From a17deeabdc1d9152ada688a8d5de5a8f81802ba1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Agata Murawska <agatamurawska@google.com> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2011 11:25:13 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] Documentation update for ovfconverter Signed-off-by: Agata Murawska <agatamurawska@google.com> Reviewed-by: Iustin Pop <iustin@google.com> --- doc/design-ovf-support.rst | 35 +++++++++++++--- doc/ovfconverter.rst | 82 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---- 2 files changed, 104 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/design-ovf-support.rst b/doc/design-ovf-support.rst index bd88273e6..1b972aefb 100644 --- a/doc/design-ovf-support.rst +++ b/doc/design-ovf-support.rst @@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ currently use OVF. In our implementation of the OVF we allow a choice between raw, cow and vmdk disk formats for both import and export. Other formats covertable -using ``qemu-img`` are allowed, but not tested. +using ``qemu-img`` are allowed in import mode, but not tested. The justification is the following: - Raw format is supported as it is the main format of disk images used @@ -250,8 +250,7 @@ Disks As mentioned, Ganeti will allow export in ``raw``, ``cow`` and ``vmdk`` formats. This means i.e. that the appropriate ``ovf:format`` -will be provided. It does not mean that other formats cannot be used, -rather that we did not test them. +will be provided. As for import, we will support all formats that ``qemu-img`` can convert to ``raw``. At this point this means ``raw``, ``cow``, ``qcow``, ``qcow2``, ``vmdk`` and ``cloop``. We do not plan for now to support @@ -268,7 +267,8 @@ we use ``qemu-img info``, which provides enough information for our purposes and is better standardized. Please note, that due to security reasons we require the disk image to -be in the same directory as the ``.ovf`` description file. +be in the same directory as the ``.ovf`` description file for both +import and export. In order to completely ignore disk-related information in resulting config file, please use ``--disk-template=diskless`` option. @@ -302,6 +302,11 @@ Support for different operating systems depends solely on their accessibility for Ganeti instances. List of installed OSes can be checked using ``gnt-os list`` command. +References +---------- + +Files listed in ``ovf:References`` section cannot be hyperlinks. + Other ----- @@ -425,8 +430,8 @@ Disk conversion --------------- Disk conversion for both import and export is done using external tool -called qemu-tools. The same tool is used to determine the type of disk, -as well as its virtual size. +called ``qemu-img``. The same tool is used to determine the type of +disk, as well as its virtual size. Import @@ -492,6 +497,24 @@ Typical workflow for the export is even simpler, than for the import: - if ``--ova`` option was chosen, pack the results into ``.ova`` tarfile +Work in progress +---------------- + +- conversion to/from raw disk should be quicker +- add graphic card memory to export information (12 MB of memory) +- space requirements for conversion + compression + ova are currently + enormous +- add support for disks in chunks +- add support for certificates +- investigate why VMWare's ovftool does not work with ovfconverter's + compression and ova packaging -- maybe noteworty: if OVA archive does + not have a disk (i.e. in OVA package there is only .ovf ad .mf file), + then the ovftool works +- investigate why new versions of VirtualBox have problems with OVF + created by ovfconverter (everything works fine with 3.16 version, but + not with 4.0) + + .. vim: set textwidth=72 : .. Local Variables: .. mode: rst diff --git a/doc/ovfconverter.rst b/doc/ovfconverter.rst index f45c9ed6c..774cf81f7 100644 --- a/doc/ovfconverter.rst +++ b/doc/ovfconverter.rst @@ -44,14 +44,59 @@ Neither USB nor CD-ROM drive are used in Ganeti. We decided to simply ignore unused elements of this section, so their presence won't raise any warnings. - Operating System ---------------- List of operating systems available on a cluster is viewable using ``gnt-os list`` command. When importing from external source, providing OS type in a command line (``--os-type=...``) is **required**. This is -because rven if the type is given in OVF description, it is not detailed +because even if the type is given in OVF description, it is not detailed enough for Ganeti to know which os-specific scripts to use. +Please note, that instance containing disks may only be imported using +OS script that supports raw disk images. + +References +---------- +Files listed in ``ovf:References`` section cannot be hyperlinks. + + +Limitations on export +===================== + +Disk content +------------ +Most Ganeti instances do not contain grub. This results in some +problems when importing to virtualization software that does expect it. +Examples of such software include VirtualBox and VMWare. + +To avoid trouble, please install grub inside the instance before +exporting it. + + +Import to VirtualBox +-------------------- +``format`` option should be set to ``vmdk`` in order for instance to be +importable by VirtualBox. + +Tests using existing versions of VirtualBox (3.16) suggest, that +VirtualBox does not support disk compression or OVA packaging. In future +versions this might change. + + +Import to VMWare +---------------- +Importing Ganeti instance to VMWare was tested using ``ovftool``. + +``format`` option should be set to ``vmdk`` in order for instance to be +importable by VMWare. + +Presence of Ganeti section does seem to cause some problems and +therefore it is recommended to use ``--external`` option on export. + +Import of compressed disks generated by ovfconverter was impossible in +current version of ``ovftool`` (2.1.0). This seems to be related to old +``vmdk`` version. Since the conversion to ``vmdk`` format is done using +``qemu-img``, it is possible and in fact expected, that future versions +of the latter tool will resolve this problem. Import examples @@ -130,11 +175,34 @@ Ganeti-specific configuration to be saved. In that case, simply use the Known issues ============ -Export ------- -When exporting to **VirtualBox**, you may encounter errors regarding -network. If that is the case, simply change the network type in options -to ``NAT``. +Conversion errors +----------------- +If you are encountering trouble when converting the disk, please ensure +that you have newest ``qemu-img`` version. + +OVA and compression +------------------- +The compressed disks and OVA packaging do not work correctly in either +VirtualBox (old version) or VMWare. + +VirtualBox (3.16 OSE) does not seem to support those two, so there is +very little we can do about this. + +As for VMWare, the reason behind it not accepting compressed or packed +instances created by ovfconverter seems to be related to the old vmdk +version. + +Problems on newest VirtualBox +----------------------------- +In Oracle VM Virtualbox 4.0+ there seems to be a problem when importing +any OVF instance created by ovfconverter. Reasons are again unknown, +this will be investigated. + +Disk space +---------- +The disk space requirements for both import and export are at the moment +very large - we require free space up to about 3-4 times the size of +disks. This will most likely be changed in future versions. .. vim: set textwidth=72 : -- GitLab