Hi all, I''m looking for different ways of "cloning" a domU once it has been successfully created. On SUSE Linux, I have already used AutoYast and combined it with the VM creation process through Yast and I can build another machine that way. I was wondering if there are other "quick and dirty" ways to replicate the environments. I don''t think the quick dd will work 100% since although I can change the ip and hostname information on the definition file and the vm itself, I''m not able to change the underlying MAC. Any thoughts, ideas, etc? Regards, Jose Betancourt _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Tuesday 13 June 2006 09:21, Jose Betancourt wrote:> Hi all, > > I''m looking for different ways of "cloning" a domU once it has been > successfully created. On SUSE Linux, I have already used AutoYast and > combined it with the VM creation process through Yast and I can build > another machine that way. > > I was wondering if there are other "quick and dirty" ways to replicate > the environments. I don''t think the quick dd will work 100% since > although I can change the ip and hostname information on the definition > file and the vm itself, I''m not able to change the underlying MAC. > > Any thoughts, ideas, etc?I use a script that creates LVM partitions for the root and swap partitions, then untars a debootstrap created image to it. Of course it makes the filesystems and mounts them first. It also creates a default config file. From executing the command to logging in takes about a minute. I could modify the script to change the hostname and other settings but I don''t create enough VMs to make it worthwhile. The install has shorewall firewall preinstalled. If I want to modify the tar''ed version I just untar it, chroot to it and update packages or whatever, then tar it back up. It is easy with Debian. David _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
David Koski <david@kosmosisland.com> wrote:>> I was wondering if there are other "quick and dirty" ways to replicate >> the environments. I don''t think the quick dd will work 100% since >> although I can change the ip and hostname information on the definition >> file and the vm itself, I''m not able to change the underlying MAC. > > I use a script that creates LVM partitions for the root and swap > partitions, then untars a debootstrap created image to it. Of > course it makes the filesystems and mounts them first. It also > creates a default config file. From executing the command to > logging in takes about a minute. I could modify the script to > change the hostname and other settings but I don''t create enough > VMs to make it worthwhile.We use xfsdump/xfsrestore. by Töns -- There is no safe distance. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Jose Betancourt wrote:> Any thoughts, ideas, etc?We''re using unionfs to share a basic VM on the file level on top of which is added an empty filesystem for each VM to contain it''s changes. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
On Wednesday 14 June 2006 15:26, Molle Bestefich wrote:> > Any thoughts, ideas, etc? > > We''re using unionfs to share a basic VM on the file level on top of > which is added an empty filesystem for each VM to contain it''s > changes.it''s an idea i''m looking to since time... can you explain in depth the architecture you used ?? I''m mainly looking for a secure, reliable and consistent way to obtain a snapshot of domU at certain time as LVM2 snapshots are not reliable tnx in advance -- <?php echo '' Emiliano Gabrielli (aka AlberT) '',"\n", '' socio fondatore e membro del direttivo del GrUSP '',"\n", '' AlberT_at_SuperAlberT_it - www.SuperAlberT.it '',"\n", '' IRC: #php,#AES azzurra.com '',"\n",''ICQ: 158591185''; ?> _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Quoting "Emiliano Gabrielli (aka AlberT)" <AlberT@superalbert.it>:> I''m mainly looking for a secure, reliable and consistent way to obtain a > snapshot of domU at certain time as LVM2 snapshots are not reliablethis is rather unfortunate, since block level snapshots are a great feature. does anybody know if this is problem is on the kernel device mapper or on the LVM userspace tools? if the latter, would EVMS be any better? ------ Javier _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Emiliano Gabrielli (aka AlberT) wrote:> > We''re using unionfs to share a basic VM on the file level on top of > > which is added an empty filesystem for each VM to contain it''s > > changes. > > it''s an idea i''m looking to since time... > can you explain in depth the architecture you used ??Sure. (I don''t know exactly what you need to know, but I''ll try.) To make the domUs boot and shutdown correctly, I modified the init / shutdown scripts somewhat to be able to cope with two root filesystems: The domU which has only the base filesystem needs to mount that read/write, so we can install updated software, perform fsck, etc. All the other domUs needs to mount their "changes" filesystem read/write, perform fsck on it at startup, etc. but mount the "base" filesystem read-only. That''s about it, I think? _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Javier Guerra wrote:> this is rather unfortunate, since block level snapshots are a great feature. does > anybody know if this is problem is on the kernel device mapper or on the LVM > userspace tools?Not sure. We''re trying to circumvent as much as possible :/. Here''s the gory details, perhaps there''s some inspiration you can use. We need snapshots to make consistent images of filesystems too, since we need to make backups of live filesystems even with unionfs and all. We tried LVM, but it kept corrupting filesystems, including the base volumes used for the snapshots. Eventually, we did four things: * Move to using EVMS as the userspace tool. * Don''t create or remove any snapshots, only activate and deactive them. * Only activate the snapshots for very short periods of time. This has not corrupted anything yet (*crosses fingers*)!... I hope of course that it''s because we have excluded the faulty component from the equation, but it might just as well be because we''re limiting usage of the actual snapshot code to a very limited timeframe. In any case, this is so far "good enough" for us, since we have daily remote backups from which we can restore relatively quickly. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users