The list of avilable VMs to backup does NOT contain all the VMs!!!

[marmarek]

Reported by joanna on 25 Mar 2012 21:39 UTC
It seems like it doesn't contain the running VMs...?!

Migrated-From: https://wiki.qubes-os.org/ticket/510

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 25 Mar 2012 21:42 UTC
Furthermore, it seems like some of the VMs I selected for backup (that are displayed in the right window) are not going to be backed up, as indicated by the Actions to be performed info?!

(I added those extra VMs in a "2nd round", after going back again to the selection list, after I realized there is still space for some more VMs to backup... perhaps this is the problem?).

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 25 Mar 2012 21:42 UTC
Furthermore, it seems like some of the VMs I selected for backup (that are displayed in the right window) are not going to be backed up, as indicated by the Actions to be performed info?!

(I added those extra VMs in a "2nd round", after going back again to the selection list, after I realized there is still space for some more VMs to backup... perhaps this is the problem?).

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 26 Mar 2012 08:47 UTC
It never contained all vms.
All vms, that qvm-backup would complain about, are off the list. You wouldn't be able to backup them (without changing their state or sth) anyway.

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 26 Mar 2012 08:47 UTC
It never contained all vms.
All vms, that qvm-backup would complain about, are off the list. You wouldn't be able to backup them (without changing their state or sth) anyway.

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 26 Mar 2012 09:57 UTC
Don't think like a programmer! Think what the user wants to achieve -- if the user decided to make a backup, it probably means the user wants to... backup all his or her VMs, and not just non-running VMs, because user really doesn't care about such detail whether the VM is running or not (in fact Qubes makes lots of effort to hide this from the user).

So, the proper solution should always allow to choose from the list of ALL available VMs, it just that if some of them turn out to be running, at the moment when the user presses "Next", then a message (not an exception!) should be displayed, asking the user to shut them down first, and then to press "Continue" (and perhaps also offering an option to shut them down automatically -- TBD).

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 26 Mar 2012 09:57 UTC
Don't think like a programmer! Think what the user wants to achieve -- if the user decided to make a backup, it probably means the user wants to... backup all his or her VMs, and not just non-running VMs, because user really doesn't care about such detail whether the VM is running or not (in fact Qubes makes lots of effort to hide this from the user).

So, the proper solution should always allow to choose from the list of ALL available VMs, it just that if some of them turn out to be running, at the moment when the user presses "Next", then a message (not an exception!) should be displayed, asking the user to shut them down first, and then to press "Continue" (and perhaps also offering an option to shut them down automatically -- TBD).

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 26 Mar 2012 10:26 UTC
But it's a really rough behaviour. The user selects what is available and then gets a message that it's not. It's both confusing and irritating.
My proposal would be rather to display the running (and other currently not able to be backed up)vms as greyed out and but "selectable" with a reason in brackets and/or some general info that greyed out vms won't be backuped. And provide a one-click option to turn off running vms and thus enable their backup.

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 26 Mar 2012 10:26 UTC
But it's a really rough behaviour. The user selects what is available and then gets a message that it's not. It's both confusing and irritating.
My proposal would be rather to display the running (and other currently not able to be backed up)vms as greyed out and but "selectable" with a reason in brackets and/or some general info that greyed out vms won't be backuped. And provide a one-click option to turn off running vms and thus enable their backup.

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 26 Mar 2012 12:25 UTC
What could be another reason for a VM to be not backup'able other than being in a running state?

[marmarek]

Comment by joanna on 26 Mar 2012 12:25 UTC
What could be another reason for a VM to be not backup'able other than being in a running state?

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 27 Mar 2012 09:01 UTC
Being an internal vm or dispvm or being installed by rpm. But you don't want any of these to be backed up. So the case is really only about the running vms.

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 27 Mar 2012 09:01 UTC
Being an internal vm or dispvm or being installed by rpm. But you don't want any of these to be backed up. So the case is really only about the running vms.

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 29 Mar 2012 21:30 UTC
Should be much better now...
http://git.qubes-os.org/?p=aga/qubes-manager.git;a=commit;h=81bb0f75a682e203153f25e5bdc2c2efe2553677

[marmarek]

Comment by aga on 29 Mar 2012 21:30 UTC
Should be much better now...
http://git.qubes-os.org/?p=aga/qubes-manager.git;a=commit;h=81bb0f75a682e203153f25e5bdc2c2efe2553677