libvirt: Storage pool and volume XML format
Description: libvirt, virtualization, virtualization API

# Storage pool and volume XML format

- Storage pool XML
  - General metadata
  - Source elements
  - Target elements
  - Device extents
- Storage volume XML
  - General metadata
  - Target elements
  - Backing store elements
- Example configuration
  - File based storage pool
  - iSCSI based storage pool
  - Storage volume

## Storage pool XML

Although all storage pool backends share the same public APIs and XML format, they have varying levels of capabilities. Some may allow creation of volumes, others may only allow use of pre-existing volumes. Some may have constraints on volume size, or placement.

The top level tag for a storage pool document is 'pool'. It has a single attribute `type`, which is one of `dir`, `fs`, `netfs`, `disk`, `iscsi`, `logical`. This corresponds to the storage backend drivers listed further along in this document. The storage pool XML format is available since 0.4.1

### General metadata

          <pool type="iscsi">
            <name>virtimages</name>
            <uuid>3e3fce45-4f53-4fa7-bb32-11f34168b82b</uuid>
            <allocation>10000000</allocation>
            <capacity>50000000</capacity>
            <available>40000000</available>
            ...

`name`
  Providing a name for the pool which is unique to the host. This is mandatory when defining a pool. Since 0.4.1
`uuid`
  Providing an identifier for the pool which is globally unique. This is optional when defining a pool, a UUID will be generated if omitted. Since 0.4.1
`allocation`
  Providing the total storage allocation for the pool. This may be larger than the sum of the allocation of all volumes due to metadata overhead. This value is in bytes. This is not applicable when creating a pool. Since 0.4.1
`capacity`
  Providing the total storage capacity for the pool. Due to underlying device constraints it may not be possible to use the full capacity for storage volumes. This value is in bytes. This is not applicable when creating a pool. Since 0.4.1
`available`
  Providing the free space available for allocating new volumes in the pool. Due to underlying device constraints it may not be possible to allocate the entire free space to a single volume. This value is in bytes. This is not applicable when creating a pool. Since 0.4.1

### Source elements

A single `source` element is contained within the top level `pool` element. This tag is used to describe the source of the storage pool. It can contain the following child elements:

            ...
            <source>
              <host name="iscsi.example.com"/>
              <device path="demo-target"/>
              <auth type='chap' username='myname'>
                <secret type='iscsi' usage='mycluster_myname'/>
              </auth>
              <vendor name="Acme"/>
              <product name="model"/>
            </source>
            ...

            ...
            <source>
              <adapter type='fc_host' parent='scsi_host5' wwnn='20000000c9831b4b' wwpn='10000000c9831b4b'/>
            </source>
            ...

`device`
  Provides the source for pools backed by physical devices. May be repeated multiple times depending on backend driver. Contains a single attribute `path` which is the fully qualified path to the block device node. Since 0.4.1
`directory`
  Provides the source for pools backed by directories. May only occur once. Contains a single attribute `path` which is the fully qualified path to the backing directory. Since 0.4.1
`adapter`
  Provides the source for pools backed by SCSI adapters. May only occur once. Attribute `name` is the SCSI adapter name (ex. "scsi_host1". NB, although a name such as "host1" is still supported for backwards compatibility, it is not recommended). Attribute `type` (1.0.5) specifies the adapter type. Valid values are "fc_host" and "scsi_host". If omitted and the `name` attribute is specified, then it defaults to "scsi_host". To keep backwards compatibility, the attribute `type` is optional for the "scsi_host" adapter, but mandatory for the "fc_host" adapter. Attributes `wwnn` (Word Wide Node Name) and `wwpn` (Word Wide Port Name) (1.0.4) are used by the "fc_host" adapter to uniquely identify the device in the Fibre Channel storage fabric (the device can be either a HBA or vHBA). Both wwnn and wwpn should be specified (See command 'virsh nodedev-dumpxml' to known how to get wwnn/wwpn of a (v)HBA). The optional attribute `parent` (1.0.4) specifies the parent device for the "fc_host" adapter. Since 0.6.2
`host`
  Provides the source for pools backed by storage from a remote server. Will be used in combination with a `directory` or `device` element. Contains an attribute `name` which is the hostname or IP address of the server. May optionally contain a `port` attribute for the protocol specific port number. Since 0.4.1
`auth`
  If present, the `auth` element provides the authentication credentials needed to access the source by the setting of the `type` attribute. The `type` must be either "chap" or "ceph". Additionally a mandatory attribute `username` identifies the username to use during authentication as well as a sub-element `secret` with a mandatory attribute `type`, to tie back to a libvirt secret object that holds the actual password or other credentials. The domain XML intentionally does not expose the password, only the reference to the object that manages the password. The secret element `type` must be either "ceph" or "iscsi". Use "ceph" for Ceph RBD (Rados Block Device) network sources and use "iscsi" for CHAP (Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol) iSCSI targets. The `secret` element requires either a `uuid` attribute with the UUID of the secret object or a `usage` attribute matching the key that was specified in the secret object. Since 0.9.7 for "ceph" and 1.1.1 for "chap"
`name`
  Provides the source for pools backed by storage from a named element (e.g., a logical volume group name). Contains a string identifier. Since 0.4.5
`format`
  Provides information about the format of the pool. This contains a single attribute `type` whose value is backend specific. This is typically used to indicate filesystem type, or network filesystem type, or partition table type, or LVM metadata type. All drivers are required to have a default value for this, so it is optional. Since 0.4.1
`vendor`
  Provides optional information about the vendor of the storage device. This contains a single attribute `name` whose value is backend specific. Since 0.8.4
`product`
  Provides an optional product name of the storage device. This contains a single attribute `name` whose value is backend specific. Since 0.8.4

### Target elements

A single `target` element is contained within the top level `pool` element. This tag is used to describe the mapping of the storage pool into the host filesystem. It can contain the following child elements:

            ...
            <target>
              <path>/dev/disk/by-path</path>
              <permissions>
                <owner>107</owner>
                <group>107</group>
                <mode>0744</mode>
                <label>virt_image_t</label>
              </permissions>
              <timestamps>
                <atime>1341933637.273190990</atime>
                <mtime>1341930622.047245868</mtime>
                <ctime>1341930622.047245868</ctime>
              </timestamps>
              <encryption type='...'>
                ...
              </encryption>
            </target>
          </pool>

`path`
  Provides the location at which the pool will be mapped into the local filesystem namespace. For a filesystem/directory based pool it will be the name of the directory in which volumes will be created. For device based pools it will be the name of the directory in which devices nodes exist. For the latter `/dev/` may seem like the logical choice, however, devices nodes there are not guaranteed stable across reboots, since they are allocated on demand. It is preferable to use a stable location such as one of the `/dev/disk/by-{path,id,uuid,label` locations. Since 0.4.1
`permissions`
  This is currently only useful for directory or filesystem based pools, which are mapped as a directory into the local filesystem namespace. It provides information about the permissions to use for the final directory when the pool is built. The `mode` element contains the octal permission set. The `owner` element contains the numeric user ID. The `group` element contains the numeric group ID. The `label` element contains the MAC (eg SELinux) label string. Since 0.4.1
`timestamps`
  Provides timing information about the volume. Up to four sub-elements are present, where `atime`, `btime`, `ctime` and `mtime` hold the access, birth, change and modification time of the volume, where known. The used time format is <seconds>.<nanoseconds> since the beginning of the epoch (1 Jan 1970). If nanosecond resolution is 0 or otherwise unsupported by the host OS or filesystem, then the nanoseconds part is omitted. This is a readonly attribute and is ignored when creating a volume. Since 0.10.0
`encryption`
  If present, specifies how the volume is encrypted. See the Storage Encryption page for more information.

### Device extents

If a storage pool exposes information about its underlying placement / allocation scheme, the `device` element within the `source` element may contain information about its available extents. Some pools have a constraint that a volume must be allocated entirely within a single constraint (eg disk partition pools). Thus the extent information allows an application to determine the maximum possible size for a new volume

For storage pools supporting extent information, within each `device` element there will be zero or more `freeExtent` elements. Each of these elements contains two attributes, `start` and `end` which provide the boundaries of the extent on the device, measured in bytes. Since 0.4.1

## Storage volume XML

A storage volume will be either a file or a device node. The storage volume XML format is available since 0.4.1

### General metadata

          <volume>
            <name>sparse.img</name>
            <key>/var/lib/xen/images/sparse.img</key>
            <allocation>0</allocation>
            <capacity unit="T">1</capacity>
            ...

`name`
  Providing a name for the volume which is unique to the pool. This is mandatory when defining a volume. Since 0.4.1
`key`
  Providing an identifier for the volume which is globally unique. This cannot be set when creating a volume: it is always generated. Since 0.4.1
`allocation`
  Providing the total storage allocation for the volume. This may be smaller than the logical capacity if the volume is sparsely allocated. It may also be larger than the logical capacity if the volume has substantial metadata overhead. This value is in bytes. If omitted when creating a volume, the volume will be fully allocated at time of creation. If set to a value smaller than the capacity, the pool has the option of deciding to sparsely allocate a volume. It does not have to honour requests for sparse allocation though. Different types of pools may treat sparse volumes differently. For example, the `logical` pool will not automatically expand volume's allocation when it gets full; the user is responsible for doing that or configuring dmeventd to do so automatically.
  By default this is specified in bytes, but an optional attribute `unit` can be specified to adjust the passed value. Values can be: 'B' or 'bytes' for bytes, 'KB' (kilobytes, 103 or 1000 bytes), 'K' or 'KiB' (kibibytes, 210 or 1024 bytes), 'MB' (megabytes, 106 or 1,000,000 bytes), 'M' or 'MiB' (mebibytes, 220 or 1,048,576 bytes), 'GB' (gigabytes, 109 or 1,000,000,000 bytes), 'G' or 'GiB' (gibibytes, 230 or 1,073,741,824 bytes), 'TB' (terabytes, 1012 or 1,000,000,000,000 bytes), 'T' or 'TiB' (tebibytes, 240 or 1,099,511,627,776 bytes), 'PB' (petabytes, 1015 or 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes), 'P' or 'PiB' (pebibytes, 250 or 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes), 'EB' (exabytes, 1018 or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes), or 'E' or 'EiB' (exbibytes, 260 or 1,152,921,504,606,846,976 bytes). Since 0.4.1, multi-character `unit` since 0.9.11
`capacity`
  Providing the logical capacity for the volume. This value is in bytes by default, but a `unit` attribute can be specified with the same semantics as for `allocation` This is compulsory when creating a volume. Since 0.4.1
`source`
  Provides information about the underlying storage allocation of the volume. This may not be available for some pool types. Since 0.4.1
`target`
  Provides information about the representation of the volume on the local host. Since 0.4.1

### Target elements

A single `target` element is contained within the top level `volume` element. This tag is used to describe the mapping of the storage volume into the host filesystem. It can contain the following child elements:

            ...
            <target>
              <path>/var/lib/virt/images/sparse.img</path>
              <format type='qcow2'/>
              <permissions>
                <owner>107</owner>
                <group>107</group>
                <mode>0744</mode>
                <label>virt_image_t</label>
              </permissions>
              <compat>1.1</compat>
              <features>
                <lazy_refcounts/>
              </features>
            </target>

`path`
  Provides the location at which the volume can be accessed on the local filesystem, as an absolute path. This is a readonly attribute, so shouldn't be specified when creating a volume. Since 0.4.1
`format`
  Provides information about the pool specific volume format. For disk pools it will provide the partition type. For filesystem or directory pools it will provide the file format type, eg cow, qcow, vmdk, raw. If omitted when creating a volume, the pool's default format will be used. The actual format is specified via the `type` attribute. Consult the pool-specific docs for the list of valid values. Since 0.4.1
`permissions`
  Provides information about the default permissions to use when creating volumes. This is currently only useful for directory or filesystem based pools, where the volumes allocated are simple files. For pools where the volumes are device nodes, the hotplug scripts determine permissions. It contains 4 child elements. The `mode` element contains the octal permission set. The `owner` element contains the numeric user ID. The `group` element contains the numeric group ID. The `label` element contains the MAC (eg SELinux) label string. Since 0.4.1
`compat`
  Specify compatibility level. So far, this is only used for `type='qcow2'` volumes. Valid values are `0.10` and `1.1` so far, specifying QEMU version the images should be compatible with. If the `feature` element is present, 1.1 is used. If omitted, qemu-img default is used. Since 1.1.0
`features`
  Format-specific features. Only used for `qcow2` now. Valid sub-elements are:
  - `<lazy_refcounts/>` - allow delayed reference counter updates. Since 1.1.0

### Backing store elements

A single `backingStore` element is contained within the top level `volume` element. This tag is used to describe the optional copy on write, backing store for the storage volume. It can contain the following child elements:

            ...
            <backingStore>
              <path>/var/lib/virt/images/master.img</path>
              <format type='raw'/>
              <permissions>
                <owner>107</owner>
                <group>107</group>
                <mode>0744</mode>
                <label>virt_image_t</label>
              </permissions>
            </backingStore>
          </volume>

`path`
  Provides the location at which the backing store can be accessed on the local filesystem, as an absolute path. If omitted, there is no backing store for this volume. Since 0.6.0
`format`
  Provides information about the pool specific backing store format. For disk pools it will provide the partition type. For filesystem or directory pools it will provide the file format type, eg cow, qcow, vmdk, raw. The actual format is specified via the type attribute. Consult the pool-specific docs for the list of valid values. Most file formats require a backing store of the same format, however, the qcow2 format allows a different backing store format. Since 0.6.0
`permissions`
  Provides information about the permissions of the backing file. It contains 4 child elements. The `mode` element contains the octal permission set. The `owner` element contains the numeric user ID. The `group` element contains the numeric group ID. The `label` element contains the MAC (eg SELinux) label string. Since 0.6.0

## Example configuration

Here are a couple of examples, for a more complete set demonstrating every type of storage pool, consult the storage driver page

### File based storage pool

          <pool type="dir">
            <name>virtimages</name>
            <target>
              <path>/var/lib/virt/images</path>
            </target>
          </pool>

### iSCSI based storage pool

          <pool type="iscsi">
            <name>virtimages</name>
            <source>
              <host name="iscsi.example.com"/>
              <device path="iqn.2013-06.com.example:iscsi-pool"/>
              <auth type='chap' username='myuser'>
                <secret usage='libvirtiscsi'/>
              </auth>
            </source>
            <target>
              <path>/dev/disk/by-path</path>
            </target>
          </pool>

### Storage volume

          <volume>
            <name>sparse.img</name>
            <allocation>0</allocation>
            <capacity unit="T">1</capacity>
            <target>
              <path>/var/lib/virt/images/sparse.img</path>
              <permissions>
                <owner>107</owner>
                <group>107</group>
                <mode>0744</mode>
                <label>virt_image_t</label>
              </permissions>
            </target>
          </volume>