Procedure 7.1. Creating a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guest virtual machine with virt-manager

1. Optional: Preparation

   Prepare the storage environment for the virtual machine. For more information on preparing storage, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Virtualization Administration Guide.

   Important

   Various storage types may be used for storing guest virtual machines. However, for a virtual machine to be able to use migration features the virtual machine must be created on networked storage.
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 requires at least 1GB of storage space. However, Red Hat recommends at least 5GB of storage space for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 installation and for the procedures in this guide.

2. Open virt-manager and start the wizard

   Open virt-manager by executing the virt-manager command as root or opening Applications ⤍ System Tools ⤍ Virtual Machine Manager.
   

   Figure 7.1. The Virtual Machine Manager window

   
   
   Click on the Create a new virtual machine button to start the new virtualized guest wizard.
   

   Figure 7.2. The Create a new virtual machine button

   
   
   The New VM window opens.

3. Name the virtual machine

   Virtual machine names can contain letters, numbers and the following characters: '_', '.' and '-'. Virtual machine names must be unique for migration and cannot consist only of numbers.
   Choose the Local install media (ISO image or CDROM) radio button.
   

   Figure 7.3. The New VM window - Step 1

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.

4. Select the installation media

   Select the appropriate radio button for your installation media.
   

   Figure 7.4. Locate your install media

   
   
   • If you wish to install from a CD-ROM or DVD, select the Use CDROM or DVD radio button, and select the appropriate disk drive from the drop-down list of drives available.
   • If you wish to install from an ISO image, select Use ISO image, and then click the Browse... button to open the Locate media volume window.
     Select the installation image you wish to use, and click Choose Volume.
     If no images are displayed in the Locate media volume window, click on the Browse Local button to browse the host machine for the installation image or DVD drive containing the installation disk. Select the installation image or DVD drive containing the installation disk and click Open; the volume is selected for use and you are returned to the Create a new virtual machine wizard.

     Important

     For ISO image files and guest storage images, the recommended location to use is /var/lib/libvirt/images/. Any other location may require additional configuration by SELinux. Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Virtualization Administration Guide for more details on configuring SELinux.
   Select the operating system type and version which match the installation media you have selected.
   

   Figure 7.5. The New VM window - Step 2

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.

5. Set RAM and virtual CPUs

   Choose appropriate values for the virtual CPUs and RAM allocation. These values affect the host's and guest's performance. Memory and virtual CPUs can be overcommitted. For more information on overcommitting, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Virtualization Administration Guide.
   Virtual machines require sufficient physical memory (RAM) to run efficiently and effectively. Red Hat supports a minimum of 512MB of RAM for a virtual machine. Red Hat recommends at least 1024MB of RAM for each logical core.
   Assign sufficient virtual CPUs for the virtual machine. If the virtual machine runs a multithreaded application, assign the number of virtual CPUs the guest virtual machine will require to run efficiently.
   You cannot assign more virtual CPUs than there are physical processors (or hyper-threads) available on the host system. The number of virtual CPUs available is noted in the Up to X available field.
   

   Figure 7.6. The new VM window - Step 3

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.

6. Storage

   Enable and assign storage for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guest virtual machine. Assign at least 5GB for a desktop installation or at least 1GB for a minimal installation.

   Note

   Live and offline migrations require virtual machines to be installed on shared network storage. For information on setting up shared storage for virtual machines, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization Administration Guide.

   1. With the default local storage

      Select the Create a disk image on the computer's hard drive radio button to create a file-based image in the default storage pool, the /var/lib/libvirt/images/ directory. Enter the size of the disk image to be created. If the Allocate entire disk now check box is selected, a disk image of the size specified will be created immediately. If not, the disk image will grow as it becomes filled.
      

      Figure 7.7. The New VM window - Step 4

      
      
      Click Forward to create a disk image on the local hard drive. Alternatively, select Select managed or other existing storage, then select Browse to configure managed storage.

   2. With a storage pool

      If you selected Select managed or other existing storage in the previous step to use a storage pool and clicked Browse, the Locate or create storage volume window will appear.
      

      Figure 7.8. The Locate or create storage volume window

      
      
      1. Select a storage pool from the Storage Pools list.
      2. Optional: Click on the New Volume button to create a new storage volume. The Add a Storage Volume screen will appear. Enter the name of the new storage volume.
         Choose a format option from the Format dropdown menu. Format options include raw, cow, qcow, qcow2, qed, vmdk, and vpc. Adjust other fields as desired.
         

