vmsnap v0.2.3-alpha

VMSnap

VMSnap is a tool designed to simplify the process of creating and managing snapshots of KVM domains. This README provides an overview of the project, installation instructions, usage guidelines, and contribution information.

Features

• Create snapshots of virtual machines
• Delete unnecessary bitmaps and checkpoints

Installation

To install VMSnap, follow these steps:

npx install -g vmsnap

Local

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone git@github.com:slackdaystudio/vmsnap.git

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd vmsnap

3. Install the required dependencies:

   npm install

Usage

To use VMSnap, issue the following commands from your checkout root:

Status

The default action for VMSnap is to display a status report for VMs supplied.

npm run -s vmsnap -- --domains="dom1"

This could return the following information if ran, as an example.

info:    ▪ Status for dom1:
info:    ▪   Checkpoints found for dom1:
info:    ▪     virtnbdbackup.0
info:    ▪     virtnbdbackup.1
info:    ▪   Eligible disks found for dom1:
info:    ▪     vda
info:    ▪       Bitmaps found for vda:
info:    ▪           virtnbdbackup.0
info:    ▪           virtnbdbackup.1

Machine parsable output is possible with the --json and --yaml in combination with the --machine flag.

For example, running the following command...

npm run -s vmsnap -- --domains="dom1" --machine --json

..will produce something like the following.

{"dom1":{"checkpoints":["virtnbdbackup.0","virtnbdbackup.1"],"disks":[{"disk":"vda","bitmaps":["virtnbdbackup.0","virtnbdbackup.1"]}]}}

Backup

Create a snapshot for dom1 and output it to the tmp direcory:

npm run -s vmsnap -- --domains="dom1" --output="/tmp" --backup

The above command will create a the backup for the domain. This creates a checkpoint and dirty bitmap on the VM file and deposits the backup to the /tmp directory

Pruning

Pruning backups may be done by setting --prune="true" on the backup command. This flag will automatically delete last months backup once the 15th of the current backup month comes up.

Turning on pruning means you will have a sliding window of backups between 2-6 weeks of time, depending on where you are in the backup cycle.

Raw Disk Handling

You can turn on raw disk handling by setting --raw.

Approving Disks

By default, the script will look for all virtual disks for bitmaps. You may pass in a list of disks by setting --approvedDisks="sda".

Tip: The --approvedDisks flag also accepts a comma seperated list of disks. You may also pass in "*" to backup all found disks. This is applicable to backing up or scrubbing VMs.

Scrubbing

To scrub a VM of checkpoints and bitmaps:

npm run vmsnap -- --domains="dom1" --scrub

Tip: The --domains flag also accepts a comma seperated list of domains. You may also pass in "*" to backup all found VMs. This is applicable to backing up or scrubbing VMs.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please follow these steps to contribute:

1. Fork the repository.
2. Create a new branch:

   git checkout -b feature-branch

3. Make your changes and commit them:

   git commit -m "Description of changes"

4. Push to the branch:

   git push origin feature-branch

5. Create a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Contact

For any questions or feedback, please open an issue on GitHub.