Description of problem: When creating a new domain, it would make life a little bit easier if the "disk" file was pre-populated with a path and filename, probably based on the name of the domain. So, since we are putting new guest images in /var/lib/xen/images, if you named your domain "rhel5", it could suggest something like: /var/lib/xen/images/rhel5.dsk Of course, it would still allow you to change the path/name; just having the default there will make life a little simpler.
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux major release. Product Management has requested further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Major release. This request is not yet committed for inclusion.
This is particularly important given the SELinux restrictions onxen images - there is currently no obvious guidance (short of grepping the policy's file contexts) and if you choose to create the image in a location forbidden by the SELinux policy, error reporting is not very clear. The tapdisk daemon (if using blktap) will recieve AVC denials for the image in dom0 , but this is reported to the user as an anaconda "no valid devices were found on which to create new filesystems" in the new domU installation.
No. The mere presence of an example is not going to give the user any clue that images in a different location are going to fail. To achieve that, you need either clear instructions, or an unambiguous error return. Simply adding an example isn't going to cut it; and if the trap of bad image file locations is the justification for this feature request, then I strongly believe it's the wrong solution. It's definitely worthwhile having the example, certainly; but the selinux concern warrants a very different fix, one very much worth having.
It seems like feeding back the error from the guest anaconda to virt-manager is not an easy problem to fix. As a compromise, would it be reasonable to add documentation to the GUI describing the default location and a validator that checks the path entered and pops up a warning if it is not labeled correctly or is not in the standard /var/lib/xen/images path?
Automatically suggesting a filename under /var/lib/xen/images, based on the name of the domain is a reasonable suggestion. Will work on a fix in upstream. Should be feasible to address for RHEL 5.1
Requesting an exception to add this convenience feature after beta. Minimal change and very helpful because it helps people to comply with SELinux.
Built into virt-manager-0.4.0-2.el5 * Thu Jul 12 2007 Daniel P. Berrange <berrange> - 0.4.0-2.el5 - Suggest a disk name for file backed VMs (rhbz #216704) $ brew latest-pkg dist-5E-qu-candidate virt-manager Build Tag Built by ---------------------------------------- -------------------- ---------------- virt-manager-0.4.0-2.el5 dist-5E-qu-candidate berrange
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information on the solution and/or where to find the updated files, please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you. http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2007-0637.html