QA:Local cloud testing with virt-install

This guide shows how to test Fedora Cloud images using virt-install (which is a part of virt-manager).

Setup

1. Install virt-install:

   sudo dnf install virt-install

   

   Minimum package version
   You need to have virt-install at at least version 3.2.0 for this guide to work.
2. If you just installed the whole libvirt virtualization stack (you didn't have it before), it's recommended that you reboot your machine.
3. Download the preferred Fedora Cloud image that you want to test. It's recommended to pick the qcow2 image (raw.xz works too, if you prefer it, just make sure you don't forget to decompress it).

Create the virtual machine

1. Create the VM using the following command:

   virt-install --name localcloud1 --memory 2000 --disk=size=10,backing_store="/path/to/Cloud.qcow2" --cloud-init --noreboot --os-variant detect=on,name=fedora-unknown

   You can of course adjust all the values. Be sure to replace /path/to/Cloud.qcow2 with an absolute path to your downloaded Fedora Cloud image.

   

   The original image is unchanged
   Thanks to using the backing_store= option, a new overlay image is created (with the maximum size specified in size=) in a default libvirt image location, called localcloud1.qcow2, which only contains the changes you'd made on disk against the original Cloud image (Cloud.qcow2). The original Cloud image is kept untouched, and so you can reuse it repeatedly in future VMs.
2. A root password for the first login is printed out in terminal, note it down or put it into the clipboard
3. In a login prompt, log in as root with the password printed out earlier. You'll probably be forced to immediately change the password.
4. Do whatever is needed in the VM.
5. You can either power the machine down using poweroff, or just disconnect from the serial console using Ctrl+].

Connect to the virtual machine later

• If you want to connect to an existing localcloud1 VM later, first make sure it is started:

  virsh start localcloud1

  and then connect to the serial console:

  virsh console localcloud1

  (hit ↵ Enter to see the command/login prompt)

• You can also control and connect to the VM from virt-manager.

Clean up the virtual machine

• You can easily remove your VM together with the overlay disk drive. Fist make sure the VM is shut down:

  virsh destroy localcloud1

  and then remove the VM and its disk:

  virsh undefine --remove-all-storage localcloud1

• You can also remove your VM from virt-manager.