# Managing KVM environment, how?

## Januszzz

Hi,

a while ago (around kvm-60) I already tested all interesting functions of kernel virtual machine. I successfully migrated Linux systems between 2 physical machines, Win XP died, but later got alive again, Win 2003 died for good, etc... Pretty funny experiments.

I'm really amazed how this works, but the one question remains: how to manage those Virtual Environments? I would like to give another admin some of those machines, I would like him to connect through Internet so encryption is a must. I would also be very pleased to see that one can create VE's from templates (like OpenVZ which is my preferred technology until).

Are there any plans to create sophisticated interface like Vmware Server / ESXi or VirtualBox do have? I've tried Proxmox, but I'm having some serious stoppers (their kernel too old, unsupported devices on newest IBM monster machines with 16 cores and 16GB ram).

BTW: there should be possible to patch fairly new kernel with OpenVZ patch and use KVM, thats what they do. Have anyone achieved better results than Proxmox stuff? 

Thank you Gentoo Community  :Smile: 

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## kevstar31

I need you tell me how you internet connection is set up for the virtual machines.

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## Januszzz

well, as in the qumranet howto. I start machine manually and set the network in this script:

```

#!/bin/sh

set -x

switch=br0

if [ -n "$1" ];then

        /usr/bin/tunctl -u `whoami` -t 4

        /usr/bin/sudo /sbin/ip link set $1 up

        sleep 0.5s

        /sbin/brctl addif $switch $1

        exit 0

else

        echo "You failed to use your brain again ;-)"

        exit 1

fi

```

then my KVM interfaces are bridged to br0 with eth1, which is my primary interface. KVM machines have custom MACs and dhcpserver gives proper ip address to them.

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## kevstar31

could ssh work? What exactly do you need to do?

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## Januszzz

hey, what I want?

any management tool for user...

People tend to think that ssh will do - they are missing the point of virtual machines: I want the user to MANAGE his virtual machine, NOT the operating system. He have to reboot easily, he have to add an iso from disk, he have to damage his whole machine and install other OS on it. He has to SEE his machines screen. Ssh won't do that.

I want simple panel to give him on the web or local application accessed, say, through NX. He could also access the machine through VNC (like it is in current implementation, but in fact - that's a pita as user have to know the display numer he connects and there is no "normal" way to preserve these numbers).

THink about vmware server - it plain KVM by Vmware Co. but with GUI. I need such GUI for KVM.

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## gringo

virt-manager maybe ? 

it heavily depends on gnome related apps, not sure this will fill your needs. 

cheers

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## Januszzz

well,

I've tried virt-manager at RHEL 5 release and first "serious" Xen attempt (all laters also failed to fight the mainstream), it sucked then  :Smile: 

Does virt-manager allows to cede privileges to users? 

Does it allow managing KVM machines at all?

Does it allow remote administration so I could install it on remote machine, not on production server, and which method does it use?

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## gringo

 *Quote:*   

> I've tried virt-manager at RHEL 5 release and first "serious" Xen attempt (all laters also failed to fight the mainstream), it sucked then

 

they are still in an early development stage, you know, will take some time to have a refined interface.

 *Quote:*   

> Does virt-manager allows to cede privileges to users? 

 

yes, although not done completely yet. Next release will have full support for this iirc.

 *Quote:*   

> Does it allow managing KVM machines at all? 

 

yes, it uses libvirt after all and libvirt can manage openvz, qemu, kvm, xen and a few more.

 *Quote:*   

> Does it allow remote administration

 

well, that´s the point of using virt-manager, right ?  :Razz: 

Main problem i see is the truckload of gnome dependencies it has, but other than that it´s doing well.

cheers

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## Januszzz

 *Quote:*   

> they are still in an early development stage, you know, will take some time to have a refined interface. 

 

There is TTM (Time To Market) parameter. OSS TTMs are definitively too loong  :Smile:  but that's the way it is, I agree for that. virt-manager is 1,5 years old or something and still experimental.

 *Quote:*   

> Main problem i see is the truckload of gnome dependencies it has, but other than that it´s doing well.

 

Not a problem, I can have one openvz virtual for that. I've discovered that nxserver doesn't need Xorg, so I'll install only Gnome with some parts of Xorg libs only  :Smile: 

Well then, I'm giving it a try on my notebook. How does it connect to remote machine? only VNC I guess, so I'm to setup a vpn just for that?

I'll post the results after 3 weeks as I'm going for holidays tomorrow.

Thanks gringo!

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## gringo

 *Quote:*   

> How does it connect to remote machine? only VNC I guess, so I'm to setup a vpn just for that? 

 

theres virt-viewer and you will get gtk-vnc automatically pulled in, but any vnc client should work i guess.

 *Quote:*   

> I'll post the results after 3 weeks as I'm going for holidays tomorrow. 

 

have a nice time  :Smile:  - maybe theres a new version available for that time, some screenies for the "visual" part that we will probably see :

http://fedorapeople.org/~crobinso/virt-manager/

the new storage pools look quite interesting  :Smile: 

cheers

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## Januszzz

yep,

there IS new version  :Smile:  that is why I love Open Source  :Smile: 

http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/download.html

I'm preparing to test it, need to buy a monitor as I don't have any now...

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## Januszzz

Hi!

I got some problems with virt-manager (didn't compile clearly on my machine), still had some half-way stoppers (ZERO configuration for storage, ZERO configuration for vlans, ZERO for this, no FC, ZERO for that, etc). so I decided to go with Proxmox VE. It works very nice, but live migration is not implemented yet. Either in KVM, nor in OpenVZ, ANY live migration was not possible.

Overall, I'm somewhat disappointed with managebility of KVM. The one project yet still looks  nice - its another initiative of Red Hat (didn't they invest all of their efforts in XEN a day before?  :Wink:  - ovirt.

It looks  good, works bad, but features are promising. They delivered an appliance before as I understand, now those tools need Fedora. Yuck, but still possible and free as in speech.

While I appreciate another Red Hat initiative I find it unproficient like always. They already tighten testing group to Fedoras  fans, they use lots on brand new software tailored only to RHEL similar system and components  are very loosely tight... My opinion only. But thats what happen to RH Cluster Suite - it works, but its relatively untested cause nobody knows about it outside RHEL.

I'm still looking at possibilities.

Janusz.

http://ovirt.org/milestones.html

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## cetbaalix

I've just tried it very short but maybe someone find it usefull:

Con-Virt

http://xenman.sourceforge.net/

Since two releases it also supports KVM.

Greetings

Robert

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