[libvirt] changing files in /var/lib/libvirt/images

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 10:41:41AM -0400, Gene Czarcinski wrote:
> Assume I am working with virtual disk image files in /var/lib/libvirt/images 
> such as removing a file, defining a new file (with qemi-img create or qemu-img 
> convert), or simply copying a file ("cp") from elsewhere such as VMware.  When 
> I do this, Guest definition or adding hardware to an existing guest under virt-
> manager does not "see" the file change.  That is, until I terminate virt-
> manager and restart /etc/init.d/libvirtd.
> 
> Is there some better/easier/less-disruptive means of notifying "whatever" that 
> the list of files has changed?

You're looking for:

virsh pool-refresh POOLNAME

> I also notice that restarting libvirtd and/or terminating and restarting virt-
> manager while there are guests running really screws things up.

It should not have any ill-effects if you have libvirt >= 0.6.3. It is
designed to be allowed to be restarted at any time & re-sync its state
upon startup.


NB, there should be no need to ever restart libvirtd for anything other
than changes to /etc/libvirt/libvirt.conf, or /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf.
Everything else should be able to be handled via SIGUP (service libvirtd
reload), or virsh commands like pool-refresh.

Daniel
-- 
|: Red Hat, Engineering, London   -o-   http://people.redhat.com/berrange/ :|
|: http://libvirt.org  -o-  http://virt-manager.org  -o-  http://ovirt.org :|
|: http://autobuild.org       -o-         http://search.cpan.org/~danberr/ :|
|: GnuPG: 7D3B9505  -o-  F3C9 553F A1DA 4AC2 5648 23C1 B3DF F742 7D3B 9505 :|