virt-install is an amazing tool to create VMs. If you have created a config file (Kickstart file – ks.cfg), then its only one line un-attended install. If you are using this on remote host with ssh and unluckily cannot export display – what do you do. Do a non-graphical install. There are only minor changes in the command to tell the installer that there is no graphics available and it is amazing, is it not 🙂
Continue readingAs you would have seen in Virtualbox or vmware, there is option to create a linked clone. I wanted to use the same feature as “Snapshot” feature anyway does not look/work so great with virt-manager. So, I created a script to create a linked clone VM and here it is :
#!/bin/bash -
#===============================================================================
#
# FILE: qcow2-linked-clone.sh
#
# USAGE: ./qcow2-linked-clone.sh
#
# DESCRIPTION:
#
# OPTIONS: ---
# REQUIREMENTS: ---
# BUGS: ---
# NOTES: ---
# AUTHOR: Amit Agarwal (aka)
# ORGANIZATION: Mobileum
# CREATED: 01/05/2018 09:54
# Last modified: Wed Feb 28, 2018 04:39PM
# REVISION: ---
#===============================================================================
set -o nounset # Treat unset variables as an error
UP="amitag:amitag" #Here you need to put your username and group.
if [[ $# == 0 ]]
then
read -p "Enter the source path :: " spath
read -p "Enter the source disk :: " sdisk
read -p "Enter the destin path :: " dpath
read -p "Enter the destin disk :: " ddisk
read -p "Enter new VMName :: " vmname
else
spath=$(dirname $1)
dpath=$spath
sdisk=$(basename $1)
ddisk=$2.qcow2
vmname=$2
fi
sudo chown $UP "$spath/$sdisk"
qemu-img create -f qcow2 -b "$spath/$sdisk" "$dpath/$ddisk"
virt-install --disk $dpath/$ddisk --ram 512 \
--virt-type kvm --vcpus 1 --name "$vmname" --import
The script will create a linked qcow2 and then create a VM with that image. Running it is simple, either provide command line options or just run and it will ask you for details.
Continue readingLike ova images, you can use box images as well with Qemu. After all, both have the disk images, so here is the script to do that. Just put the script somewhere in your path and run with ova or box image name :
#!/bin/bash -
#===============================================================================
#
# FILE: ova2vm.sh
#
# USAGE: ./ova2vm.sh
#
# DESCRIPTION:
#
# OPTIONS: ---
# REQUIREMENTS: ---
# BUGS: ---
# NOTES: ---
# AUTHOR: Amit Agarwal (aka),
# ORGANIZATION: Mobileum
# CREATED: 12/28/2017 13:59
# Last modified: Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:01PM
# REVISION: ---
#===============================================================================
set -o nounset # Treat unset variables as an error
dest='/mnt/Backup/VM'
ORIG=${PWD}
if [[ $# == 0 ]]
then
echo "You need to provide ova/vmdk filename"
exit
fi
if [[ $1 == *ova || $1 == *box ]]
then
tmp=$(mktemp -d /tmp/amitXXXXXXX)
cd $tmp
tar xvf $ORIG/$1
file=$(echo $PWD/*vmdk)
else
file=$1
echo "Not a OVA file"
fi
dfile="$dest/$(basename $file)"
read -p "Enter the name for VM :: " vmname
qemu-img convert $file $dfile -p -c -O qcow2
virt-install --disk $dfile --ram 512 \
--virt-type kvm --vcpus 1 --name "$vmname" --import
Although the commands are very simple and just 2-3 steps but I keep forgetting them and hence wrote the following script:
The script takes input as “ova” filename and then creates the qcow2 image and finally a VM for you.
#!/bin/bash -
#===============================================================================
#
# FILE: ova2vm.sh
#
# USAGE: ./ova2vm.sh
#
# DESCRIPTION:
#
# OPTIONS: ---
# REQUIREMENTS: ---
# BUGS: ---
# NOTES: ---
# AUTHOR: Amit Agarwal (aka),
# ORGANIZATION: Mobileum
# CREATED: 12/28/2017 13:59
# Last modified: Thu Dec 28, 2017 02:17PM
# REVISION: ---
#===============================================================================
set -o nounset # Treat unset variables as an error
if [[ $# == 0 ]]
then
echo "You need to provide ova/vmdk filename"
exit
fi
if [[ $1 == *ova ]]
then
tmp=$(mktemp -d /tmp/amitXXXXXXX)
cd $tmp
tar xvf $1
file=$(echo $PWD/*vmdk)
else
file=$1
echo "Not a OVA file"
fi
dfile="$dest/$(basename $file)"
read -p "Enter the name for VM" vmname
qemu-img convert $file $dfile -p -c -O qcow2
virt-install --disk $dfile --ram 512 \
--virt-type kvm --vcpus 1 --name "$vmname" --import
With Qemu resize and copy-paste option, Windows VM seems to be lacking all this. This can be fixed by installing the spice tools in Windows VM. To do this, head over to spice space and download the tool and enjoy your better VM experience.
Lot of times I find myself of VM that does not correctly resize the screen display and that is literally nuisance. So, here is quick and dirty fix for this.
First you need to find out information about your display with following command:
xrandr -q
And you will see output like this:
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
Continue reading
Virtual-0 connected primary 1920×1080+0+0 0mm x 0mm
1024×768 59.92 +
1920×1200 59.88
1920×1080 59.96*
1600×1200 59.87
1680×1050 59.95
1400×1050 59.98
1280×1024 59.89
1440×900 59.89
1280×960 59.94
1280×854 59.89
1280×800 59.81
1280×720 59.86
1152×768 59.78
800×600 59.86
848×480 59.66
720×480 59.71
640×480 59.38
Virtual-1 disconnected
Virtual-2 disconnected
Virtual-3 disconnected
To install a VM from command line, you can use the following command. Change the required parameters as need but you need to change at-least CDROM iso image and disk-path.
virt-install \
-n myVM \
--description "Test VM" \
--os-type=Linux \
--os-variant=centos7 \
--ram=2048 \
--vcpus=2 \
--disk path=./myVM.img,bus=virtio,size=10 \
--graphics none \
--cdrom <Image installtion CDROM>.iso \
--net user