On Tue, 2022-12-13 at 22:39 -0600, 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.
I think there's some lack of clarity in ToddAndMargo's original post. I
originally thought it meant that the qcow2 file is just part of some
filesystem that is being dumped along with everything else, in which
case it's a raw file and should dump and restore without issue. However
subsequent comments seems to indicate it's being dumped itself *as a
filesystem* (or partition) in which case dump is trying to interpret
its contents, and I wouldn't expect that to work, especially after the
sparsify process.
poc