         Figure 7.9. The Add a Storage Volume window

         
         
   Click Finish to continue.

7. Verify and finish

   Verify there were no errors made during the wizard and everything appears as expected.
   Select the Customize configuration before install check box to change the guest's storage or network devices, to use the para-virtualized drivers or to add additional devices.
   Click on the Advanced options down arrow to inspect and modify advanced options. For a standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 installation, none of these options require modification.
   

   Figure 7.10. The New VM window - local storage

   
   
   Click Finish to continue into the Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation sequence. For more information on installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Installation Guide.

Procedure 7.2. Creating a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guest with virt-manager

1. Optional: Preparation

   Prepare the storage environment for the guest virtual machine. For more information on preparing storage, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Virtualization Administration Guide.

   Important

   >Various storage types may be used for storing guest virtual machines. However, for a virtual machine to be able to use migration features the virtual machine must be created on networked storage.
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 requires at least 1GB of storage space. However, Red Hat recommends at least 5GB of storage space for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 installation and for the procedures in this guide.

2. Open virt-manager and start the wizard

   Open virt-manager by executing the virt-manager command as root or opening Applications ⤍ System Tools ⤍ Virtual Machine Manager.
   

   Figure 7.11. The main virt-manager window

   
   
   Click on the Create a new virtual machine button to start the new virtual machine wizard.
   

   Figure 7.12. The Create a new virtual machine button

   
   
   The Create a new virtual machine window opens.

3. Name the virtual machine

   Virtual machine names can contain letters, numbers and the following characters: '_', '.' and '-'. Virtual machine names must be unique for migration and cannot consist only of numbers.
   Choose the installation method from the list of radio buttons.
   

   Figure 7.13. The New VM window - Step 1

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.
4. Provide the installation URL, and the Kickstart URL and Kernel options if required.
   

   Figure 7.14. The New VM window - Step 2

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.
5. The remaining steps are the same as the ISO installation procedure. Continue from Step 5 of the ISO installation procedure.

Procedure 7.3. Creating a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guest with virt-manager

1. Optional: Preparation

   Prepare the storage environment for the virtual machine. For more information on preparing storage, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Virtualization Administration Guide.

   Important

   Various storage types may be used for storing guest virtual machines. However, for a virtual machine to be able to use migration features the virtual machine must be created on networked storage.
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 requires at least 1GB of storage space. However, Red Hat recommends at least 5GB of storage space for a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 installation and for the procedures in this guide.

2. Open virt-manager and start the wizard

   Open virt-manager by executing the virt-manager command as root or opening Applications ⤍ System Tools ⤍ Virtual Machine Manager.
   

   Figure 7.15. The main virt-manager window

   
   
   Click on the Create new virtualized guest button to start the new virtualized guest wizard.
   

   Figure 7.16. The create new virtualized guest button

   
   
   The New VM window opens.

3. Name the virtual machine

   Virtual machine names can contain letters, numbers and the following characters: '_', '.' and '-'. Virtual machine names must be unique for migration and cannot consist only of numbers.
   Choose the installation method from the list of radio buttons.
   

   Figure 7.17. The New VM window - Step 1

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.
4. The remaining steps are the same as the ISO installation procedure. Continue from Step 5 of the ISO installation procedure. From this point, the only difference in this PXE procedure is on the final New VM screen, which shows the Install: PXE Install field.
   

   Figure 7.18. The New VM window - Step 5 - PXE Install

   
   

1. Download the drivers

   The virtio-win package contains the para-virtualized block and network drivers for all supported Windows guest virtual machines.

   Note

   The virtio-win package can be found here in RHN: https://rhn.redhat.com/rhn/software/packages/details/Overview.do?pid=602010. It requires access to one of the following channels:

   • RHEL Client Supplementary (v. 6)
   • RHEL Server Supplementary (v. 6)
   • RHEL Workstation Supplementary (v. 6)
   Download and install the virtio-win package on the host with the yum command.

