[pve-devel] Feature idea: import cloud images as disks, or at VM creation

[Fabian Grünbichler]

On April 24, 2023 10:01 am, DERUMIER, Alexandre wrote:
> I think it could be done with some kind of new naming for this kind of
> disk,
> 
> like "template-....."  in the storage
> 
> to match current lxc behaviour.
> 
> 
> I don't think we need to vm template itself inside this, only the disk.
> 
> then use could create a vm like
> 
> qm create <vmid> --iscsi0:template-.....

we basically already have this, it's just not yet on the GUI ;)

$ qm create/set 123 --scsi0 TARGET_STORAGE:0,import-from=SOURCE_STORAGE:VOLUME,other_option=value

will import an existing volume (or, if highly privileged, arbitrary
image/block device) to a newly allocated volume on TARGET_STORAGE.

also mentioned in the docs for cloud-init:

https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-qm.html#_preparing_cloud_init_templates

we haven't fully hashed out yet how to integrate it into the GUI, but
it's already available on the API and CLI. 

one part that might still be worth of discussion is whether to add a new
dir or naming scheme on storages for VM template files like downloaded
cloud(-init) images, and then on the GUI only offer up those and volumes
of VM templates as sources (at least by default), instead of *all*
images accessible to the user.