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=== Libvirt List === | === Libvirt List === | ||
Revision as of 21:11, 12 April 2009
Virtualization
In this section, we cover discussion on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list, @fedora-xen-list, and @libvirt-list of Fedora virtualization technologies.
Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley
Fedora Virtualization List
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-virt list.
Guest Configuration with augeas and libguestfs
After blogging[1] just last week that "Nothing much is coded at the moment", the prolific Richard Jones
announced[2]
he has added support to 
augeaslibguestfs[3]. libguestfs "lets you examine and modify
virtual machine disk images, so you can perform sysadmin tasks on
virtual machines without needing to bring them up or log into them."
"Augeas is a configuration editing tool. It parses configuration files in
their native formats and transforms them into a tree. Configuration changes
are made by manipulating this tree and saving it back into native config
files."[4] Now libguestfs "supports Augeas, so you can
use Augeas to edit configuration files within the virtual machine."
Richard will be working on creating a Fedora RPM of libguestfs this week.
Virtual Machine Backup virt-backup
The discussion of libguestfs led
Jan ONDREJ to
reveal[1]
a tool in development, virt-backup[2].
This script can be used to
- Make online backups, when virtual server is running.
- Transfer partitions over the network while the virtual server is off.
Virtualization Technology Preview Repo
Daniel Berrange followed up the recent release scheduling conversation (FWN#169 [1]) with a "braindump"[2].
"The obvious problem with what we do for
Daniel suggested "a 'virt-preview' YUM repository for the most recent stable stream (ie F10, but not F9)"
as a way to achieve this "bugfix only policy", and allow users access development versions of libvirt
"without having to include & debug the rest of rawhide". Daniel summaried the "braindump".
"So in summary":
- All new upstream releases built in rawhide
- New upstream releases also built in stable preview branch if possible
- Only bugfixes built in stable updates/updates-testing branch
- In exceptional circumstances, rebase for preview branch can be built to updates/updates-testing after alot of positive testing
"This would":
- Ensure users of stable Fedora release have high confidence in quality of the updates/updates-testing stream
- Allow users to trivially test new upstream rebases while staying on the stable distro stream
- Improve testing coverage of major new rawhide features without using the stable release stream users as guinea pigs
Mark McLoughlin thought[3] "this would be hugely useful to people interested in the latest virt bits, but without a testing machine for running rawhide." And even proposed a name for the proposed repository, "How about 'virt-hide' ? :)". Mark also reverenced these FESCo approved guidelines[4] relevant to package maintainers who wish to update a package on an already-released branch.
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue169#More_Formal_libvirt_Release_Scheduling
- ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00008.html
- ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-April/msg00010.html
- ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageMaintainers/Package_update_guidelines
Fedora Virtualization Status Report
Mark McLoughlin reminds[1] us "It's only a matter of days until the F11 tree freezes and the list of bugs isn't getting any shorter!"
Read on for more coverage of virtualization developments in the past week.
Libvirt List
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.
libvirt-TCK Technology Compatibility Kit
In yet another "braindump" this week,
Daniel Berrange
penned[1]
"a very long email" purporting to be a "short guide" to the new
libvirt provides a hypervisor or emulator neutral platform for
manipulating virtual machine resources. This model leverages "drivers"[2] for
each emulator or backend system. The driver acts as a translator, converting libvirt API calls to the native API.
For example, there are drivers for
Xen, QEMU KVM, LXC, OpenVZ, User Mode Linux, and storage subsystems.
"The libvirt TCK provides a framework for performing testing
of the integration between libvirt drivers, the underlying virt
hypervisor technology, related operating system services and system
configuration. The idea (and name) is motivated by the Java TCK"
"In particular the libvirt TCK is intended to address the following scenarios
- Validate that a new libvirt driver is in compliance with the (possibly undocumented!) driver API semantics
- Validate that an update to an existing driver does not change the API semantics in a non-compliant manner
- Validate that a new hypervisor release is still providing compatability with the corresponding libvirt driver usage
- Validate that an OS distro deployment consisting of a hypervisor and libvirt release is configured correctly
Thus the libvirt TCK will allow developers, administrators and users to determine the level of compatability of their platform, and evaluate whether it will meet their needs, and get awareness of any regressions that may have occurred since a previous test run."
The TCK will utilize Perl's testing frameworks and the libvirt Perl binding
Daniel created "4 simple proof of concept scripts" which have already "highlighted some horrible problems" in remote, QEMU, and Xen drivers. There are even some results "in pretty HTML format":
- http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-tck/results/libvirt-tck-rhel-5.html
- http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-tck/results/libvirt-tck-f10-broken.html
- http://berrange.fedorapeople.org/libvirt-tck/results/libvirt-tck-f10-fixed.html
Daniel goes on to describe how to try out the test suite, talk about what's still left todo, describe how TCK is expected to be used, and provide an introduction to writing tests.