12.3.3. Creating a Directory-based Storage Pool with virsh

  1. Create the storage pool definition

    Use the virsh pool-define-as command to define a new storage pool. There are two options required for creating directory-based storage pools:
    • The name of the storage pool.
      This example uses the name guest_images. All further virsh commands used in this example use this name.
    • The path to a file system directory for storing guest image files. If this directory does not exist, virsh will create it.
      This example uses the /guest_images directory. 
     # virsh pool-define-as guest_images dir - - - - "/guest_images"
Pool guest_images defined

  2. Verify the storage pool is listed

    Verify the storage pool object is created correctly and the state reports it as inactive. 
    # virsh pool-list --all
Name                 State      Autostart
-----------------------------------------
default              active     yes
guest_images     inactive   no

  3. Create the local directory

    Use the virsh pool-build command to build the directory-based storage pool for the directory guest_images (for example), as shown: 
    # virsh pool-build guest_images
Pool guest_images built
# ls -la /guest_images
total 8
drwx------.  2 root root 4096 May 30 02:44 .
dr-xr-xr-x. 26 root root 4096 May 30 02:44 ..
# virsh pool-list --all
Name                 State      Autostart
-----------------------------------------
default              active     yes
guest_images     inactive   no

  4. Start the storage pool

    Use the virsh command pool-start to enable a directory storage pool, thereby allowing allowing volumes of the pool to be used as guest disk images. 
    # virsh pool-start guest_images
Pool guest_images started
# virsh pool-list --all
Name                 State      Autostart
-----------------------------------------
default             active     yes
guest_images    active     no

  5. Turn on autostart

    Turn on autostart for the storage pool. Autostart configures the libvirtd service to start the storage pool when the service starts. 
    # virsh pool-autostart guest_images
Pool guest_images marked as autostarted
# virsh pool-list --all
Name                 State      Autostart
-----------------------------------------
default              active     yes
guest_images         active     yes

  6. Verify the storage pool configuration

    Verify the storage pool was created correctly, the size is reported correctly, and the state is reported as running. If you want the pool to be accessible even if the guest virtual machine is not running, make sure that Persistent is reported as yes. If you want the pool to start automatically when the service starts, make sure that Autostart is reported as yes. 
    # virsh pool-info guest_images
Name:           guest_images
UUID:           779081bf-7a82-107b-2874-a19a9c51d24c
State:          running
Persistent:     yes
Autostart:      yes
Capacity:       49.22 GB
Allocation:     12.80 GB
Available:      36.41 GB

# ls -la /guest_images
total 8
drwx------.  2 root root 4096 May 30 02:44 .
dr-xr-xr-x. 26 root root 4096 May 30 02:44 ..
#
A directory-based storage pool is now available.