1 |
On Fri, 15 May 2009 22:35:12 +0200 |
2 |
"Reber, Simon" <linux@×××××××.ch> wrote: |
3 |
|
4 |
> But we now coming to the point where we want to install virtual guest |
5 |
> systems to some of the systems. |
6 |
> Since the servers are kept very basically do we not have any X packages |
7 |
> installed, nor do we plant to. |
8 |
> But from documentation and experience point of view, does it look like |
9 |
> that we exactly do require something like that. |
10 |
> |
11 |
> So my question is, is there any way to install a guest system using KVM |
12 |
> without having X system packages installed or a monitor plugged on? |
13 |
> Meaning booting up the guest system, connecting from the localhost |
14 |
> using some kind of serial console or something like that to connect to |
15 |
> the particular virtual guest and run the installation task? |
16 |
|
17 |
I don't know what kind of documentation you've been reading, but there's |
18 |
no real need for X (especially X-server) on the machine to deply/use kvm |
19 |
guests there. |
20 |
|
21 |
If there's need for a graphical install (like MS Windows), you can use |
22 |
VNC, otherwise ncurses-based interface should suffice to display both |
23 |
bios data and text terminal, just append "-curses" flag to kvm line. |
24 |
|
25 |
Of course, all these features should be enabled via use-flags. |
26 |
|
27 |
And if you still want X for some reason, you can use sdl-based |
28 |
graphical output thru X-forwarding, with a few additional libs (and X |
29 |
flag enabled for ssh/sdl). |
30 |
|
31 |
Just an example of kvm start: |
32 |
|
33 |
exec kvm \ |
34 |
-name "$VM" \ |
35 |
-cpu core2duo \ |
36 |
-smp 8 \ |
37 |
-m "$MEM" \ |
38 |
-drive file=/dev/mapper/vm_root-$VM,if=virtio \ |
39 |
-drive file=/dev/mapper/vm_swap-$VM,if=virtio \ |
40 |
-net nic,vlan=0,model=virtio,macaddr="XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:X$SN" \ |
41 |
-net vde,vlan=0,sock=/var/run/vde/vde.ctl \ |
42 |
-localtime \ |
43 |
-kernel /boot/vmlinuz_vm32 \ |
44 |
-append 'root=/dev/vda gentoo=nodevfs' \ |
45 |
-daemonize \ |
46 |
-nographic \ |
47 |
# -monitor "telnet:127.0.0.1:820${SN},server,nowait" \ |
48 |
# -vnc ":$SN" \ |
49 |
# -curses \ |
50 |
|
51 |
vnc or curses lines (or both) here can be swapped w/ "-nographic" option |
52 |
to enable graphical remote access. And you can control every |
53 |
non-software aspect of VM via "-monitor" interface. |
54 |
Of course, you won't need any of it as soon as you'll have sshd running. |
55 |
|
56 |
And I find it much easier to do the basic deployment by cloning desired |
57 |
FS (or stage3) to VM partition, chrooting there, doing all the |
58 |
necessary fine-tuning or compilation then booting VM from there into |
59 |
fully operational (boot-and-forget) state. |
60 |
Trick here is not to accidentally mount VM partition if it's (still) |
61 |
running, since that might cause severe fs corruption. |
62 |
|
63 |
-- |
64 |
Mike Kazantsev // fraggod.net |