From patchwork Wed Feb 26 11:30:29 2020 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Patchwork-Submitter: Paolo Bonzini X-Patchwork-Id: 1244955 Return-Path: X-Original-To: incoming@patchwork.ozlabs.org Delivered-To: patchwork-incoming@bilbo.ozlabs.org Authentication-Results: ozlabs.org; spf=pass (sender SPF authorized) smtp.mailfrom=nongnu.org (client-ip=209.51.188.17; helo=lists.gnu.org; envelope-from=qemu-devel-bounces+incoming=patchwork.ozlabs.org@nongnu.org; receiver=) Authentication-Results: ozlabs.org; dmarc=fail (p=none dis=none) header.from=redhat.com Authentication-Results: ozlabs.org; dkim=fail reason="signature verification failed" (2048-bit key; unprotected) header.d=gmail.com header.i=@gmail.com header.a=rsa-sha256 header.s=20161025 header.b=ezYs0nyE; dkim-atps=neutral Received: from lists.gnu.org (lists.gnu.org [209.51.188.17]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ozlabs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 48SDV96Ldvz9sPR for ; Wed, 26 Feb 2020 22:44:17 +1100 (AEDT) Received: from localhost ([::1]:42898 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1j6v6t-0002eU-Kf for incoming@patchwork.ozlabs.org; Wed, 26 Feb 2020 06:44:15 -0500 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:52967) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1j6uu5-0001G0-RL for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 26 Feb 2020 06:31:10 -0500 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1j6utx-0006w0-7B for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 26 Feb 2020 06:31:01 -0500 Received: from mail-wr1-x443.google.com ([2a00:1450:4864:20::443]:35667) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16) (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1j6utw-0006pv-KN for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Wed, 26 Feb 2020 06:30:53 -0500 Received: by mail-wr1-x443.google.com with SMTP id w12so2576631wrt.2 for ; Wed, 26 Feb 2020 03:30:52 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20161025; h=sender:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id:in-reply-to:references :mime-version:content-transfer-encoding; bh=djhOqf0eEL8Ama+IUp5GDi605d7oH9l8BKBsD5p/oio=; b=ezYs0nyEDJtor8QDuzDO4ty4fBK1IjlAXo1okGtcQL5/U4wk7CYs5b1RzLa1pEnH7o 1OLwRRuRQvM0e4kKLf2dbvtpKMG4i39mMkTMwDfwldflnmHbh1tKV+cKKmYBgi60BGkp nUHmB9OPHldrot+7HwI4ej8wDEw/kOYf0fSTsCCDFmDp9zWTp28GluN3TSXmgbS/6kHk Dbah8nNbNx3/f38Q10FTzP9AE6g8VI3OeoXK3aVzLQ+vbZBq5CtrDuNCjhs7Joy981PC V7e55meLqXQLEffqsL9qkDY5UBPoKFFIZpMW5BUl5BhYPQeBOnmcOTGvz/GHwz8bCtX8 Euag== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:sender:from:to:cc:subject:date:message-id :in-reply-to:references:mime-version:content-transfer-encoding; bh=djhOqf0eEL8Ama+IUp5GDi605d7oH9l8BKBsD5p/oio=; b=ALR3LtASp41b0g1YUIq4OtapyjpiwCrjLLVmaRWTf073ka1qtAqENxq/QPB3BUOWYN hXSTmlUcFVWbIArpJaeQvz8mFnfMmnK8WeijWpX2vV3hFdjkR9iEPxR19JYXHMLU088r LEHdtgxoqa/Ip7zDWs0nIyRAgjR1O/k2orFe/dxwtvz1LkjgCOzpoF0LcVzHlR3CjF+e RDosaqGvQrXtJvc6JeTxVVUWuIETSJ9bTxkLNj9uWNoDqfxKthLsqJxG813vYr74W7I9 QBW7A9nkSIXFqLo+0I/PClfVDD0eyljz5mG0ZIb2BSiK1LyH5yhfw/YL2rizvgyegshZ zUww== X-Gm-Message-State: APjAAAXD65WBJmu/kNG/5VAp5qmZwYGWAd8QmcgfaD+t2kMlxMpdErMy hfynYd13FB1bjzvpuAroY5KLZasH X-Google-Smtp-Source: APXvYqwcl+iPz3ImuWYx8D+el3V42WSOKGvUDv1UQwfYQXTki3mu56XlCu5ugPUy6N10/p/Fsa5/nw== X-Received: by 2002:a05:6000:149:: with SMTP id r9mr4734602wrx.147.1582716648267; Wed, 26 Feb 2020 03:30:48 -0800 (PST) Received: from donizetti.lan ([2001:b07:6468:f312:d0d9:ea10:9775:f33f]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id h128sm2628154wmh.33.2020.02.26.03.30.47 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256/256); Wed, 26 Feb 2020 03:30:47 -0800 (PST) From: Paolo Bonzini To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org Subject: [PATCH 13/18] docs/system: put qemu-block-drivers body in an included file Date: Wed, 26 Feb 2020 12:30:29 +0100 Message-Id: <20200226113034.6741-14-pbonzini@redhat.com> X-Mailer: git-send-email 2.21.1 In-Reply-To: <20200226113034.6741-1-pbonzini@redhat.com> References: <20200226113034.6741-1-pbonzini@redhat.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: Genre and OS details not recognized. X-Received-From: 2a00:1450:4864:20::443 X-BeenThere: qemu-devel@nongnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Cc: peter.maydell@linaro.org Errors-To: qemu-devel-bounces+incoming=patchwork.ozlabs.org@nongnu.org Sender: "Qemu-devel" This removes the "only" directives, and lets us use the conventional "DESCRIPTION" section in the manpage. Signed-off-by: Paolo Bonzini --- docs/system/index.rst | 2 - docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst | 987 +------------------------ docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst.inc | 954 ++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 966 insertions(+), 977 deletions(-) create mode 100644 docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst.inc diff --git a/docs/system/index.rst b/docs/system/index.rst index f66e6ea585..21b5a18b67 100644 --- a/docs/system/index.rst +++ b/docs/system/index.rst @@ -13,5 +13,3 @@ Contents: .. toctree:: :maxdepth: 2 - - qemu-block-drivers diff --git a/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst b/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst index 388adbefbf..7ca890ea23 100644 --- a/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst +++ b/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst @@ -1,985 +1,22 @@ +:orphan: + QEMU block drivers reference ============================ .. |qemu_system| replace:: qemu-system-x86_64 -.. - We put the 'Synopsis' and 'See also' sections into the manpage, but not - the HTML. This makes the HTML docs read better and means the ToC in - the index has a more useful set of entries. Ideally, the section - headings 'Disk image file formats' would be top-level headings for - the HTML, but sub-headings of the conventional manpage 'Description' - header for the manpage. Unfortunately, due to deficiencies in - the Sphinx 'only' directive, this isn't possible: they must be headers - at the same level as 'Synopsis' and 'See also', otherwise Sphinx's - identification of which header underline style is which gets confused. - -.. only:: man - - Synopsis - -------- - - QEMU block driver reference manual - -Disk image file formats ------------------------ - -QEMU supports many image file formats that can be used with VMs as well as with -any of the tools (like ``qemu-img``). This includes the preferred formats -raw and qcow2 as well as formats that are supported for compatibility with -older QEMU versions or other hypervisors. - -Depending on the image format, different options can be passed to -``qemu-img create`` and ``qemu-img convert`` using the ``-o`` option. -This section describes each format and the options that are supported for it. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: raw - - Raw disk image format. This format has the advantage of - being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your - file system supports *holes* (for example in ext2 or ext3 on - Linux or NTFS on Windows), then only the written sectors will reserve - space. Use ``qemu-img info`` to know the real size used by the - image or ``ls -ls`` on Unix/Linux. - - Supported options: - - .. program:: raw - .. option:: preallocation - - Preallocation mode (allowed values: ``off``, ``falloc``, - ``full``). ``falloc`` mode preallocates space for image by - calling ``posix_fallocate()``. ``full`` mode preallocates space - for image by writing data to underlying storage. This data may or - may not be zero, depending on the storage location. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: qcow2 - - QEMU image format, the most versatile format. Use it to have smaller - images (useful if your filesystem does not supports holes, for example - on Windows), zlib based compression and support of multiple VM - snapshots. - - Supported options: - - .. program:: qcow2 - .. option:: compat - - Determines the qcow2 version to use. ``compat=0.10`` uses the - traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10. - ``compat=1.1`` enables image format extensions that only QEMU 1.1 and - newer understand (this is the default). Amongst others, this includes - zero clusters, which allow efficient copy-on-read for sparse images. - - .. option:: backing_file - - File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand) - - .. option:: backing_fmt - - Image format of the base image - - .. option:: encryption - - This option is deprecated and equivalent to ``encrypt.format=aes`` - - .. option:: encrypt.format - - If this is set to ``luks``, it requests that the qcow2 payload (not - qcow2 header) be encrypted using the LUKS format. The passphrase to - use to unlock the LUKS key slot is given by the ``encrypt.key-secret`` - parameter. LUKS encryption parameters can be tuned with the other - ``encrypt.*`` parameters. - - If this is set to ``aes``, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC. - The encryption key is given by the ``encrypt.key-secret`` parameter. - This encryption format is considered to be flawed by modern cryptography - standards, suffering from a number of design problems: - - - The AES-CBC cipher is used with predictable initialization vectors based - on the sector number. This makes it vulnerable to chosen plaintext attacks - which can reveal the existence of encrypted data. - - The user passphrase is directly used as the encryption key. A poorly - chosen or short passphrase will compromise the security of the encryption. - - In the event of the passphrase being compromised there is no way to - change the passphrase to protect data in any qcow images. The files must - be cloned, using a different encryption passphrase in the new file. The - original file must then be securely erased using a program like shred, - though even this is ineffective with many modern storage technologies. - - The use of this is no longer supported in system emulators. Support only - remains in the command line utilities, for the purposes of data liberation - and interoperability with old versions of QEMU. The ``luks`` format - should be used instead. - - .. option:: encrypt.key-secret - - Provides the ID of a ``secret`` object that contains the passphrase - (``encrypt.format=luks``) or encryption key (``encrypt.format=aes``). - - .. option:: encrypt.cipher-alg - - Name of the cipher algorithm and key length. Currently defaults - to ``aes-256``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. - - .. option:: encrypt.cipher-mode - - Name of the encryption mode to use. Currently defaults to ``xts``. - Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. - - .. option:: encrypt.ivgen-alg - - Name of the initialization vector generator algorithm. Currently defaults - to ``plain64``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. - - .. option:: encrypt.ivgen-hash-alg - - Name of the hash algorithm to use with the initialization vector generator - (if required). Defaults to ``sha256``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. - - .. option:: encrypt.hash-alg - - Name of the hash algorithm to use for PBKDF algorithm - Defaults to ``sha256``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. - - .. option:: encrypt.iter-time - - Amount of time, in milliseconds, to use for PBKDF algorithm per key slot. - Defaults to ``2000``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. - - .. option:: cluster_size - - Changes the qcow2 cluster size (must be between 512 and 2M). Smaller cluster - sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes generally - provide better performance. - - .. option:: preallocation - - Preallocation mode (allowed values: ``off``, ``metadata``, ``falloc``, - ``full``). An image with preallocated metadata is initially larger but can - improve performance when the image needs to grow. ``falloc`` and ``full`` - preallocations are like the same options of ``raw`` format, but sets up - metadata also. - - .. option:: lazy_refcounts - - If this option is set to ``on``, reference count updates are postponed with - the goal of avoiding metadata I/O and improving performance. This is - particularly interesting with :option:`cache=writethrough` which doesn't batch - metadata updates. The tradeoff is that after a host crash, the reference count - tables must be rebuilt, i.e. on the next open an (automatic) ``qemu-img - check -r all`` is required, which may take some time. - - This option can only be enabled if ``compat=1.1`` is specified. - - .. option:: nocow - - If this option is set to ``on``, it will turn off COW of the file. It's only - valid on btrfs, no effect on other file systems. - - Btrfs has low performance when hosting a VM image file, even more - when the guest on the VM also using btrfs as file system. Turning off - COW is a way to mitigate this bad performance. Generally there are two - ways to turn off COW on btrfs: - - - Disable it by mounting with nodatacow, then all newly created files - will be NOCOW. - - For an empty file, add the NOCOW file attribute. That's what this - option does. - - Note: this option is only valid to new or empty files. If there is - an existing file which is COW and has data blocks already, it couldn't - be changed to NOCOW by setting ``nocow=on``. One can issue ``lsattr - filename`` to check if the NOCOW flag is set or not (Capital 'C' is - NOCOW flag). - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: qed - - Old QEMU image format with support for backing files and compact image files - (when your filesystem or transport medium does not support holes). - - When converting QED images to qcow2, you might want to consider using the - ``lazy_refcounts=on`` option to get a more QED-like behaviour. - - Supported options: - - .. program:: qed - .. option:: backing_file - - File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand). - - .. option:: backing_fmt - - Image file format of backing file (optional). Useful if the format cannot be - autodetected because it has no header, like some vhd/vpc files. - - .. option:: cluster_size - - Changes the cluster size (must be power-of-2 between 4K and 64K). Smaller - cluster sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes - generally provide better performance. - - .. option:: table_size - - Changes the number of clusters per L1/L2 table (must be - power-of-2 between 1 and 16). There is normally no need to - change this value but this option can between used for - performance benchmarking. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: qcow - - Old QEMU image format with support for backing files, compact image files, - encryption and compression. - - Supported options: - - .. program:: qcow - .. option:: backing_file - - File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand) - - .. option:: encryption - - This option is deprecated and equivalent to ``encrypt.format=aes`` - - .. option:: encrypt.format - - If this is set to ``aes``, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC. - The encryption key is given by the ``encrypt.key-secret`` parameter. - This encryption format is considered to be flawed by modern cryptography - standards, suffering from a number of design problems enumerated previously - against the ``qcow2`` image format. - - The use of this is no longer supported in system emulators. Support only - remains in the command line utilities, for the purposes of data liberation - and interoperability with old versions of QEMU. - - Users requiring native encryption should use the ``qcow2`` format - instead with ``encrypt.format=luks``. - - .. option:: encrypt.key-secret - - Provides the ID of a ``secret`` object that contains the encryption - key (``encrypt.format=aes``). - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: luks - - LUKS v1 encryption format, compatible with Linux dm-crypt/cryptsetup - - Supported options: - - .. program:: luks - .. option:: key-secret - - Provides the ID of a ``secret`` object that contains the passphrase. - - .. option:: cipher-alg - - Name of the cipher algorithm and key length. Currently defaults - to ``aes-256``. - - .. option:: cipher-mode - - Name of the encryption mode to use. Currently defaults to ``xts``. - - .. option:: ivgen-alg - - Name of the initialization vector generator algorithm. Currently defaults - to ``plain64``. - - .. option:: ivgen-hash-alg - - Name of the hash algorithm to use with the initialization vector generator - (if required). Defaults to ``sha256``. - - .. option:: hash-alg - - Name of the hash algorithm to use for PBKDF algorithm - Defaults to ``sha256``. - - .. option:: iter-time - - Amount of time, in milliseconds, to use for PBKDF algorithm per key slot. - Defaults to ``2000``. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: vdi - - VirtualBox 1.1 compatible image format. - - Supported options: - - .. program:: vdi - .. option:: static - - If this option is set to ``on``, the image is created with metadata - preallocation. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: vmdk - - VMware 3 and 4 compatible image format. - - Supported options: - - .. program: vmdk - .. option:: backing_file - - File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand). - - .. option:: compat6 - - Create a VMDK version 6 image (instead of version 4) - - .. option:: hwversion - - Specify vmdk virtual hardware version. Compat6 flag cannot be enabled - if hwversion is specified. - - .. option:: subformat - - Specifies which VMDK subformat to use. Valid options are - ``monolithicSparse`` (default), - ``monolithicFlat``, - ``twoGbMaxExtentSparse``, - ``twoGbMaxExtentFlat`` and - ``streamOptimized``. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: vpc - - VirtualPC compatible image format (VHD). - - Supported options: - - .. program:: vpc - .. option:: subformat - - Specifies which VHD subformat to use. Valid options are - ``dynamic`` (default) and ``fixed``. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: VHDX - - Hyper-V compatible image format (VHDX). - - Supported options: - - .. program:: VHDX - .. option:: subformat - - Specifies which VHDX subformat to use. Valid options are - ``dynamic`` (default) and ``fixed``. - - .. option:: block_state_zero - - Force use of payload blocks of type 'ZERO'. Can be set to ``on`` (default) - or ``off``. When set to ``off``, new blocks will be created as - ``PAYLOAD_BLOCK_NOT_PRESENT``, which means parsers are free to return - arbitrary data for those blocks. Do not set to ``off`` when using - ``qemu-img convert`` with ``subformat=dynamic``. - - .. option:: block_size - - Block size; min 1 MB, max 256 MB. 0 means auto-calculate based on - image size. - - .. option:: log_size - - Log size; min 1 MB. - -Read-only formats ------------------ - -More disk image file formats are supported in a read-only mode. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: bochs - - Bochs images of ``growing`` type. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: cloop - - Linux Compressed Loop image, useful only to reuse directly compressed - CD-ROM images present for example in the Knoppix CD-ROMs. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: dmg - - Apple disk image. - -.. program:: image-formats -.. option:: parallels - - Parallels disk image format. - -Using host drives ------------------ - -In addition to disk image files, QEMU can directly access host -devices. We describe here the usage for QEMU version >= 0.8.3. - -Linux -''''' - -On Linux, you can directly use the host device filename instead of a -disk image filename provided you have enough privileges to access -it. For example, use ``/dev/cdrom`` to access to the CDROM. - -CD - You can specify a CDROM device even if no CDROM is loaded. QEMU has - specific code to detect CDROM insertion or removal. CDROM ejection by - the guest OS is supported. Currently only data CDs are supported. - -Floppy - You can specify a floppy device even if no floppy is loaded. Floppy - removal is currently not detected accurately (if you change floppy - without doing floppy access while the floppy is not loaded, the guest - OS will think that the same floppy is loaded). - Use of the host's floppy device is deprecated, and support for it will - be removed in a future release. - -Hard disks - Hard disks can be used. Normally you must specify the whole disk - (``/dev/hdb`` instead of ``/dev/hdb1``) so that the guest OS can - see it as a partitioned disk. WARNING: unless you know what you do, it - is better to only make READ-ONLY accesses to the hard disk otherwise - you may corrupt your host data (use the ``-snapshot`` command - line option or modify the device permissions accordingly). - -Windows -''''''' - -CD - The preferred syntax is the drive letter (e.g. ``d:``). The - alternate syntax ``\\.\d:`` is supported. ``/dev/cdrom`` is - supported as an alias to the first CDROM drive. - - Currently there is no specific code to handle removable media, so it - is better to use the ``change`` or ``eject`` monitor commands to - change or eject media. - -Hard disks - Hard disks can be used with the syntax: ``\\.