[libvirt] Using ESX domain XML for V2V

[Matthew Booth]

On 15/01/10 10:37, Matthias Bolte wrote:
> 2010/1/14 Matthew Booth <mbooth at redhat.com>:
>> I'm trying to use the ESX driver to extract metadata from ESX in an easily
>> digestible form for driving V2V. I've noticed the domain XML seems to be
>> missing a few bits:
>>
>> <features/>
> 
> This is currently not implemented, but could be by parsing the CPUIDs.
> This is on my todo list.

This would be extremely useful.

>> <graphics/>
> 
> VMware seems to use a certain type of VNC for this, but they use a
> custom authentication mechanism. There is a Firefox plugin for that
> (vmware-mks.xpi), but IIRC its Windows only. I think this could be
> implemented but there is more research necessary what to expose as
> graphics element.
> 
>> <input/>
> 
> A ESX virtual machine has a PS2 mouse and keyboard by default and
> AFAIK that's not changeable. So the ESX driver could output input
> elements for them, but the user won't be able to change it when
> defining a new virtual machine. Currently input elements are ignored
> by the ESX driver.

To explain my use case, I'm using the domain XML provided by the ESX
driver to form the basis of domain XML for the QEMU driver. I don't need
to be able to modify or even access the underlying guest, I just need to
know that the devices exist and what drivers they are using. I believe
there is more than 1 available graphics device in ESX, so that would be
most important.

>> <serial/> and <console/> are also missing, but that could well be because
>> they aren't present.
> 
> By default a virtual machine doesn't have serial/parallel ports, but
> you can add them and the ESX driver will output the serial/parallel
> elements for them. The console element is automatically deduced by
> libvirt from the first serial port in the domain XML config, the ESX
> driver has not influence here.

Ok. I can add these in explicitly.

Thanks,

Matt
-- 
Matthew Booth, RHCA, RHCSS
Red Hat Engineering, Virtualisation Team

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