5.4. Lifecycle control

⁠5.4. Lifecycle control

The following example shows how to create and destroy both a persistent and a non-persistent storage pool. Note that a storage pool can not be destroyed if it is in a active state. By default storage pools are created in a inactive state.

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Example 5.4. Create and destroy storage pools

# Example-4.py
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
import libvirt
xmlDesc = """
<pool type='dir'>
  <name>mypool</name>
  <uuid>8c79f996-cb2a-d24d-9822-ac7547ab2d01</uuid>
  <capacity unit='bytes'>4306780815</capacity>
  <allocation unit='bytes'>237457858</allocation>
  <available unit='bytes'>4069322956</available>
  <source>
  </source>
  <target>
    <path>/home/dashley/images</path>
    <permissions>
      <mode>0755</mode>
      <owner>-1</owner>
      <group>-1</group>
    </permissions>
  </target>
</pool>"""

conn = None
try:
    conn = libvirt.open("qemu:///system")
except libvirt.libvirtError as e:
    print(repr(e), file=sys.stderr)
    exit(1)

# create a new persistent storage pool
pool = conn.storagePoolDefineXML(xmlDesc, 0)
if pool == None:
    print('Failed to create StoragePool object.', file=sys.stderr)
    exit(1)

# destroy the storage pool
pool.undefine()

# create a new non-persistent storage pool
pool = conn.storagePoolCreateXML(xmlDesc, 0)
if pool == None:
    print('Failed to create StoragePool object.', file=sys.stderr)
    exit(1)

# destroy the storage pool
pool.undefine()

conn.close()
exit(0)

Note that the storage volumes defined in a storage pool will remain on the file system unless the delete method is called. But be careful about leaving storage volumes in place because if they exist on a remote file system or disk then that file system may become unavailable to the guest domain since there will be no mechanism to reactivate the remote file system or disk by the libvirt storage system at a future time.