\PhysicalDriveN`` - where *N* is the drive number (0 is the first hard disk). - - WARNING: unless you know what you do, it is better to only make - READ-ONLY accesses to the hard disk otherwise you may corrupt your - host data (use the ``-snapshot`` command line so that the - modifications are written in a temporary file). - -Mac OS X -'''''''' - -``/dev/cdrom`` is an alias to the first CDROM. - -Currently there is no specific code to handle removable media, so it -is better to use the ``change`` or ``eject`` monitor commands to -change or eject media. - -Virtual FAT disk images ------------------------ - -QEMU can automatically create a virtual FAT disk image from a -directory tree. In order to use it, just type: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb fat:/my_directory - -Then you access access to all the files in the ``/my_directory`` -directory without having to copy them in a disk image or to export -them via SAMBA or NFS. The default access is *read-only*. - -Floppies can be emulated with the ``:floppy:`` option: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| linux.img -fda fat:floppy:/my_directory - -A read/write support is available for testing (beta stage) with the -``:rw:`` option: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| linux.img -fda fat:floppy:rw:/my_directory - -What you should *never* do: - -- use non-ASCII filenames -- use "-snapshot" together with ":rw:" -- expect it to work when loadvm'ing -- write to the FAT directory on the host system while accessing it with the guest system - -NBD access ----------- - -QEMU can access directly to block device exported using the Network Block Device -protocol. - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb nbd://my_nbd_server.mydomain.org:1024/ - -If the NBD server is located on the same host, you can use an unix socket instead -of an inet socket: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket - -In this case, the block device must be exported using qemu-nbd: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket my_disk.qcow2 - -The use of qemu-nbd allows sharing of a disk between several guests: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket --share=2 my_disk.qcow2 - -and then you can use it with two guests: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| linux1.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket - |qemu_system| linux2.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket - -If the nbd-server uses named exports (supported since NBD 2.9.18, or with QEMU's -own embedded NBD server), you must specify an export name in the URI: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| -cdrom nbd://localhost/debian-500-ppc-netinst - |qemu_system| -cdrom nbd://localhost/openSUSE-11.1-ppc-netinst - -The URI syntax for NBD is supported since QEMU 1.3. An alternative syntax is -also available. Here are some example of the older syntax: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb nbd:my_nbd_server.mydomain.org:1024 - |qemu_system| linux2.img -hdb nbd:unix:/tmp/my_socket - |qemu_system| -cdrom nbd:localhost:10809:exportname=debian-500-ppc-netinst - - - -Sheepdog disk images --------------------- - -Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for QEMU. It provides highly -available block level storage volumes that can be attached to -QEMU-based virtual machines. - -You can create a Sheepdog disk image with the command: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - qemu-img create sheepdog:///IMAGE SIZE - -where *IMAGE* is the Sheepdog image name and *SIZE* is its -size. - -To import the existing *FILENAME* to Sheepdog, you can use a -convert command. - -.. parsed-literal:: - - qemu-img convert FILENAME sheepdog:///IMAGE - -You can boot from the Sheepdog disk image with the command: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| sheepdog:///IMAGE - -You can also create a snapshot of the Sheepdog image like qcow2. - -.. parsed-literal:: - - qemu-img snapshot -c TAG sheepdog:///IMAGE - -where *TAG* is a tag name of the newly created snapshot. - -To boot from the Sheepdog snapshot, specify the tag name of the -snapshot. - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| sheepdog:///IMAGE#TAG - -You can create a cloned image from the existing snapshot. - -.. parsed-literal:: - - qemu-img create -b sheepdog:///BASE#TAG sheepdog:///IMAGE - -where *BASE* is an image name of the source snapshot and *TAG* -is its tag name. - -You can use an unix socket instead of an inet socket: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| sheepdog+unix:///IMAGE?socket=PATH - -If the Sheepdog daemon doesn't run on the local host, you need to -specify one of the Sheepdog servers to connect to. - -.. parsed-literal:: - - qemu-img create sheepdog://HOSTNAME:PORT/IMAGE SIZE - |qemu_system| sheepdog://HOSTNAME:PORT/IMAGE - -iSCSI LUNs ----------- - -iSCSI is a popular protocol used to access SCSI devices across a computer -network. - -There are two different ways iSCSI devices can be used by QEMU. - -The first method is to mount the iSCSI LUN on the host, and make it appear as -any other ordinary SCSI device on the host and then to access this device as a -/dev/sd device from QEMU. How to do this differs between host OSes. - -The second method involves using the iSCSI initiator that is built into -QEMU. This provides a mechanism that works the same way regardless of which -host OS you are running QEMU on. This section will describe this second method -of using iSCSI together with QEMU. - -In QEMU, iSCSI devices are described using special iSCSI URLs. URL syntax: - -:: - - iscsi://[[%]@][:]// - -Username and password are optional and only used if your target is set up -using CHAP authentication for access control. -Alternatively the username and password can also be set via environment -variables to have these not show up in the process list: - -:: - - export LIBISCSI_CHAP_USERNAME= - export LIBISCSI_CHAP_PASSWORD= - iscsi://// - -Various session related parameters can be set via special options, either -in a configuration file provided via '-readconfig' or directly on the -command line. - -If the initiator-name is not specified qemu will use a default name -of 'iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:'] where is the UUID of the -virtual machine. If the UUID is not specified qemu will use -'iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:'] where is the name of the -virtual machine. - -Setting a specific initiator name to use when logging in to the target: - -:: - - -iscsi initiator-name=iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator - -Controlling which type of header digest to negotiate with the target: - -:: - - -iscsi header-digest=CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE - -These can also be set via a configuration file: - -:: - - [iscsi] - user = "CHAP username" - password = "CHAP password" - initiator-name = "iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator" - # header digest is one of CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE - header-digest = "CRC32C" - -Setting the target name allows different options for different targets: - -:: - - [iscsi "iqn.target.name"] - user = "CHAP username" - password = "CHAP password" - initiator-name = "iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator" - # header digest is one of CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE - header-digest = "CRC32C" - -How to use a configuration file to set iSCSI configuration options: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - cat >iscsi.conf < /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:06:0d.0/driver/unbind - # echo 1102 0002 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/vfio-pci/new_id - - # |qemu_system| -drive file=nvme://HOST:BUS:SLOT.FUNC/NAMESPACE - -Alternative syntax using properties: - -.. parsed-literal:: - - |qemu_system| -drive file.driver=nvme,file.device=HOST:BUS:SLOT.FUNC,file.namespace=NAMESPACE - -*HOST*:*BUS*:*SLOT*.