Issued:
2013-02-20
Updated:
2013-02-20

RHBA-2013:0477 - virt-v2v bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

virt-v2v bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated virt-v2v packages that fix several bugs and add one enhancement are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The virt-v2v packages provide a tool for converting virtual machines to use the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor or Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization. The tool modifies both the virtual machine image and its associated libvirt metadata. Also, virt-v2v can configure a guest to use VirtIO drivers if possible.

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • The virt-v2v packages used to rename block devices in various guest configuration files during conversion, including the /etc/fstab file. Consequently, the virt-v2v utility returned a redundant warning message when a guest's /etc/fstab file referenced to the /etc/fd0 file as the block device did not know it. To fix this bug, warning messages concerning floppy devices have been explicitly suppressed and virt-v2v no longer returns warning messages in this situation. (BZ#794680)

  • When reading a libvirt guest, virt-v2v uses libvirt metadata to determine the on-disk format, considering only those of "dir", "fs", and "netfs" types as meaningful. If a guest used a different type of storage pool, virt-v2v interpreted these data as a format type, which was unable to convert by libvirt guests. To address this bug, virt-v2v now only uses volume format metadata from storage pools of type "dir", "fs", and "netfs", but also all other storage pools can only hold raw data, so the format is assumed to be "raw". As a result, virt-v2v can now convert libvirt guests using any supported storage pool type. (BZ#803629)

  • When creating a new libvirt guest, virt-v2v failed to disable caching for disks as recommended. As a consequence, guests created by virt-v2v used caching for their disks, unless explicitly disabled by the user after conversion. To address this bug, virt-v2v now explicitly disables caching for all disks when creating a new libvirt guest, and guests created by virt-v2v now have caching disabled for all disks. The user can enable it again if required after conversion. (BZ#838057)

  • Virt-v2v failed when attempting to perform an on-disk format conversion when reading a guest using the libvirtxml input method. A patch has been provided to fix this bug and virt-v2v can now perform format conversions on guests using libvirtxml. (BZ#868405)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancement:

  • With this update, virt-v2v can do an on-disk format conversion while converting a remote libvirt guest. Note that when doing this kind of format conversion, virt-v2v must make an intermediate copy of the guest storage data on the conversion server. Other types of conversion do not require any intermediate storage on the conversion server. The user must ensure that the TMPDIR temporary directory has sufficient space for this intermediate copy. (BZ#682945)

Users of virt-v2v are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add this enhancement.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension6x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop6x86_64

Updated Packages

  • virt-v2v-0.8.9-2.el6.x86_64.rpm
  • virt-v2v-0.8.9-2.el6.src.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information