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anishcorratech/mount_qcow2_image.md

Created May 12, 2021 11:37
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How to mount a QCOW2 disk image in Linux
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mount_qcow2_image.md

How to mount a QCOW2 disk image in Linux

QCOW2_Disk_Image

In Linux KVM we use sparse file format called qcow and qcow2 for disk images. Sometimes we need to mount a qcow2 disk images of a guest devices on to your host server. We need to do this to salvage a file, reset password of root user, or troubleshoot a faulty disk image.

We can use this dcumentation to do mount a Linux KVM guest qcow2 disk.

1. Dynamically load the NDB driver to Linux kernel

modprobe nbd max_part=8

2. Attach the QCOW2 file as network block device

qemu-nbd --connect=/dev/nbd0 /var/lib/libvirt/images/cda_vm01/cda_vm01_deb11_amd64_hd0.qcow2

3. Probing the partitions inside the newly added Block device using fdisk

fdisk /dev/nbd0 -l

4. Create a empty directory for mounting the required volumes from new Block device

mkdir -vp /mnt/virtual/cda_vm01/

5. Mounting the partition from the newly added Block device

mount /dev/nbd0p1 /mnt/virtual/cda_vm01/

6. Unmounting partition and disconnecting the block device

umount /mnt/virtual/cda_vm01/
qemu-nbd --disconnect /dev/nbd0
rmmod nbd

Done!!!

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