KVM virtual machine transfer query

[Phil Meyer]

On 10/04/2011 02:20 PM, Sanjay Arora wrote:
> Hello all
>
> I have a question. Can a kvm virtual machine, a linux or windows 
> guest, generated of fedora, be transfered to a rhel machine and 
> started? or vice versa?
>
> Please note, I am not talking of live migration. Just transferring 
> files generated on one OS & running on the another? And what if 
> hardware of the machines is different?
>


Not the official voice, but my experience is yes.  The only issue MAY BE 
transferring an image from an intel based server to an AMD based server.

For instance, here we run production KVMs on blades with Xeons.  I have 
often found it easier to do maintenance on a VM by mounting/copying that 
VMs drive to my desktop and firing it up here, and remounting/copying 
the image on the KVM host afterwards.

Nary an issue.  My desktop is currently running Fedora 15 on a cheap 
intel quad core.

To insure best long term portability, I would recommend using virtio 
drivers for network and disks.  That way there should never be an issue 
moving to different hardware underneath.

One CAVEAT is sound drivers.  The emulator, qemu, must support the 
drivers you choose.  Be careful not to use a driver that may not move 
forward, or backwards for that matter.

I recently built a KVM on my desktop to copy to a RHEL6.0 server.  
Fedora 15 qemu defaults to a sound driver that did not exist in earlier 
versions of qemu.

Just be aware of audio drivers, use virtio drivers where possible, and 
you should be golden for years to come.

Good Luck!