Windows virtual machine : non persistent drive possible ?

[Marc Ballat]

Hi,

I would like to know if Proxmox has a feature similar to a non-persistent drive in VMWare Workstation. I remember that a similar question has already been asked and answered negatively in the past. But things may have changed though searching both the internet and this forum hasn't given me any positive answer.

The Windows virtual machine is configured with two volumes (one for the OS and the other for data). I use LVM-thin and virtio. I would like the OS to reside on a non-persistent volume (i.e. one whose changes are not permanent and returns to its previous status every time I boot).

Thanks in advance.

Marc

 

[Stoiko Ivanov]

This is not (yet) implemented - see https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=894

However we're planning on including this at some point!

 

[Marc Ballat]

Thanks. If I can vote somehow for this feature, let me know. It is really useful for Windows machines that tend otherwise to slow down over time and update or reset settings by themselves.

 

[Stoiko Ivanov]

just comment in the enhancement request that you would like it as well - we try to take into consideration if many people want to see a feature

Of course we cannot give any timeframe when it will be done.

 

[alexskysilk]

This can be accomplished using a hookscript. When OS installation is at the point you want to revert to, take a snapshot and lock it. the write a hookscript that reverts to snapshot on shutdown.

 

[Marc Ballat]

Alex,

Doesn't a snapshot apply to all drives ? I only one the C: drive, where the OS and programs are, to be frozen. The other drive(s) contain data and must be able to change permanently.

Marc

 

[alexskysilk]

Normally, yes, but if thats the requirement you dont need to use the proxmox snapshot mechanism; revert to snapshot of only the disk you wish using whatever storage method you use snapshot mechanism- presuming you create seperate vdisks for volume(s) you wish to control seperately.

For example, assuming you're using ceph, you'd create two disks (one for disk c, and one for the rest of your partitions you hook script will call

rbd snap rollback [poolname]/vm-[vmid]-disk-0@[your original snap name]

disk 1 will remain unaffected.

 

[Tmanok]

No offence Alex, but suggesting that each user spend time building a custom "Hookscript" when this has been a feature in competing hypervisors for over a decade is a bit ridiculous, and very hacky. This feature is clearly desirable, and shouldn't require new infrastructure (as your script/hack suggests) to have it developed in Proxmox. I also see this feature as being very useful as VDI continues to become a big deal, along with GPU support and advanced storage (NVMe) support...

 

[alexskysilk]

No offence Alex, but suggesting that each user spend time building a custom "Hookscript" when this has been a feature in competing hypervisors for over a decade is a bit ridiculous, and very hacky.

None taken- I'm not a proxmox dev

My point was, is and continues to be that the true strength of Proxmox is its extensibility- if there is no proxmox canonical solution provided, feel free to make your own.