KVM: Manage snapshots

Some useful commands to create, manage and restore VM snapshots when running KVM and libvirt.

Some notes before getting started:

  • You need the virsh tool

  • These commands are meant to be used on not running instances

  • If you don’t see your instance, run the commands with sudo

  • The volume needs to be configured with qcow2

List the machines, including shut down instances:

virsh list --all

Create a snapshot of a turned off instance:

virsh snapshot-create-as --domain debian10 --name "initial" --description "Clean state before installing tools"

List the snapshots:

virsh snapshot-list --domain debian10

Get information about a snapshot:

virsh snapshot-info --domain debian10 --snapshotname initial

Revert a domain to a snapshot:

virsh snapshot-revert --domain debian10 --snapshotname initial

Delete a domain snapshot

virsh snapshot-delete --domain debian10 --snapshotname initial