Added vm_run script to easily run a VM on a disk image

Updated template_creator: template dir wasn't removed after archive was created
Updated README.md with vm_run

README.md

@@ -460,7 +460,7 @@ This command:
 
 To create VMs, at least one template is required. However, none is provided in the base install.
 
-The script `template_creator` located at `/usr/local/nexus-server/bin/template_creator` can be used to create new templates from ISO images. Here is `template_creator`'s usage:
+The `template_creator` script, located in `/usr/local/nexus-server/bin/`, can be used to create new templates from ISO images:
 ```
 template_creator - a tool to create a VM template from an ISO image.
 After the OS installation is completed, a tar archive is created in
@@ -494,7 +494,7 @@ Feel free to repeat the operation above with as many templates as you like.
 
 ### Update a template
 
-The script `update_disk` located at `/usr/local/nexus-server/bin/update_disk` can be used to update the disk image of a template. Here is `update_disk`'s usage:
+The `update_disk`  script, located in `/usr/local/nexus-server/bin/`, can be used to update a template's disk image:
 ```
 update_disk - a tool to update a template's disk image.
 Beware this tool must ONLY be used on templates that are not
@@ -504,7 +504,18 @@ Usage: update_disk disk
 disk    the disk image to update which must be a .qcow file
 ```
 
-As mentioned above, make absolutely sure that the **template's disk to update IS NOT used by any VMs**, otherwise their disks will be corrupted!
+As mentioned in the script's help, make absolutely sure that the **template's disk to update IS NOT used by any VMs**, otherwise their disks will be corrupted!
+
+### vm_run script
+
+The `vm_run` script, located in `/usr/local/nexus-server/bin/`, is a convenience script that runs a VM on the specified image file:
+```
+vm_run - launch a QEMU VM on the specified disk image.
+The VM uses 4 CPUs and 4G of RAM.
+
+Usage: vm_run disk
+disk    the disk image to use (typically a .qcow file)
+```
 
 ### Control nexus-server with systemd
 

tools/template_creator/template_creator

@@ -37,7 +37,9 @@ EOL
 function archive_template {
     dir=$1
     arch=$dir.tar
+    echo "Creating archive $arch..."
     tar fc $arch $dir && rm -rf $dir && echo "Template archive $arch created." || { rm -rf $dir ; exit 1 ; }
+    rm -rf $dir
 }
 
 if [ $# -ne 4 ]; then
@@ -81,3 +83,5 @@ create_disk $id
 run_qemu $id $CPU $RAM $DISK $iso_image
 create_template_file $id "$name" "$owner" "$vis"
 archive_template $id
+
+echo "Template created successfully."

tools/template_creator/vm_run

+#!/bin/bash
+
+CPUS=4
+RAM=4G
+
+function echoerr {
+    echo "$@" >&2
+}
+
+if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
+    appname=`basename $0`
+	echoerr "$appname - launch a QEMU VM on the specified disk image."
+	echoerr "The VM uses $CPUS CPUs and $RAM of RAM."
+    echoerr ""
+    echoerr "Usage: $appname disk"
+    echoerr "disk    the disk image to use (typically a .qcow file)"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm -cpu host -smp cpus=$CPUS -m $RAM -drive file=$1,index=0,media=disk,format=qcow2,if=virtio -vga virtio -device virtio-serial-pci -nic user,model=virtio-net-pci