Create and Run Virtual Machines With virt-manager

By
Jack Wallen
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54424

 

Virtual machines make¬†administrative¬†live so much easier. Not only can you test out new operating systems (without damaging your currently running OS), you can test new features, you can sandbox your web sites, you can develop new security models…the list goes on and on. But just as there are numerous reasons why you would want to run a virtual machine, there are numerous ways to create a virtual machine.

You have already seen my articles on virtualization, here on Linux.com. If not check out “Virtualbox offers simple, easy to use virtual solutions” and “Installing Virtual Machines in VMWare“. Another virtual machine solution is virt-manager. The virt-manager tool is a GUI tool that can use either QEMU or KVM as its hypervisor. Unlike VirtualBox or VMWare, there are a few tools that have to be installed, but more importantly, your CPU must be able to support hardware virtualization. So before we get into the installation of any of the tools (and the setting up of your virtual machines) it’s best to run a simple test to find out if your hardware will support this technology.

The Test

Open up a terminal window and issue the command:

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

You should get returned something like:

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 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 extd_apicid pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch
If you see nothing return, your CPU does not support hardware virtualization and you should turn back and, instead, use VirtualBox or VMWare. If you see something similar to the above, congratulations, you can continue on.

Installing All of the Components

As mentioned, there are numerous components to install. I will be demonstrating this installation on the Debian-based Elive distribution, so the installation method will be Synaptic. Because there are two hyper-visors supported with virt-manager, I will list everything that needs to be installed for both to work. So the first step you need to take is to open up Synaptic and search for the following packages:
  • virtinst
  • virt-manager
  • kvm
  • python-libvirt
  • libvirt-bin
  • qemu
  • virt-viewer
  • bridge-utils
That should cover everything. The above list will also pick up dependencies necessary, so go ahead and allow those installations as well. You will have to do a search for each of those tools and select them for installation. Once you have selected everything for installation click Apply to run the install. NOTE: You install the bridge-utils package if you plan to use bridge networking so other machines on your network can see your virtual machine.

Configuring Your Bridged Networking

Before you move on to the creation of your virtual machines, you need to configure your network to work with bridging. Open up a terminal and then open up the /etc/networking/interfaces file (you will need to be either root or use sudo to do this). You should edit this file to look similar to this:
iface eth0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.10
        network 192.168.1.0
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        broadcast 192.168.1.255
        gateway 192.168.1.1

auto br0
iface br0 inet static
        address 192.168.1.21
        network 192.168.1.0
        netmask 255.255.255.0
        broadcast 192.168.1.255
        gateway 192.168.1.1
        bridge_ports eth0
        bridge_fd 9
        bridge_hello 2
        bridge_maxage 12
        bridge_stp off
 
The above assumes your main networking device is set up with a static IP address on th 192.168.1.x network address scheme. If not, edit the above file to reflect your needs (and change your IP addresses if necessary).  Save that file and restart networking with a command such as:
sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

Create a New Virtual Machine

Now it’s time to create a virtual machine. With everything you have installed, there are a couple of ways you can tackle this task: ¬†Command line or GUI. We are going to opt for the latter, simply because the commands for creating a virtual machine can get incredibly long. So instead of having to memorize everything involved with those commands, the GUI will make for a fine solution.
 
You most likely will not find the virt-manager tool located in your menus. That’s okay, we can run it from the command line. You will want to run this tool as either root or with the help of sudo. So to fire up the virt-manager tool issue the command:
sudo virt-manager
You might get a warning that the libvirt¬†daemon is not running. If that’s the case, close the GUI, go back to the command line, and issue the command:
sudo /etc/init.d/libvirt-bin start
Virt Manager main windowNow you can go back to the GUI tool.
 
When you start up the virt-manager GUI the main window (see Figure 1) will be empty (with the exception of the localhost entry. In order to create a new virtual machine
 
The steps to create a new virtual machine are:
  1. Click the New button in the main window.
  2. Give your virtual machine a name.
  3. Choose if your vm will be fully or paravirtualized.
  4. Locate the files for installing your vm operating system.
  5. Enter the storage details for your vm.
  6. Configure networking.
  7. Allocate memory and CPU for your VM.
 Step 1: Before you even click the New button, you first have to select the location of your virtual machine. In our case we will be dealing with the local machine so select localhost in the virt-manager main window. When you click this the New button will then be available. Click the new button to open up the Wizard.
 
Step 2: The first window of the wizard is nothing more than a Welcome window. Click the Next button to get to the second step. In this step there is a single text area where you will give your virtual machine a name. Enter this name and click the Forward button. In my case I am going to be installing Debian, so I will name my virtual machine “Debian” (No quotes).
 
Virtualization MethodStep 3: In this step you are going to decide if your machine will be para or fully virtualized. Most likely you will be choosing Fully Virtualized. Although you will have better performance from a paravirtualized virtual machine, you might have to modify the guest operating system to support it. 
 
When you select Fully Virtualized you have to select two more options: 
  • CPU architecture: 32 or 64 bit, MIPS, SPARC, or PPC.
  • Hypervisor: KVM or QEMU
For my choices I will be using i686 (32 bit) and QEMU.
 
Make your choices and click Forward.
 
Step 4: Now you have to select your installation method (see Figure 3). You can choose from the following:
  • Local install media (either an ISO image or a CD)
  • Network install (HTTP, FTP, NFS)
  • Netwwork boot (PXE)

OS TypeIn this same window select the operating system type and variant for installation. From the dropdown some of the possibiltities might seem a bit out-dated. It is safe, for modern Linux distributions to select Generic 2.6.x kernel for OS Variant. Since I am going to install Debian I will select Linux from the OS Type drop down and Debian Etch from the OS Variant drop down.

Once you have made your choices, click Forward to move on to the next step.

Step 5:  In this step you only have to select where your installation media will come from. Since this example is using a local installation method there are only two choices:

  • ISO Image
  • CD/DVD Rom

¬†For this tutorial I will select CD/DVD.Prior to starting up virt-manager insert the install CD/DVD, that way when “CD-ROM or DVD” is selected the install disk will automatically be available in the drop down. Once that is configured click the Forward button to move on to the next step.

Storage TypeStep 6: It is time to configure the storage space for your virtual machine. Figure 4 shows the configuration options available for this step.  I would avoid choosing a Normal Disk Partition as an incorrect choice could over-write your data drive. Instead select Simple File and accept the default offers for the file location. You can locate this file into a different location, but to make life easier for you and virt-manager, leave it at the default. 

You can also adjust the file size to suit your needs. The default is 4 Gigs. I would recommend unchecking the Allocate entire virtual disk now check box as this will create a dynamic drive. The dynamic drive will grow, as needed, instead of just creating a large file immediately.

Once you have configured your storage space click the Forward button to move on to the next step.

Step 7: This step sets up a method for the guest to connect through the host for networking purposes. There are two choices:

Virtual networking

Shared physical device

If you want your virtual machine to be seen on your network select Shared physical device and then select the device with Bridge attached to it. 

You can also set a fixed MAC address for your virtual machine. Most likely this won’t be necessary. Make your choices and click the Forward button.

Step 8: This step requires the allocation of Memory and CPU. Make sure you give your guest OS enough memory to run well, but do not take away so much memory from your host that it will run poorly. Also in this step you can configure your guest to use a specific number of virtual CPUs. Do NOT configure more virtual CPUs than your machine has Logical CPUs. If your host machine has 2 Logical CPUs either configure your host to use 1 or 2 virtual CPUs. Make your choices and click Forward

The final window is a summary for your new virtual machine. Go over this summer and click Finish if all is correct. When you click Finish the virtual machine will be created and you will be back to the virt-manager main window. The newly created virtual machine will be listed in the main window. Double click the new listing to start up your virtual machine.

Congratulations, you just created a virtual machine!

Final Thoughts

Although using these tools might not be as simple as using VirtualBox or VMWare, you might find these tools much more flexible than the other choices. And in many instances, the combination of virt-manager and either KVM or QEMU will run much faster than either Virtualbox or VMWare.

 

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