Snap-guest is a simple script for creating copy-on-write QEMU/KVM guests.
Fedora KVM instance booted into working shell in 2 seconds? No containers involved, no magic.
Upstream site is at http://github.com/lzap/snap-guest
Maintainers needed! I no longer actively use the script as I found
virt-builder a nicer tool to build VMs. It's a bit slower but very flexible.
- easy-to-learn CLI
- creates qcow2 image based on different one
- creates and provisions guest using virt-install
Traditional image manipulation features:
- generates MAC address out of hostname (more bellow)
- modifies network settings (MAC, hostname) for Fedora/Red Hat distros
- disables fsck check during boot
Cloud image-based provisioning features:
- generate simple meta-data (uuid = hostname)
- generate trivial user-data (enable root login, use user's RSA public key)
- allows user to pass own user-data
Dependencies for RHEL6/Fedora:
- yum -y install bash sed python-virtinst qemu-img libguestfs-mount
perl perl-Sys-Guestfs kvm cloud-utils openssl util-linux genisoimage
And then:
- git clone git://github.com/lzap/snap-guest.git
- sudo ln -s $PWD/snap-guest/snap-guest /usr/local/bin/snap-guest
There are two ways of using snap-guest: traditional image manipulation and cloud image based snapping.
First of all you need to create base image using any method you want (e.g. virt-manager). It's recommended to use "base" string in the guest name (e.g. fedora-10-base or rhel4-base) to differentiate those files (snap-guest lists them using -l option), but it is not mandatory (option -a lists them all). The template image format can be qcow2 as well as different one (raw on LVM for example).
Feel free to configure the base image according to your needs. It's recommended to install a few packages like ntpd or acpid. Make sure network is also on when switching off NetworkManager. The following blog post contains more information about configuring base (or "template") guest:
http://lukas.zapletalovi.com/2011/08/configure-red-hat-or-fedora-as-guest.html
I also recommend to configure serial console for both terminal and grub. There is a simple way to do that, for example for Fedora you need to do this:
cat >> /etc/default/grub <<'EOF'
GRUB_TIMEOUT=1
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="$GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX text console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8"
GRUB_TERMINAL=serial
GRUB_SERIAL_COMMAND="serial --speed=115200 --unit=0 --word=8 --parity=no --stop=1"
EOF
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Then it is possible to connect to the console with:
virsh console guestname
There is a gist with several other extra commands from the above blog post: https://gist.github.com/lzap/4984838
To use it do this:
# \curl -L https://gist.github.com/lzap/4984838/raw | bash -xs
Important note
The only requirement is the hostname - it must be same as the base guest name. So if you name the VM fedora-10-base, hostname must be set the same.
The usage is very easy then:
./snap-guest --list
./snap-guest -p /mnt/data/images --list-all
./snap-guest -b fedora-17-base -t test-vm -s 4098
./snap-guest -b fedora-17-base -t test-vm2 -n bridge=br0 -d example.com
./snap-guest -b rhel-6-base -t test-vm -m 2048 -c 4 -p /mnt/data/images
Don't want to bother preparing base images? Why not to leverage one of these which are already there! http://openstack.redhat.com/Image_resources
Have a working Fedora instance in three simple steps:
# wget http://cloud.fedoraproject.org/fedora-19.x86_64.qcow2 \
-O /var/lib/libvirt/images/f19-base.img
# snap-guest -b f19 -t myguest --cloud-image --user-data-ssh
# ssh fedora@192.168.122.123
Do you like that? Snap that again, now maybe with custom user data and bridged networking and full hostname with domain. If you don't know cloud-init syntax, read this: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CloudInit
# snap-guest -b f19 -t myguest --cloud-image --user-data-file my_app.yaml \
--network bridge=br0 --domain xxx.redhat.com --force
Note that you don't need to delete the running host. The --force option will destroy and undefine previous guest automatically.
Now you want to move snap-guest to a server and snap instances from your laptop. Not a problem!
# cat my_app.yaml | ssh root@dev-server "snap-guest -b f19 -t myguest \
--cloud-image --user-data-stdin -n bridge=br0 -d xxx.redhat.com -f"
And now you want more complex scenario - you want to install things on that instance during start. With cloud-utils tool, you can create multipart user data with bash scripts and other things.
# write-mime-multipart --output=combined-my_app.yaml \
install_software.sh:text/x-shellscript \
my_app.yaml
# cat my_app.yaml | ssh root@dev-server "snap-guest -b f19 ..."
Of course you can directly pipe the former command into the latter, but we leave this as an exercise.