    # yum install virtio-win

   The list of virtio-win packages that are supported on Windows operating systems, and the current certified package version, can be found at the following URL: windowsservercatalog.com.
   Note that the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are created on the same code base so the drivers for the same version (for example, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor 3.0 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6) are supported for both environments.
   The virtio-win package installs a CD-ROM image, virtio-win.iso, in the /usr/share/virtio-win/ directory.

2. Install the para-virtualized drivers

   It is recommended to install the drivers on the virtual machine before attaching or modifying a device to use the para-virtualized drivers.
   For block devices storing root file systems or other block devices required for booting the virtual machine, the drivers must be installed before the device is modified. If the drivers are not installed on the virtual machine and the driver is set to the virtio driver the virtual machine will not boot.

Procedure 10.1. Installing from the driver CD-ROM image with virt-manager

1. Open virt-manager and the guest virtual machine

   Open virt-manager, then open the guest virtual machine from the list by double-clicking the guest name.

2. Open the hardware window

   Click the lightbulb icon on the toolbar at the top of the window to view virtual hardware details.
   

   Figure 10.1. The virtual hardware details button

   
   
   Then click the Add Hardware button at the bottom of the new view that appears.
   

   Figure 10.2. The virtual machine hardware information window

   
   
   This opens a wizard for adding the new device.

3. Select the device type - for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 versions prior to 6.2

   Skip this step if you are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 or later.
   On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 versions prior to version 6.2, you must select the type of device you wish to add. In this case, select Storage from the dropdown menu.
   

   Figure 10.3. The Add new virtual hardware wizard in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1

   
   
   Click the Finish button to proceed.

4. Select the ISO file

   Ensure that the Select managed or other existing storage radio button is selected, and browse to the para-virtualized driver's .iso image file. The default location for the latest version of the drivers is /usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.iso.
   Change the Device type to IDE cdrom and click the Forward button to proceed.
   

   Figure 10.4. The Add new virtual hardware wizard

   
   

5. Finish adding virtual hardware - for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 versions prior to 6.2

   If you are using Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 or later, skip this step.
   On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 versions prior to version 6.2, click on the Finish button to finish adding the virtual hardware and close the wizard.
   

   Figure 10.5. The Add new virtual hardware wizard in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1

   
   

6. Reboot

   Reboot or start the virtual machine to begin using the driver disc. Virtualized IDE devices require a restart to for the virtual machine to recognize the new device.

Procedure 10.2. Windows installation on a Windows 7 virtual machine

1. Open the Computer Management window

   On the desktop of the Windows virtual machine, click the Windows icon at the bottom corner of the screen to open the Start menu.
   Right-click on Computer and select Manage from the pop-up menu.
   

   Figure 10.6. The Computer Management window

   
   

2. Open the Device Manager

   Select the Device Manager from the left-most pane. This can be found under Computer Management > System Tools.
   

   Figure 10.7. The Computer Management window

   
   

3. Start the driver update wizard

   1. View available system devices

      Expand System devices by clicking on the arrow to its left.
      

      Figure 10.8. Viewing available system devices in the Computer Management window

      
      

   2. Locate the appropriate device

      There are up to four drivers available: the balloon driver, the serial driver, the network driver, and the block driver.
      • Balloon, the balloon driver, affects the PCI standard RAM Controller in the System devices group.
      • vioserial, the serial driver, affects the PCI Simple Communication Controller in the System devices group.
      • NetKVM, the network driver, affects the Network adapters group. This driver is only available if a virtio NIC is configured. Configurable parameters for this driver are documented in Appendix A, NetKVM Driver Parameters.
      • viostor, the block driver, affects the Disk drives group. This driver is only available if a virtio disk is configured.
      Right-click on the device whose driver you wish to update, and select Update Driver... from the pop-up menu.
      This example installs the balloon driver, so right-click on PCI standard RAM Controller.
      

      Figure 10.9. The Computer Management window

      
      

   3. Open the driver update wizard

      From the drop-down menu, select Update Driver Software... to access the driver update wizard.
      

      Figure 10.10. Opening the driver update wizard

      
      

4. Specify how to find the driver

   The first page of the driver update wizard asks how you want to search for driver software. Click on the second option, Browse my computer for driver software.
   

   Figure 10.11. The driver update wizard

   
   

5. Select the driver to install

   1. Open a file browser

      Click on Browse...
      

