If you write a maven-plugin to do what you describe you will be a hero! See inline for notes
2010/4/15 Jimi Hullegård <[email protected]> > Hi, > > Recently I have been doing some work with a virtual machine (Ubuntu) with > some specific programs installed. But what I am starting to realise is that > we don't have a good documentation on exactly what is on this machine, and > what changes has been made since it first was created, especially since it > wasn't even created by me. > > At the same time I am working alot with web applications, and use Maven, > Subversion, CI etc on a daily basis. But all these wonderful tools can't be > used when I work with virtual machines, even though it would be so great if > that could work. > > In the best of worlds I would be able to build a VM (in standard OVF > format) just as easily as I now build a war- or ear-file. All our specific > files and configuration would be I see no issues in creating the OVF file from a maven plugin, ovf is just XML > under version control in SVN, and I would just add a dependency to a > "vanilla" virtual machine (like "Ubunto-64" version "9.10") and it would > insert our file structure into So the maven plugin would understand the on-disk format of all operating systems and be able to make changes to the on-disk format... not realistic... esp given that the VM disk format is still not standardised. OVF only standardises the metadata about VMs, not the VM virtual disk format, let alone the virtual OS's disk format. I could see interaction with (when I get back to it) vcc-maven-plu...@mojowhereby you could deploy an OVF based VM to a virtual machine host, then you could use other maven plugins to connect to the VM and install what ever you require, and finally use vcc-m-p to take a snapshot/image to package back up again... but even that is a bit of stretch. You might also want to look into the stuff RedHat is doing on virtual disk format conversion -Stephen > the VM, almost like war-overlay works for web applications. And maybe some > specific programs could be "installed" by the means of defining other > dependencies. > > The advantages are obvious. One would now have complete controll of the > content of the virtual machine, and not have to worry about some forgotten > data in some database or file for example. And if one decided to switch from > Ubuntu to say OpenSUSE it would idealy be a simple change of dependencies. > Maybe even a change from Linux to Windows would be possible in the same > simple manner, given that the proper license exists. > > What do you guys think about this idea? Is it realistic? Or maybe such a > solution, or similar, already exists or is planned? > > /Jimi Hullegård > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] > For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected] > >
