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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

Virtualization Guide

The definitive guide for virtualization on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Edition 3

Christopher Curran

Red Hat Engineering Content Services

Jan Mark Holzer

Red Hat Emerging Technology Group

Don Dutile

Technical Editor for the para-virtualized drivers section.
Red Hat Emerging Technology Group

Barry Donahue

Technical Editor for the para-virtualized drivers section.
Red Hat Quality Assurance Group

Rick Ring

Technical Editor for the Virtual Machine Manager Section.
Red Hat Sales

Michael Kearey

Technical Editor for the sections on using XML configuration files with virsh and virtualized floppy drives.
Red Hat Global Support Services

Marco Grigull

Technical Editor for the software compatibility and performance section.
Red Hat Global Support Services

Eugene Teo

Technical Editor for the Managing Guests with virsh section.
Red Hat Global Support Services

Legal Notice

Copyright © 2008 Red Hat, Inc. This material may only be distributed subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, V1.0 or later (the latest version of the OPL is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).
Red Hat and the Red Hat "Shadow Man" logo are registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
All other trademarks referenced herein are the property of their respective owners.


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Abstract
The Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization Guide contains information on installation, configuring, administering, tips, tricks and troubleshooting virtualization technologies used in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Preface
1. About this book
2. Document Conventions
2.1. Typographic Conventions
2.2. Pull-quote Conventions
2.3. Notes and Warnings
3. We need feedback
4. How should CIO's think about virtualization
I. System Requirements for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization
1. System requirements
2. Virtualization compatibility of host and guest combinations
3. Virtualization limitations
II. Installation
4. Installing Red Hat Virtualization packages on the host
4.1. Installing Red Hat Virtualization during a new Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation
4.2. Installing Red Hat Virtualization on an existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux system
5. Guest creation overview
5.1. Creating a guest with virt-install
5.2. Creating guests with virt-manager
6. Guest operating system installation processes
6.1. Installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 as a para-virtualized guest from a shell
6.2. Installing a Windows XP Guest as a fully virtualized guest
6.3. Creating a fully virtualized Windows Server 2003 SP1 Guest
III. Configuration
7. Virtualized block devices
7.1. Creating a virtualized floppy disk controller
7.2. Adding storage devices to guests
7.3. Configuring persistent storage in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
7.4. Add a virtualized CD-ROM or DVD device to a guest
8. Configuring networks and guests
9. Server best practices
10. Security for virtualization
10.1. SELinux and virtualization
10.2. SELinux considerations
11. Virtualized network devices
11.1. Configuring multiple guest network bridges to use multiple ethernet cards
11.2. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 Laptop network configuration
12. Introduction to Para-virtualized Drivers
12.1. System requirements
12.2. Para-virtualization Restrictions and Support
12.3. Installation and Configuration of Para-virtualized Drivers
12.3.1. Common installation steps
12.3.2. Installation and Configuration of Para-virtualized Drivers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
12.3.3. Installation and Configuration of Para-virtualized Drivers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
12.3.4. Installation and Configuration of Para-virtualized Drivers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
12.4. Para-virtualized Network Driver Configuration
12.5. Additional Para-virtualized Hardware Configuration
12.5.1. Virtualized Network Interfaces
12.5.2. Virtual Storage Devices
IV. Administration
13. Starting or stopping a domain during the boot phase
14. Managing guests with xend
15. Managing CPUs
16. Virtualization live migration
16.1. A live migration example
17. Remote management of virtualized guests
17.1. Remote management with ssh
17.2. Remote management over TLS and SSL
V. Virtualization Reference Guide
18. Red Hat Virtualization tools
19. Managing guests with virsh
20. Managing guests with Virtual Machine Manager(virt-manager)
20.1. Virtual Machine Manager Architecture
20.2. The open connection window
20.3. The Virtual Machine Manager main window
20.4. The Virtual Machine Manager details window
20.5. Virtual Machine graphical console
20.6. Starting virt-manager
20.7. Creating a new guest
20.8. Restoring a saved machine
20.9. Displaying guest details
20.10. Status monitoring
20.11. Displaying domain ID
20.12. Displaying a guest's status
20.13. Displaying virtual CPUs
20.14. Displaying CPU usage
20.15. Displaying memory usage
20.16. Managing a virtual network
20.17. Creating a virtual network
21. xm quick reference
22. Configuring GRUB
23. Configuring ELILO
24. Configuration files
VI. Tips and Tricks
25. Tips and tricks
25.1. Automatically starting domains during the host system boot
25.2. Modifying /etc/grub.conf
25.3. Example guest configuration files and parameters
25.4. Duplicating an existing guest and its configuration file
25.5. Identifying guest type and implementation
25.6. Generating a new unique MAC address
25.7. Limit network bandwidth for a guest
25.8. Starting domains automatically during system boot
25.9. Modifying the hypervisor(dom0)
25.10. Configuring guest live migration
25.11. Very Secure ftpd
25.12. Configuring LUN Persistence
25.13. Disable SMART disk monitoring for guests
25.14. Cleaning up the /var/lib/xen/ folder
25.15. Configuring a VNC Server
25.16. Cloning guest configuration files
26. Creating custom Red Hat Virtualization scripts
26.1. Using XML configuration files with virsh
VII. Troubleshooting
27. Troubleshooting Red Hat Virtualization
27.1. Debugging and troubleshooting Red Hat Virtualization
27.2. Log files overview
27.3. Log file descriptions
27.4. Important directory locations
27.5. Troubleshooting with the logs
27.6. Troubleshooting with the serial console
27.7. Para-virtualized guest console access
27.8. Fully virtualized guest console access
27.9. Accessing data on guest disk image
27.10. Common troubleshooting situations
27.11. Guest creation errors
27.12. Troubleshooting with serial consoles
27.12.1. Serial console output for the hypervisor(domain0)
27.12.2. Serial console output from para-virtualized guests
27.12.3. Serial console output from fully virtualized guests
27.13. Network bridge errors
27.14. Guest configuration files
27.15. Interpreting error messages
27.16. The layout of the log directories
28. Troubleshooting
28.1. Identifying available storage and partitions
28.2. Virtualized ethernet devices are not found by networking tools
28.3. Loop device errors
28.4. Failed domain creation caused by a memory shortage
28.5. Wrong kernel image error - using a non kernel-xen kernel in a para-virtualized guest
28.6. Wrong kernel image error - non-PAE kernel on a PAE platform
28.7. Fully-virtualized 64 git guest fails to boot
28.8. Missing localhost entry in /etc/hosts causing virt-manager to fail
28.9. Microcode error during guest boot
28.10. Wrong bridge configured on the guest causing hot plug script timeouts
28.11. Python depreciation warning messages when starting a virtual machine
28.12. Enabling Intel® VT and AMD-V virtualization hardware extensions in BIOS
29. Troubleshooting Para-virtualized Drivers
29.1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Virtualization log file and directories
29.2. Para-virtualized guest fail to load on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 guest operating system
29.3. A warning message is displayed while installing the para-virtualized drivers on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
29.4. What to do if the guest operating system has been booted with virt-manager or virsh
29.5. Manually loading the para-virtualized drivers
29.6. Verifying the para-virtualized drivers have successfully loaded
29.7. The system has limited throughput with para-virtualized drivers
A. Red Hat Virtualization system architecture
B. Additional resources
B.1. Online resources
B.2. Installed documentation
Glossary
C. Revision History