      Figure 10.12. The driver update wizard

      
      

   2. Browse to the location of the driver

      A separate driver is provided for each of the various combinations of operating system and architecture. The drivers are arranged hierarchically according to their driver type, the operating system, and the architecture on which they will be installed: driver_type/os/arch/. For example, the Balloon driver for a Windows 7 operating system with an x86 (32-bit) architecture, resides in the Balloon/w7/x86 directory.
      

      Figure 10.13. The Browse for driver software pop-up window

      
      
      Once you have navigated to the correct location, click OK.

   3. Click Next to continue

      

      Figure 10.14. The Update Driver Software wizard

      
      
      The following screen is displayed while the driver installs:
      

      Figure 10.15. The Update Driver Software wizard

      
      

6. Close the installer

   The following screen is displayed when installation is complete:
   

   Figure 10.16. The Update Driver Software wizard

   
   
   Click Close to close the installer.

7. Reboot

   Reboot the virtual machine to complete the driver installation.

Procedure 10.3. Installing para-virtualized drivers during the Windows installation

1. Install the virtio-win package:

   # yum install virtio-win

   Note

   The virtio-win package can be found here in RHN: https://rhn.redhat.com/rhn/software/packages/details/Overview.do?pid=602010. It requires access to one of the following channels:

   • RHEL Client Supplementary (v. 6)
   • RHEL Server Supplementary (v. 6)
   • RHEL Workstation Supplementary (v. 6)

2. Creating the guest virtual machine

   Important

   Create the virtual machine, as normal, without starting the virtual machine. Follow one of the procedures below.
   Select one of the following guest-creation methods, and follow the instructions.

   1. Creating the guest virtual machine with virsh

      This method attaches the para-virtualized driver floppy disk to a Windows guest before the installation.
      If the virtual machine is created from an XML definition file with virsh, use the virsh define command not the virsh create command.
      1. Create, but do not start, the virtual machine. Refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization Administration Guide for details on creating virtual machines with the virsh command.
      2. Add the driver disk as a virtualized floppy disk with the virsh command. This example can be copied and used if there are no other virtualized floppy devices attached to the guest virtual machine. Note that vm_name should be replaced with the name of the virtual machine.

         # virsh attach-disk vm_name /usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.vfd fda --type floppy

         You can now continue with Step 3.

   2. Creating the guest virtual machine with virt-manager and changing the disk type

      1. At the final step of the virt-manager guest creation wizard, check the Customize configuration before install checkbox.
         

         Figure 10.17. The virt-manager guest creation wizard

         
         
         Click on the Finish button to continue.

      2. Open the Add Hardware wizard

         Click the Add Hardware button in the bottom left of the new panel.
         

         Figure 10.18. The Add Hardware button

         
         

      3. Select storage device

         Storage is the default selection in the Hardware type list.
         

         Figure 10.19. The Add new virtual hardware wizard

         
         
         Ensure the Select managed or other existing storage radio button is selected. Click Browse....
         

         Figure 10.20. Select managed or existing storage

         
         
         In the new window that opens, click Browse Local. Navigate to /usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.vfd, and click Select to confirm.
         Change Device type to Floppy disk, and click Finish to continue.
         

         Figure 10.21. Change the Device type

         
         

      4. Confirm settings

         Review the device settings.
         

         Figure 10.22. The virtual machine hardware information window

         
         
         You have now created a removable device accessible by your virtual machine.

      5. Change the hard disk type

         To change the hard disk type from IDE Disk to Virtio Disk, we must first remove the existing hard disk, Disk 1. Select the disk and click on the Remove button.
         

         Figure 10.23. The virtual machine hardware information window

         
         
         Add a new virtual storage device by clicking Add Hardware. Then, change the Device type from IDE disk to Virtio Disk. Click Finish to confirm the operation.
         

         Figure 10.24. The virtual machine hardware information window

         
         

      6. Ensure settings are correct

         Review the settings for VirtIO Disk 1.
         

         Figure 10.25. The virtual machine hardware information window

         
         
         When you are satisfied with the configuration details, click the Begin Installation button.
         

         Figure 10.26. The Begin Installation button

         
         
         You can now continue with Step 3.

