9.12. Export a virtual machine

Procedure

1. 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/v1beta1
   kind: VirtualMachineExport
   metadata:
     name: example-export
   spec:
     source:
       apiGroup: "kubevirt.io"
       kind: VirtualMachine
       name: example-vm
     ttlDuration: 1h

   • spec.source.apiGroup defines the API group of the resource that you want to export:

     • Use "kubevirt.io" for VirtualMachine.
     • Use "snapshot.kubevirt.io" for VirtualMachineSnapshot.
     • Use "" for PersistentVolumeClaim.

   • spec.source.kind defines the data source for the export. There are three primary values used for this field:

     • VirtualMachine
     • VirtualMachineSnapshot
     • PersistentVolumeClaim
   • spec.ttlDuration defines the length of time before the export resource is automatically deleted. The default is 2 hours.

2. Create the VirtualMachineExport CR:

   $ oc create -f example-export.yaml

3. 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/v1beta1
   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:
         cert: |-
           -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
           ...
           -----END CERTIFICATE-----
         volumes:
         - formats:
           - format: raw
             url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/volumes/example-disk/disk.img
           - format: gzip
             url: https://vmexport-proxy.test.net/api/export.kubevirt.io/v1beta1/namespaces/example/virtualmachineexports/example-export/volumes/example-disk/disk.img.gz
           name: example-disk
       internal:
         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

   • status.links.external defines external links that are accessible from outside the cluster by using an Ingress or Route.
   • status.links.internal defines internal links that are valid only inside the cluster.