[Feature]: Implement snapshot support

[uhidontkno]

Is there an existing feature request for this?

• I have searched the existing feature requests

Is your proposal related to a problem?

Instead of waiting up to 15 minutes for Windows to install, I propose that a snapshot feature should be implemented so that there should be a way to install windows once, make a snapshot for it, then be able to load it anytime for instant Windows installations.

Describe the solution you'd like.

One solution could be to have a way to save the entire VM's disk to somewhere else using docker cp for example, then feeding that file into the Windows Docker Container, or simply implement QEMU snapshots support

Describe alternatives you've considered.

I haven't tried anything yet.

Additional context

No response

[lucaspdude]

Interested in this also.

At work we use some old VB6 configured machine and it would be really nice if we could make snapshots since most of the configuration is manual for this environment.

[kroese]

Inside the /storage volume there is a file called data.img that contains the whole harddisk.

So the only thing you need to do for instant installations is to provide an existing /storage volume, which can be binded to a local folder like this:

volumes:
  - /example/folder:/storage

So for backing up or restoring machines, all you need to do is make a copy of /example/folder. And if you have multiple folders, you can easily switch between them by changing that line in your compose file.

I have no plans to implement QEMU snapshots, but the above method should provide pretty similar functionality. The only difference is that you cannot make a copy of /storage while the machine is powered on and that it uses a bit more diskspace because nothing is layered like with real snapshots.

[baiomys]

ZFS volume can be passed to docker instead of /storage via
/dev/zvol/mypool/myvol:/disk1
It has native support for compression, snapshots, encryption, thin provisioning, etc.
So it is worth spending couple of days reading ZFS for dummies.
=)