From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:39084) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QJmMd-0004pr-UO for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Tue, 10 May 2011 08:48:36 -0400 Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QJmMc-0004vn-Tx for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Tue, 10 May 2011 08:48:35 -0400 Received: from mail-qy0-f180.google.com ([209.85.216.180]:48815) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QJmMc-0004vg-Rq for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Tue, 10 May 2011 08:48:34 -0400 Received: by qyk10 with SMTP id 10so4827222qyk.4 for ; Tue, 10 May 2011 05:48:33 -0700 (PDT) MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: hramrach@gmail.com In-Reply-To: <20110510115630.GA1811@amd.home.annexia.org> References: <20110510115630.GA1811@amd.home.annexia.org> From: Michal Suchanek Date: Tue, 10 May 2011 14:48:10 +0200 Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] Virt Tools Survey: What to do about virt-clone List-Id: List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: virt-tools-list@redhat.com Cc: virt@lists.fedoraproject.org, qemu-devel@nongnu.org, Cole Robinson On 10 May 2011 13:56, Richard W.M. Jones wrote: > So I'd like feedback from "virt-clone next generation" users: > > (a) Is cloning guests useful for you or not? =C2=A0Often or infrequently? I clone guests quite often. > > (b) Do you currently use virt-clone to clone guests? no > > (c) Do you have a homebrew method to clone guests? =C2=A0What does it do? > > (d) Do you use another tool to clone guests? =C2=A0(And how is it?) I use cp(1) > > (e) When you clone a guest, do you "sysprep" it or would you like to? > (Using the term "sysprep" generically here, I mean any sort of > reinitialization for Linux or Windows guests). I don't clone Linux much. I would find a script to goes through the steps like resetting /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules and SSH keys handy. However, not all needs resetting in all cases. Also this is not specific to virt-clone, this is just a guest application which could be packaged for distributions regardless of qemu virt-clone or whatever. Adding an option to trigger it would be handy I guess (eg. a kernel boot parameter which could be controlled from outside and also read by an initscript included with such application). Also the administrator might pre-configure this sysprepping application to do the right thing, by default it could be interactive I guess. For Windows I uninstall the "ACPI compliant computer" device and run my sysprep script when I want to run multiple instances of the guest later. This requires a PS/2 keyboard (or emulation). I don't think you can find a solution to easily trigger such process on Windows. If you manage to do the above fully automatically you can also include a script that checks for a file (or a kernel option of that is possible in Windows) and triggers the process. > > (f) How do you feel about a multi-step process? > > =C2=A0virt-clone -> virt-sysprep -> virt-resize (for example) It's ok to have multiple tools. Some people would want to use them separately or from scripts some would want an UI to run all at once so it's good idea to design the interface both intelligible and machine-usable. Thanks Michal