   3. Creating the guest virtual machine with virt-install

      Append the following parameter exactly as listed below to add the driver disk to the installation with the virt-install command:

      --disk path=/usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.vfd,device=floppy

      Important

      If the device you wish to add is a disk (that is, not a floppy or a cdrom), you will also need to add the bus=virtio option to the end of the --disk parameter, like so:

      --disk path=/usr/share/virtio-win/virtio-win.vfd,device=disk,bus=virtio

      According to the version of Windows you are installing, append one of the following options to the virt-install command:

      --os-variant winxp

      --os-variant win2k3

      --os-variant win7

      You can now continue with Step 3.

3. Additional steps for driver installation

   During the installation, additional steps are required to install drivers, depending on the type of Windows guest.

   1. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP

      Before the installation blue screen repeatedly press F6 for third party drivers.
      

      Figure 10.27. The Windows Setup screen

      
      
      Press S to install additional device drivers.
      

      Figure 10.28. The Windows Setup screen

      
      
      

      Figure 10.29. The Windows Setup screen

      
      
      Press Enter to continue the installation.

   2. Windows Server 2008

      Follow the same procedure for Windows Server 2003, but when the installer prompts you for the driver, click on Load Driver, point the installer to Drive A: and pick the driver that suits your guest operating system and architecture.

Procedure 10.4. Using KVM para-virtualized drivers for existing devices

1. Ensure that you have installed the appropriate driver (viostor), as described in Section 10.1, "Installing the KVM Windows para-virtualized drivers", before continuing with this procedure.
2. Run the virsh edit <guestname> command as root to edit the XML configuration file for your device. For example, virsh edit guest1. The configuration files are located in /etc/libvirt/qemu.
3. Below is a file-based block device using the virtualized IDE driver. This is a typical entry for a virtual machine not using the para-virtualized drivers.

   <disk type='file' device='disk'>   <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/disk1.img'/>   <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/></disk>

4. Change the entry to use the para-virtualized device by modifying the bus= entry to virtio. Note that if the disk was previously IDE it will have a target similar to hda, hdb, or hdc and so on. When changing to bus=virtio the target needs to be changed to vda, vdb, or vdc accordingly.

   <disk type='file' device='disk'>   <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/disk1.img'/>   <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/></disk>

5. Remove the address tag inside the disk tags. This must be done for this procedure to work. Libvirt will regenerate the address tag appropriately the next time the virtual machine is started.

Procedure 10.5. Starting the new device wizard

1. Open the guest virtual machine by double clicking on the name of the guest in virt-manager.
2. Open the Show virtual hardware details tab by clicking the lightbulb button.
   

   Figure 10.30. The Show virtual hardware details tab

   
   
3. In the Show virtual hardware details tab, click on the Add Hardware button.
4. In the Adding Virtual Hardware tab select Storage or Network for the type of device. The storage and network device wizards are covered in procedures Procedure 10.6, "Adding a storage device using the para-virtualized storage driver" and Procedure 10.7, "Adding a network device using the para-virtualized network driver".

Procedure 10.6. Adding a storage device using the para-virtualized storage driver

1. Open the guest virtual machine by double clicking on the name of the guest in virt-manager.
2. Open the Show virtual hardware details tab by clicking the lightbulb button.
   

   Figure 10.31. The Show virtual hardware details tab

   
   
3. In the Show virtual hardware details tab, click on the Add Hardware button.

4. Select hardware type

   Select Network as the Hardware type.
   

   Figure 10.32. The Add new virtual hardware wizard

   
   

5. Select the network device and driver

   Create a new disk image or select a storage pool volume.
   Set the Device type to Virtio Disk to use the para-virtualized drivers. Choose the desired Host device.
   

   Figure 10.33. The Add new virtual hardware wizard

   
   
   Click Finish to complete the procedure.

Procedure 10.7. Adding a network device using the para-virtualized network driver

1. Select hardware type

   Select Network as the Hardware type.
   

   Figure 10.34. The Add new virtual hardware wizard

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.

2. Select the network device and driver

   Select the network device from the Host device list.
   Create a custom MAC address or use the one provided.
   Set the Device model to virtio to use the para-virtualized drivers.
   

   Figure 10.35. The Add new virtual hardware wizard

   
   
   Click Forward to continue.

3. Finish the procedure

   Confirm the details for the new device are correct.
   

   Figure 10.36. The Add new virtual hardware wizard

   
   
   Click Finish to complete the procedure.