[pve-devel] RFC: vm cloning implementation proposal

[Alexandre DERUMIER]

>>Should we mark clone-able VMs as 'templates'? 
>>For example to protect them from being started. We also do not want to show 
>>them in the normal VM list? Maybe A VM template should not be a valid VM at all - we 
>>just store template config somewhere else (/etc/pve/templates/<tmplname>.conf)? 

>>Or do you you want to be able to clone any VM at any time (live)? 

I have already thinked about this.

Template can be good, but, for example, if you want to maintain a base vm in time,

like a linux image or windows image,
you want to do security updates or install new packages on the image, then make a new snapshot, and clone from this new snapshot.

Live cloning can be also good to duplicate a vm to do tests in parallel.

So, I think that live cloning is better, but maybe I'm wrong.

(But for .raw,qcow2 this make sense, as they must be readonly)



In past, I used Xenserver, and they used a template repository with locked config vm + disk image.

I don't know how  it's implemented in vmware or virtualbox or openstack




----- Mail original ----- 

De: "Dietmar Maurer" <dietmar at proxmox.com> 
À: "Alexandre DERUMIER" <aderumier at odiso.com> 
Cc: pve-devel at pve.proxmox.com 
Envoyé: Mercredi 3 Octobre 2012 10:51:57 
Objet: RE: [pve-devel] RFC: vm cloning implementation proposal 

> >>But first, why do I want to clone a VM? Please can you elaborate on 
> >>the usage scenario first? 
> 
> Cloning vm is a current scenario in enterprise, generally, you have a basevm 
> you want to duplicate in 1 second. 
> Other scenario can be vdi desktop, you can clone in live a vm if a user need a 
> desktop. 
> 
> advantages : fast deploy, less space usage, and more io/s as if storage have 
> cache,it can keep in memory the base image 

Should we mark clone-able VMs as 'templates'? 
For example to protect them from being started. We also do not want to show 
them in the normal VM list? Maybe A VM template should not be a valid VM at all - we 
just store template config somewhere else (/etc/pve/templates/<tmplname>.conf)? 

Or do you you want to be able to clone any VM at any time (live)?