Xen Orchestra Delta Restore

Dashrender

Though a question to Scott's point - are vib files backup files or are they Xen image snaps?

scottalanmiller

Though a question to Scott's point - are vib files backup files or are they Xen image snaps?

Those are Veeam backups. He's just using their diagram.

Dashrender

@Dashrender said:

Though a question to Scott's point - are vib files backup files or are they Xen image snaps?

Those are Veeam backups. He's just using their diagram.

oh yeah /headslap, but the question still stands to your original point.

@scottalanmiller said:

Here it is. https://xen-orchestra.com/docs/rolling_snapshots.html

This is really what it sounds like and not backups at all. You could use it to build your own backup solution, but on its own it isn't one. It is just snapshots for version rollback locally.

olivier

Yes, that was just VEEAM diagrams

The delta files *.vhd (if it's the original question) are just "blocks" diff between two disk "states": a "moving" disk (the current VM disk) and a snapshot (which is "frozen", like a photo, that's the definition of a snapshot).

To restore it properly, you need to be sure you "inject" the delta inside a coherent VM disk (if you apply delta on a different disk, it will be a mess. Even if you inject a delta on the "wrong" disk state, a mess too).

That's why we got JSON files to indicate the snapshot chain. We'll apply each delta to stay consistent.

olivier

@DustinB3403 No worries But if you need an explanation on any XOA stuff, feel free to ping me. I'll come if I can

coliver

It is really nice to have one of the developers in the community! That cleared up a lot of confusion really quickly.

DustinB3403

@olivier I'm glad you were changing the Import function of the backup so that there is some indication of when the import is complete.

That was an annoyance to say the least, having to wait for the vDisk to appear.

olivier

@coliver Well, I'm not considering myself as a developer ^^ But I'm the original creator of the project (created back in 2009 and very old Xen version!) because I needed a web interface to manage my VMs, as a former Sysadmin

edit: I'm now the project leader, didn't leave it since then

olivier

@DustinB3403 It was bothering me too ^^ But you know, I prefer to expose the feature first, despite it's not perfect. That's only by using something that you can improving it in the right way!

DustinB3403

@olivier said:

@DustinB3403 It was bothering me too ^^ But you know, I prefer to expose the feature first, despite it's not perfect. That's only by using something that you can improving it in the right way!

I'm happy you did provide that feature, even if it wasn't perfect. Totally worth it because it's an awesome feature!

olivier

Happy to see it tested intensively