QEMU VM with snapshot setup + samba file sharing

#qemu #vm #samba #snapshot

Requirements

telnet
qemu
samba

Command to install the requirements:

apt-get update && \
  apt-get install -y \
  qemu-system-x86 libvirt-clients \
  libvirt-daemon qemu-kvm samba telnet

Lets do it

Assuming that our terminal is open at /opt/vm create the folder that will be shared with the VM:

mkdir -p shared-resources

Considering that the VM is located in /opt/vm/system-image/windows-11 create the snapshot image /opt/vm/snapshot:

qemu-img create -b /opt/vm/system-image/windows-11 -f qcow2 -F qcow2 /opt/vm/snapshot

Now, run the VM using the previously created snapshot image file and enable the monitor via telnet:

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
    -machine q35 -m 4096 -smp 2 \
    -usb -device usb-kbd -device usb-tablet -rtc base=localtime \
    -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0 \
    -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::3000-:3389,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22,smb=/opt/vm/shared-resources \
    -drive file=snapshot,media=disk,if=virtio \
    -monitor telnet:0.0.0.0:1234,server,nowait \
    -nographic -serial mon:stdio

To save the vm snapshot its recommended to wait for the desired system state before "taking a picture" of it.
Considering that the VM is in the expected state, let's save it:

telnet localhost 1234
savevm state

To close the telnet session press ctrl + [ and type q and ENTER.

With the snapshot saved, now it is possible to boot the VM and load our saved snapshot:

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
    -machine q35 -m 4096 -smp 2 \
    -usb -device usb-kbd -device usb-tablet -rtc base=localtime \
    -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=net0 \
    -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::3000-:3389,hostfwd=tcp::2222-:22,smb=/opt/vm/shared-resources \
    -drive file=/opt/vm/snapshot,media=disk,if=virtio \
    -loadvm state \
    -nographic -serial mon:stdio