[xen-tools] Feature proposal

[Sascha Kettler]

I'm currently creating a modified xen-create-image script that is
capable of handling more complex partition layouts.

I need this for creating testing VMs that closely resemble the actual
servers, so the default layout (all in one partition) will not work well
(e.g. performance and stability issues).

As I want to make my patch public when it is ready, I'm going to
disclose some semantics for you to comment on.

The approach I'm currently implementing is an additional command line
option "--layout=file" that points to a file containing the partition
layout. The partitions will be created using "--lvm" or "--dir"
("--evms" should be easy to implement; but I won't be able to test it);
"--swap", "--noswap" and "--swap-dev" would be ignored and "--image-dev"
would not be supported.

The layout file would look something like this (my default layout):

	[root]
	size=1G
	type=ext3
	mountpoint=/
	options=sync
	
	[swap]
	size=2G
	type=swap
	
	[home]
	size=1G
	type=xfs
	mountpoint=/home
	options=nodev,nosuid
	
	[opt]
	size=1.5G
	type=xfs
	mountpoint=/opt
	options=nodev
	
	[tmp]
	size=0.5G
	type=xfs
	mountpoint=/tmp
	options=nodev,nosuid
	
	[usr]
	size=4G
	type=xfs
	mountpoint=/usr
	options=nodev
	
	[var]
	size=4G
	type=xfs
	mountpoint=/var
	options=nodev,nosuid
	
	[var-tmp]
	size=1.5G
	type=xfs
	mountpoint=/var/tmp
	options=nodev,nosuid

"root", "swap", etc. would be the LVM or Loop suffixes used, the other
parameters should be obvious.

Any comments or suggestions?

Also, I think we need a "--modules" parameter that points to the correct
/lib/modules path for the domU kernel when you have different kernels
for dom0 and domU.

Yours,

Sascha Kettler