From cc17246d2bddcace579d0c33cab9cf8027985cd8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Kaifeng Wang <kaifeng.w@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2020 16:38:07 +0800 Subject: [PATCH] Expand user-image doc Adds some text on the general instruction on how to build user-image by virtual machine software. See also: https://review.opendev.org/#/c/710966/ Change-Id: Ic84bc14ff0bce609009455c644a1601f990a7b45 --- doc/source/install/creating-images.rst | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+) diff --git a/doc/source/install/creating-images.rst b/doc/source/install/creating-images.rst index f6155142f6..10a8c16df0 100644 --- a/doc/source/install/creating-images.rst +++ b/doc/source/install/creating-images.rst @@ -26,6 +26,9 @@ the end user. There are two types of user images: Building user images ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ +disk-image-builder +------------------ + The `disk-image-builder`_ can be used to create user images required for deployment and the actual OS which the user is going to run. @@ -63,3 +66,34 @@ If you want to use Fedora image, replace ``ubuntu`` with ``fedora`` in the chosen command. .. _disk-image-builder: https://docs.openstack.org/diskimage-builder/latest/ + +Virtual machine +--------------- + +Virtual machine software can also be used to build user images. There are +different software options available, qemu-kvm is usually a good choice on +linux platform, it supports emulating many devices and even building images +for architectures other than the host machine by software emulation. +VirtualBox is another good choice for non-linux host. + +The procedure varies depending on the software used, but the steps for +building an image are similar, the user creates a virtual machine, and +installs the target system just like what is done for a real hardware. The +system can be highly customized like partition layout, drivers or software +shipped, etc. + +Usually libvirt and its management tools are used to make interaction with +qemu-kvm easier, for example, to create a virtual machine with +``virt-install``:: + + $ virt-install --name centos8 --ram 4096 --vcpus=2 -f centos8.qcow2 \ + > --cdrom CentOS-8-x86_64-1905-dvd1.iso + +Graphic frontend like ``virt-manager`` can also be utilized. + +The disk file can be used as user image after the system is set up and powered +off. The path of the disk file varies depending on the software used, usually +it's stored in a user-selected part of the local file system. For qemu-kvm or +GUI frontend building upon it, it's typically stored at +``/var/lib/libvirt/images``. +