[virt-tools-list] RFC: virt-manager: VM clone wizard

[Cole Robinson]

Cole Robinson wrote:
> Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
>> On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 01:11:29PM -0400, Cole Robinson wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> The attached patch adds a small wizard for cloning a VM. A screenshot of
>>> the overview:
>>>
>>> http://fedorapeople.org/~crobinso/virt-manager/clone-post/vmm-clone-overview.png
>>>
>>> The wizard will generate a new VM name (usually <orig-name>-clone), new
>>> storage paths as required, and MAC addresses. Storage is marked as
>>> one of:
>>>
>>> - Shared: Original and clone VM point to the same disk image
>>> - Clone : Actually copy the original storage for use by the clone
>>>
>>> Storage like removable media (cdrom, floppy), readonly or shareable
>>> disks will be 'Shared' by default.
>>>
>>> The storage drop down has a 'Details' choice:
>>>
>>> http://fedorapeople.org/~crobinso/virt-manager/clone-post/vmm-clone-dropdown.png
>>>
>>> This brings up a small dialog which allows changing the new disk path:
>>>
>>> http://fedorapeople.org/~crobinso/virt-manager/clone-post/vmm-clone-storage-details.png
>>>
>>> There is also a similar dialog for changing MAC addresses.
>>>
>>> If we can't clone storage (maybe lack of permissions, or remote
>>> unmanaged storage, older libvirt), we still allow cloning the VM, but
>>> force the offending disks into 'Shared' mode. In the case of sharing a
>>> read/write disk, we give a clear warning that this may result in
>>> overwriting the original image.
>> IMHO, we should simply disallow that. Users would expect that
>> cloning a guest is guarneteed to not impact the original. If
>> we can't guarentee that, we should refuse to clone it. Swiching
>> a private disk to shared mode is giving a user a loaded gun
>> with no safety catch & a touch sensitive trigger.
>>
> 
> Are you saying we should disallow sharing any private disks, or only
> ones that it appears we can't clone? I suppose any shareable disks
> should be marked with <shareable/> in the XML, but that currently isn't
> obvious to the user, or easy via any of the tools atm.  The cases when a
> user would actually want to share a r/w disk though are rare enough that
> we should require the sharable flag, and deny the clone operation otherwise.
> 

I've pushed this with the above changes.

Thanks,
Cole