\ *FUNC* is the NVMe controller's PCI device -address on the host. - -*NAMESPACE* is the NVMe namespace number, starting from 1. - -Disk image file locking ------------------------ - -By default, QEMU tries to protect image files from unexpected concurrent -access, as long as it's supported by the block protocol driver and host -operating system. If multiple QEMU processes (including QEMU emulators and -utilities) try to open the same image with conflicting accessing modes, all but -the first one will get an error. - -This feature is currently supported by the file protocol on Linux with the Open -File Descriptor (OFD) locking API, and can be configured to fall back to POSIX -locking if the POSIX host doesn't support Linux OFD locking. - -To explicitly enable image locking, specify "locking=on" in the file protocol -driver options. If OFD locking is not possible, a warning will be printed and -the POSIX locking API will be used. In this case there is a risk that the lock -will get silently lost when doing hot plugging and block jobs, due to the -shortcomings of the POSIX locking API. - -QEMU transparently handles lock handover during shared storage migration. For -shared virtual disk images between multiple VMs, the "share-rw" device option -should be used. - -By default, the guest has exclusive write access to its disk image. If the -guest can safely share the disk image with other writers the -``-device ...,share-rw=on`` parameter can be used. This is only safe if -the guest is running software, such as a cluster file system, that -coordinates disk accesses to avoid corruption. - -Note that share-rw=on only declares the guest's ability to share the disk. -Some QEMU features, such as image file formats, require exclusive write access -to the disk image and this is unaffected by the share-rw=on option. - -Alternatively, locking can be fully disabled by "locking=off" block device -option. In the command line, the option is usually in the form of -"file.locking=off" as the protocol driver is normally placed as a "file" child -under a format driver. For example: - -:: +Synopsis +-------- - -blockdev driver=qcow2,file.filename=/path/to/image,file.locking=off,file.driver=file +QEMU block driver reference manual -To check if image locking is active, check the output of the "lslocks" command -on host and see if there are locks held by the QEMU process on the image file. -More than one byte could be locked by the QEMU instance, each byte of which -reflects a particular permission that is acquired or protected by the running -block driver. +Description +----------- -.. only:: man +.. include:: qemu-block-drivers.rst.inc - See also - -------- +See also +-------- - The HTML documentation of QEMU for more precise information and Linux - user mode emulator invocation. +The HTML documentation of QEMU for more precise information and Linux +user mode emulator invocation. diff --git a/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst.inc b/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst.inc new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..b052a6d14e --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/system/qemu-block-drivers.rst.inc @@ -0,0 +1,954 @@ +Disk image file formats +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +QEMU supports many image file formats that can be used with VMs as well as with +any of the tools (like ``qemu-img``). This includes the preferred formats +raw and qcow2 as well as formats that are supported for compatibility with +older QEMU versions or other hypervisors. + +Depending on the image format, different options can be passed to +``qemu-img create`` and ``qemu-img convert`` using the ``-o`` option. +This section describes each format and the options that are supported for it. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: raw + + Raw disk image format. This format has the advantage of + being simple and easily exportable to all other emulators. If your + file system supports *holes* (for example in ext2 or ext3 on + Linux or NTFS on Windows), then only the written sectors will reserve + space. Use ``qemu-img info`` to know the real size used by the + image or ``ls -ls`` on Unix/Linux. + + Supported options: + + .. program:: raw + .. option:: preallocation + + Preallocation mode (allowed values: ``off``, ``falloc``, + ``full``). ``falloc`` mode preallocates space for image by + calling ``posix_fallocate()``. ``full`` mode preallocates space + for image by writing data to underlying storage. This data may or + may not be zero, depending on the storage location. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: qcow2 + + QEMU image format, the most versatile format. Use it to have smaller + images (useful if your filesystem does not supports holes, for example + on Windows), zlib based compression and support of multiple VM + snapshots. + + Supported options: + + .. program:: qcow2 + .. option:: compat + + Determines the qcow2 version to use. ``compat=0.10`` uses the + traditional image format that can be read by any QEMU since 0.10. + ``compat=1.1`` enables image format extensions that only QEMU 1.1 and + newer understand (this is the default). Amongst others, this includes + zero clusters, which allow efficient copy-on-read for sparse images. + + .. option:: backing_file + + File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand) + + .. option:: backing_fmt + + Image format of the base image + + .. option:: encryption + + This option is deprecated and equivalent to ``encrypt.format=aes`` + + .. option:: encrypt.format + + If this is set to ``luks``, it requests that the qcow2 payload (not + qcow2 header) be encrypted using the LUKS format. The passphrase to + use to unlock the LUKS key slot is given by the ``encrypt.key-secret`` + parameter. LUKS encryption parameters can be tuned with the other + ``encrypt.*`` parameters. + + If this is set to ``aes``, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC. + The encryption key is given by the ``encrypt.key-secret`` parameter. + This encryption format is considered to be flawed by modern cryptography + standards, suffering from a number of design problems: + + - The AES-CBC cipher is used with predictable initialization vectors based + on the sector number. This makes it vulnerable to chosen plaintext attacks + which can reveal the existence of encrypted data. + - The user passphrase is directly used as the encryption key. A poorly + chosen or short passphrase will compromise the security of the encryption. + - In the event of the passphrase being compromised there is no way to + change the passphrase to protect data in any qcow images. The files must + be cloned, using a different encryption passphrase in the new file. The + original file must then be securely erased using a program like shred, + though even this is ineffective with many modern storage technologies. + + The use of this is no longer supported in system emulators. Support only + remains in the command line utilities, for the purposes of data liberation + and interoperability with old versions of QEMU. The ``luks`` format + should be used instead. + + .. option:: encrypt.key-secret + + Provides the ID of a ``secret`` object that contains the passphrase + (``encrypt.format=luks``) or encryption key (``encrypt.format=aes``). + + .. option:: encrypt.cipher-alg + + Name of the cipher algorithm and key length. Currently defaults + to ``aes-256``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. + + .. option:: encrypt.cipher-mode + + Name of the encryption mode to use. Currently defaults to ``xts``. + Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. + + .. option:: encrypt.ivgen-alg + + Name of the initialization vector generator algorithm. Currently defaults + to ``plain64``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. + + .. option:: encrypt.ivgen-hash-alg + + Name of the hash algorithm to use with the initialization vector generator + (if required). Defaults to ``sha256``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. + + .. option:: encrypt.hash-alg + + Name of the hash algorithm to use for PBKDF algorithm + Defaults to ``sha256``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. + + .. option:: encrypt.iter-time + + Amount of time, in milliseconds, to use for PBKDF algorithm per key slot. + Defaults to ``2000``. Only used when ``encrypt.format=luks``. + + .. option:: cluster_size + + Changes the qcow2 cluster size (must be between 512 and 2M). Smaller cluster + sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes generally + provide better performance. + + .. option:: preallocation + + Preallocation mode (allowed values: ``off``, ``metadata``, ``falloc``, + ``full``). An image with preallocated metadata is initially larger but can + improve performance when the image needs to grow. ``falloc`` and ``full`` + preallocations are like the same options of ``raw`` format, but sets up + metadata also. + + .. option:: lazy_refcounts + + If this option is set to ``on``, reference count updates are postponed with + the goal of avoiding metadata I/O and improving performance. This is + particularly interesting with :option:`cache=writethrough` which doesn't batch + metadata updates. The tradeoff is that after a host crash, the reference count + tables must be rebuilt, i.e. on the next open an (automatic) ``qemu-img + check -r all`` is required, which may take some time. + + This option can only be enabled if ``compat=1.1`` is specified. + + .. option:: nocow + + If this option is set to ``on``, it will turn off COW of the file. It's only + valid on btrfs, no effect on other file systems. + + Btrfs has low performance when hosting a VM image file, even more + when the guest on the VM also using btrfs as file system. Turning off + COW is a way to mitigate this bad performance. Generally there are two + ways to turn off COW on btrfs: + + - Disable it by mounting with nodatacow, then all newly created files + will be NOCOW. + - For an empty file, add the NOCOW file attribute. That's what this + option does. + + Note: this option is only valid to new or empty files. If there is + an existing file which is COW and has data blocks already, it couldn't + be changed to NOCOW by setting ``nocow=on``. One can issue ``lsattr + filename`` to check if the NOCOW flag is set or not (Capital 'C' is + NOCOW flag). + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: qed + + Old QEMU image format with support for backing files and compact image files + (when your filesystem or transport medium does not support holes). + + When converting QED images to qcow2, you might want to consider using the + ``lazy_refcounts=on`` option to get a more QED-like behaviour. + + Supported options: + + .. program:: qed + .. option:: backing_file + + File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand). + + .. option:: backing_fmt + + Image file format of backing file (optional). Useful if the format cannot be + autodetected because it has no header, like some vhd/vpc files. + + .. option:: cluster_size + + Changes the cluster size (must be power-of-2 between 4K and 64K). Smaller + cluster sizes can improve the image file size whereas larger cluster sizes + generally provide better performance. + + .. option:: table_size + + Changes the number of clusters per L1/L2 table (must be + power-of-2 between 1 and 16). There is normally no need to + change this value but this option can between used for + performance benchmarking. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: qcow + + Old QEMU image format with support for backing files, compact image files, + encryption and compression. + + Supported options: + + .. program:: qcow + .. option:: backing_file + + File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand) + + .. option:: encryption + + This option is deprecated and equivalent to ``encrypt.format=aes`` + + .. option:: encrypt.format + + If this is set to ``aes``, the image is encrypted with 128-bit AES-CBC. + The encryption key is given by the ``encrypt.key-secret`` parameter. + This encryption format is considered to be flawed by modern cryptography + standards, suffering from a number of design problems enumerated previously + against the ``qcow2`` image format. + + The use of this is no longer supported in system emulators. Support only + remains in the command line utilities, for the purposes of data liberation + and interoperability with old versions of QEMU. + + Users requiring native encryption should use the ``qcow2`` format + instead with ``encrypt.format=luks``. + + .. option:: encrypt.key-secret + + Provides the ID of a ``secret`` object that contains the encryption + key (``encrypt.format=aes``). + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: luks + + LUKS v1 encryption format, compatible with Linux dm-crypt/cryptsetup + + Supported options: + + .. program:: luks + .. option:: key-secret + + Provides the ID of a ``secret`` object that contains the passphrase. + + .. option:: cipher-alg + + Name of the cipher algorithm and key length. Currently defaults + to ``aes-256``. + + .. option:: cipher-mode + + Name of the encryption mode to use. Currently defaults to ``xts``. + + .. option:: ivgen-alg + + Name of the initialization vector generator algorithm. Currently defaults + to ``plain64``. + + .. option:: ivgen-hash-alg + + Name of the hash algorithm to use with the initialization vector generator + (if required). Defaults to ``sha256``. + + .. option:: hash-alg + + Name of the hash algorithm to use for PBKDF algorithm + Defaults to ``sha256``. + + .. option:: iter-time + + Amount of time, in milliseconds, to use for PBKDF algorithm per key slot. + Defaults to ``2000``. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: vdi + + VirtualBox 1.1 compatible image format. + + Supported options: + + .. program:: vdi + .. option:: static + + If this option is set to ``on``, the image is created with metadata + preallocation. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: vmdk + + VMware 3 and 4 compatible image format. + + Supported options: + + .. program: vmdk + .. option:: backing_file + + File name of a base image (see ``create`` subcommand). + + .. option:: compat6 + + Create a VMDK version 6 image (instead of version 4) + + .. option:: hwversion + + Specify vmdk virtual hardware version. Compat6 flag cannot be enabled + if hwversion is specified. + + .. option:: subformat + + Specifies which VMDK subformat to use. Valid options are + ``monolithicSparse`` (default), + ``monolithicFlat``, + ``twoGbMaxExtentSparse``, + ``twoGbMaxExtentFlat`` and + ``streamOptimized``. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: vpc + + VirtualPC compatible image format (VHD). + + Supported options: + + .. program:: vpc + .. option:: subformat + + Specifies which VHD subformat to use. Valid options are + ``dynamic`` (default) and ``fixed``. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: VHDX + + Hyper-V compatible image format (VHDX). + + Supported options: + + .. program:: VHDX + .. option:: subformat + + Specifies which VHDX subformat to use. Valid options are + ``dynamic`` (default) and ``fixed``. + + .. option:: block_state_zero + + Force use of payload blocks of type 'ZERO'. Can be set to ``on`` (default) + or ``off``. When set to ``off``, new blocks will be created as + ``PAYLOAD_BLOCK_NOT_PRESENT``, which means parsers are free to return + arbitrary data for those blocks. Do not set to ``off`` when using + ``qemu-img convert`` with ``subformat=dynamic``. + + .. option:: block_size + + Block size; min 1 MB, max 256 MB. 0 means auto-calculate based on + image size. + + .. option:: log_size + + Log size; min 1 MB. + +Read-only formats +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +More disk image file formats are supported in a read-only mode. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: bochs + + Bochs images of ``growing`` type. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: cloop + + Linux Compressed Loop image, useful only to reuse directly compressed + CD-ROM images present for example in the Knoppix CD-ROMs. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: dmg + + Apple disk image. + +.. program:: image-formats +.. option:: parallels + + Parallels disk image format. + +Using host drives +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +In addition to disk image files, QEMU can directly access host +devices. We describe here the usage for QEMU version >= 0.8.3. + +Linux +^^^^^ + +On Linux, you can directly use the host device filename instead of a +disk image filename provided you have enough privileges to access +it. For example, use ``/dev/cdrom`` to access to the CDROM. + +CD + You can specify a CDROM device even if no CDROM is loaded. QEMU has + specific code to detect CDROM insertion or removal. CDROM ejection by + the guest OS is supported. Currently only data CDs are supported. + +Floppy + You can specify a floppy device even if no floppy is loaded. Floppy + removal is currently not detected accurately (if you change floppy + without doing floppy access while the floppy is not loaded, the guest + OS will think that the same floppy is loaded). + Use of the host's floppy device is deprecated, and support for it will + be removed in a future release. + +Hard disks + Hard disks can be used. Normally you must specify the whole disk + (``/dev/hdb`` instead of ``/dev/hdb1``) so that the guest OS can + see it as a partitioned disk. WARNING: unless you know what you do, it + is better to only make READ-ONLY accesses to the hard disk otherwise + you may corrupt your host data (use the ``-snapshot`` command + line option or modify the device permissions accordingly). + +Windows +^^^^^^^ + +CD + The preferred syntax is the drive letter (e.g. ``d:``). The + alternate syntax ``\\.\d:`` is supported. ``/dev/cdrom`` is + supported as an alias to the first CDROM drive. + + Currently there is no specific code to handle removable media, so it + is better to use the ``change`` or ``eject`` monitor commands to + change or eject media. + +Hard disks + Hard disks can be used with the syntax: ``\\.\PhysicalDriveN`` + where *N* is the drive number (0 is the first hard disk). + + WARNING: unless you know what you do, it is better to only make + READ-ONLY accesses to the hard disk otherwise you may corrupt your + host data (use the ``-snapshot`` command line so that the + modifications are written in a temporary file). + +Mac OS X +^^^^^^^^ + +``/dev/cdrom`` is an alias to the first CDROM. + +Currently there is no specific code to handle removable media, so it +is better to use the ``change`` or ``eject`` monitor commands to +change or eject media. + +Virtual FAT disk images +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +QEMU can automatically create a virtual FAT disk image from a +directory tree. In order to use it, just type: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb fat:/my_directory + +Then you access access to all the files in the ``/my_directory`` +directory without having to copy them in a disk image or to export +them via SAMBA or NFS. The default access is *read-only*. + +Floppies can be emulated with the ``:floppy:`` option: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| linux.img -fda fat:floppy:/my_directory + +A read/write support is available for testing (beta stage) with the +``:rw:`` option: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| linux.img -fda fat:floppy:rw:/my_directory + +What you should *never* do: + +- use non-ASCII filenames +- use "-snapshot" together with ":rw:" +- expect it to work when loadvm'ing +- write to the FAT directory on the host system while accessing it with the guest system + +NBD access +~~~~~~~~~~ + +QEMU can access directly to block device exported using the Network Block Device +protocol. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb nbd://my_nbd_server.mydomain.org:1024/ + +If the NBD server is located on the same host, you can use an unix socket instead +of an inet socket: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket + +In this case, the block device must be exported using qemu-nbd: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket my_disk.qcow2 + +The use of qemu-nbd allows sharing of a disk between several guests: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + qemu-nbd --socket=/tmp/my_socket --share=2 my_disk.qcow2 + +and then you can use it with two guests: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| linux1.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket + |qemu_system| linux2.img -hdb nbd+unix://?socket=/tmp/my_socket + +If the nbd-server uses named exports (supported since NBD 2.9.18, or with QEMU's +own embedded NBD server), you must specify an export name in the URI: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| -cdrom nbd://localhost/debian-500-ppc-netinst + |qemu_system| -cdrom nbd://localhost/openSUSE-11.1-ppc-netinst + +The URI syntax for NBD is supported since QEMU 1.3. An alternative syntax is +also available. Here are some example of the older syntax: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| linux.img -hdb nbd:my_nbd_server.mydomain.org:1024 + |qemu_system| linux2.img -hdb nbd:unix:/tmp/my_socket + |qemu_system| -cdrom nbd:localhost:10809:exportname=debian-500-ppc-netinst + + + +Sheepdog disk images +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Sheepdog is a distributed storage system for QEMU. It provides highly +available block level storage volumes that can be attached to +QEMU-based virtual machines. + +You can create a Sheepdog disk image with the command: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + qemu-img create sheepdog:///IMAGE SIZE + +where *IMAGE* is the Sheepdog image name and *SIZE* is its +size. + +To import the existing *FILENAME* to Sheepdog, you can use a +convert command. