Installing and Working With CentOS 7 x64 and KVM

Section A: Installing KVM on Centos 7 x64 Minimal

Checking for Virtualization Support
Just to be clear, well need to check for virtualization support; that it is enabled in the BIOS and also
enabled on kernel. To check if the kernel has virtualization support, run this command:
egrep '(vmx|svm)' --color=always /proc/cpuinfo

If the device supports virtualization, you will see either vmx or svm highlighted. VMX is the Intel flag,
and SVM is the AMD flag.

Install Dependencies
Next, well want to get some dependencies going. Since Youve already updated your OS to the latest
patched version, we can install the software. Ill spare you all the drama in the pre, as dependencies put
mine at 147 total installed items, but just know that this is the command youll run to get KVM and
associated tools installed:
yum -y install kvm virt-manager libvirt virt-install qemu-kvm xauth dejavu-lgc-sansfonts virt-viewer

What are you installing? Here are some explanations.

KVM: A full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel
VT or AMD-V).
Virt-Manager: A desktop user interface for managing virtual machines through libvirt.
Libvirt: A toolkit to interact with the virtualization capabilities of recent versions of Linux.
Virt-Install: A command line tool for creating new KVM container guests using the "libvirt"hypervisor
management library.
Qemu-kvm: A Linux kernel module that allows a user space program to utilize the hardware virtualization
features of various processors.
Dejavu-lgc-sans-fonts: A font family based on the Vera Fonts.
virt-viewer: A minimal tool for displaying the graphical console of a virtual machine.

Create Networking
The KVM host acts as a router to route traffic in and out of its interfaces. It uses NAT to translate the
packets across the interfaces. Well have to set up our interfaces to act as usable devices for KVM. First
step is to allow the kernel to do forwarding:
echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1"|sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/99-ipforward.conf
sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-ipforward.conf

Next, well want to turn the external interface into a bridge. This allows traffic to be routed across the

interface. Start by looking at /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ and see whats listed:

ls /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
ifcfg-em1 ifdown-bnep ifdown-ipv6 ifdown-ppp ifdown-Team ifup ifup-eth ifup-isdn
ifup-post ifup-sit ifup-tunnel network-functions ifcfg-lo ifdown-eth ifdown-isdn
ifdown-routes ifdown-TeamPort ifup-aliases ifup-ippp ifup-plip ifup-ppp ifup-Team
ifup-wireless network-functions-ipv6 ifdown ifdown-ippp ifdown-post ifdown-sit
ifdown-tunnel ifup-bnep ifup-ipv6 ifup-plusb ifup-routes ifup-TeamPort init.ipv6global

This lets me know that Ive got an interface on/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em1, sounds good. Ive
only got one physical interface on the device I am working with.
Well edit this file and make some changes (if you dont know how to use VI, read this):
vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-em1

My initial file looks like this:

HWADDR="xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx"
TYPE="Ethernet"
BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
DEFROUTE="yes"
PEERDNS="yes"
PEERROUTES="yes"
IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL="no"
IPV6INIT="yes"
IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"
IPV6_DEFROUTE="yes"
IPV6_PEERDNS="yes"
IPV6_PEERROUTES="yes"
IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL="no"
NAME="em1"
UUID="297f77a2-b6ec-4b79-b5db-59590f902d81"
ONBOOT="yes"

Were going to remove/comment out the IP information. Were also going to add the BRIDGE variable,
pointing to a file were going to make next. Change your interface to look somewhat like this:
#BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
#DEFROUTE="yes"
#PEERDNS="yes"
#PEERROUTES="yes"
#IPV4_FAILURE_FATAL="no"
#IPV6INIT="yes"
#IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"
#IPV6_DEFROUTE="yes"
#IPV6_PEERDNS="yes"
#IPV6_PEERROUTES="yes"
#IPV6_FAILURE_FATAL="no"
DEVICE=em1
BOOTPROTO=static
ONBOOT=yes
BRIDGE=br0
TYPE=Ethernet

Now, lets edit the br0 device before the computer finds out what weve done! Welll edit the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0 and make it nice looking and simple like this:
DEVICE=br0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=static
ONBOOT=yes
IPADDR=xx.xx.xx.xx

NETMASK=xx.xx.xx.xx
GATEWAY=xx.xx.xx.xx
DNS1=xx.xx.xx.xx

Go ahead and save that file so that the system can read it.

Services Up
Next up, lets start the libvirtd service:
systemctl start libvirtd
systemctl enable libvirtd

Next, lets reboot the machine.

reboot

That will reboot the system. If you are logged in via a SSH session, youll get booted.

