Virt Tools Project Status (2010-07-28) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Updates to this are posted every 2 weeks on this mailing list: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/virt-tools-list To make suggestions or changes, reply on that list. Web: http://virt-tools.org/ IRC: #virt on OFTC. Git: http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/?p=virt-tools.git The mission: Our open source virt tools -- virt-manager, virt-install, virsh, V2V, libguestfs, etc -- are useful but fragmented. Bring these together, provide organization, consistency and future planning. The audience: We want to build tools that help end users, developers, and sysadmins use virt on a desktop, or single server or two. Current plans ------------- * RHEL 6 launch & promo + rjones * Create a central http://virt-tools.org website. This is not meant to replace the existing websites, but to provide a central directory and overview, pointing to existing upstreams. Status: kybaker jbiebel + Can we discover questions that people have already asked? Possible sources for this would be: logged content from #virt channel; libguestfs stats; external stackoverflow-type sites. * Write many more docs -- man pages, FAQs, how-tos, roadmap. Status: rjones to scope this out fully * Video demos (e.g. "How do I pass through a device", "How do I use guestfish"). Status: rjones has done one example video: http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/first-virt-tools-guestfish-video-tutorial + Hot-attach a disk to a machine in virt-manager. + Pass through a USB camera to a VM. + Export a user's home directory. + Change the default browser (or mail reader?) of a Windows VM to Firefox. + Live migration. + Full VM snapshots (do we now support this?) + kvm_stat + virt-manager overview + virt-manager storage pools + virt-manager network settings + virt-manager making the first guest + virt-v2v conversions * Unify tools' command line argument syntax. Status: jclift to scope this out * Look into return codes of command line programs. Status: jclift to write something about this * virt-clone: 1. clone raw images with better efficiency than dd. As raw image are large and sparse files, using dd is not a good idea. We should use some better algorithm to deal with sparse files, bypass the blank/zero blocks. 2. clone between different image formats. e.g clone raw to qcow/qcow2 and vice versus. 3. after clone, change host name, mac addr, uuid... Function as the example in the article for Linux Pro Magazine. This requires changing things both inside the filesystem and outside in the libvirt configuration. Status: no one working on this yet. * Fix virsh (it is a second-class citizen to the main libvirt UI right now, it should not be). + Make it more scriptable. Status: jclift to add a section here about this * Separate tool for creating/managing libvirt XML fragments. Possibly a part of virt-install. Status: crobinson to add a section about this * libosinfo guest type metadata library + Can we, should we use it in libvirt? + Ditto libguestfs / virt-inspector? + Is there overlap with the CIM standard? Status: crobinson to add a section about this * virt-inspector: + Overlap with Image Builder? + Overlap with CIM? + can we use virt-inspector to detect the format of a CD ISO installer? + ditto live media, other install media + Can we use libosinfo? Status: rjones to investigate. * virt-v2v: [ This is a laundry list. mdbooth please organize this section ] + qcow2 for KVM (import/export). + RHEV-M integration. + virt-manager integration. + Text console drivers (virtio-console). + Sparse ("thin") disk support. + SPICE support. + VMDK support. * virt-p2v Status: rjones? But if someone wants to help out ... * virt-manager [ This is a laundry list. crobinson please organize this section ] + UI scaling (we shouldn't blow up if 100 VMs are defined). + Integrate future spice-gtk widget w/virt-viewer. + right-click, virt-inspector, guestfs-browser, libosinfo, start. + QEMU-session (need NetworkManager bridge/tap device, or something else to allow non-root user to create a bridge for the guests). + Run an app from a guest in a seamless window on the host desktop. + Cross platform, for making it work on MacOS X and Windows + Redesign interface, for usability + plug-ins, to allow people to write customised extension + Allow selection of multiple guests at once. (ie holding down shift or control keys while selecting guests) + Allow putting guests into groups (ie "Databases" "Web" "Project ABC" or whatever) + Allow running a selected operation on a group or multiple selected guests at once (start, shut down, etc) + Alternative ways to display guests. (ie thumbnails, icons of guest OS, etc) * virt_web (lightweight web UI) Status: danpb to write something here * guestfs-browser + Further development. + Improved UI, Mairin offered to help. + Integration with virt-inspector. Owner: rjones * virt-dmesg (for Linux guests, pulls dmesg info out of the kernel) * virt-uname Current source for these is in various places in git.annexia.org. This needs to be organized and turned into a working, robust, standalone program. Owner: rjones * Guest agent. Upstreams and list of tools --------------------------- augeas/aug-tool http://augeas.net/ guestfs-browser http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/guestfs-browser/ hivex http://libguestfs.org libguestfs tools See list at http://libguestfs.org matahari ? ncftool https://fedorahosted.org/netcf/ "text" virt-manager ? virsh http://libvirt.org virt-clone http://virt-manager.org/ virt-dmesg virt-image http://people.redhat.com/dlutter/virt-image/ virt-install http://virt-manager.org/ virt-manager http://virt-manager.org/ virt-p2v http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-p2v/ virt-top http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-top/ virt-uname virt-v2v ? virt-viewer http://virt-manager.org/ virt-what http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/