[ovirt-users] Re: Migrating VMs from 4.3 Ovirt Env to new 4.4 Env

You're welcome. Good to hear you didn't loose anything. Export to OVA has one of the hosts write an OVA file to the selected host's filesystem. (As long as VDSM has write privileges to do so.) The OVA file contains the *entire* VM configuration (Number of CPUs / Chipset / Network Adapters / etc.) in addtion to a copy of the attached disks. The intent of this is to allow importing the VM into another hypervisor. (oVirt, or even other tech entirely such as VMWare / Virtualbox / etc.) This tends to not work very well however due to the previously discussed failures, and the fact that oVirt's conversion code isn't very good. Even between oVirt versions on the same cluster, an exported OVA may not re-import cleanly, if at all. (This is probably related to the lack of a generic CPU target in oVirt, as no other hypervisor solution is going to put forth the effort to maintain compatibility with oVirt's overly-specific CPU model selections, flags, and custom virtual hardware layouts.) Export to Export Domain simply writes the disk images and VM domain XML to the Export Domain for later import into another oVirt instance. (This was the original way oVirt handled backups, and migration between oVirt clusters.) This has been deprecated for a while now, and oVirt 4.4 can't even create a new Export Domain. (Although 4.4 will allow importing an existing one.) Essentially, it's no different than OVA Exports beyond the oVirt specific nature of it. (Both make a complete copy of the VM and attached storage, OVA just adds a translation / compatibility layer step, and it's output is meant to be handled directly by the administrator.) Exporting a template simply exports the template. It has a copy of the disks just like the other two options. With the added caveat that you need to instantiate a new VM from it prior to use. Which may or may not be what you need for backups. Depending on whether or not you have organizational policies / regulatory compliance to worry about. As this will necessitate a bunch of changes in the virtualized hardware. That being said, I can't say to it's reliability as I've never really used templates for backup purposes. If you really need a backup, OVA is fine. (Though you should test re- importing it before calling the job finished.) If you really want to be sure, use an external cloning solution like Clonezilla, (If you only need to back up a few VMs) or something like FOG. (If you need more advanced options, like a regular backup schedule, automated backups / restorations, logging, access control, etc.) - Patrick Hibbs On Tue, 2022-02-22 at 01:24 +0000, Abe E wrote: