nixpkgs/modules/virtualisation
Sander van der Burg 9c722e474d - Added nixos-build-vms command, which builds a virtual network from a network.nix expression (also used by nixos-deploy-network)
- Added a backdoor option to the interactive run-vms script. This allows me to intergrate the virtual network approach with Disnix
- Small documentation fixes

Some explanation:

The nixos-build-vms command line tool can be used to build a virtual network of a network.nix specification.
For example, a network configuration (network.nix) could look like this:

{
  test1 = 
    {pkgs, config, ...}:
 
    {
      services.openssh.enable = true;
      ...
    };

  test2 =
    {pkgs, config, ...}:
    
    {
      services.openssh.enable = true;
      services.xserver.enable = true;
    }

    ;
}

By typing the following instruction:

$ nixos-build-vms -n network.nix

a virtual network is built, which can be started by typing:

$ ./result/bin/run-vms

It is also possible to enable a backdoor. In this case *.socket files are stored in the current directory
which can be used by the end-user to invoke remote instruction on a VM in the network through a Unix
domain socket.

For example by building the network with the following instructions:

$ nixos-build-vms -n network.nix --use-backdoor

and launching the virtual network:

$ ./result/bin/run-vms

You can find two socket files in your current directory, namely: test1.socket and test2.socket.
These Unix domain sockets can be used to remotely administer the test1 and test2 machine
in the virtual network.

For example by running:

$ socat ./test1.socket stdio
ls /root

You can retrieve the contents of the /root directory of the virtual machine with identifier test1


svn path=/nixos/trunk/; revision=24410
2010-10-21 22:50:12 +00:00
..
amazon-config.nix * Install a configuration.nix in the AMI. 2010-07-15 11:09:30 +00:00
amazon-image.nix * Grmbl. Create the missing mount points. 2010-09-01 11:00:35 +00:00
qemu-vm.nix - Added nixos-build-vms command, which builds a virtual network from a network.nix expression (also used by nixos-deploy-network) 2010-10-21 22:50:12 +00:00
xen-dom0.nix * It's "tun", not "tap". 2010-10-11 17:06:49 +00:00
xen-domU.nix * Don't run ntpd in DomU. 2010-10-06 20:22:36 +00:00