virtualbox.org

Ideally I'd like to make clone bootup much faster by copy a machine in 'saved' status (not powered off). Is this possible? Where is the 'saved state' actually stored? And can it be duplicated?

thanks
Steve

The saved state is a CPU and memory dump that gets stored in a ".sav" file stored in the VM Snapshots subfolder. It is not included when a VM is cloned. You could copy the VM folder to another host, but the .sav file is designed for a quick start, not to be portable between hosts, between VMs, or between different VBox versions.

Users usually get into trouble when they pull stunts like this. For example forgetting that upgrading the VirtualBox software changes the machine environment and invalidates any saved state. Is 30 seconds at the start of your day really that important? More important than securing the data on your disk drive? IMHO: shut down the VM properly. When starting the next day, go get a coffee while it works. I apply the same rationale to my physical PCs.

If the saved state contains a CPU/mem dump, then would it still work if started up again on a machine with the same VM, but a different CPU (or number of cores) or more memory?

No, it would not. As mentioned, the saved state is not designed to be portable.

As Mpack has pointed out the saved state is not portable. I would recommend simply cloning the VM, open it on the NEW host and then again save the state there, this would be a one time deal and only takes a few minutes, this makes a saved state compatible with the new host.

OK understood - thanks a lot for the info.