virt July 2009

virt@lists.fedoraproject.org

39 participants
66 discussions

febootstrap purpose status
by Paul Lambert 25 Jul '09

25 Jul '09

Can I get an explanation of the targeted users of this distro? The reason I ask is twofold. 1) I am looking for a bare metal OS to base real time control on and 2) I believe that VMware has it right with respects to hypervisor architecture. Again, a bare metal host with the actual guest OS running the interface and application code. My current configuration using Fedora 11 as the host and running WinXP as a guest is what I term the "workstation" mode. The host OS still performs user interface and file storage functions for users. This is the same as using VMware workstation. The full hyperviser mode would be a minimum Fedora build that allows a command line only interface. No graphics libraries or other user intereface systems. This is essentially ESX. I would create a Fedora 11 appliance and a WinXP appliance and import these through command line instructions. (Or better yet, Fedora would release a distro that included installing the bare metal version and the full Fedora appliance.) The Fedora guest then could connect back to the bare metal host to perform monitoring and VM management function (oVirt). I want this on my laptop. Upgrading the host while it is also serving as a workstation is too risky and a lot of work to perform OS testing and evaluation. It's too easy to copy out one's guest VMs and reload or upgrade the host. Then when this activity is complete just reinstall the original host and VM appliances. Backup and restore are much easier as well. The last I saw on the febootstrap size I believe it was just under 20 mb. This still seams extremely large for a bare metal system. I need the Fedora filesystem with KVM and the hardware driver library. How small can we go? I would like to try this. Thanks for any feedback and direction Paul

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libvirt configuration for cluster of qemu/kvm hosts
by Gianluca Cecchi 25 Jul '09

25 Jul '09

Hello, is there any pointer about how to set up a cluster of Qemu/KVM hosts? I'm on F11 x86_64 for the hosts. I read requirements for KVM migration in general highlighted at http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Migration but I keep having doubts, in particular regarding libvirt configuration in cluster environments... Some questions about libvirt configuration: - /etc/libvirt/qemu/networks do the files inside here be identical between hosts (default.xml and other custom configured network ones)? What are the uuid tags into the xml for? Do they have to be identical for clusters or do they have to be absolutely different for a sort of "identification" of host (as the term seems to suggest)? If I have guests that use virbr0 and use dhcp for their network config, and want two different qemu/kvm hosts able to migrate these guests between them, need to have same config or what? - the same for storage configuration and other parameters. Suppose I clone a pre-config F11 host configured with libvirt, and suppose I have to differentiate uuid for networks/storage (see questions above), do I have a method to regenerate these uuid values inside xml files? Thanks in advance for any pointer. Gianluca

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networking in virtual machines using libvirt tools
by Rich Mahn 24 Jul '09

24 Jul '09

I am trying to set up a virtual machine that has a routable IP address on the same subnet (and physically the same ethernet card) as the host machine, running f11 on the host. Using virsh and related, I can easily set up the network on the VM as a natted IP with dhcp. This is taken care of in the defaults for virt-manager. I can also set up, (but not quite as easily) the network the way I want on a CentOS/XEN host. Unfortunately CentOS doesn't have a number of other features that I want/need. So...is there some XML snippet I can add to the domain that will do what I want automatically? Or is there a script (or maybe I need to write one) that can be invoked to set up the interfaces? I would certainly be appreciative to get some pointers on how to proceed. To make what I want a little clearer: My host has a routable IP address such as 123.45.67.89. I want my VM to have the routable IP address 123.45.67.90. I realize I could probably do this with iptables on the host and using the 192.168.x.x IP on the VM, but then the VM has an incorrect idea of it's correct IP. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

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virt-what 1.1 released
by Richard W.M. Jones 24 Jul '09

24 Jul '09

I just released virt-what 1.1. This program is a collection of code snippets to allow you to determine what sort of virtualization you are running inside. The new version can tell the difference between QEMU and KVM, and can tell if you are running inside a Xen fullvirt guest. Home page: http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/ Downloads: http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-what/files/ Repository: http://git.et.redhat.com/?p=virt-what.git;a=summary Rich. -- Richard Jones, Emerging Technologies, Red Hat http://et.redhat.com/~rjones New in Fedora 11: Fedora Windows cross-compiler. Compile Windows programs, test, and build Windows installers. Over 70 libraries supprt'd http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MinGW http://www.annexia.org/fedora_mingw

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ANNOUNCE: libguestfs 1.0.64 released
by Richard W.M. Jones 23 Jul '09