We ship some example scripts, for example you can install The Foreman application (http://www.theforeman.org) using the following command:
# vim apps/example.yaml (put your ssh key and review settings)
# write-mime-multipart apps/foreman/dev:text/x-shellscript \
apps/example.yaml | ssh root@dev-server "snap-guest -b f19 ..."
Here you can find all parameters:
usage: ./snap-guest options
Tool for ultra-fast copy-on-write image provisioning. Prepare a base image (or
download a cloud image) and then spawn an COW instance. Then again, and again.
OPTIONS:
--help | -h
Show this message
--list | -l
List avaiable images (with "base" in the name)
--list-all
List all images
--base [image] | -b [image]
Base image name (template) - required
--target [name] | -t [name]
Target image name (and hostname) - required
--network [opts] | -n [opts]
Network options for virt-install (default: "network=default")
--network2 [opts]
Second network NIC settings (none by default)
--memory [MB] | -m [MB]
Memory (default: 800 MiB)
--cpus [CPUs] | -c [CPUs]
Number of CPUs (default: 1)
--image-dir [path] | -p [path]
Target images path (default: /var/lib/libvirt/images/)
--base-image-dir [path]
Base images path (default: /var/lib/libvirt/images/)
--domain [domain] | -d [domain]
Domain suffix like "mycompany.com" (default: none)
--domain-prefix [prefix]
Domain prefix like "test-" -> "test-NAME.lan" (default: none)
--force | -f
Force creating new guest (no questions, destroys one the same name)
--add-ip | -w
Add IP address to /etc/hosts (works only with NAT)
--graphics [opts] | -g [opts]
Graphics options passed to virt-install via --graphics
(default is vnc,listen=0.0.0.0)
--swap [MBs] | -s [MBs]
Creates RAW disk and connects and mounts it of given size (in MB)
Note the virtual disc has no parititions.
For cloud-image provisioning swap is not turned on automatically and
you need to do this manually in user-data script (swapon /dev/vdb).
--firstboot [command] | -1 [command]
Command to execute during first boot in /root dir
(logfile available in /root/firstboot.log)
--cloud-image
Disables image manipulation and enables cloud-init seed via CD-ROM
--user-data-file [file]
Reads cloud-init user-data from file
--user-data-ssh
Generate primitive user-data file with only your public ssh key
--user-data-stdin
Reads cloud-init user-data from standard input
(overrides all --user-data-* options)
There is one important thing you need to know. Once you have some guests, you must not start template (base) image, because that would break the "child" guests.
You also must not change a template even when the "child" guests are not running. Again, if anything changes in a template, images based on the template will be corrupted. Sooner or later.
Trust me, it can seem to work since there is lot of files in a modern distribution (even a minimal installation). But the probability you corrupt some important files is very high. The template must not change when there are "child" guests - never ever.
The only safe way to change something in a template is to destroy all the "child" guests, change it and then re-provision them again. It's not big deal - it is fast, you know.
The script modifies network settings in /etc/sysconfig directory (hostname and MAC address of the eth0). The MAC address is generated based on the hostname - the same hostname always gives the same address. Example:
hostname a => mac 52:54:00:60:b7:25
hostname b => mac 52:54:00:3b:5d:5c
hostname a => mac 52:54:00:60:b7:25 (the same)
This is great for testing - when you provision a box called let's say "test" and delete it, once it is provisioned again with the same name, DHCP will assign it the very same IP address. You can keep hostnames and IPs in the /etc/hosts file and if you won't be shut down your guests for longer periods, IPs never change.
It is also possible to provision guests with static network settings. It is currently available for Fedora and Red Hats. Example options:
snap-guest ... \
--static-ipaddr 192.168.100.2 \
--static-netmask 255.255.255.0 \
--static-gateway 192.168.100.1
Additionally, if you use snap-guest on the same host where KVM is running, there is a flag that adds entries to your /etc/hosts automatically. See help section for more details.
Since snap-guest does not support LVM, you have to rely on the formatted partition. It is recommended to use separate dedicated partition for snap-guest. I am happy with ext4 using the extent option enabled and a bigger block size. Something like:
# pvdisplay
# lvdisplay
# lvcreate -L 140G -n lv_images vg_myhost
# mkfs.ext4 -b 4096 -O extent /dev/mapper/vg_myhost-lv_images
Snap-guest is a great tool for developing or testing. It's simple and fast.
The script is distributed as public domain.
Original script was written by Red Hat folks (Jason Dobies, Shannon Hughes, Mike McCune and others), I have slightly modified it, I was using it and after few improvements I decided to share it with the world.
Special thanks to all who improve this set of scripts. See AUTHORS for full list.
vim: tw=79:fo+=w