(1) Launch the source and destination QEMU as below: SRC: #---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ ~/build/qemu-upstream/x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64 -M q35 -display none -nodefconfig -nodefaults -m 512 -blockdev node-name=node-A,driver=qcow2,file.driver=file,file.node-name=file,file.filename=./a.qcow2 -device virtio-blk,drive=node-A,id=virtio0 -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::5555-:22 -device e1000,netdev=net0 -S -monitor stdio -qmp unix:./qmp-sock,server,nowait #---------------------------------------------------------------------- DEST: #---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ qemu-img create -f qcow2 dest-disk.qcow2 39M #---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ ~/build/qemu-upstream/x86_64-softmmu/qemu-system-x86_64 -M q35 -display none -nodefconfig -nodefaults -m 512 -blockdev node-name=node-DestDisk,driver=qcow2,file.driver=file,file.node-name=file,file.filename=./dest-disk.qcow2 -device virtio-blk,drive=node-DestDisk,id=virtio0 -netdev user,id=net0,hostfwd=tcp::7777-:22 -device e1000,netdev=net0 -S -monitor stdio -qmp unix:./qmp-sock2,server,nowait #---------------------------------------------------------------------- (2) On DEST QEMU (`qmp-shell`): #---------------------------------------------------------------------- $ qmp-shell -v -p /export/qmp-sock2 (QEMU) nbd-server-start addr={"type":"inet","data":{"host":"::","port":"49153"}} { "execute": "nbd-server-start", "arguments": { "addr": { "data": { "host": "::", "port": "49153" }, "type": "inet" } } } { "return": {} } (QEMU) #---------------------------------------------------------------------- (QEMU) nbd-server-add device=node-DestDisk writable=true { "execute": "nbd-server-add", "arguments": { "device": "node-DestDisk", "writable": true } } { "error": { "class": "GenericError", "desc": "Conflicts with use by /machine/peripheral/virtio0/virtio-backend as 'root', which does not allow 'write' on node-DestDisk" } } #----------------------------------------------------------------------