OpenStack: Can I convert a volume into an image?

Question

I am trying to figure out the path of least resistance in OpenStack to get from a live CD to a disk image that can be used for deploying new guest instances.

If you boot an OpenStack instance from a live CD, you can install an OS onto the "ephemeral" disk (which will, in this case, be /dev/vda)...

...that's great, but there's no way to create an image from that disk; the image-create command will attempt (and fail) to snapshot the live CD itself (because this is the boot volume).

You can create and attach a new volume (using volume-create and volume-attach) and then install the OS on that, but there's doesn't appear to be any way to convert this volume into a Glance-hosted image for use by other instances.

As an administrator I can obviously log in to the storage host and create a new glance image directly from the volume block device, but this isn't an avenue available to anyone interacting via the API or web GUI.

Are there any other options available?

Solution

In Icehouse and later you can convert Cinder volume to Glance image with upload-to-image command:

cinder upload-to-image <volume> <image-name>

Comments

[user2751502]

This would be the "As an administrator I can obviously log in to the storage host and create a new glance image directly from the volume block device..." solution I was referring to in my question.