A user image is a virtual machine disk image that is used for creating new virtual machines or as a backup copy.

Image files are created in the image storage directory (by default — /image/). Before creating an image, make sure that there is enough free space on the partition with this directory.

Differences between the image and the original VM


If the Anonymize the image option was enabled when creating the image, a custom image is created using the virt-sysprep utility. The utility is run with the --operations defaults,ca-certificates,kerberos-data,user-account parameter. The following will be removed from the original VM:

  • /home/ directory;
  • /var/log/ directory;
  • manually created user accounts;
  • automatically generated error reports from the /var/spool/abrt/ directory;
  • *.bak and *~ backup files;
  • bash interpreter history;
  • data on block device identifiers from the /etc/blkid.tab file;
  • kexec-tools utility data;
  • cron jobs;
  • DHCP client and server databases;
  • Dovecot mail server data;
  • IPA data;
  • Kerberos data;
  • keytab file for Kerberos authentication;
  • unique identifier of the local system — machine ID;
  • emails from the local directory;
  • HOSTNAME and DHCP_HOSTNAME parameters from the network configuration;
  • MAC address information;
  • NetworkManager connection profiles;
  • process accounting log files;
  • package manager cache;
  • PAM (pluggable authentication module) data;
  • puppet utility data and log files;
  • Red Hat subscription data;
  • RHN (Red Hat Network) system id;
  • RPM databases;
  • Samba databases and log files;
  • SSH keys;
  • .ssh directories;
  • sssd database and log files;
  • temporary files in /tmp/ and /var/tmp/ directories;
  • udev manager network rules;
  • utmp file;
  • UUID of yum manager;
  • CA certificates.

If the VM is configured with LVM storage, the UUIDs of its physical disks (PV) and volume groups (VG) will be changed.

Creating images


This section contains instructions for creating Unix-family operating system images. To create a Windows OS image, follow the instructions in the Preparing the image section of the Preparing the OS Windows template article.

From the list of images

Follow the steps below:

  1. Go to TemplatesVM images → Add.
  2. Select a Virtual machine to create a copy of its disk.
    The New image name will be generated automatically in the following format: <virtual machine name>_<current time in UNIX format>.
  3. Add Notes if needed.
  4. Select an Image owner.
  5. Select the users who can Access the newly created image: Owner or All.
  6. If you do not need to remove any information from the source VM, disable the Anonymize the image option.
  7. Select Storage for the image. 

    If NAS storage is connected to the cluster, only file and NAS storage will be available for selection.

  8. Click Create and Restart. VMmanager will restart the virtual machine.

From the list of virtual machines or from a virtual machine page

Follow the steps below:

  1. Go to Virtual machines →  menu → Create VM image or go to a virtual machine page → menu → Create VM image.
  2. Specify the New image name.
  3. Add Notes if needed.
  4. Select an Image owner.
  5. Select the users who can Access the newly created image: Owner or All.
  6. If you do not need to remove any information from the source VM, disable the Anonymize the image option.
  7. Select Storage for the image. 

    If NAS storage is connected to the cluster, only file and NAS storage will be available for selection.

  8. Click Create and Restart. VMmanager will restart the virtual machine.

The network settings specified in the virtual machine are not written to the VM image. Only the number of added IP addresses is taken into account. Therefore, when creating a virtual machine from the image, new free IP addresses will be assigned to it.

Managing images


In the cluster node card you can manage the created images. Possible actions:

  • copy the image to another cluster node;
  • migrate (move) the image to another cluster node;
  • delete the image.

To manage images, enter Nodes → select the node → Disk spaceVM images → select the images → select the action (delete, copy, migrate). When copying or migrating, specify to which cluster you want to copy or migrate the image.

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