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
Fedora 10 Virtualization
This section contains a description of the virtualization features of the brand new Fedora 10 release.
New Features
The Fedora 10 release includes a number of virtualization enhancements over previous releases.
In the Virtualization Beat of the release notes[1] you will find details on new software packages and major new features such as:
- Unified Kernel Image
- The
kernel-xenpackage has been obsoleted by the integration of paravirtualization operations in the upstream kernel.
- Virtualization Storage Management
- Advances in libvirt now provide the ability to list, create, and delete storage volumes on remote hosts.
- Remote Installation of Virtual Machines
- Improvements in Virtualization Storage Management have enabled the creation of guests on remote host systems.
[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Beats#Virtualization
Updates to Virtualization Software
Virtualization on Fedora is achieved through the hard work of many projects including
kvm,
libvirt,
virt-manager,
xen,
and others.
Below is a listing of some of the virtualization software found in Fedora, illustrating the updates since the release of Fedora 9.
| Software | F9 Release | F10 Release | Release Notes or Changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| kvm | 65-1 | 74-5 | http://kvm.qumranet.com/kvmwiki/ChangeLog |
| libvirt | 0.4.2-1 | 0.4.6-3 | http://www.libvirt.org/news.html |
| python-virtinst | 0.300.3-5 | 0.400.0-4 | http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/download.html |
| virt-df | n/a | 2.1.4-2 | http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-df/ |
| virt-manager | 0.5.4-3 | 0.6.0-3 | http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/download.html |
| virt-mem | n/a | 0.2.9-6 | http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-mem/faq.html |
| virt-top | 0.4.1.1-1 | 1.0.3-2 | http://et.redhat.com/~rjones/virt-top/ChangeLog.txt |
| virt-viewer | 0.0.3-1 | 0.0.3-3 | http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/download.html |
| xen | 3.2.0-10 | 3.3.0-1 | http://www.xen.org/download/ |
| xenner | 0.29-2 | 0.46-3 | http://cvs.bytesex.org/xenner.html |
| xenwatch | n/a | 0.5.3-1 | http://cvs.bytesex.org/xenwatch.html |
Enterprise Management Tools List
This section contains the discussion happening on the et-mgmt-tools list
Connecting to VNC Console on Remote System Installs
While executing virt-install on a remote system, Stephan found[1]
that the installer created a VNC service listening on 127.0.0.1, and wanted to
know how to connect to this service or move it to a public interface on the
remote system.
Daniel P. Berrange answered[2] that
modifying the vnc_listen parameter in /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf
will affect the IP used, but this isn't necessary. The virt-viewer application will automatically tunnel[3][4] VNC connection over SSH.
virt-viewer --connect qemu+ssh://root@remotehost/system centos1
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2008-November/msg00041.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2008-November/msg00042.html
[3] http://virt-manager.org/page/RemoteSSH
[4] http://libvirt.org/remote.html
Specifying Installation Media URLs
Enzo Medici became[1] frustrated while trying to provision Xen
domUs with virt-manager. "What constitutes a valid install media
URL?" "How do you get a valid install media URL for a particular Linux
distribution?"
Cole Robinson explained[2] "We actually don't have support in the backend for fetching kernels from Ubuntu trees" yet. "This may work at the moment though since it could be detected as a debian tree." Cole then described the installation URLs for some popular distributions.
- For Fedora, it has varied a bit for different releases, but basically whatever ends in
{ARCH}/os:
- CentOS is similar, but seems to have ARCH and os reversed:
- Debian/Ubuntu trees are everything up to the
install-{ARCH}dir:
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2008-November/msg00044.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2008-November/msg00046.html
Fedora Xen List
This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-xen list.
Xen No Graphical Console and CentOS
While creating a domU on CentOS 5.2, Jason passed
--nographics to virt-install
and received the error message: No console available for domain.
Investigation /var/log/xen uncovered:
Could not initialize SDL - exiting.
Cole Robinson responded[2] that
"This is actually a known bug: xen doesn't abide nographics
and tries to init SDL. This will almost always fail if
run through [CentOS] 5.2 libvirt. This bug will be fixed in [CentOS] 5.3."
The --vnc flag may be used as a workaround this crash in the meantime.
[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2008-November/msg00015.html
[2] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2008-November/msg00016.html
Libvirt List
This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.
oVirt Devel List
This section contains the discussion happening on the ovirt-devel list.