23 Jul '09

I'm pleased to announce the release of libguestfs 1.0.64, the library for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images. Homepage: http://libguestfs.org/ Downloads: http://libguestfs.org/download/ Git repo: http://git.et.redhat.com/?p=libguestfs.git Fedora builds: http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=8391 NOTE at present there is a bug in qemu's vmchannel which stops libguestfs from working correctly with the very latest qemu from git. Use a stable 0.10.X version, or apply this patch: http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2009-07/msg01753.html (These release notes include changes since the previous announcement, which was for 1.0.59) * New tool: virt-cat. This tool lets you copy out files from a guest. See this page for some interesting and unexpected uses: http://libguestfs.org/virt-cat.1.html#examples * Added libguestfs-test-tool which is a tool you can use to diagnose qemu / kernel booting problems, and also make bug reports more useful. * [Sys::Guestfs::Lib] split $os->{version} into $os->{major_version} and $os->{minor_version}. Add feature tags. (Matt Booth). * Allow TMPDIR to be used to override the location of temporary files. * Implement the guestfs_read_file call. * New calls guestfs_mkmountpoint and guestfs_rmmountpoint to allow some specialized read-only or nested filesystems to be mounted, particularly for examining live CDs. http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/unpack-the-russian-doll-of-a-f11-live-… * New call guestfs_mountpoints to return a hash of device -> mountpoint. * Many documentation fixes, including an "API Overview" section which will help developers navigate parts of the now very large libguestfs API. http://libguestfs.org/guestfs.3.html#api_overview * Add ~ and ~username expansion in guestfish (RHBZ#511372). * Add kernel modules for reading DOS filesystems (Guido Gunther). * Add i18n support for Perl strings. Bugs fixed: * Fix guestfish -i / virt-inspector when working with libvirt domain names, so now 'guestfish -i libvirtdom' really works. * Detect renamed guestfwd support for vmchannel in upstream qemu. * Always pass noapic on kernel command line (workaround for RHBZ#502058) * Workaround for udev timeouts. * Check /usr/libexec for qemu binary, for RHEL 5.4. * Multiple fixes for non-srcdir builds. Rich. -- Richard Jones, Emerging Technologies, Red Hat http://et.redhat.com/~rjones virt-top is 'top' for virtual machines. Tiny program with many powerful monitoring features, net stats, disk stats, logging, etc. http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-top

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Xenner, Ok, who has used it and can somebody provide a syntax example / real example?
by Lester M. 17 Jul '09

17 Jul '09

Xenner, yes xenner... Ok, who has used it and can somebody provide a syntax example / real example? Did the google / yahoo / <insert default search engine here> search, I would like to see an example, as well as hear of everyone's experiences using xenner, while we wait for a more stable native dom0 / upstream support for xen. Any takers? :-)

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qemu question/clarification
by Gene Czarcinski 17 Jul '09

17 Jul '09

qemu documentation such as the man page for qemu-img says that only versions 3 and 4 for the vmdk files are supported. What does this mean? If I run "strings" on a vmdk (sparse file, single image), I get some text lines which appear to describe the virtual disk. One of these lines is: HWversion=n If I create a VMware guest under Workstation 6.5.2 and specify Workstation 4 compatibility, I get HWversion=3. If I specify Workstation 6.5.2 compatibility, then I get HWversion=7. I assume that HWversion=4 will be true for Workstation 5 compatibility but I have not tested that. Is this what is meant by "versions 3 and 4" compatibility by qemu? I have run qemu-img to convert various vmdk files and it does not complain about non HWversion=3 or HWversion=4 files. Furthermore, the converted files seem OK when examined by guestfish. Gene

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do current virt packages work well with 2.6.31-rc3?
by Robert P. J. Day 16 Jul '09

16 Jul '09

for various reasons, i'm running my fully-updated f11 system with a 2.6.31-rc3 kernel, which i got by copying the current config file from /boot and running "make oldconfig". is there any reason that this won't work with the current fedora 11 virt packages? the only issue i'm having is with the radeon video driver that won't let me run in full 1280x800 but, other than that, all else looks good. is there any reason to think that virtualization will fail with this newer kernel? thanks. rday -- ======================================================================== Robert P. J. Day Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry. Web page: http://crashcourse.ca Twitter: http://twitter.com/rpjday "Kernel Newbie Corner" column @ linux.com: http://cli.gs/WG6WYX ========================================================================

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Win slave disk not booting
by Paul Lambert 15 Jul '09

15 Jul '09

I create a second bootable disk on my Win guest. I then copy my existing boot disk to the new disk with a Win track for track copy program. I when remove the existing boot disk and attempt to boot the Win vm with the new bootable disk the boot program returns an error that it can't find boot information. Essentially I am using the same technique with software disks that I do when replacing physical hard drives. Install the new disk in an external USB enclosure and perform the track for track copy then install the new disk as the boot disk. Works everytime. Why won't this work in a virtual guest? I am doing this to reduce the size of my disk space. There's most likely a virt command line utility but the GUI program should work too. The only thing different I notice is that the second disk is being configured as a bootable slave. Updated several bugs with new findings. PJAL

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F12 virt features - what will or won't make it in?
by Dale Bewley 15 Jul '09

15 Jul '09

Following on the heals of John Poelstra, I was taking a look at all the F12 Virt Features with the release notes in mind. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:F12_Virt_Features That's an impressive and ambitious list! Given the schedule: 2009-07-28 Feature Freeze--Planning & Development Ends 2009-08-18 Alpha Release Identifying what is likely to actually make it will hopefully allow the release notes to be more focused and useful. I clicked through each and quickly came up with the categorized list below. I made a very quick uninformed guess at what was unlikely to make F12, otherwise I listed a feature as pending whether it is ready for the feature wrangler or not. If you know a feature is definitely not going to make it or if you think a feature is likely to make it out of pending status, please comment below or update the feature's targeted Fedora release. An evaluation of the percent complete or a bump to the last update date on the feature page might also be helpful. = Accepted = * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtgPXE * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtioSerial = Pending = * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Hostinfo * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_Huge_Page_Backed_Memory * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_NIC_Hotplug * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_qcow2_Performance * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/libguestfs - : Technically, made it into F11, but... * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SR-IOV * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VHostNet * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtTCK * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtStorageManagement * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Xen_to_KVM_migration = Unlikely? = * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KSM * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_Stable_Guest_ABI * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/KVM_Stable_PCI_Addresses * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Shared_Network_Interface * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtAppliances * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtAuthorization * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtPrivileges * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/VirtVNCResourceTunnel * http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/XenPvopsDom0 Thanks! -- Dale Bewley

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virt July 2009