[pve-devel] Create template from CT

[James A. Coyle]

>> >why not?
>> Well where does the proxmox config come from in a vzdump? I assume it has
>> to be in there somewhere?

>The config is stored in /etc/vzdump/

Exactly, so we can add this to an exclusion list, along with a few other things.

>> Looking further into it, other items need
>> removing too which could be added to an excludes list in the tar command.
>> 
>> > and I suspect that other things may need removing too - such as
>> > networks, /tmp, etc. I need some more information on what the exact
>> > differences are and we may need to consider the CT OS distribution
>> > type. In addition, it lands in the cache dir of the storage device so
>> > that no manual intervention is required.
>> 
>> >Sure. But there is currently no real standard which defines what a
>> >template should contain or not. So automatic creation is out of scope unless
>> there is a well-defined standard.
>> For now, we use DAB to create templates.
>> 
>> DAB does not meet my needs - I spend a lot of time installing software which
>> is not in a repo and has to be manually installed. 

>Installing software that way is a bad idea. I always create debian packages
>before installing something.

That is not correct. One example is any software from Oracle.com - it needs to be installed using the Oracle installer because it makes many config files which are specific to the target environment. In addition, what if the target CT is not Debian? The same issue exists with RPMs btw. Using a Debian package would not be supported by the vendor as a method of install and be a huge undertaking to do in the first place. 

>> So are you saying that
>> because there is nothing written down on OpenVZ, Proxmox will not support
>> this feature? I basically want to create a template from an existing CT.

>IMHO creating a OpenVZ template is always a manual process, because you need to carefully 
>remove unwanted files/data/daemons.

If it's created from an existing template, what is there to remove? I'm not talking about creating a template from scratch here - as that's not really possible anyway using just a CT. I'm talking about creating a new template from an existing CT. 

I'd really like to get this feature available in Proxmox as every time I create a new template I have to SSH to the box and tar the CT folder. It's such a simple process and it drives me crazy every time I have to SSH to the box. 

Is there any way of getting this feature into Proxmox - even if it means completely changing how it's implemented, or is this just a no-go from the start?