grizzly: Boot from volume without image supplied

[Tom Fifield]

If https://review.openstack.org/16099 is merged, a new feature is added to nova.

    This patch allows for booting instances without supplying an image if
    there is block device mapping supplied. It makes changes to nova API
    and
    compute services to handle requests that do not have any image
    supplied.

    Also it makes rescue and rebuild work with instances started from
    volume.

    Finally the patch introduces tests to make sure the system acts as
    expected, and in the process fixes and refactors some old tests to make
    them test for cases this new functionality can introduce.

    This patch is intended to be a proof of concept and a first step
    towards
    a more cleaner interface for booting from volumes, outlined in
    https://etherpad.openstack.org/grizzly-boot-from-volumes.

    This patch also introduces a slight modification of the nova API so I
    am flagging it with DocImpact. The change is that if the os-volumes
    extension is used ImageRef does not need to be supplied to the create
    server API call provided there is block_device_mapping provided.

    Also note that this is the first step towards introducing a 'volume'
    parameter
    for starting instances which will replace the somewhat unintuitive
    block_device_mapping (they will still be used but not for the boot
    device).

    This patch is coupled with I5ba9b0f35a5084aa91eca260f46cac83b8b6591e
    that provides changes to the nova client.

[Joe T (joe-topjian-v)]

While users can now boot volumes without specifying an image on the command line, Horizon is still requesting that an image be specified:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/horizon/+bug/1163566

[Tom Fifield (fifieldt)]

Hi,

This is marked as in progress - can we get a status update?

[Diane Fleming (diane-fleming)]

Tom, sorry for the delay - working on this now (8/21)

[Diane Fleming (diane-fleming)]

Hey Tom, I cannot boot an instance from a volume to save my life! Do you have any examples of the command flow using the nova and cinder clients? Or can you point me to someone who does? Thanks!

[Jon Proulx (jproulx)]

Hi Diane, I use boot from volume in my production environment (not extensively but but enough that I know how to make it work), Can reassign to me if you like.

also shouldn't this be mered with https://bugs.launchpad.net/openstack-api-site/+bug/1215081?

[Tom Fifield (fifieldt)]

This is now much easier in Havana.