Virtualization With KVM On A Fedora 10 Server

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 03/11/2009

This guide explains how you can install and use KVM for creating and running virtual machines on a Fedora 10 server. I will show how to create image-based virtual machines and also virtual machines that use a logical volume (LVM). KVM is short for Kernel-based Virtual Machine and makes use of hardware virtualization, i.e., you need a CPU that supports hardware virtualization, e.g. Intel VT or AMD-V.

I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

I'm using a Fedora 10 server with the hostname server1.example.com and the IP address 192.168.0.100 here as my KVM host.

Before we start, make sure that SELinux is disabled. Open /etc/selinux/config...

vi /etc/selinux/config

... and set SELINUX to disabled:

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
#       enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
#       permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
#       disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
#       targeted - Targeted processes are protected,
#       mls - Multi Level Security protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

Run

setenforce 0

... for the change to take effect.

We also need a desktop system where we install virt-manager so that we can connect to the graphical console of the virtual machines that we install. I'm using an Ubuntu 8.10 desktop here.

2 Installing KVM

Fedora 10 KVM Host:

First check if your CPU supports hardware virtualization - if this is the case, the command

egrep '(vmx|svm)' --color=always /proc/cpuinfo

should display something, e.g. like this:

[root@server1 ~]# egrep '(vmx|svm)' --color=always /proc/cpuinfo
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall
 nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow rep_good nopl pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall
 nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow rep_good nopl pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch
[root@server1 ~]#

If nothing is displayed, then your processor doesn't support hardware virtualization, and you must stop here.

To install KVM and virtinst (a tool to create virtual machines), we run

yum install kvm qemu libvirt python-virtinst

Then start the libvirt daemon:

/etc/init.d/libvirtd start

To check if KVM has successfully been installed, run

virsh -c qemu:///system list

It should display something like this:

[root@server1 ~]# virsh -c qemu:///system list
 Id Name                 State
----------------------------------

[root@server1 ~]#

If it displays an error instead, then something went wrong.

Next we need to set up a network bridge on our server so that our virtual machines can be accessed from other hosts as if they were physical systems in the network.

To do this, we install the package bridge-utils...

yum install bridge-utils

... and configure a bridge. Delete the system startup links for NetworkManager and create system startup links for network:

chkconfig --del NetworkManager
chkconfig --levels 235 network on

Then create the file /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0 (please use the BOOTPROTO, DNS1 (plus any other DNS settings, if any), GATEWAY, IPADDR, NETMASK and SEARCH values from the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 file):

vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0

DEVICE=br0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
DNS1=145.253.2.75
GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
IPADDR=192.168.0.100
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=yes
SEARCH="example.com"

Modify /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 as follows (comment out BOOTPROTO, DNS1 (and all other DNS servers, if any), GATEWAY, IPADDR, NETMASK, and SEARCH and add BRIDGE=br0):

vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

# nVidia Corporation Unknown (0x0760)
DEVICE=eth0
#BOOTPROTO=static
#DNS1=145.253.2.75
#GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
HWADDR=00:1e:90:f3:f0:02
#IPADDR=192.168.0.100
#NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=yes
#SEARCH="example.com"
BRIDGE=br0

Then reboot the system:

reboot

After the reboot, run

ifconfig

It should now show the network bridge (br0):

[root@server1 ~]# ifconfig
br0       Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1E:90:F3:F0:02
          inet addr:192.168.0.100  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::21e:90ff:fef3:f002/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:49 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:72 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:6477 (6.3 KiB)  TX bytes:10368 (10.1 KiB)

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:1E:90:F3:F0:02
          inet6 addr: fe80::21e:90ff:fef3:f002/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:57 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:55 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:9912 (9.6 KiB)  TX bytes:8038 (7.8 KiB)
          Interrupt:22 Base address:0xa000

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:560 (560.0 b)  TX bytes:560 (560.0 b)

virbr0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 62:6D:75:53:9C:AD
          inet addr:192.168.122.1  Bcast:192.168.122.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::606d:75ff:fe53:9cad/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:34 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:5277 (5.1 KiB)

[root@server1 ~]#

3 Installing virt-viewer Or virt-manager On Your Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop

Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop:

We need a means of connecting to the graphical console of our guests - we can use virt-manager (see KVM Guest Management With Virt-Manager On Ubuntu 8.10) for this. I'm assuming that you're using an Ubuntu 8.10 desktop.

Run

sudo aptitude install virt-manager

to install virt-manager.

(If you're using a Fedora 10 desktop, you can install virt-manager as follows:

Become root...

su

... and run

yum install virt-manager

)

4 Creating A Debian Lenny Guest (Image-Based)

Fedora 10 KVM Host:

Now let's go back to our Fedora 10 KVM host.

Take a look at

man virt-install

to learn how to use it.

To create a Debian Lenny guest (in bridging mode) with the name vm10, 512MB of RAM, two virtual CPUs, and the disk image ~/vm10.qcow2 (with a size of 12GB), insert the Debian Lenny Netinstall CD into the CD drive and run

virt-install --connect qemu:///system -n vm10 -r 512 --vcpus=2 -f ~/vm10.qcow2 -s 12 -c /dev/cdrom --vnc --noautoconsole --os-type linux --os-variant debianLenny --accelerate --network=bridge:br0 --hvm

Of course, you can also create an ISO image of the Debian Lenny Netinstall CD...

dd if=/dev/cdrom of=~/debian-500-amd64-netinst.iso

... and use the ISO image in the virt-install command:

virt-install --connect qemu:///system -n vm10 -r 512 --vcpus=2 -f ~/vm10.qcow2 -s 12 -c ~/debian-500-amd64-netinst.iso --vnc --noautoconsole --os-type linux --os-variant debianLenny --accelerate --network=bridge:br0 --hvm

The output is as follows:

[root@server1 ~]# virt-install --connect qemu:///system -n vm10 -r 512 --vcpus=2 -f ~/vm10.qcow2 -s 12 -c ~/debian-500-amd64-netinst.iso --vnc --noautoconsole --os-type linux --os-variant debianLenny --accelerate --network=bridge:br0 --hvm


Starting install...
Creating storage file...                                                                    |  12 GB     00:00
Creating domain...                                                                          |    0 B     00:00
Domain installation still in progress. You can reconnect to
the console to complete the installation process.
[root@server1 ~]#