Comparison between VDI backups and snapshots
Posted: 15. May 2009, 05:51
I'm new to VirtualBox. I'm running VirtualBox 2.2.2 on a desktop machine using Antix-m8 as the host. Right now I have Antix-m8 and Mepis 8 guests. Intending to experiment with 'wild' packages, I wanted to back up the current guests before it's too late so I wouldn't need to reinstall so often. I found a howto (http://www.my-guides.net/en/content/view/155/26/) on backing up the vdi files and successfully followed it for the Antix guest. Then I discovered snapshots in the User Manual and decided to take a snapshot of the original Antix guest. However, it gave me an error refusing to take the snapshot because the UUID number is different. The same happened when I tried taking a snapshot of the backup Antix. I did, however, succeed in taking a snapshot of the Mepis guest.
My question, then, is: Which is better for my purpose: snapshots, or backups per the howto?
The backup procedure seems very cumbersome and, if I'm just as well off with snapshots, I'd rather do that. However, I worried about the snapshots accumulating, but according to the Users' Manual 8.11 and the snapshots section in the VB main window it looks possible to delete selected snapshots; am I right about that?
And a second question: Is it possible now to make a snapshot of the Antix guest?
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas
My question, then, is: Which is better for my purpose: snapshots, or backups per the howto?
The backup procedure seems very cumbersome and, if I'm just as well off with snapshots, I'd rather do that. However, I worried about the snapshots accumulating, but according to the Users' Manual 8.11 and the snapshots section in the VB main window it looks possible to delete selected snapshots; am I right about that?
And a second question: Is it possible now to make a snapshot of the Antix guest?
In faith, Dave
Viva Texas