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== Investigation 6: How do I backup a virtual machine? ==
{{Admon/important|Backing up VMs|There are two parts to backing up your images:<ol><li>Compressing your images (also recommended to backup up to external storage (USB Key)</li><li>Backup the VM xlm configuration file (preferably to USB key) using virsh shell command to add VM to virtual machine manager list (if HOST machine is "wiped" and re-installed).</li></ol><br /><br />Taking the time to backup the image of the Operating System's file system allows the user to return to a '''"restoration point"''' in case something bad occurs to the OS during a lab. Failure to take the time to make and confirm backups can result in loss of lab work for the student!|}}
# Shut down all of the virtual machines.
# Change to the directory <code>/var/lib/libvirt/images/</code>. Note the size of the files in this directory. What do these files contain?
# Make a compressed backup of the <code>fedora3.img</code> file to your home directory with this command: <code>gzip <fedora3.img >~'''YourUserId'''/fedora3.img.backup.gz</code>
{{Admon/caution|There are two parts to backing up your images:<ol><li>Compressing your images (also recommended to backup up to external storage (USB Key)</li><li>Backup the VM xlm configuration file (preferably to USB key) using virsh shell command to add VM to virtual machine manager list (if HOST machine is "wiped" and re-installed).</li></ol><br /><br /> Make sure the backup is successful!|If there are any error messages, '''DO NOT''' proceed past this point. You're going to destroy your fedora3 virtual machine and restore it using the backup you have created -- if there are any problems with the backup, you will not have a working virtual machine, and will have to re-install it.}}
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<li value="4">Compare the size of the compressed and original files.</li>