On 12/13/22 20:39, Robert Nichols wrote:
On 12/13/22 6:10 PM, ToddAndMargo via users wrote:
> On 12/13/22 15:28, Todd Zullinger wrote:
>> Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
>>> However qcow also allows compression, sparse files,
>>> encryption and copy-on-write snapshots (COW, hence the
>>> name) [...]
>>
>> This is not meant to detract from your well-made point that
>> the qcow2 format provides many benefits over raw filesystem
>> images. :)
>>
>> Tangentially, the qemu-img(1) man page says of the
>> encryption support:
>>
>> The use of encryption in qcow and qcow2 images is
>> considered to be flawed by modern cryptography
>> standards, suffering from a number of design problems:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>> Use of qcow / qcow2 encryption is thus strongly
>> discouraged. Users are recommended to use an alternative
>> encryption technology such as the Linux dm-crypt / LUKS
>> system.
>
>
> And if you can't back it up, it is ...
I really don't understand what the issue with restoring a qcow2 file
might be. As far as the host is concerned, it's just a file that
contains a binary blob. Dumping and restoring such a file should be no
different from doing the same with any other file containing an
arbitrary arrangement of ONEs and ZEROs.
"dump" and "restore" are specific utilities for exporting and
recreating
an ext filesystem. They can't work on a qcow file because they're
expecting a disk partition or equivalent. e.g. a raw file would work as
well.