
Taken from the KVM main site:
Linux Kernel-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a full virtualisation solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extension (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of a loadable kernel module, kvm.ko, that provides the core virtualization infrastructure and a processor specific module, kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko. KVM also requires a modified QEMU although work is underway to get the required changes upstream.
This guide is modified from the article from Howtoforge – “Virtualization With KVM On A CentOS 5.2 Server” and IBM – Quick Start Guide for installing and running KVM. But we will be installing Virt-Manager on the CentOS. I hope to put in additional note for us to consider as well. Similarly, the this write-up draw information from
Step 1. Set SELINUX to “disabled”
# vim /etc/selinux/config
SELINUX=disabled
Step 2: Check that hardware support hardware virtualisation
# egrep '(vmx|svm)' --color=always /proc/cpuinfo
Your output should be something like this
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush
dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc nonstop_tsc pni monitor
ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 cx16 xtpr popcnt lahf_lm
.......
If you do not get this output, then we can conclude that your hardware does not support virtualisation
Before you do a yum, make sure you have EPEL Repository enabled. For more information see Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS Linux Enable EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) Repository
Step 3: Install the KVM and virtinst (tools to create virtual machines)
yum install kvm kmod-kvm qemu libvirt python-virtinst
Reboot the System
# shutdown -r now
Step 4: Verify that the kernel has is loaded
# lsmod | grep kvm
the output should be something like
kvm_amd 50452 0
kvm 109264 1 kvm_intel
Check that the KVM is installed
# virsh -c qemu:///system list
Id Name State
----------------------------------
Step 5: Setting up of a Network Bridge so that the VM can be accessed from other hosts on the same network
a. Install the Bridge
# yum install bridge-utils
b. Configure the Bridge. Create the “bridge configuration file”. Ensure the BOOTPROTO, BROADCAST, IPADDR, NETMASK and NETWORK are the same as /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts
# vim /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0
DEVICE=br0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
BROADCAST=192.168.50.255
IPADDR=192.168.50.100
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.50.0
ONBOOT=yes
c. Modify the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0. Amend as follows
# Chelsio Communications Inc T310 10GbE Single Port Adapter
DEVICE=eth0
#BOOTPROTO=static
HWADDR=00:xx:00:xx:00:xx
ONBOOT=yes
BRIDGE=br0
#IPADDR=192.168.50.100
#NETWORK=192.168.50.0
#NETMASK=255.255.255.0
d. Disable NetworkManager
# chkconfig NetworkManager off
# service NetworkManager stop
# chkconfig network on
e. Restart the Network
# service network start
f. Verify that the Network Bridge is working
# ifconfig
br0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
inet addr:192.168.50.100 Bcast:192.168.50.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::210:a7ff:fe05:afeb/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:17 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:53 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1160 (1.1 KiB) TX bytes:14875 (14.5 KiB)
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr yy:yy:yy:yy:yy:yy
inet6 addr: fe80::210:a7ff:fe05:afeb/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:13662 errors:7 dropped:160 overruns:4 frame:0
TX packets:11646 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:15144608 (14.4 MiB) TX bytes:1379942 (1.3 MiB)
Interrupt:74 Base address:0xcc00
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:38 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:38 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:4308 (4.2 KiB) TX bytes:4308 (4.2 KiB)
virbr0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet addr:192.168.122.1 Bcast:192.168.122.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::200:ff:fe00:0/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:35 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:9987 (9.7 KiB)
Step 6: Installing Virt-Manager on CentOS on a remote or local server
# yum install virt-manager
================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository
Size
================================================================================
Installing:
virt-manager x86_64 0.6.1-12.el5 base 1.5 M
Installing for dependencies:
e4fsprogs-libs x86_64 1.41.9-3.el5 base 104 k
gnome-python2-gnomekeyring
x86_64 2.16.0-3.el5 base 17 k
gtk-vnc x86_64 0.3.8-3.el5 base 81 k
gtk-vnc-python x86_64 0.3.8-3.el5 base 12 k
libvirt x86_64 0.6.3-33.el5_5.3 updates 2.0 M
libvirt-python x86_64 0.6.3-33.el5_5.3 updates 137 k
python-virtinst noarch 0.400.3-9.el5_5.1 updates 380 k
xen-libs x86_64 3.0.3-105.el5_5.5 updates 156 k
xz-libs x86_64 4.999.9-0.3.beta.20091007git.el5 base 95 k
Transaction Summary
================================================================================
Install 10 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 4.5 M
Is this ok [y/N]:
Step 7: Install Virtual Machines using virt-install
a. Do put an ISO of the Operating System into Server so that you can build the Virtual Machine From. If you only have the disk but not the ISO, you may want to look at “Making Disc Images using mkisofs” from Linux Toolkit
b. Do also take a look at the Guest Support Status from KVM to know what is supported for the version of KVM.
Continuation……
Installing Linux Kernal-Based Virtual Machine (KVM) on CentOS 5.4 Server (Part II)