virt-install with cloud-init

If you have not heard about cloud-init then you should definately search for it and learn about cloud-config as well. You can find the documentation for cloud-config here. It is used for configuring VMs when running in cloud environments. Specially useful to inject the ssh keys or set the root password but you can do anything in the cloud-config as there is a section where you can run bash commands. While this is useful for cloud instances, you can make use of this feature when running your vm with qemu or libvirtd. All you need to do is either attach a iso disc with user-data and meta-data files in it or even simpler, you can use virt-install command. The command that I use is as follows

Linked clone with qemu-img

As 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.

vagrant box to libvirtd (QEMU) VM

Like 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

Add ova file as VM on Linux with libvirt (Qemu)

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

Better windows VM experience on Qemu

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.

qemu manager for Windows to run your linux distribution

If you are into virtualization, then you must have heard about Qemu. And if you are on windows then this is a must:

http://www.davereyn.co.uk/download.htm

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Access the disk image created by Qemu using guestfish in Fedora.

If you are used to using Qemu for doing some experiments with different distro’s then you would also understand the problem of having to do ftp/ssh to copy the files from virtual machine to local machine. Also you have to run the machine to do that. How would you like to have a application that can help you copy the files to and from the  image without having to run the VM. That’s exactly what the guestfish does. How to do it, quick demo here: