> > (a) Is cloning guests useful for you or not? Often or infrequently? >
I clone VMs once os twice a month. It's usefull for creating test environments for the applications this company runs, and to safely backup a VM before doing some change of update. (b) Do you currently use virt-clone to clone guests? > I use virt-manager. Don't know what command virt-manager uses. I just right click the VM and clone it. (c) Do you have a homebrew method to clone guests? What does it do? I don't. If I need to clone a VM without virt-manager, I would make copies of VM hard disk and vm XML, you know, manually copy the stuff. (d) Do you use another tool to clone guests? (And how is it?) No, I don't. (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. Just change the MAC address (specially in windows guests). (f) How do you feel about a multi-step process? I really would enjoy having more options when cloning machine, could save lots of time in here. I don't resize cloned machines, for example. When I need to change the size of the cloned machine, I just create a new one from scratch. (g) Have you had other problems with cloning guests? > If I change the Mac address of the NICs of a linux guest, O.S. can't find the NIC anymore. It's a problem to me, since I started working with linux servers about a year ago and I'm still (! lol) not familiar with "manually adding hardware"... (h) What have I missed out in this analysis? What other features have > you missed in virt-clone? > Can't remember any right now... =D On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 8:56 AM, Richard W.M. Jones <rjo...@redhat.com>wrote: > I've volunteered for the task of fixing virt-clone[0]. There are a > number of bugs which need to be addressed. Unfortunately the current > virt-clone is broken-by-design since it cannot make changes inside the > guest. > > [0] http://linux.die.net/man/1/virt-clone > > The bugs boil down to what Microsoft calls "sysprepping" the clone, > which is to say, removing its existing identity, hostname, ssh host > keys, persistent network rules, host SID and workgroup name (for > Windows). It's helpful for Linux guests to remove some of this > stuff[1] -- it will make the cloning process smoother. For Windows > it's absolutely required[2]. > > [1] > https://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/tip-my-procedure-for-cloning-a-fedora-vm/ > [2] http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721940%28WS.10%29.aspx > > All that virt-clone can do now is to copy the guest and make some > simple changes to the libvirt XML (eg. giving it a new MAC address). > It doesn't even address the sysprepping problem. > > The problem with sysprepping is that it's hard to do, and it's > different for every operating system. I've summarized some of the > techniques below. Worse than that, for some OSes there are different > levels of sysprepping that an administrator might want; also see > below. > > So I'd like feedback from "virt-clone next generation" users: > > (a) Is cloning guests useful for you or not? Often or infrequently? > > (b) Do you currently use virt-clone to clone guests? > > (c) Do you have a homebrew method to clone guests? What does it do? > > (d) Do you use another tool to clone guests? (And how is it?) > > (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). > > (f) How do you feel about a multi-step process? > > virt-clone -> virt-sysprep -> virt-resize (for example) > > (g) Have you had other problems with cloning guests? > > (h) What have I missed out in this analysis? What other features have > you missed in virt-clone? > > Sysprepping Windows > ------------------- > > This is a complex, manual process. We do some steps to automate it in > RHEV. It's best to read Microsoft's online documentation at > [2][3][4]. > > [3] http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302577 > [4] http://blogs.technet.com/b/megand/archive/2005/01/20/357570.aspx > > Fedora > ------ > > In theory you can just write a file /.unconfigured in the root, and > Fedora will go through the firstboot process at next boot (it will > reset timezone, root password, netconfig, keyboard, authentication). > > Some admins will *not* want all of these things to be reset, and will > want either a lesser degree of unconfiguration, or will want to > control each thing manually. > > I'm not totally convinced that this hasn't been broken by systemd > introduction in Fedora 15. > > general Linux > ------------- > > See [1]. > > Rich. > > -- > Richard Jones, Virtualization Group, Red Hat > http://people.redhat.com/~rjones > virt-df <http://people.redhat.com/%7Erjones%0Avirt-df> lists disk usage of > guests without needing to install any > software inside the virtual machine. Supports Linux and Windows. > http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-df/ > > _______________________________________________ > virt-tools-list mailing list > virt-tools-l...@redhat.com > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/virt-tools-list >
