> > Did you look at the VMDK "Stream-Optimized Compressed" subformat? > > We've gone down several sub-threads discussing whether VMDK is suitable. > I want to summarize why this is a good approach: > > The VMDK format already allows for out-of-order data and is supported by > existing tools - this is very important for backups where people are > (rightfully) paranoid about putting their backups in an obscure format. They > want to be able to access their data years later, whether your tool is still > around or not.
The VMDK format has strong disadvantages: - unclear License (the spec links to patents) - they use a very slow compression algorithm (deflate), which makes it unusable for backup
