Creating Images

The Bundler tab is used to create images. When you first access the Bundler tab default values from the General Prefs will be preset into the relevant fields. Please see the screenshots.

• Format: Choose the appropriate format for your image (eg VMWare if you want a vmdk)
• Source Root: Directory containing a 'prebuilt' filesystem that will be bundled into the image
• Output Folder: The image will be put here. For AMI and Eucalyptus builds, the manifest and part files will also be stored here.
• Image File: The image file to be built -- will be stored in the Output Folder
• Size (MB): Capacity of the root filesystem of the image -- set this large enough to accomodate the filesystem and the free space you desire.

Example:

If you want to build a 10GB qcow2 file for running under KVM or QEMU, you could set the following:

• Format: KVM/QEMU
• Source Root: Use the file browser (... button) to choose a filesystem/stack you want to bundle.
• Output Folder: Use the file browser (... button) to select (and create if needed) an output directory
• Image File: myimage.qcow2
• Size (MB): 10000

Running
Press the 'Create Image' button. This will cause another program called stackfactory to run in the background. You should not try to run multiple stackfactory builds simultaneously!

Status messages from stackfactory are captured and placed in the box below the Create button. Each run can take from one to several minutes depending mainly on the size of the filesystem you are bundling, the speed of your hardware and to a certain extent on what format you chose.

Output
To see extensive log messages select the Output tab. The Reload button can be pressed to update the contents of the log window so you can trace the progress of the build while it is happening. You can also see the results of the prior build here if there is no stackfactory process currently running.

Important Notes

• Please make sure you have adequate disk space to build images. This program can eat up multiple GB in no time!
• Please only run one build at a time through the Bundler. Ignoring this warning will result in nonfunctional images!
• Right now intermediate and temp files created by stackfactory are not deleted at the end of the run. All temp files are placed in the Output Folder if you want to clean them up (recommended)
• The Bundler app can run as any user but stackfactory itself must be run as root. Hence internally the bundler will implicitly use sudo to launch stackfactory. There are a few things to watch out for:
  • The sudo path must be properly set in the Prefs:General tab
  • The user running the bundler must be able to invoke sudo (typically this is acheived by adding the user to group 'wheel'
  • /etc/sudoers must be set in such a way that group wheel is not prompted for a password: %wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
  • /etc/sudoers securepath should include the paths of all utils used by stackfactory: secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
  • If you want to forego all of the above simply run the Bundler itself as root so that sudo is not needed