fast-vm 1.3 new features

Below you will find what new and exciting was added or changed in fast-vm version 1.3.

Operations on multiple VM numbers

Most prominent change in fast-vm version 1.3 is ability to execute some actions on multiple VMs or to be able to manipulate multiple VMs with one command - precisely some commands accepts now multiple VM numbers instead of a single one. For example you can now create a several VMs with a single command and if everything went OK the exit code from this single command will be zero. If there was any issue you will receive the non-zero exit code. There are some actions that doesn't make sense to be executed on multiple VM numbers on same time such as 'console' for connecting to serial console of VM or interactive 'ssh'. If you attempt to use multiple VM numbers for these actions you will fails with error saying that this is not supported.

Changes in command outputs - prefixed lines

Because of multiple VM numbers being involved in single command the outputs changed a little bit. Some of the lines are now prefixed with [xxx] or [__]. These prefixes shows that output is either specific to VM number xxx or that output is not specific to any of VM numbers. Typically the second type is for outputting information on success or failure of the multiple VM number operations. Below is example on how the output for starting multiple VMs with one command looks like.

$ fast-vm start '204 205'
[__][inf] Starting to handle multiple operations
[__][inf] Calling operation: ./fast-vm start 204 
[__][inf] Calling operation: ./fast-vm start 205 
[204][inf] starting VM fastvm-centos-7.4-204 (192.168.22.204)
[205][inf] starting VM fastvm-centos-7.4-205 (192.168.22.205)
Domain fastvm-centos-7.4-204 started

Domain fastvm-centos-7.4-205 started

[__][ok] All operations returned successfully

Note that not all lines are yet prefixed. This will most probably change with future versions to make it possible to filter the outputs from fast-vm for particular VM numbers.

Videos on `fast-vm` installation and usage

To make a start with fast-vm easier and use of some commands clearer, the "videos" were created. Most feared thing that I have observed from people around is the initial installation and configuration of fast-vm. Unless someone has a strong preferences on things, then the basic installation requires only to have a free space in some VG (LMV volume group) that fast-vm can use. If this is satisfied, then rest of the steps needed for initial setup are mostly copy&paste or 'just press Enter' steps. To see how fast the fast-vm can be installed and used from start check them out from links below - all basic needed in 5 minutes. Note that some parts of videos were shortened compared to real life as watching the non-changing screen with installation for few minutes is just waste of time.

The "videos" are just json files capturing the console outputs with right timings that are playable with aciinema or through the 'asciinema.org' webpage where they are also published. They show now the most used operations done in fast-vm and the outputs that can be expected from such operations. If you would like to see some other videos there let me know in GitHub Issue #28. If you would like to contribute with your recordings, then you are welcomed. If you want your video to be part of fast-vm distribution (mentioned in README and documentation) please let me know before you start for some guidance and to avoid duplicated work.

Activity reporting

This is one of the features that still has some issues on systems that have not only local users/groups. Idea is to track when was the last time the activity on VM number was done so in future the VMs that were not used for long time can be identified. For shared systems this will allow to do regular cleanups of VMs that didn't received any activity in past XX days. Currently one of major issues with this feature is tracked in GitHub Issue #31.