Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Creating Virtual Systems

For VMware you will use the VI Client GUI interface to create your virtual systems. We won’t cover that task here. With Xen and KVM you can use virt-manager’s virt-install to install a new guest. At minimum you must tell virt-install:

• the name of the new guest domain

• whether the guest will be paravirtualized or fully virtualized (-p or -v)

• the amount of RAM to give to the new system (-r)

• what to use as a system disk and if creating a disk, how large it should be (-f and -s)

• whether to support graphics or not (--vnc or --nographics)

• where to find the installation files (-c, -l, or --pxe)

virt-install will prompt for any values you do not provide to it on the command line. The name should be a short unique identifier; whatever helps you distinguish it from other virtual machines controlled by the same hypervisor. Paravirtualization or full virtualization depends on what your OS supports. If you do not have an installation already prepared for virtualization, you need full virtualization.

The system disk can be stored anywhere in your filesystem. Use a full path to specify where, or just a filename to have it stored in the default location for your hypervisor.

You will need a way to connect to the new system. See the section Graphic and Console Interfaces in Graphic and Console Interfaces. If you are installing a fully virtualized system, use the --vnc option. If you aren’t installing on a system running X Window System, you may need to connect to your guest remotely ...