incremental VM backups.</span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">And if it is, the means by which it is achieved.</span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">While I was only able to achieve a complete backup of the virtual machine (but it is a very large amount of information and time) by cloning a snapshot of the VM and export to data domain.</span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="RU" style="color:#1f497d">Ламыкин Василий</span></b><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="color:#1f4e79;background:white">Старший инженер по эксплуатации сервисных платформ</span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="color:#1f4e79;background:white">Столичный ф-ал ПАО "МегаФон</span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="color:#1f4e79;background:white"> </span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="color:#1f497d"><a href="tel:%2B7%20%28926%29%20500-3308" target="_blank">+7 (926) 500-3308</a></span><span lang="RU"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU"><img border="0" width="285" height="54" src="cid:image002.png@01D218CF.C3E1AE90" alt="МегаФон лого+знак РУС B2C"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU"> <u></u><u></u></span></p></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU"><u></u> <u></u></span></p><div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span lang="RU"><hr size="4" width="100%" align="center"></span></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="RU" style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:gray"><br>Информация в этом сообщении предназначена исключительно для конкретных лиц, которым она адресована. 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