I agree on the non-persistent images, so long as you are careful it shouldn't
be a problem. I understand their purpose, and for particular use cases
(development environments, hypervisors with local rather than shared storage)
they make sense. I compare non-persistent images to instance store EC2
instances. Once you shut them down, they are pretty much gone for good, and
they are not as versatile or forgiving as EBS backed images.
As an aside, I think that the terminology used in the instance lifecycle should
be modified to better match the function. When you want to destroy an instance,
use "destroy" and "terminate" rather than 'delete' and 'shutdown' (the new
sunstone interface shows the trash can, which is a good indicator of what you
want to do). This can be confusing if familiar with or have managed/integrated
an EC2 environment.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Pentium100" <[email protected]>
To: "Daniel Molina" <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2013 3:27:50 AM
Subject: Re: [one-users] Simplified VM creation?
Hi,
I upgraded to 4.2 and the cloud view is quite nice. I modified the user view to
include the easy provisioning (for some reason "create image" does not work in
cloud view, even if I enable it) and now it is pretty much like it should be -
the user can create a persistent image (or clone a provided one) and set up a
VM (either using a provided template or creating his own).
Non persistent images are dangerous - it's almost like using volatile memory
instead of HDD or SSD in a real server - one simple mistake (clicking shutdown
instead of standby/pause) and you now have to restore the backup. It should not
be easy to lose data.
On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 12:53 PM, Daniel Molina < [email protected] >
wrote:
Hi,
On 4 September 2013 13:30, Pentium100 < [email protected] > wrote:
<blockquote>
Hello,
While trying out OpenNebula, I noticed that the VM creation process is quite
inconvenient if I want different VMs (as opposed to scaleout situation).
1. Create the image (upload a new one or copy some other image), set it as
persistent (I don't want the VM to disappear if I shut it down).
2. Create a template that uses the image.
3. Finally create a VM from the template. There will only be one VM using that
template (because I don't really need two identical VMs).
To create 10 virtual servers (all the same "hardware" but different images) I
need to repeat steps 1-3 ten times.
It would be nice, if there was a way to simplify this. I can think of 3 ways to
do it:
1. Skip the creation of a template. Create an image then create a VM based on
that image.
2. Do not define an image while creating a template. Assign the image when
creating the VM.
3. Have some "template" image that gets copied when a VM is created. The copy
should be persistent.
Is there a way to do it? Non-persistent images behave almost like option 3, but
accidentally shutting down a VM would mean data loss.
We have quite a few VMs, but they all are used as real servers would be - all
have different data (no scaleout) and none can be deleted easily.
In OpenNebula 4.2 we included a new Sunstone cloud view [1] that fits in your
use case. You create base templates and create a set of images. Then a user
just have to select a template and an image, both are merged and a new vm is
created.
You can also use this functionality in the default Sunstone view, but you will
have to enable it. If this the case just tell and will show you how.
Concerning the persistence of the images, you have 2 options
a) Persistent image: The information will be saved after a shutdown action, but
you can only use it in one vm
b) Non persistent image: The information will be lost after a shutdown, but you
can use other actions that will not finalized the instance. For example you can
use the undeploy action [2] , it's like a shutdown but the instance id, ip,
disks.. are kept. You can deploy the vm again using the resume action
Hope this helps
[1] http://opennebula.org/documentation:rel4.2:cloud_view
[2] http://opennebula.org/documentation:rel4.2:vm_guide_2#pausing_vm_instances
<blockquote>
--
Join us at OpenNebulaConf2013 in Berlin, 24-26 September, 2013
--
Daniel Molina
Project Engineer
OpenNebula - The Open Source Solution for Data Center Virtualization
www.OpenNebula.org | [email protected] | @OpenNebula
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.opennebula.org/listinfo.cgi/users-opennebula.org
NOTICE: Protect the information in this message in accordance with the
company's security policies. If you received this message in error, immediately
notify the sender and destroy all copies.
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.opennebula.org/listinfo.cgi/users-opennebula.org
