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FreeBSD ZFS Snapshots & VirtualBox VM
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A zfs snapshot of a running vm will result in a vm captured in a crash-consistent state.

To make vms recoverable with zfs snapshots you should make a VirtualBox snapshot of the running vm first.

This essentially makes the .vdi read-only which is exactly all we need. We do not need the snapshots.

I also keep things simple and just use zfs snapshots and never use VirtualBox snapshots other than for this purpose.


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Backup
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# list running vms
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage list runningvms

# take a virtualbox snapshot
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage snapshot <vm_name> take <snapshot_name> --live

# take a zfs snapshot
oeng@guido:~ $ zfs snapshot -r tank/vm/<vm_name>@01

# list virtualbox snapshots
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage snapshot <vm_name> list

# delete the virtualbox snapshot
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage snapshot <vm_name> delete <snapshot_name>


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Recovery
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# list running vms
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage list runningvms

# power off the vm
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage controlvm <vm_name> poweroff

# restore from zfs snapshot
oeng@guido:~ $ zfs restore tank/vm/<vm_name>@01

# list virtualbox snapshots
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage snapshot <vm_name> list

# delete the virtualbox snapshot
oeng@guido:~ $ vboxmanage snapshot <vm_name> delete <snapshot_name>

# start the vm
oeng@guido: ~$ vboxmanage startvm <vm_name> --type headless


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Done
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