13.10. Supported disk image formats
To run a virtual machine (VM) on RHEL, you must use a disk image with a supported format. You can also convert certain unsupported disk images to a supported format.
Supported disk image formats for VMs
You can use disk images that use the following formats to run VMs in RHEL:
- qcow2 - Provides certain additional features, such as compression.
- raw - Might provide better performance.
- luks - Disk images encrypted by using the Linux Unified Key Setup (LUKS) specification.
Supported disk image formats for conversion
-
If required, you can convert your disk images between the
rawandqcow2formats by using theqemu-img convertcommand. -
If you require converting a vmdk disk image to a
raworqcow2format, convert the VM that uses the disk to KVM by using thevirt-v2vutility. To convert other disk image formats to
raworqcow2, you can use theqemu-img convertcommand. For a list of formats that work with this command, see the QEMU documentation.Note that in most cases, converting the disk image format of a non-KVM virtual machine to
qcow2orrawis not sufficient for the VM to correctly run on RHEL KVM. In addition to converting the disk image, corresponding drivers must be installed and configured in the guest operating system of the VM. For supported hypervisor conversion, use thevirt-v2vutility.