6.9. Exporting and Importing Virtual Resources
A virtual machine or a template can be imported or exported to a data center in a different Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization system. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager allows you to import and export virtual machines (and templates) stored in Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF). This feature can be used in multiple ways:
To move virtual resources to a different installation of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.
To move virtual resources to a different data center in the same installation of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. To do this, the original virtual resource must be deleted.
To back up virtual resources.
A virtual machine must be stopped before it can be moved across data centers. If the virtual machine was created using a template, the template is not automatically exported, however the template must exist in the destination domain for the virtual machine to work.
6.9.1. Overview of the Export-Import Process
To export or import resources, an active export domain must be attached to the data center. The export domain can be thought of as a temporary storage area that contains one directory per virtual machine. Each directory consists of all the OVF (Open Virtualization Format) files pertaining to the virtual machine. The export domain enables you to add pre-configured virtual machines or domains to a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager system. You can also import virtual machines from a different format, for example, Xen, VMware or Windows virtual machines, using the V2V feature provided. V2V converts virtual machines and places them in the export domain. For more information on V2V, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux V2V Guide.
Only one export domain can be active in the data center. This means that the domain can be attached to either the source data center or the destination data center.
To perform an export-import of virtual resources:
Figure 6.19. Attach Export Domain
Export the virtual resource to the export domain.
Figure 6.21. Detach Export Domain
Figure 6.22. Attach the Export Domain
Import the virtual resource into the destination data center.