Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/5] RFC: Efficient VM backup for qemu (v1)

[Dietmar Maurer]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stefan Hajnoczi [mailto:address@hidden
> Sent: Donnerstag, 22. November 2012 13:45
> To: Dietmar Maurer
> Cc: address@hidden; address@hidden
> Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/5] RFC: Efficient VM backup for qemu
> (v1)
> 
> On Thu, Nov 22, 2012 at 11:26:21AM +0000, Dietmar Maurer wrote:
> > > Did you look at the VMDK "Stream-Optimized Compressed" subformat?
> > >
> > >
> http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/vmdk_50_technote.pdf?
> > > src=vmdk
> > >
> > > It is a stream of compressed "grains" (data).  They are out-of-order
> > > and each grain comes with the virtual disk lba where the data should
> > > be visible to the guest.
> > >
> >
> > What kind of license is applied to that specification?
> 
> The document I linked came straight from Google Search and you don't need
> to agree to anything to view it.  The document doesn't seem to impose
> restrictions.  QEMU has supported the VMDK format and so have other open
> source tools for a number of years.
> 
> For anything more specific you could search VMware's website and/or check
> with a lawyer.

The documents says: VMware products are covered by one or more patents listed 
at http://www.vmware.com/go/patents

I simply do not have the time to check all those things, which make that format 
unusable for me.

Anyways, thanks for the link.