[virt-tools-list] [RFC] VM configuration templates

[Cedric Bosdonnat]

On Thu, 2017-08-03 at 15:34 +0100, Peter Crowther wrote:
> As a slightly different wish, but perhaps related, I'd love a tool that could consume several host configuration
> definitions and tell me the maximal guest configuration that could run on any of them. It's not simple to guess
> processor features and their support on heterogeneous hosts.
> 
> Use case: as a developer, when creating a new virtual machine, I want to know that I will be able to migrate it
> between my laptop, our development host (a fat desktop), and our staging environment, so that my organisation spends
> as little effort (hence time and money) as possible rebuilding VMs due to location changes. 
> 
> Yes, I know we should be using a configuration management system. We do (puppet). But for some uses, the extra cost of
> encoding the configuration that way isn't cost-effective for the use we'll make of a VM. 

libvirt already provides such a feature with virsh cpu-baseline and cpu-compare commands.
But I agree that it would be interesting to see it integrated in virt-manager somehow.

--
Cedric

> Cheers, 
> 
> Peter 
> 
> On 3 Aug 2017 3:09 p.m., "Cole Robinson" <crobinso at redhat.com> wrote:
> > On 07/24/2017 04:04 AM, Cedric Bosdonnat wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > While working on a special VM setup here, I was wondering about introducing
> > > some configuration templates in virt-manager.
> > >
> > > We could have a drop down list somewhere in the UI to select a template. Here
> > > is a list of possible templates we could propose:
> > >
> > >   * 'Full host VM'
> > >       expose as much as possible of the host to a single VM
> > >       no migration possible
> > >   * 'Easily migratable VM'
> > >   * 'normal-sized VM, as fast as possible'
> > >       no migration possible either
> > >
> > > Obviously choosing one of these templates would be optional. That drop down
> > > list could be in the final page of the new guest wizard.
> > >
> > > Any opinion on such a feature?
> > >
> > 
> > Sorry for the late response.
> > 
> > Besides <cpu> setting, what types of features do you see tweaking for 'Full
> > host' vs 'easily' vs 'normal'?
> > 
> > If the main differentiator is 'how migratable is this VM' I don't like the
> > idea of putting that into the New VM wizard, since I think 99% of virt-manager
> > users don't care about that, and migration is a difficult concept with a lot
> > of VM config caveats, plus it usually requires host configuration outside of
> > virt-manager to get working so it's unlikely to be something that 'just works'.
> > 
> > However I'm more open to a kind of migration vs performance setting in the
> > Preferences dialog that determines the default New VM setup. But to discuss
> > that we should start with a list of features you see enabling/disabling
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Cole
> > 
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> 
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