18.7. Creating a New Virtual Machine

The Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) is the desktop application that manages virtual machines.

You can use Red Hat's Virtual Machine Manager to:

Create new domains.
Configure or adjust a domain's resource allocation and virtual hardware.
Summarize running domains with live performance and resource utilization statistics.
Display graphs that show performance and resource utilization over time.
Use the embedded VNC client viewer which presents a full graphical console to the guest domain.

Note:

You must install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0, virt-manager, and the kernel packages on all systems that require virtualization. All systems then must be booted and running the Red Hat Virtualization kernel.

These are the steps required to install a guest operating system on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 using the Virtual Machine Monitor:

Procedure 18.1. Creating a Guest Operating System

From the Applications menu, select System Tools and then Virtual Machine Manager.

The Virtual Machine Manager main window appears.

Figure 18.6. Virtual Machine Manager window
From the File menu, select New machine.

Creating the New Virtual Machine

Figure 18.7. Selecting a New Machine

The Creating a new virtual system wizard appears.
Click Forward.

Figure 18.8. Creating a New Virtual System Wizard
Enter the name of the new virtual system and then click Forward.

Figure 18.9. Naming the Virtual System
Enter the location of your install media. Location of the kickstart file is optional. Then click Forward .

Figure 18.10. Locating the Installation Media
Install either to a physical disk partition or install to a virtual file system within a file.

Note

This example installs a virtual system within a file.

The default SELinux policy permits xen disk images to reside in the /var/lib/xen . If you have SELinux enabled and want to specify a custom path for the virtual disk then you need to change SELinux policies accordingly

Open a terminal and create the /xen directory and set the SELinux policy with the command restorecon -v /xen. Specify your location and the size of the virtual disk, then click Forward.

Figure 18.11. Assigning the Storage Space
Select memory to allocate the guest and the number of virtual CPUs then click Forward.

Figure 18.12. Allocating Memory and CPU
Select Forward to open a console and the files start to install.

Figure 18.13. Allocating Memory and CPU
Complete your installation in the window provided.

Figure 18.14. Installation Begins...

Warning

When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0.0 on a fully virtualized guest, do not use the kernel-xen kernel. Using this kernel on fully virtualized guests can cause your system to hang.

If you are using an Installation Number when installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0.0 on a fully virtualized guest, be sure to deselect the Virtualization package group during the installation. The Virtualization package group option installs the kernel-xen kernel.

Note that paravirtualized guests are not affected by this issue. Paravirtualized guests always use the kernel-xen kernel.
Type xm create -c xen-guest to start the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 guest. Right click on the guest in the Virtual Machine Manager and choose Open to open a virtual console.

Figure 18.15. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.0 (guest)
Enter user name and password to continue using the Virtual Machine Manager.