Hi,
I would like to hear your opinion on adding Virtual Machine status and management capability to the Cockpit.
I've already played with this idea for some time. It lead me to a plugin providing such a functionality, but with dependency on the oVirt (VDSM). The plugin - lists all VMs running on the host, - displays some charts, statistics and other VM details - plus allows set of actions on them (so far basic - shutdown, restart, console, but can grow).
With optional access to oVirt's engine, additional cluster-related functionality is made accessible: - list of VMs in a cluster, - VM run, - click-through to other cockpit running particular VM - ...
In hindsight, there might be a better approach in contributing VM status&management to the Cockpit upstream, alongside with recent Docker or Kubernetes.
As a starting point, a list of running VMs will be displayed and basic set of actions provided. Vision: implement in the Cockpit - similar functionality as is recently done for the desktop's virt-manager but with the benefit of revising the User Experience - allow monitoring&management of cluster VMs, if the host is part of any
This feature would be libvirt-based, not VDSM - so no additional dependencies for Cockpit. The VDSM would be preferred service provider, if *optionally* installed on the host. Similar for oVirt's engine - if accessible then cluster-related functionality is provided (i.e. cluster VMs list, managed VM migration, run a VM "in a cluster", cockpit's VM detail click-through, etc.).
Benefit for users: support for VM management out of the box with layered access to functionality as more advanced VM management tools are installed on a host
Please share your ideas. Thanks, Marek