Description of problem: An error "Must specify storage creation parameters for non-existent path" occurs when doing virt-clone with --preserve-data Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): virt-manager-1.2.1-8.el7.noarch How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. Prepare a shutdown vm. 2. Clone the vm with --preserve-data options and with a non-existent file. # virt-clone -o vm1 -n vm2 -f /var/lib/libvirt/images/vm2 --preserve-data or # virt-clone -o vm1 --auto-clone --preserve-data Actual results: An error occurs as below. ERROR Could not use path '/vm1-new.img' for cloning: Must specify storage creation parameters for non-existent path '/vm1-new.img'. Expected results: virt-clone should not report error and create a vm successfully. Additional info:
This isn't a bug. If you use --preserve-data you have to provide an existing disk image via --file options. The --preserve-data means that virt-clone will not modify in any way disk images specified via --files, it will use those files directly for the new guest created by this clone command, which means that the disk images must exists. Man page for virt-clone states the same.