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + qemu-img convert FILENAME sheepdog:///IMAGE + +You can boot from the Sheepdog disk image with the command: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| sheepdog:///IMAGE + +You can also create a snapshot of the Sheepdog image like qcow2. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + qemu-img snapshot -c TAG sheepdog:///IMAGE + +where *TAG* is a tag name of the newly created snapshot. + +To boot from the Sheepdog snapshot, specify the tag name of the +snapshot. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| sheepdog:///IMAGE#TAG + +You can create a cloned image from the existing snapshot. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + qemu-img create -b sheepdog:///BASE#TAG sheepdog:///IMAGE + +where *BASE* is an image name of the source snapshot and *TAG* +is its tag name. + +You can use an unix socket instead of an inet socket: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| sheepdog+unix:///IMAGE?socket=PATH + +If the Sheepdog daemon doesn't run on the local host, you need to +specify one of the Sheepdog servers to connect to. + +.. parsed-literal:: + + qemu-img create sheepdog://HOSTNAME:PORT/IMAGE SIZE + |qemu_system| sheepdog://HOSTNAME:PORT/IMAGE + +iSCSI LUNs +~~~~~~~~~~ + +iSCSI is a popular protocol used to access SCSI devices across a computer +network. + +There are two different ways iSCSI devices can be used by QEMU. + +The first method is to mount the iSCSI LUN on the host, and make it appear as +any other ordinary SCSI device on the host and then to access this device as a +/dev/sd device from QEMU. How to do this differs between host OSes. + +The second method involves using the iSCSI initiator that is built into +QEMU. This provides a mechanism that works the same way regardless of which +host OS you are running QEMU on. This section will describe this second method +of using iSCSI together with QEMU. + +In QEMU, iSCSI devices are described using special iSCSI URLs. URL syntax: + +:: + + iscsi://[[%]@][:]// + +Username and password are optional and only used if your target is set up +using CHAP authentication for access control. +Alternatively the username and password can also be set via environment +variables to have these not show up in the process list: + +:: + + export LIBISCSI_CHAP_USERNAME= + export LIBISCSI_CHAP_PASSWORD= + iscsi://// + +Various session related parameters can be set via special options, either +in a configuration file provided via '-readconfig' or directly on the +command line. + +If the initiator-name is not specified qemu will use a default name +of 'iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:'] where is the UUID of the +virtual machine. If the UUID is not specified qemu will use +'iqn.2008-11.org.linux-kvm[:'] where is the name of the +virtual machine. + +Setting a specific initiator name to use when logging in to the target: + +:: + + -iscsi initiator-name=iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator + +Controlling which type of header digest to negotiate with the target: + +:: + + -iscsi header-digest=CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE + +These can also be set via a configuration file: + +:: + + [iscsi] + user = "CHAP username" + password = "CHAP password" + initiator-name = "iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator" + # header digest is one of CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE + header-digest = "CRC32C" + +Setting the target name allows different options for different targets: + +:: + + [iscsi "iqn.target.name"] + user = "CHAP username" + password = "CHAP password" + initiator-name = "iqn.qemu.test:my-initiator" + # header digest is one of CRC32C|CRC32C-NONE|NONE-CRC32C|NONE + header-digest = "CRC32C" + +How to use a configuration file to set iSCSI configuration options: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + cat >iscsi.conf < /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:06:0d.0/driver/unbind + # echo 1102 0002 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/vfio-pci/new_id + + # |qemu_system| -drive file=nvme://HOST:BUS:SLOT.FUNC/NAMESPACE + +Alternative syntax using properties: + +.. parsed-literal:: + + |qemu_system| -drive file.driver=nvme,file.device=HOST:BUS:SLOT.FUNC,file.namespace=NAMESPACE + +*HOST*:*BUS*:*SLOT*.\ *FUNC* is the NVMe controller's PCI device +address on the host. + +*NAMESPACE* is the NVMe namespace number, starting from 1. + +Disk image file locking +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +By default, QEMU tries to protect image files from unexpected concurrent +access, as long as it's supported by the block protocol driver and host +operating system. If multiple QEMU processes (including QEMU emulators and +utilities) try to open the same image with conflicting accessing modes, all but +the first one will get an error. + +This feature is currently supported by the file protocol on Linux with the Open +File Descriptor (OFD) locking API, and can be configured to fall back to POSIX +locking if the POSIX host doesn't support Linux OFD locking. + +To explicitly enable image locking, specify "locking=on" in the file protocol +driver options. If OFD locking is not possible, a warning will be printed and +the POSIX locking API will be used. In this case there is a risk that the lock +will get silently lost when doing hot plugging and block jobs, due to the +shortcomings of the POSIX locking API. + +QEMU transparently handles lock handover during shared storage migration. For +shared virtual disk images between multiple VMs, the "share-rw" device option +should be used. + +By default, the guest has exclusive write access to its disk image. If the +guest can safely share the disk image with other writers the +``-device ...,share-rw=on`` parameter can be used. This is only safe if +the guest is running software, such as a cluster file system, that +coordinates disk accesses to avoid corruption. + +Note that share-rw=on only declares the guest's ability to share the disk. +Some QEMU features, such as image file formats, require exclusive write access +to the disk image and this is unaffected by the share-rw=on option. + +Alternatively, locking can be fully disabled by "locking=off" block device +option. In the command line, the option is usually in the form of +"file.locking=off" as the protocol driver is normally placed as a "file" child +under a format driver. For example: + +:: + + -blockdev driver=qcow2,file.filename=/path/to/image,file.locking=off,file.driver=file + +To check if image locking is active, check the output of the "lslocks" command +on host and see if there are locks held by the QEMU process on the image file. +More than one byte could be locked by the QEMU instance, each byte of which +reflects a particular permission that is acquired or protected by the running +block driver.