Exporting virtual machines - Virtual machines | Virtualization

Creating a VirtualMachineExport custom resource

You can export a virtual machine (VM) and its associated disks in order to import a VM into another cluster or to analyze the volume for forensic purposes.

You create a VirtualMachineExport custom resource (CR) by using the command line interface.

Alternatively, you can use the virtctl vmexport command to create a VirtualMachineExport CR and to download exported volumes.

Creating a VirtualMachineExport custom resource

You can create a VirtualMachineExport custom resource (CR) to export the following objects:

Virtual machine (VM): Exports the persistent volume claims (PVCs) of a specified VM.
VM snapshot: Exports PVCs contained in a VirtualMachineSnapshot CR.
PVC: Exports a PVC. If the PVC is used by another pod, such as the virt-launcher pod, the export remains in a Pending state until the PVC is no longer in use.

The VirtualMachineExport CR creates internal and external links for the exported volumes. Internal links are valid within the cluster. External links can be accessed by using an Ingress or route.

The export server supports the following file formats:

raw: Raw disk image file.
gzip: Compressed disk image file.
dir: PVC directory and files.
tar.gz: Compressed PVC file.

Prerequisites

The VM must be shut down for a VM export.

Procedure

Create a VirtualMachineExport manifest to export a volume from a VirtualMachine, VirtualMachineSnapshot, or PersistentVolumeClaim CR according to the following example and save it as example-export.yaml:

VirtualMachineExport example

apiVersion: export.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1
kind: VirtualMachineExport
metadata:
  name: example-export
spec:
  source:
    apiGroup: "kubevirt.io" (1)
    kind: VirtualMachine (2)
    name: example-vm
  ttlDuration: 1h (3)

1	Specify the appropriate API group: `"kubevirt.io"` for `VirtualMachine`. `"snapshot.kubevirt.io"` for `VirtualMachineSnapshot`. `""` for `PersistentVolumeClaim`.
2	Specify `VirtualMachine`, `VirtualMachineSnapshot`, or `PersistentVolumeClaim`.
3	Optional. The default duration is 2 hours.

Create the VirtualMachineExport CR:
```
$ oc create -f example-export.yaml
```

Get the VirtualMachineExport CR:

$ oc get vmexport example-export -o yaml

The internal and external links for the exported volumes are displayed in the status stanza:

Output example

apiVersion: export.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1
kind: VirtualMachineExport
metadata:
  name: example-export
  namespace: example
spec:
  source:
    apiGroup: ""
    kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
    name: example-pvc
  tokenSecretRef: example-token
status:
  conditions:
  - lastProbeTime: null
    lastTransitionTime: "2022-06-21T14:10:09Z"
    reason: podReady
    status: "True"
    type: Ready
  - lastProbeTime: null
    lastTransitionTime: "2022-06-21T14:09:02Z"
    reason: pvcBound
    status: "True"
    type: PVCReady
  links:
    external: (1)
      cert: |-
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        ...
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----
      volumes:
      - formats:
        - format: raw
          url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/volumes/example-disk/disk.img
        - format: gzip
          url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1alpha1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/volumes/example-disk/disk.img.gz
        name: example-disk
    internal:  (2)
      cert: |-
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        ...
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----
      volumes:
      - formats:
        - format: raw
          url: https://virt-export-example-export.example.svc/volumes/example-disk/disk.img
        - format: gzip
          url: https://virt-export-example-export.example.svc/volumes/example-disk/disk.img.gz
        name: example-disk
  phase: Ready
  serviceName: virt-export-example-export

1	External links are accessible from outside the cluster by using an `Ingress` or `route`.
2	Internal links are only valid inside the cluster.