[pve-devel] vmware vsphere + virtualbox cloning review

[Alexandre DERUMIER]

Hi,sorry to be late, I have spent last to test cloning feature of vmware sphere and virtualbox.


vmware sphere
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So, first, cloning in vmware sphere gui, in only FULL clone.
The only way to do linked clone, is calling vmware sphere api.
The only vmware products using linked clone in gui are vmware vcloud director or vmware view(VDI).(I didn't have test to test them)
Another way, is to use a storage like netapp with VAAI api, this add a specific storage cloning feature.

with gui,for full clone we can:

clone a vm from a vm.
convert a vm to a template. (like vwmare workstation, this is only a flag).
convert a template to a vm.
clone a template to a vm
clone a template to a template. (this create a new vmware, then flag it as template)

a template a just a vm, but you can't start it, only clone it or convert it to a vm.




with api, for linked clone:
this work like vmware workstation.

- You need first to do first a vm offline snapshot (without vmstate), you can see it in the snapshot tree.
- then you can create a linked clone from this snapshot.

- you can't delete the snapshot if a linked clone exist
- you can't delete a parent vm if they are snapshots with linked clone




virtualbox
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Virtualbox works like vmware workstation:
you can create a linked clone, from "you are here", then it create a new vm snapshot (we can see it in snapshot tree),then create a clone on this snapshot

you can also create a linked clone from a snapshot in the snapshot tree.


- you can't delete the snapshot if a linked clone exist
- you can't delete a parent vm if they are snapshots with linked clone






So, I wonder if cloning from vm snapshot, and register child clones  in the snapshot section is not the best way. (it's easy to understand)
For the template, maybe creating a /etc/pve/nodes/kvmtemplates, and moving the vmconfig file inside it can do the job. (so we can't start it as it's not a real node).


Do you have had time to think about it ? Maybe do you have better ideas ?

Regards,

Alexandre