Libguestfs - Mar 2016 - Re: [virt-tools-list] [libvirt] Usability Enhancement: Import/Export VMs GUI

On 2016-03-10 15:43, Cole Robinson wrote:
> On 03/10/2016 02:29 AM, Martin Kletzander wrote:
>> On Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 04:23:18PM +0000, bancfc@openmailbox.org 
>> wrote:
>>> The single most important usability feature missed by our less 
>>> technical
>>> users who migrate  from VirtualBox is a one click import/export of 
>>> VMs
>>> and their config settings.
>>> 
> 
> Who are you users? I gather you work on tails/tor, name dropping the 
> project
> and explaining the use case a bit might actually help drum up interest 
> :)
> 
> - Cole
Alright I'll introduce myself.

I work on the Whonix Project [whonix.org] which is a Tor centric distro 
similar to TAILS but goes a step futher by leveraging the isolation 
properties of virtualizaiton for security.

The setup is made up of two VMs a "Gateway" that runs Tor and which
all
traffic from an untrusted "Workstation" VM is forced thru it. The idea
is that even if an attacker successfully roots the Workstation VM they 
still cannot deanonymize a user or infect the host. Its a fantastic 
project. You should try it and maybe even hack on it with us ;)

Running on a secure and libre stack like KVM and Libvirt is awesome and 
wins half the battle. The rest of the way is about making the setup as 
easy as possible to expand the user base and to pull people away from 
proprietary hypervisors or fake opensource ones like VirtualBox.

The initial import process with virsh commands puts off many newbies who 
lack the technical skills to get up and running. This is the single most 
coveted feature that comes up. It would be great if you guys can make it 
happen at GSoC :)

On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 10:32:15PM +0000, bancfc@openmailbox.org
wrote:
>On 2016-03-10 15:43, Cole Robinson wrote:
>> On 03/10/2016 02:29 AM, Martin Kletzander wrote:
>>> On Fri, Mar 04, 2016 at 04:23:18PM +0000, bancfc@openmailbox.org
>>> wrote:
>>>> The single most important usability feature missed by our less
>>>> technical
>>>> users who migrate  from VirtualBox is a one click import/export
of
>>>> VMs
>>>> and their config settings.
>>>>
>>
>> Who are you users? I gather you work on tails/tor, name dropping the
>> project
>> and explaining the use case a bit might actually help drum up interest
>> :)
>>
>> - Cole
>
>Alright I'll introduce myself.
>
>I work on the Whonix Project [whonix.org] which is a Tor centric distro
>similar to TAILS but goes a step futher by leveraging the isolation
>properties of virtualizaiton for security.
>
>The setup is made up of two VMs a "Gateway" that runs Tor and
which all
>traffic from an untrusted "Workstation" VM is forced thru it. The
idea
>is that even if an attacker successfully roots the Workstation VM they
>still cannot deanonymize a user or infect the host. Its a fantastic
>project. You should try it and maybe even hack on it with us ;)
>
>Running on a secure and libre stack like KVM and Libvirt is awesome and
>wins half the battle. The rest of the way is about making the setup as
>easy as possible to expand the user base and to pull people away from
>proprietary hypervisors or fake opensource ones like VirtualBox.
>
Cool, now I'm wondering whether we also mention distros that are based
on leveraging libvirt on our apps page [1]
>The initial import process with virsh commands puts off many newbies who
>lack the technical skills to get up and running. This is the single most
>coveted feature that comes up. It would be great if you guys can make it
>happen at GSoC :)
>
Since virt-v2v can already quickly do that, I'm not sure the idea is big
enough that it would be enough for such project.  It would be basically
a file chooser, button and running 'virt-v2v' with proper parameters if
I'm not mistaken.

Martin

[1] https://libvirt.org/apps.html

On 2016-03-14 11:00, Martin Kletzander wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 10:32:15PM +0000, bancfc@openmailbox.org wrote:
> 
> Cool, now I'm wondering whether we also mention distros that are based
> on leveraging libvirt on our apps page [1]
> 
>> The initial import process with virsh commands puts off many newbies 
>> who
>> lack the technical skills to get up and running. This is the single 
>> most
>> coveted feature that comes up. It would be great if you guys can make 
>> it
>> happen at GSoC :)
>> 
> 
> Since virt-v2v can already quickly do that, I'm not sure the idea is 
> big
> enough that it would be enough for such project.  It would be basically
> a file chooser, button and running 'virt-v2v' with proper
parameters if
> I'm not mistaken.
> 
> Martin
> 
> [1] https://libvirt.org/apps.html

I've been reading up on virt-v2v as a potential one line command 
solution for guest import but it seems this specific usecase is not what 
it was made for and this feature was ripped out:

https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/importing-kvm-guests-to-ovirt-or-rhev/#content