[Fedora-xen] Creating and installing Centos under virt-manager

[Hugh Brock]

Andrew Cathrow wrote:
> A network install is the best option but you can always add and remove 
> devices using virsh
> 
> Have a look in the man page for virsh at attach-disk and detach-disk
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, 2007-09-21 at 22:36 -0400, Mark Nielsen wrote:
>> or create a DVD .iso file from the 6 CDs. I have instructions on my 
>> website, www.certifried.com <http://www.certifried.com>
>>
>> John Summerfield wrote:
>> > John Lagrue wrote:
>> >> All working a treat: created the guest (fully virtualised - I have no
>> >> time for Xen), setup disk space in a 6Gb file, gave it a name, and
>> >> pointed the installation source to be the first of 6 .iso files for
>> >> Centos 5 installation
>> >>
>> >> ......then it asks for the second CDRom!
>> >>
>> >> How the blazes is one supposed to tell it where to get the file?
>> >>
>> >> I'm completely stuck! I thought this was supposed to work with .iso
>> >> files and I wouldn't have to burn 6 CDs. But what happens now?
>> >>
>> > Last I read, the ability to change CD was "planned for the future."
>> >
>> > You're better off using the DVD image. If you can find a .jigdo file 
>> > and template (I think CentOS does it), then you don't have to download 
>> > much of CentOS 5 again.
>> >
>> > Or do a network install: nfs should work really well over a virtual LAN.

If you don't mind the bleeding edge, the latest release of libvirt 
supports connecting and disconnecting cdrom backing devices (or isos) 
from a fullvirt xen guest. The xen guest must have a cdrom device with 
no "source" line in its xml definition (unfortunately we don't support 
this with KVM yet although we plan to soon). If you call "virsh 
attach-device <domain> <device.xml>" where "device.xml" is an xml file 
with a complete device definition like so:

     <disk type='block' device='cdrom'>
       <source dev='/dev/cdrom'/>
       <target dev='hdc'/>
       <readonly/>
     </disk>

then libvirt will attach your host cdrom device to the guest's cdrom 
device. Then to disconnect the cdrom, call "virsh attach-device <domain> 
<device.xml>" where "device.xml" is an xml file like the above, but with 
no "source" element.

The upcoming release of virt-manager (should be out today if it isn't 
already) has UI that supports this capability. Again, to be clear, this 
only works for fully virtualized Xen guests at the moment; we're working 
on adding it to kvm but have no idea when that will be available.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Take care,
--Hugh

-- 
Red Hat Virtualization Group http://redhat.com/virtualization
Hugh Brock           | virt-manager http://virt-manager.org
hbrock at redhat.com    | virtualization library http://libvirt.org