From Fedora Project Wiki


Virtualization

In this section, we cover discussion on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list, @fedora-xen-list, @libvirt-list and @ovirt-devel-list of Fedora virtualization technologies.

Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley

Enterprise Management Tools List

This section contains the discussion happening on the et-mgmt-tools list

New Release virt-manager 0.7.0

Cole Robinson announce[1] a new virt-manager[2] release, version 0.7.0.

Virtual Machine Manager provides a graphical tool for administering virtual machines for KVM, Xen, and QEmu. Start, stop, add or remove virtual devices, connect to a graphical or serial console, and see resource usage statistics for existing VMs on local or remote machines. Uses libvirt as the backend management API.

New features:

  • Redesigned 'New Virtual Machine' wizard (Jeremy Perry, Tim Allen, Cole Robinson)
  • Option to remove storage when deleting a virtual machine.
  • File browser for libvirt storage pools and volumes, for use when attaching storage to a new or existing guest.
  • Physical device assignment (PCI, USB) for existing virtual machines.
  • Bug fixes and minor improvements.
  1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-March/msg00058.html
  2. ↑ http://virt-manager.org/

New Release virtinst 0.4.3

Cole Robinson announce[1] a new python-virtinst release, version 0.400.3.

virtinst is a module that helps build and install libvirt based virtual machines. It currently supports KVM, QEmu and Xen virtual machines. Package includes several command line utilities, including virt-install (build and install new VMs) and virt-clone (clone an existing virtual machine).

This is largely a bug fix release.

  1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-March/msg00057.html


Fedora Virtualization List

This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-virt list.

Serial Console Support in virt-manager

Jan ONDREJ tested[1] the new virt-manager 0.7.0 on Fedora 10, and had some suggestions.

TODO
Starting an domain starts my serial console owned by root and is not
accesssible from virt-manager (virt-viewer). After changing ownership it's
immediatelly available. Is it possible to change this in time of virtual
machine creation? (in libvirt or where?)

  Another feature enhacement can be adding "Serial 0" tab automatically,
when there is no Console available for guest. Message "Console not
configured for guest" can be sometimes misinterpretated, because I can have
serial console for my guest. I prefer to use serial consoles, because they
do not need to install graphical environment on host. They have multiple
advantages, like access from another machine using serial or ipmi console,
viewing crash status, when host crashes, ...

  And last possible enhancement: when pressing F10 key in guest's serial
console, is it possible to avoid opening of "File menu" and send this key to
serial 0, as it is done in VGA console?

Cole [2] 

Yes, this is one of the drawbacks of not running virt-manager as root:
since the qemu:///system libvirt connection will launch your guests as
root, a regular user won't be able to access ptys.

I don't know of a proper solution to it all, other then running the app
as root or changing the the pty permissions as you did.

>   Another feature enhacement can be adding "Serial 0" tab automatically,
> when there is no Console available for guest. Message "Console not
> configured for guest" can be sometimes misinterpretated, because I can have
> serial console for my guest. 

I see what you mean. The wording could certainly be better, and It would
make sense to try to connect to the serial console if no graphics device
is attached. Thanks for the idea.

> 
>   And last possible enhancement: when pressing F10 key in guest's serial
> console, is it possible to avoid opening of "File menu" and send this key to
> serial 0, as it is done in VGA console?
> 

We would probably need some sort of keygrab process like we do for VNC
to get this right. Not sure if that's even an option for the VTE widget
though.
  1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-March/msg00028.html
  2. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-March/msg00036.html

Fedora Xen List

This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-xen list.

dom0 Kernel: Better, Still Not Ready

Itamar Reis Peixoto reported[1] success with Michael Young's latest kernel build[2] and wondered when it could be released.

Michael explained, "The current plan is to wait until basic dom0 support makes it into the vanilla kernel, which should happen for 2.6.30, and then decide if dom0 can be enabled and if the patches for full dom0 support can safely be added without affecting ordinary operation."

"At the moment there are still things that are broken such as X support in some cases, and there are also Fedora patches that have been omitted because they were tricky to merge, so it is too early to start adding dom0 support to official Fedora kernels."

  1. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2009-March/msg00046.html
  2. ↑ http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=1238587

Missing Hypervisor Capabilities Restored

There was progress on a bug discovered[1] last week. This missing file /sys/hypervisor/properties/capabilities has been restored[2], however a bug[3] remained[4] in libvirt or virt-install.

  1. ↑ http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue166#dom0_Kernel_Inches_Closer
  2. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2009-March/msg00039.html
  3. ↑ https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=489799
  4. ↑ http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2009-March/msg00040.html

Libvirt List

This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.

Retrieved from "https://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=FWN/Beats/Virtualization&oldid=90646"