Virtualization
In this section, we cover discussion of Fedora virtualization technologies on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list, @fedora-virt, @fedora-xen-list, @libguestfs, @libvirt-list, @virt-tools-list, and @ovirt-devel-list lists.
Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley
Enterprise Management Tools List
This section contains the discussion happening on the et-mgmt-tools list
Fedora Virtualization List
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-virt list.
Virtual Machine Disk Setup Tips
Rich Mahn recognized[1] "that the best performance for virtual disks is with the backing storage on the host being a parititon or LV. Since I want some flexibility I will use LVs, with virtio disks on most of the VMs." But Rich had several questions (paraphrased below) about how best to configure the backing stores for virtual machines and the disks within them. Daniel Berrange provided some answers (also paraphrased below).
- Q: If each VM needs three file systems:
/boot,root, andswap. "Is it better to create three LVs (each) on the hosts, and treat it as three separate disks on the VMs?"
- A: "There's no point separating /boot & root onto separate virtual disks." "The only separation I'd do is for the OS system disks, vs application data disks..." This makes it easier to provision a new VM with the latest disto and reassign the data disk to the new guest.
- Q: "Do I get better performance/stability by NOT using lvm on the VMs?"
- A: "LVM makes is easier to resize guest FS. eg add a second disk to the guest, format it as a LVM PV and add it to your VG. That's pretty much only wayto add more capacity on a running guest."
- Q: "Do I get the best performance/stability by creating an LV for each disk I need, and then NOT partitioning it on the VM, but using the whole disk for a file system?"
- A: "Anaconda will refuse to install onto a raw disk, it mandates partitioning. Second point is that not using a partition table can cause unexpected problems..."
- Q: "Are these issues too miniscule in their effects that I probably shouldn't even be worrying about" trying to avoid using partitions and LVM?
- A: "That's certainly my opinion. Sure you get some performance but you loose the great administrative flexibility of LVM."
Libguestfs List
This section contains the discussion happening on the libguestfs list.
New Release libguestfs 1.0.59
Richard Jones
announced[1]
the release of 
libguestfs
New Features:
- Support for Linux extended attributes.
- Allow guestfish to be controlled remotely, so you can use one guestfish instance in a long-running shell script.
- Support for reiserfs.
- New function 'guestfs_zfile' -- 'file' inside compressed files.
- New guestfish command 'reopen' -- reopen guestfish connection.
- guestfish -x option (echo commands).
- New function 'guestfs_version' to get the library version.
See previous release announcement for 1.0.57 in FWN#184[2] and be sure to see the project homepage[3] for extensive usage examples.
New Hypervisor Migration Tool virt-v2v
Matthew Booth posted[1] his "initial thoughts on the design for the v2v tool". This tool will be used to implement the planned Fedora 12 feature "Xen to KVM Migration"[2].
Virtualization Tools List
This section contains the discussion happening on the virt-tools-list list.
Libvirt List
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.
Fedora-Xen List
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-xen list.