Exporting and importing images

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With PowerVC, you can copy the volumes associated with an image out of one storage provider into either a backup repository or OVA package (export). You can also copy an image from a backup repository or OVA package into a storage provider and create an image from those volumes (import). Images that are exported using PowerVC are not included when backups are taken using powervc-backup.

There are several ways to import and export image volumes:

Export volumes out of a storage provider into a backup repository.
Export volumes into an OVA package.
Import volumes from the backup repository into a storage provider and create a new image from those volumes.
Import volumes contained an OVA package into a storage provider and create a new image from those volumes.
Manually import and export volumes from VIOS connected storage.

To export the volumes of an image to a backup repository, the PowerVC management server uses the Cinder backup service. All volume drivers use the same backup service by default, which backs up the volumes of the images into a specified directory on the PowerVC management server. Alternatively, you can use the powervc-config storage swift-backup command to enable a swift server as the backup repository for a storage provider.

Requirements

You must have administrator or both storage manager and image manager authority. The PowerVC management server must have direct connectivity to the storage provider registered to PowerVC.

For SAN based volumes, this requires Fibre Channel connectivity from the storage provider to the PowerVC instance. These fabrics might or might not be registered with PowerVC.
For IBM Spectrum Scale, the PowerVC management instance has direct connectivity to the storage provider.

Note: To import or export SAN based image volumes, the PowerVC management server (The RHEL OS that PowerVC is installed on) must have a virtual or physical Fibre Channel adapter connected to the fabrics and those fabrics must also be connected to the storage provider. The PowerVC management server's Fibre Channel adapter must be zoned to the storage provider. For a PowerVC management server hosted on PowerVM® it is recommended that a virtual Fibre Channel adapter be added to the PowerVC management server. For Storwize®, if the image volumes are part of multiple IO groups, then for image export or import, PowerVC needs zoning with all IO groups.

Limitations

Image volumes can be imported into volumes that are specified by a single storage template. The imported volumes are created on a single storage provider.
IBM® i images on DS8000® with volumes that were created by using an OS400 specific block size cannot be imported or exported.
Import and export operations are not supported on shared storage pool volumes because the management server does not have direct connectivity to the storage provider.