Virtualization With KVM On A Mandriva 2010.0 Server

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme
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This guide explains how you can install and use KVM for creating and running virtual machines on a Mandriva 2010.0 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 Mandriva 2010.0 server with the hostname server1.example.com and the IP address 192.168.0.100 here as my KVM host.

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 a Mandriva 2010.0 desktop here.

2 Installing KVM

Mandriva 2010.0 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 administrator]# 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 extd_apicid 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 extd_apicid pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy 
svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch
[root@server1 administrator]#

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

urpmi kvm libvirt0 python-virtinst libvirt-utils

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 administrator]# virsh -c qemu:///system list
 Id Name                 State
----------------------------------

[root@server1 administrator]#

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...

urpmi bridge-utils

... and configure a bridge.

To configure the bridge, 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

DEVICE=eth0
#BOOTPROTO=static
#IPADDR=192.168.0.100
#NETMASK=255.255.255.0
#GATEWAY=192.168.0.1
ONBOOT=yes
METRIC=10
MII_NOT_SUPPORTED=no
USERCTL=no
#DNS1=192.168.0.1
#DNS2=145.253.2.75
RESOLV_MODS=no
LINK_DETECTION_DELAY=6
IPV6INIT=no
IPV6TO4INIT=no
ACCOUNTING=no
BRIDGE=br0

Restart the network:

/etc/init.d/network restart

Then run

ifconfig

It should now show the network bridge (br0):

[root@server1 administrator]# 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:76 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:88 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:8583 (8.3 KiB)  TX bytes:15970 (15.5 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:34905 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:21722 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
          RX bytes:48048128 (45.8 MiB)  TX bytes:2539734 (2.4 MiB)
          Interrupt:28

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:56 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:56 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:5304 (5.1 KiB)  TX bytes:5304 (5.1 KiB)

virbr0    Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 4A:2C:D4:86:08:14
          inet addr:192.168.122.1  Bcast:192.168.122.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:44 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 b)  TX bytes:9276 (9.0 KiB)

[root@server1 administrator]#

3 Installing virt-manager On Your Mandriva 2010.0 Desktop

Mandriva 2010.0 Desktop:

We need a means of connecting to the graphical console of our guests - we can use virt-manager for this. I'm assuming that you're using a Mandriva 2010.0 desktop.

Become root...

su

... and run...

urpmi virt-manager

... to install virt-manager.

(If you're using an Ubuntu 9.10 desktop, you can install virt-manager as follows:

sudo aptitude install virt-manager

)

4 Creating A Debian Lenny Guest (Image-Based)

Mandriva 2010.0 KVM Host:

Now let's go back to our Mandriva 2010.0 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 administrator]# 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 vm10.qcow2                                                                                             |  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 administrator]#

Now we must reconfigure our SSH daemon so that it allows root connections (so that we can connect from our Mandriva 2010.0 desktop as root). Open /etc/ssh/sshd_config...

vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

... and change the PermitRootLogin line as follows:

[...]
PermitRootLogin yes
[...]

Restart the SSH daemon afterwards:

/etc/init.d/sshd restart

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