[virt-tools-list] VM grouping

[Cole Robinson]

On 09/09/2010 12:58 PM, Zdenek Styblik wrote:
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> Hello everyone,
> 
> this is my first post to this list, so I'm not sure if it's even
> appropriate.
> 
> Anyway, I'm wondering if there is way how to do a VM grouping, resource
> pools like in [...].
> For myself, it's not a big issue, because for my "private", I'm going be
> (most likely) the only one admin. However, my colleagues were somewhat
> harhs about this. I must admit there is some point, because sort-of
> "group" access could be built a top of this - in case you want to give
> other people limited power over creating/deleting/etc. VM management.
> Add an attribute to libvirt's schema?
> If this isn't implemented for some reason, could somebody tell me why,
> so I can eventually counter-argument?
> 

Libvirt doesn't provide any way to give users access to specific VMs,
though this is something that has been requested many times. No real
counter arguments since it would be a useful feature, it just hasn't
been implemented.

> Another question - where VM description gets saved (note: it
> doesn't/didn't as of 0.8.4 in Debian GNU/Linux), because I don't think
> there is attribute for it in libvirt's XML schema.
> 

There is an attribute for it, see
http://libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsMetadata. This requires
libvirt 0.7.2 or later on the machine hosting the VMs.

> I've also noticed that virt-manager doesn't refresh remote
> configuration. If I change something at remote host, virt-manager
> doesn't reflect such changes; not even after disconnect/connect nor
> "restart" nor remote libvirtd restart. Is there some way how to enforce
> such synchronization? To be true, I've failed to locate cached (local)
> configs, at least I believe it would help to delete these files. May be
> I'm wrong.
> Why would I edit something by hand, in case somebody asks? Because I've
> failed achieve to do something via GUI. But may be I'm doing something
> wrong - doing this wrong. Please, I'm newbie to this thing; don't kill me.
> 

What kind of settings are you changing and how are you changing them? If
you are talking about VM settings, you want to make sure you are using
the correct method to change configuration as Phil suggested. For more
info, see
http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/FAQ#What_is_the_.27virsh_edit.27_command_and_how_do_I_use_it.3F

virt-manager does cache some info in memory while the app is running,
but reconnecting to the hypervisor should get us up to date info on just
about everything.

> As the very last thing, I'm ... I like virt-manager. Good work and keep
> it up. If there is anything, except money, I could possibly help with,
> I'm willing to learn Python (seriously) ;) I'm just hyped-over
> virt-manager and libvirt.
>

There's plenty of things that need implementing in virt-manager. For
starters, what is that you couldn't accomplish via the UI that you could
make work by hand? That might be a good task.

Thanks,
Cole