[Xen-users] Basic Xen administration tool

["Eduardo Costa Lisboa" <eduardo.linux@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, everyone. Me and my co-worker are planning to build a very basic
Xen admin tool. We know that there are some projects in progress, and
that there is a API to access Xen's resources. However, all what we
want to do is a simple shell script which does the following tasks:

1. What does it do?

R. It creates a new virtual machine based on a existing one.


2. How does it create a new machine?

R. It does a snapshot or a distinct image copied from a matrix;
defines the swap size; changes it's IP address, host and vm name and
creates a swap volume as well. Also, it creates the Xen configuration
file, changes the root password, sets the gateway and the DNS IP
address (each machine may have a distinct DNS IP address).

If some parameters are not passed, it assumes some defaults.


3. How does it create it's Xen's config file?

R. Copying from a default file, changing only what will be passed as a
parameter.


4. Which parameters would be passed?

R. RAM, quantity of CPUs, which CPUs will be used, the vm name, it's
MAC address and ramdisk (initrd).


5. Will it have the ability to remove created machines?

R. Yes.


6. What will be done in order to remove them?

R. Xen's config file; the snapshot/image copy and swap volumes.


7. If the machine is up, what must be done?

R. Shutdown the machine (via xm). If the machine's state is "s", then
wait. Otherwise, kill it, then remove the machine.


8. Will it return iformations about the machines?

R. Yes.


9. What kind of information?

R. How different is the snapshot from the original; machine's memory
usage;  it's state; it's CPU usge; IP and network status (via
pinging).


10. Will this program have the ability to administrate the virtual
machines, such as start and shutdown, as well as connect to their
console?

R. No. This will be done via xm.


I would you all to comment if you find that there is lacking some
feature, or give any ideias to it. We are not discussing
implementation details yet, only the software's features. Anyway, if
it works pretty well, we are planning to build a better one, then,
using Xen's API.

That's all for now, and forgive my sob big e-mail and possible
grammatical erros.


--
Eduardo Costa Lisboa

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