QEMU-KVM info and tips

[SteveRiley]

1.Whats the big difference between quemu and KVM with virtualbox or vmware(Virtualbox and vmware are licenced payment tools and as I also understand they are software virtualization solutions, in the other hand kvm and quemu are hardware right?? like vmware EsXi I gues...But other than that I dont get what is the advantage.)

VMware Player and VirtualBox each implement proprietary forms of hosted (type 2) platform virtualization. A series of kernel modules create what's called a type 2 hypervisor, a software layer that mediates communications between the guest operating system and the host operating system. The host OS always retains control of the hardware. The guest OS runs inside the host OS. If the underlying hardware has virtualization support (Intel VT-x, AMD-V), the host OS allows the type 2 hypervisor to pass most guest OS calls to the hardware. If such support is lacking, the hypervisor emulates the hardware in software.

Native (type 1) hypervisors like VMware ESX/ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V load "beneath" the host operating system. Here, the hypervisor is in control of the hardware. The host OS, sometimes called the "parent," manages the hypervisor, but is not in control of the hardware. A guest OS runs directly on the hypervisor rather than within the host OS.

KVM is something of an anomaly. Its hypervisor is also a series of kernel modules, loaded and managed by the host OS. When these modules load, for all practical purposes they "own" the hardware, which would appear to be form of native (type 1) virtualization. However, the rest of the Linux kernel does not become subservient to the KVM modules, and the host OS can still control the hardware directly. Thus, KVM is more correctly classified as hosted (type 2) virtualization like VMware Player and VirtualBox.

The difference between KVM and these other type 2 virtualization products is that KVM is built into the kernel. KVM provides the same functionality as the proprietary ones, and it's always up-to-date whenever you get a new kernel. VirtualBox handles kernel updates well, having integrated its module handling into DKMS. VMware absolutely sucks balls. Every kernel update seems to uncover bugs in their crappy code and you have to hunt around for patches before manually compiling the modules.

KVM is not very popular in desktop-land because it has lacked decent configuration tools. VirtualBox is probably the winner here: its GUI is chock full of settings. VMware Player's GUI is really basic; to do more advanced stuff requires reading many pages of documentation to learn the command-line tools. VMware's saving grace is its Unity mode (nothing at all to do with Ubuntu's Unity). With VMware Unity, guest OS windows appear directly on the desktop and in the host taskbar -- very cool. Both tools have decent clipboard integration and guest-host file system integration.

QEMU started life as an emulator for many different kinds of processors. It still is, but mostly these days it's used as a mechanism to manage KVM. Virt-Manager (with libvirt) are specifically designed to manage KVM, but it's quite GNOMEish, so you won't get a very KDE-like experience with it. Recently, the Spice project has begun adding desktopish functionality to KVM-hosted virtual machines through a well-defined, open protocol and API. Eventually I'd like to move off VMware Player and over to KVM plus Spice. Although I will miss Unity, I hate Player's wankery. Despite this, I am not a VMware-hater. I think their new NSX initiative, for full network virtualization combined with standards-based software-defined networking (SDN), is a real winner. You better watch out, Cisco. Your lunch is about to be eaten.

[vinnywright]

I got a couple of questions if you guys dont mind sorting out:

1.Whats the big difference between quemu and KVM with virtualbox or vmware(Virtualbox and vmware are licenced payment tools and as I also understand they are software virtualization solutions, in the other hand kvm and quemu are hardware right?? like vmware EsXi I gues...But other than that I dont get what is the advantage.)

2.What format is quemu and kvm using for the virtualdisk .ovf? .vmdisk?

Thanks mates and thanks Vinny always so kind

#2 .img ,,,,,,,,,

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:/mnt/disk1$ ls -la
total 20691188
drwxrwx--x 11 root         vinny        4096 Jan 21 21:01 .
drwxr-xr-x  4 root         root         4096 Dec  7  2012 ..
drwxrwxr-x  5 vinny        vinny        4096 Jun  6  2012 Documents
drwxrwxr-x  3 vinny        vinny        4096 Aug  7  2012 Downloads
drwxrwxr-x  2 vinny        vinny        4096 Apr 19  2013 ffmpeg-test
drwxrwxr-x  2 vinny        vinny        4096 Jun  9  2013 KindleBooks-20-thousand-tht
drwx------  2 root         root        16384 Aug 15  2011 lost+found
drwxrwxr-x 22 vinny        vinny        4096 Jun  9  2013 Music
drwxrwxr-x  2 vinny        vinny        4096 Oct 25  2011 Pictures
drwxrwxr-x  2 vinny        vinny        4096 Jul  9  2013 temp
drwxrwxr-x 62 vinny        vinny       12288 Jan 21 20:35 Videos
[B]-rw-------  1 libvirt-qemu kvm   21187526656 Jan 25 22:54 win7.img[/B]
vinny@vinny-HP-G62:/mnt/disk1$

made with virt-manager

#1 ? IDK what the difference is ??

VINNY

[kiraitachi]

I got a couple of questions if you guys dont mind sorting out:

1.Whats the big difference between quemu and KVM with virtualbox or vmware(Virtualbox and vmware are licenced payment tools and as I also understand they are software virtualization solutions, in the other hand kvm and quemu are hardware right?? like vmware EsXi I gues...But other than that I dont get what is the advantage.)

2.What format is quemu and kvm using for the virtualdisk .ovf? .vmdisk?

Thanks mates and thanks Vinny always so kind

[vinnywright]

If you're looking to play, I'd suggest:

* Firefox OS
* Sailfish OS
* Android x86

Google can help you find these.

Aaaa yes I was wanting to look at Firefox OS at one time ,,,,good suggestions

VINNY

[SteveRiley]

Right now I have three VMs.

* Windows 7 in VMware Player because I need Outlook and Office for work
* Arch in VirtualBox because I'm experimenting with Lighttpd, OwnCloud, and Exim -- I may use a similar setup to replace my Debian/Postfix/DavICal server
* Pristine unmodified Kubuntu in VirtualBox when I need to duplicate something to answer a question on KFN

If you're looking to play, I'd suggest:

* Firefox OS
* Sailfish OS
* Android x86

Google can help you find these.

[vinnywright]

Wow, this is excellent. I really didn't know QEMU-KVM was this useful now for running virtualized clients. I will give this a try. Maybe I can finally ditch both VMware Player and VirtualBox. It would be great to rely on the built-in KVM in Linux rather than a third-party tool.

what do you run in your VM's ,,,,,,,,give me an idea of something interesting to do ,,,,,,,,

O and I used the florescent butterfly wallpaper desktop for the screen shots becose I remember you commenting on it in a different thread one time

VINNY

[vinnywright]

Hey, now you can start collecting Windows viri to your hearts content (or discontent!).

LOL ...well sense I am all out of Petri dish's I will forgo the viri collecting ,,,,,,,,,,,and kill/format this windows infestation ,,, it was just a curiosity install anyway to see if it would run at all in a VM with slack specks & it did not do to bad ,,,,except wile it was running of it's 100+ post install updates and very nearly over heated the box .

now to find something interesting to install any suggestions??



VINNY

[SteveRiley]

Wow, this is excellent. I really didn't know QEMU-KVM was this useful now for running virtualized clients. I will give this a try. Maybe I can finally ditch both VMware Player and VirtualBox. It would be great to rely on the built-in KVM in Linux rather than a third-party tool.

[Snowhog]

Hey, now you can start collecting Windows viri to your hearts content (or discontent!).

[vinnywright]

OK ,,,,lets get to an install .

we have made the drive for our install so lets begin



in this shot we see the first step to making and installing to the VM , this was started by clicking the screen icon in the upper left of the virtual machine manager window right under the file menu item.
it's a win7 install from a cd , so we have named it win7(go figure) and have "local install media(ISO image or CDROM)" checked ....next



in this step we chose wether to use a CDROM/ DVD or a .iso image and tell the machine what type of OS and ver. we are going to use (or as close as you can get)
the drop down for "use CDROM or DVD" filled its self in when I inserted the DVD.



hear we set the amount of RAM to allocate and the number of CPU's ,,,,,my host system has 4Gig of RAM and a corei3 which is 2 hyper threaded cores so I chose relatively light amount of RAM and just 1 CPU thinking not to over tax my host to much ? if this is not the right train of thought pleas let me know



in this step we give the VM the drive we made in the begining of this screen shot fest .....

I chose to make the drive first becose when I let the window hear make it it creates the drive in /var/cache/libvirt/qemu/ ,,,,,,I think.
So we check "enable storage for this virtual machine" and tick "select managed or other existing storage" then click browse and navigate to the drive we made , highlight it, and click "chose volume"



this is a review screen to look over your settings and see if it looks good , I changed nothing hear all was set already ......click finish .



we jump strate to install .











in this last shot we have clicked the blue queshton mark icon in the VM window to bring up the information/settings screen to attach a usb stick .

if you click "add hardware" (bottom left of VM window) you get the "add new virtual hardware" window ,,,,,if the stick is already plugged in and the host sees it you can attach it to the guest,,,,,,,the newly installed windows could not open it however ,,,,,,,,the Kubuntu live cd had no problems opening it in a simaler trial.

sence I have this set up if any one has any requests for tests of something let me know ,,,,,,,or ideas of something cool to do with it ,,,,,LOL

VINNY

[Buddlespit]

You have my attention.... (and now I'm subscribed to this thread )

[vinnywright]

OK then ,,,,,,,,

tonight was install night with win7 as the install candidate virt-manager the GUI and qemu-kvm the virtualization ,,,,,,

I did not want the .img on the system partition due to lack of space and the easiest way I saw to do this was to make the storage/drive first ................



in this shot we are starting the prosess ,,, to get to this screen , in the virtual machine manager click edit>connection details then click the storage tab and then the green + under the left hand pane .
I then gave it a name "win7" and clicked forward



I have navigated to /mnt/disk1 ,,,,a storage partition I have mounted hear for system links in my ~/ ,,,,,,click open .........



click add volume and you get this screen give it a name and allocate it as mutch of the available space as you wish and click finish.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, we will do the installation tomorrow ,,,,,,,,,,,,,stay tuned

VINNY

[vinnywright]

K ,,,so I,v been wasting time (as the wife puts it ) this evening playing with this KVM thing .

I seam to prefer virt-manager to Aqemu at the moment ,,,,,maby because I have invested more time with it (1 hole afternoon 4+hr's ) but I did get usb to kinda work with virt-manager ,,,,,,,,you plug in your device (only usb flash drives tested) then attach it to the VM with virt-manager then the VM reacts as though you just plugged it in ,,,,,at least you can do it with the VM running and it seams to "keep" through restarts of the VM .

VINNY

[vinnywright]

well just pluged in a usb stick with the VM running and it did not see it ,,,,,, lets play with the settings of the machene and see if we can change this .

VINNY

[vinnywright]

I just started playing with it tonight , so take it easy on me ,,,,,,,,uham lets see we have this

vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ dpkg -l | grep kvm
ii  kvm-ipxe                                 1.0.0+git-3.55f6c88-0ubuntu5                       all          PXE ROM's for KVM
ii  qemu                                     1.2.0+noroms-0ubuntu2.12.10.5                      i386         dummy transitional package from qemu to qemu-kvm
ii  qemu-kvm                                 1.2.0+noroms-0ubuntu2.12.10.5                      i386         Full virtualization on supported hardware
ii  qemu-kvm-extras                          1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             all          QEMU system and user mode emulation (transitional package)
ii  qemu-kvm-extras-static                   1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             all          QEMU static user mode emulation binaries (transitional package)
vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$ dpkg -l | grep qemu
ii  aqemu                                    0.8.2-2                                            i386         Qt4 front-end for QEMU and KVM
ii  qemu                                     1.2.0+noroms-0ubuntu2.12.10.5                      i386         dummy transitional package from qemu to qemu-kvm
ii  qemu-common                              1.2.0+noroms-0ubuntu2.12.10.5                      all          qemu common functionality (bios, documentation, etc)
ii  qemu-keymaps                             1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             all          QEMU keyboard maps
ii  qemu-kvm                                 1.2.0+noroms-0ubuntu2.12.10.5                      i386         Full virtualization on supported hardware
ii  qemu-kvm-extras                          1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             all          QEMU system and user mode emulation (transitional package)
ii  qemu-kvm-extras-static                   1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             all          QEMU static user mode emulation binaries (transitional package)
ii  qemu-system                              1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             i386         QEMU full system emulation binaries
ii  qemu-user                                1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             i386         QEMU user mode emulation binaries
ii  qemu-user-static                         1.2.0-2012.09-0ubuntu1                             i386         QEMU user mode emulation binaries (static version)
ii  qemu-utils                               1.2.0+noroms-0ubuntu2.12.10.5                      i386         qemu utilities
vinny@vinny-HP-G62:~$

and basically just ran the new machine wizard in "aqemu" and pointed the cd drive at the kubuntu.iso I think I have usb support and obviously had net ........hold on will check the USB

VINNY