virtualbox.org

Hi,

I have made a snapshots of a VM using full snapshot (i.e. not just links).
I consider to delete the parrent VM.
Will that deletion give problems in anyway for the snapshot VM?

Put it another way is the snapshot VM (done using full snapshot) completely independent?

Jan Peter

NO! Deleting the base image will leave you with an unusable guest.

Please clarify what "full snapshot, not just links" means? There is no such thing as a full snapshot, and the word "link" has no relevance to snapshots either. Is this just a terminology problem? Do you actually mean a full clone? Clones and snapshots are very different, it would be best not to confuse the two.

I'm guessing what he meant is when you choose to clone a machine a dialog comes up asking if you want to create a full clone or a linked clone and explains the difference. Regardless, as PerryG said, you don't want to delete the base image.

loukingjr wrote:Regardless, as PerryG said, you don't want to delete the base image.

If it's a full clone then deleting the original VM will do no harm whatever.

this is true.

Hi

Thanks for your ideas and comments.

The clone I made was of the current state and using the option "full clone" and thus not "linked clone".
I did not use the option reinit MAC address...

The VM I have (with Win XP SP3) I have used since VBox ver 2.x through 3.x and now 4.2.x.
Since the underlying folder structure in the VBox handling of VMs changed in ver 4.x I feel I want
to completely re-install VBox and then bring back my old VM in the "right" and simpler folder structure of VBox 4.2.

I guess the crude way is to export the VM in ova format and then re-install the VBox and import the VM back.

Another way would be to save the "full clone" - perhansp with reinit MAC address? - re-install the VBox and add (instead of import) the old clone.

Pros and cons with these two approaches?

My VMs is simple - I do not use USB or other external equipment in the VM.

Thanks

Jan Peter

No, full clone - without reinit-ing the MAC address - is the best and simplest way to bring an old VM up to v4.x folder structure. And yes, having done this, and tested that the new VM works, it is then perfectly safe to delete the old VM. Of course making a backup before you start anything like this is always a good idea.

Once you have converted all of your VMs, the last step is updating the .VirtualBox home folder. The best way to do that is simply to delete the contents of the .VirtualBox folder entirely. VirtualBox will recreate a blank VirtualBox.xml - which will therefore be in the latest format - and then all you need do is add back each of your v4.x format VMs using the Machine|Add... menu item, selecting the .vbox file of each VM.

Export/Import should be avoided if possible, since that changes important features of the VM, e.g. switching to VMDK disk format, which is not optimal for VirtualBox.

Hi

Thanks for you quick response!

Seems I need to go back and really try to move the clone over (from MBP to MacMini both on latest VBox and OSX 10.7.5).

My strategy is that if I manage to bring the clone working to the MacMini then I most likely also could reinstall it on my MBP.

I also read your post viewtopic.php?f=35&t=55003

which is helpful.


I will try later the coming week and will come back on the appropriate thread.


Thanks

Jan Peter

I just managed to move the full clone to the Mac mini and run it there, see my other recent post.

Jan Peter