Convert qcow2 to raw image and raw to qcow2 image

Jan 24, 2016 Linux, Virtualization

linux-terminal
qemu-img is a QEMU disk image utility, which allows us to create, convert and modify images offline. It can handle all image formats supported by QEMU (including qcow2 and raw image format).

Installing qemu-img:

[root@tuxfixer ~]# yum install qemu-img

Converting qcow2 image to raw image format using qemu-img:

[root@tuxfixer ~]# qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw image.qcow2 image.img

Converting raw image to qcow2 image format using qemu-img:

[root@tuxfixer ~]# qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 image.img image.qcow2
4 thoughts on “Convert qcow2 to raw image and raw to qcow2 image”
  1. if, the original (raw) image is static a one with a lot of unused space inside … is there any option one could add to to the `qemu-img convert` command to get a dynamic .qcow2 (which should be significantly smaller then) on the other side?

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