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Libvirt Storage Pools

What are the Libvirt Storage Pools?​

The Libvirt Storage Pools interface allows you to create drives of varying speeds, such as fast flash drives or slower spindle drives.
There are different storage tiers available, depending on user needs, such as flash or traditional spindle drives.

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Storage Pools are only relevant to system admins. They are default set from the begining and should never be altered.

Why are Quotas Important in Libvirt Storage Pools?​

Quotas allow you to control which users are using your most expensive hardware resources and Libvirt pools. They enforce restrictions on each user for complex large resource management.
For instance, if your team's vault cannot get more than 50 TB, it does not mean your team has a 50 TB research storage pool, but rather that their total system resources can never exceed 50 TB.

In other words, your institution only pays for the resources your team is actually using for their research, thus avoiding poor financial management.

What is the Difference between Explicit, No and Yes Quotas in Libvirt Storage Pools?​

  • Explicit: when a system admin sets a specific limit for the Libvirt storage pool via its quotas.
  • Yes (Implicit): when the limit is calculated from other parts of the system (e.g., Vault + VMs quotas).
  • No: when the limit has not been calculated yet.

If you create a new Libvirt storage pool, you are required to set its quotas. However, there are complex rules that control the quotas.
You may compute a limit and set the Libvirt storage pool rules and still not know how the rules display as quota numbers in combination with teams.
As a result, tiCrypt enforces all users to comply with the quotas for compliance purposes.

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When you add more restrictions than needed in Libvirt storage pools, quotas may end up blocking the user from doing anything in the system due to lack of storage.
By default, there are no quotas for Libvirt pools. However, you can add quotas to Libvirt storage pools as well.

What is the Difference Between Drives, Bricks, Volumes, Images, ISOs, and Other in the Libvirt Storage Pools Type Column?​

  • Drives: Actual data storage in the Libvirt storage pool.
  • Bricks: Essentially VM hardware configurations.
  • Volumes: Refer to the underlying volumes of a Libvirt storage pool.
  • Images: VM images associated with the Libvirt storage pool.
  • ISOs: ISO files associated with images in the same Libvirt storage pool.
  • Other: Represent other esoteric parameters for custom storage pool setups.

What is the Difference Between a Default and a Non-Default Libvirt Storage Pool?​

The default Libvirt Storage Pool is automatically selected by the tiCrypt front-end.
A non-default Libvirt Storage Pool is not automatically selected and requires manual setup.

When you create a new VM profile, the system selects the default Libvirt Storage Pool unless you manually change it to a non-default one.

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You cannot have more than one automatically selected Libvirt Storage Pool as the default. Non-default Libvirt Storage Pools can be set as default manually.

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You should not edit the default options in Libvirt Storage Pools unless specifically instructed by a system admin.

What is the Purpose of the ID in Libvirt Storage Pools?​

The ID represents the object ID of each Libvirt Storage Pool used during debugging sessions. This helps system admins quickly identify and resolve issues from the backend.