Sun xVM: Cloning your domU

If you're using Sun xVM for server virtualization the capability of cloning a domU is a real time-saver: reduced downtime and reuse of a corporate-standard OS installation and configuration. Really cool. If you sum up the power of ZFS snapshots and clones to all this, the picture is impressing: you can configure you domU to use ZFS volumes that you can take snapshot of and clone at will.

Now that you have the big picture, assuming you already know how to administer you ZFS pools, how can you clone your domU? This way: the first thing you have to do is shutting down your domU:

# virsh shutdown your-domain

Now you can copy your domain disk files or snapshot the corresponding ZFS volumes with a command such as:

# zfs snapshot your-fs@snap-name

# zfs clone your-fs@snap-name your/clone/name

If your just using files, then:

# cp your-domain-disk-file your-new-domain-disk-file

The next thing you've got to do is dumping and editing your source domain configuration:

# virsh dumpxml your-domain > your-domain.xml

# cp your-domain.xml your-new-domain.xml

Now, before importing this file, you've got to apply some modifications. Since Sun xVM identifies domains by means of a name and an uuid: then, you've got to edit the domain definition file to change the name and remove the already-used uuid. A new uuid will be generated for you as soon as Sun xVM wil import the domain definition. So, open the file:

# vi your-new-domain.xml

First, change the name you'll find in the <name/> element and then remove the entire <uuid/> element. The last modification you must apply is having the new domain point to the new file or ZFS volume you copied or cloned earlier. An example of a disk definition is the following excerpt from a domain configuration:

<disk type='file' device='disk'>

  <driver name='file'/>

  <source file='/export/home/xvm/db-server/winsrv2003.img'/>

  <target dev='hda'/>

</disk>

Just change the file attribute of the <source/> element and the job is done.

Last thing you've got to do is importing the new domain definition:

# virsh define your-new-domain.xml

Done! Now you can boot your new domain.

A last word of warning: chances are your just-cloned system shouldn't be running aside the old one without proper configuration. Double check your virtualized OS configuration for parameters such as:

• network configuration (hostname, DNS, static IP addresses, etc.)
• network service which may clash

Enjoy your virtualized server environment.