upload ISO to a NFS ISO share in XO

[olivierlambert]

Because we know everything about an existing NFS ISO share in XAPI (server address and NFS path), we should be able to mount it in XOA to allow user to upload the ISO file directly in it.

After the upload is complete, we need to make a SR.scan to tell the SR to refresh.

[dsever]

Yes, but keep in mind in that case you need some kind of user quote. There is risk of filling up all ISO SR.

[olivierlambert]

This will be done first for an admin only, then with permissions and finally with quotas.

[julien-f]

@olivierlambert What's the priority for this?

[olivierlambert]

Long term. So far from being urgent.

[fufroma]

Be able to make XO download an iso by giving it a FTP, HTTP or HTTP link could be great to!

Use case: I am over an ADSL and I want to add an DVD ISO on a remote XO. I'd like to be able to give it a link ( example ) and be happy!

[olivierlambert]

For your use case, netinstall URL seems appropriated (in PV, for HVM you can use PXE boot).

Streaming a CD drive device is not possible easily (I had a discussion about this with XAPI devs few month ago).

[fufroma]

For your use case, netinstall URL seems appropriated (in PV, for HVM you can use PXE boot).

It was an example of a link... Next time I can give an example with MultiDeskOS.

Streaming a CD drive device is not possible easily

It's not what I'm talking about.

Instead of downloading an ISO locally then upload it to XO, it may be usefull to ask XO do download it directly by giving him the link.

[olivierlambert]

My point is we can't write directly on a ISO SR, it's mounted in read only on XenServer. So, anyway, XOA will need to download it itself, and store it somewhere (where?)
We could try to get the NFS settings from the existing NFS SR ISO, but we don't have any guarantee that will work (is the IP authorized in the NFS server? is it accessible in RW? Or disk space?).

Anyway, that seems "risky" in terms of feature (I mean time to develop it against potential issues encountered). Ideally, streaming the ISO would be the ideal solution, but it's far from being possible without a lot of pain.

[fufroma]

I understood you point.

What I said was: if you manage to code something to allow the upload of an ISO from the XO interface, it could be a good idea to allow people to give a link instead of uploading a file.

And I gave a use case of someone wanting to add a Debian ISO on a SR.

The stream idea is, IMHO, sexy on paper but risky and complicated.

[olivierlambert]

Yes sure I got your point. But anyway, before going there, there is still the complicated question on the place to store this ISO.

Thus, PXE or netinstall in PV seems more appropriated at the moment

[reecefowell]

It would be great if we didn't even have to download locally and then upload to the XenServer but rather on the LocalISO pool we could have a modal we can open, paste the url for the ISO, hit a download button and see a progress bar of the ISO downloading directly onto the XenServer from the vendor site.

In this was we do not have to download the ISO onto our primary machine then Upload / SCP the ISO onto the XenServer.

[reecefowell]

This is how I setup my ISO store

[olivierlambert]

That's not the issue here. XAPI doesn't support adding an ISO directly (it's not like a "normal" storage repository, it's a specific "iso" type). So until we found a simple way to do that, user workflow like upload/pasting ISO URL whatever is not even possible.

edit: @reecefowell don't forget that your way of creating an ISO store is not the advised way. I mean, that's okay for a home install or isolated host, but in general Citrix prefer that you use a NFS or SMB share for that. This share can be connected from multiple pools, it doesn't matter (because it's in read only, thus the problem for us too)

[fufroma]

Maybe look at it another way :

Allowing xo to mount à smb ou NFS shared directory without anything linked to the XAPI, and a limited file manager allowing to upload, etc, the files.

It may offer many possibility:

• managing ISO, as we talk in this issue,
• allowing to import xva or ovf of this directory in xo,
• allowing to export the xva in this directory instead of downloading it,
• automatic backup of the xo configuration ;),
• other ideas ?

The purpose of xo is not to be an online file manager, but this idea may be interesting. It would open a lot of futur possibility.

[olivierlambert]

I don't see the connection with this current issue. Can you be more explicit? Because, let's imagine we got a way to manage a remote ISO folder. Great, and now, what's next? How to share those ISO to XenServer for VM install?

Also, you are talking (in other words) about our existing "remote" system (the thing causing us 80% of our support request due to user misconfiguration of their NFS/SMB share). I get your point for:

• the xva export: already done with backup that you can trigger manually if you like
• xva import: you know that adding any XVA file in a backup remote allow to import it after, right?
• auto xo backup config: already planned that would be done in a backup remote or via web browser

If the idea is to manage a NFS/SMB share in read/write, the same used to manage files as a ISO repo in XAPI, it's not really a big step forward IMHO. You still need to configure it yourself (or to have a extra machine to behave as a NFS/SMB share). Most of our users just want to avoid discovering the horrible way to add ISOs and to create a share themselves. The real value would be in a "plug and play" solution, and so far, the least crappy idea I heard (and it's not mine for the record) is to expose XOA itself via NFS and connect it automagically (at least try) to XS hosts and having an ISO manager right there. That's only possible because we could know our current IP and try to add our own appliance to every pool connected to XOA. I like the idea because it's really "plug and play", something like:

"it seems you didn't have any ISO SR connected to all your pools, would you like we do it for you?"

The big downside is the space available on XOA itself... (and plausible configuration issues in client infrastructure). Or we need to go further, with a storage appliance with enough intelligence to answer to XOA and help with backup/ISO management/XOA backup workflow. Anyway, that kind of dedicated appliance will exists some day, to cope with the remote site backup issue, see #1201 (comment)

I'm open for any alternative that are in priority:

1. easy for the user
2. easy in the backend
3. easy to support

3 of them seems impossible, but I'm sure we can find something with 2 points and a bit of the third.

[olivierlambert]

Idea added into the wiki