How to determine the parent container of a linked clone?

[Thom Luxford]

Using Proxmox 5.2-5
I've read the Proxmox documentation about Full and Linked clones, however two questions remain to be answered.

Unless I've missed it in the the PVE GUI, there is no indication that a vm was created as a linked clone, and thus dependent on the parent template.

1. How do you definitively determine that a particular KVM or LXC vm is a full or linked clone?
2. How do you definitively determine the parent disk of a KVM or LXC vm?

It is not noted in the Resources or Summary panels of the VM in PVE and all of the config files(e.g. /etc/pve/lxc) have the keyword "parent" in them.

 

[Alwin]

1. How do you definitively determine that a particular KVM or LXC vm is a full or linked clone?
2. How do you definitively determine the parent disk of a KVM or LXC vm?

The full clone is a standalone VM/CT and has not connection to the base image. A VM/CT as a linked clone have a base volume of the template, you can find it in the config.

 

[Thom Luxford]

I'm confused because the config files are the same with a linked a full clone. I took a CT and did a linked-clone and then full-clone:

The linked clone above does not reference a base volume and seems to have the same elements as the full clone below.

Is there perhaps different config file you are referring to?

 

[Alwin]

You are using LVM, there every clone is independent, LVM allows to delete the parent as the clone has the metadata. The parent references to which base image it belongs to.

 

[Thom Luxford]

Should I file a bug or feature request, eliminating the linked clone option when using a LVM?

 

[Alwin]

It is neither. The clone is still linked or full, but standalone in either case. As you can delete the parent without loosing the data on the linked clone, no differentiation is needed.