4
VOTE
Status
Functionality already exists
Workspace
* IBM Cloud Ideas
Categories
Power
Created by
Guest
Created on
Nov 5, 2025
RELATED IDEAS
Add a CLONE command to the Power-IaaS Plugin in CLI
We have built a couple of scripts to ease our IBM Power Virtual Server administration: exporting to disk, exporting to COS, snapshots, launching consoles on browser, and now we have built a clone VSI process, exporting to disk and building the VSI starting from that boot image.
When the IBM CLI updates, and every X releases, we need to update some of this functions and scripts to keep it working.
The clone process is not a simple task to automate:
- Sign-on to the OS to quiesce the database (CHGASPACT in IBMi)
- Login to IBM Cloud
- Select the workspace to work with
- Identify all disks attached to the LPAR and list on a variable (in the past it was supposed to be a default in image capture, but never worked)
- Call the capture-to-disk-image command
- Wait for the capture process to reach a consistency point (finish the snapshot)
- Sign-on to the OS to release/resume database activity
- Create the VSI based on the image, using the new values (Name, CPU, Memory, Subnet, IP, storage-tier, etcetera)
- Check VSI readyness
- Remove Boot Image
- Send an email notification
With a clone command we could simplify updates on all these functions, and reduce script complexity.
| Idea priority | Medium |
| Needed By | Month |
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After speaking with our architect for PowerVS the status remains unchanged since we like other clouds manage this via automation today so it is not something we'd invest in from CLI command perspective given it can be tackled via the other methods we have discussed.
Is this IDEA moving forward or "Functionality already exists" is IBM's final answer?
Apologies for the possible reduncant clarification but I'm trying to understand why leveraging existing capability in Power Virtual Server does not suffice. My assumption is that you are looking to replicate multiple versions of your VSIs for QA, test, back up etc. in which case we have several options depending on the wokload but in general you can leverage snapshots capability, volume clone with automation which we have already discussed and/or image capture and export. Perhaps if you specify the intended outcome we can better guide you on the best practice here and why automating snapshots which can be taken via CLI/API is not a viable solution here.
Please clarify why this existing functionality is not sufficient: https://cloud.ibm.com/docs/power-iaas?topic=power-iaas-snapshots-cloning#vol-clon-bp
I have created a couple of shell scripts to export a VSI, create a new VSI based on the boot image and do all in sequence (CLONE). Maybe this could help you create this meta-command.
https://github.com/dkesselman/ibmpvsscripts