qubes-doc/configuration/secondary-storage.md

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Storing AppVMs on Secondary Drives

Suppose you have a fast but small primary SSD and a large but slow secondary HDD. You want to store a subset of your AppVMs on the HDD. In dom0:

1. # mv /var/lib/qubes/appvms/my-new-appvm /path/to/secondary/drive/my-new-appvm

2. # ln -s /path/to/secondary/drive/my-new-appvm /var/lib/qubes/appvms/

Now, my-new-appvm will behave as if it were still stored on the primary SSD (except that it will probably be slower, since it's actually stored on the secondary HDD).

Known Issues

• The above procedure does not interfere with Qubes Backup. However, attempting to symlink a private.img file (rather than the whole AppVM directory) is known to prevent the private.img file from being backed up. The same problem may occur if the above procedure is attempted on a TemplateVM. [1]

• This issue applies only to R3.1, not R3.2 or later: After implementing the above procedure, starting my-new-appvm will cause dom0 notifications to occur stating that loop devices have been attached to dom0. This is normal. (No untrusted devices are actually being mounted to dom0.) Do not attempt to detach these disks. (They will automatically be detached when you shut down the AppVM.) [2]