## kvm-install-vm A bash wrapper around virt-install to build virtual machines on a local KVM hypervisor. You can run it as a normal user which will use `qemu:///session` to connect locally to your KVM domains. Tested on the latest Fedora. ### Prerequisites You need to have the KVM hypervisor installed, along with a few other packages (naming of packages can differ on other distributions): - genisoimage or mkisofs - virt-install - libguestfs-tools-c - qemu-img - libvirt-client - libosinfo To install the dependencies, run: - Fedora example: ``` sudo dnf -y install genisoimage virt-install libguestfs-tools-c qemu-img libvirt-client wget libosinfo ``` - Ubuntu example: ``` sudo apt install -y genisoimage virtinst libguestfs-tools qemu-utils libvirt-clients wget libosinfo-bin ``` If you want to resolve guests by their hostnames, install the `libvirt-nss` package: - Fedora example: ``` sudo dnf -y install libvirt-nss ``` - Ubuntu example: ``` sudo apt install -y libnss-libvirt ``` Then, add `libvirt` and `libvirt_guest` to list of **hosts** databases in `/etc/nsswitch.conf`. See [here](https://libvirt.org/nss.html) for more information. ### Usage ``` $ kvm-install-vm help NAME kvm-install-vm - Install virtual guests using cloud-init on a local KVM hypervisor. SYNOPSIS kvm-install-vm COMMAND [OPTIONS] DESCRIPTION A bash wrapper around virt-install to build virtual machines on a local KVM hypervisor. You can run it as a normal user which will use qemu:///session to connect locally to your KVM domains. COMMANDS help - show this help or help for a subcommand create - create a new guest domain list - list all domains, running and stopped remove - delete a guest domain ``` #### Creating Guest VMs ``` $ kvm-install-vm help create NAME kvm-install-vm create [COMMANDS] [OPTIONS] VMNAME DESCRIPTION Create a new guest domain. COMMANDS help - show this help OPTIONS -a Autostart (default: false) -b Bridge (default: virbr0) -c Number of vCPUs (default: 1) -d Disk Size (GB) (default: 10) -D DNS Domain (default: example.local) -f CPU Model / Feature (default: host) -g Graphics type (default: spice) -h Display help -i Custom QCOW2 Image -k SSH Public Key (default: $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) -l Location of Images (default: $HOME/virt/images) -L Location of VMs (default: $HOME/virt/vms) -m Memory Size (MB) (default: 1024) -M Mac address (default: auto-assigned) -p Console port (default: auto) -s Custom shell script -t Linux Distribution (default: centos8) -T Timezone (default: US/Eastern) -u Custom user (default: $USER) -y Assume yes to prompts (default: false) -n Assume no to prompts (default: false) -v Be verbose DISTRIBUTIONS NAME DESCRIPTION LOGIN amazon2 Amazon Linux 2 ec2-user centos8 CentOS 8 centos centos7 CentOS 7 centos centos7-atomic CentOS 7 Atomic Host centos centos6 CentOS 6 centos debian9 Debian 9 (Stretch) debian debian10 Debian 10 (Buster) debian fedora29 Fedora 29 fedora fedora29-atomic Fedora 29 Atomic Host fedora fedora30 Fedora 30 fedora fedora31 Fedora 31 fedora fedora32 Fedora 32 fedora opensuse15 OpenSUSE Leap 15.2 opensuse ubuntu1604 Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) ubuntu ubuntu1804 Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) ubuntu ubuntu2004 Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) ubuntu EXAMPLES kvm-install-vm create foo Create VM with the default parameters: CentOS 8, 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, 10GB disk capacity. kvm-install-vm create -c 2 -m 2048 -d 20 foo Create VM with custom parameters: 2 vCPUs, 2GB RAM, and 20GB disk capacity. kvm-install-vm create -t debian9 foo Create a Debian 9 VM with the default parameters. kvm-install-vm create -T UTC foo Create a default VM with UTC timezone. ``` #### Deleting a Guest Domain ``` $ kvm-install-vm help remove NAME kvm-install-vm remove [COMMANDS] VMNAME DESCRIPTION Destroys (stops) and undefines a guest domain. This also remove the associated storage pool. COMMANDS help - show this help EXAMPLE kvm-install-vm remove foo Remove (destroy and undefine) a guest domain. WARNING: This will delete the guest domain and any changes made inside it! ``` #### Attaching a new disk ``` $ kvm-install-vm help attach-disk NAME kvm-install-vm attach-disk [OPTIONS] [COMMANDS] VMNAME DESCRIPTION Attaches a new disk to a guest domain. COMMANDS help - show this help OPTIONS -d SIZE Disk size (GB) -f FORMAT Disk image format (default: qcow2) -s IMAGE Source of disk device -t TARGET Disk device target EXAMPLE kvm-install-vm attach-disk -d 10 -s example-5g.qcow2 -t vdb foo Attach a 10GB disk device named example-5g.qcow2 to the foo guest domain. ``` ### Setting Custom Defaults Copy the `.kivrc` file to your $HOME directory to set custom defaults. This is convenient if you find yourself repeatedly setting the same options on the command line, like the distribution or the number of vCPUs. Options are evaluated in the following order: - Default options set in the script - Custom options set in `.kivrc` - Option flags set on the command line ### Notes 1. This script will download a qcow2 cloud image from the respective distribution's download site. See script for URLs. 2. If using libvirt-nss, keep in mind that DHCP leases take some time to expire, so if you create a VM, delete it, and recreate another VM with the same name in a short period of time, there will be two DHCP leases for the same host and its hostname will likely not resolve until the old lease expires. 3. The Operating System information database (osinfo-db) provides Operating System specific information needed to create guests for the various systems supported by `kvm-install-vm`. The database files provided by your package manager may be out of date and not provide definitions for recent Operating System versions. If you encounter the following error message, you may need to update the database files: `ERR: Unknown OS variant ''. Please update your osinfo-db.` If you have already updated your system, and the osinfo-db is still to old, then you can use the `osinfo-db-import` tool with the `--local` option, to install an up-to-date database in your home directory which will not conflict with your package manager files. The `osinfo-db-import` tool is provided by the rpm/deb packages `osinfo-db-tools`. See https://libosinfo.org/download for more information. ### Testing Tests are written using [Bats](https://github.com/sstephenson/bats). To execute the tests, run `./test.sh` in the root directory of the project. ### Use Cases If you don't need to use Docker or Vagrant, don't want to make changes to a production machine, or just want to spin up one or more VMs locally to test things like: - high availability - clustering - package installs - preparing for exams - checking for system defaults - anything else you would do with a VM ...then this wrapper could be useful for you. ### Troubleshooting If you will encounter something similar: ``` ERR: Unknown OS variant 'fedora31'. Please update your osinfo-db. See https://libosinfo.org/download for more information. ``` Then you need to update the DB in libosinfo. Check the url and select the latest date ( https://releases.pagure.org/libosinfo/ ) ``` wget -O "/tmp/osinfo-db.tar.xz" https://releases.pagure.org/libosinfo/osinfo-db-20200515.tar.xz sudo osinfo-db-import --local "/tmp/osinfo-db.tar.xz" ```