-Let's see both tools in action. We will use them to create an image of the
-Linux Mint 14 OS we installed in Step 2.
-
-snf-mkimage
-"""""""""""
-
-In order to use snf-mkimage, simply type::
-
- $ sudo snf-mkimage linuxmint.raw
-
-snf-mkimage will initially check if the media is indeed a single disk
-partition or a raw file representing a hard disk. Then, it will use
-heuristics to understand which OS has been installed on the media. After
-that, you will be asked which mode you prefer.
-
-|mkimage-wizard|
-
-* Wizard mode is intuitive and consists of 4 simple steps.
-* Expert mode has an abundance of options but requires a bit of knowledge
- of the inner workings of Cyclades from your part. You can learn more on the
- `Expert Mode`_ section of snf-mkimage.
-
-For our tutorial, we will use Wizard mode. So, choose "Wizard" and then provide
-a name for the image.
-
-|mkimage1|
-
-This name will appear on Pithos+ and on the Public Images section of Cyclades.
-
-Then, provide a description for the image.
-
-|mkimage2|
-
-This will appear under the chosen image name on the Public Images section of
-cyclades.
-
-Next, add your account e-mail
-
-|mkimage3|
-
-... your account token...
-
-|mkimage4|
-
-...and you're done! A list operations will appear on your console.
-
-|mkimage-results|
-
-We will briefly comment on the above output.
-
-* **Sysprep:** Operations from 1/9 to 9/9 are part of the system
- preparation operations and are best explained in the snf-image-creator's
- `sysprep`_ section.
-* **Shrinking:** When shrinking the image, we check if a swap partition
- exists at the end of the media. If this is the case, it will be removed
- and re-inserted upon the deployment process of the VM. Alternatively, if
- the swap partition lies at the start of the media, it will be left
- untouched. On both cases, the primary partition will be shrunken as much
- as possible. On this example, we can see that the final size is 3.5GB,
- whereas the orginal size was 7GB. This means that the image was reduced
- by half, a pretty impressive feat.
-* **MD5SUM:** The md5sum of the image is used later on to verify that the
- image has been uploaded successfully.
-* **Uploading:** Everytime you upload an OS image, every block is hashed,
- checked against existing blocks in Pithos+ and finally uploaded, if no
- other block has the same hash.
-
- *Consider this example: You have just uploaded a Gentoo Linux image but
- had forgotten to install a necessary package. In this case, you would
- probably edit the OS in the raw file and then use snf-mkimage to upload
- the new image. However, since there is an almost identical image already
- uploaded on Pithos+, you can just as well upload only the blocks that
- differentiate those two images. This is both time and space efficient.*
-
-Finally, after the image has been uploaded successfully, you will be asked
-whether you want to save a local copy of the **shrunken** image. This is
-just a copy of the diskdump that has been uploaded to Pithos+ and, in case
-you are confused, the original OS installed on the media (linuxmint.raw in
-our example) remains intact.
-
-snf-image-creator
-"""""""""""""""""
-
-snf-image-creator is the command-line equivalent of snf-mkimage. All the
-info provided in the steps above are given now as options, which makes it
-ideal for scripting purposes. The full set of options can be found in the
-`Usage section <#non-interactive-version>`_ of snf-image-creator's
-documentation.
-
-This tool is most commonly used with the following set of options::
-
- $ sudo snf-image-creator linuxmint.raw -a user@email.com \
- -t hUudl4DEIlomlnvWnv7Rlw== -u linuxmint.diskdump -r "Linux Mint 14 Nadia"
-
-As you can see, these options are exactly what snf-mkimage's steps
-translate to. You can also see that the output is nearly identical:
-
-|image-creator|
-
-Step 3: Create your VM
-----------------------
-
-Creating a VM out of an uploaded custom image is a fairly simple task.
-Just select "New Machine", go to "My Images" section and select your
-image.
projects / snf-image-creator / blobdiff