Synnefo » snf-image-creator

Overview

^^^^^^^^

snf-image-creator is a simple command-line tools for creating OS images. The

original media from which the image is created, can be a block device or a

regular file that represents a hard disk. Given a media file, snf-image-creator

will create a snapshot for it and will run a number of image preparation task

on the snapshot, before the image is created.

Snapshotting

============

snf-image-creator works on snapshots of the original media. Any changes made by

the program do not affect the original media.

Preparation

===========

Some of the image preparation operations that run on each image are OS

specific. snf-image-creator will use heuristics to detect the OS of the image

and determine which operations should run on it. The main purpose of running

them is to:

 * Shrink the image

 * Clear out sensitive user data (passwords, ssh keys, history files, etc.)

 * Prepare the image for being deployed on a virtual environment (change device

   names, remove persistent net rules, etc.)

Creation

========

The program can either dump the image file locally or directly upload it to

pithos and register it with `okeanos <http://www.okeanos.grnet.gr>`_.

Image Format

============

The images the program creates are in diskdump format. This is the recommended

format for `snf-image <https://code.grnet.gr/projects/snf-image>`_, the Ganeti

OS Definition used by `Synnefo <https://code.grnet.gr/projects/synnefo>`_.