KVM Up
Now that we are back up, lets make sure that KVM is happy and added itself properly to our modules:
lsmod|grep kvm

You should get an output like this:

kvm_intel
kvm

138567
441119

0
1 kvm_intel

Next we can just double check that our bridge is up by running:

ip a show br0 | grep UP

This will let you know if the br0 interface is up. I dont know about you, but I am SSHd into this box, so I
KNOW its up.
Lastly, we can query qemu and see if we can hit KVM:
sudo virsh -c qemu:///system list
Id

Name

State

This looks good on my end! Lets get on with it!

Section B: Configuring and Using KVM

Our First Virtual Machine
Templates
Before we make a VM, lets query KVM to see what kind of templates that we have. You can query KVM
like this:
virt-install --os-variant=list
win7
:
vista :
winxp64
winxp :
win2k :
win2k8

Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft Windows Vista
: Microsoft Windows XP (x86_64)
Microsoft Windows XP
Microsoft Windows 2000
: Microsoft Windows Server 2008

win2k3
: Microsoft Windows Server 2003
openbsd4
: OpenBSD 4.x
freebsd8
: FreeBSD 8.x
freebsd7
: FreeBSD 7.x
freebsd6
: FreeBSD 6.x
solaris9
: Sun Solaris 9
solaris10 : Sun Solaris 10
opensolaris : Sun OpenSolaris
netware6
: Novell Netware 6
netware5
: Novell Netware 5
netware4
: Novell Netware 4
msdos : MS-DOS
generic : Generic
debianwheezy
: Debian Wheezy
debiansqueeze : Debian Squeeze
debianlenny : Debian Lenny
debianetch
: Debian Etch
fedora19
: Fedora 19
fedora18
: Fedora 18
fedora17
: Fedora 17
fedora16
: Fedora 16
fedora15
: Fedora 15
fedora14
: Fedora 14
fedora13
: Fedora 13
fedora12
: Fedora 12
fedora11
: Fedora 11
fedora10
: Fedora 10
fedora9 : Fedora 9
fedora8 : Fedora 8
fedora7 : Fedora 7
fedora6 : Fedora Core 6
fedora5 : Fedora Core 5
mageia1 : Mageia 1 and later
mes5.1
: Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1 and later
mes5
: Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.0
mandriva2010
: Mandriva Linux 2010 and later
mandriva2009
: Mandriva Linux 2009 and earlier
rhel7 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
rhel6 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
rhel5.4 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 or later
rhel5 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
rhel4 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4
rhel3 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3
rhel2.1 : Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1
sles11
: Suse Linux Enterprise Server 11
sles10
: Suse Linux Enterprise Server
opensuse12
: openSuse 12
opensuse11
: openSuse 11
ubuntusaucy : Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander)
ubunturaring
: Ubuntu 13.04 (Raring Ringtail)
ubuntuquantal : Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal)
ubuntuprecise : Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin)
ubuntuoneiric : Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)
ubuntunatty : Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)
ubuntumaverick
: Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat)
ubuntulucid : Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
ubuntukarmic
: Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
ubuntujaunty
: Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)
ubuntuintrepid
: Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex)
ubuntuhardy : Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)
virtio26
: Generic 2.6.25 or later kernel with virtio
generic26 : Generic 2.6.x kernel
generic24 : Generic 2.4.x kernel

Well, thats a good start!

 SELinux
One thing well need to work with is SELinux. We dont want to disable SElinux, because that is what the
feint of heart do; we embrace it.
First, install policycoreutils-python:
yum -y install policycoreutils-python

After that gets installed, we can run the semanage utility. If you intend on putting the virtual machines
anywhere other than /var/lib/libvirt, youll want to run the semanage utility on the directory where we want
the VM images stored. In my case, I have a directory at /opt/, so Ill run it on /opt/3TB/VirtualMachines.
First, create the directory:
mkdir -p /opt/3TB/VirtualMachines

Then, set SELinux:

semanage fcontext -a -t virt_image_t "/opt/VirtualMachines(/.*)?"
restorecon -R /opt/VirtualMachines

That will open up my /opt/VirtualMachines for SELinux.

Firewall-CMD (optional, not needed if tunneling the traffic)

The new IPTables. Youll want to open up the port for VNC connections to console on the virtual
machines. You can do that with this command:
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=5900/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Thats going to open port 5900 TCP up to VNC to console.

Create the Virtual Machine

Well use the virt-install command to create the virtual machine. Here are some of the options to use with
virt-install:
connect # Keyto connect to a server, well use the value{qemu:///system} for this command.
n # The name of the Virtual Machine guest.
r # The amount, in megabytes, of RAM you want to add to the system.
vcpus=x # The number of CPUs to assign to the Virtual Machine, replace x with the number of
CPUs.
disk # The location of the virtual machine disk file. Pass {path=/path/to/file.img,size=x} as the
argument for this key. Where x in the argument, pass an integer, it will be the size in gigabytes.
graphics # How to display the console of the virtual machine. Pass {vnc,listen=0.0.0.0} to allow a
VNC connection to pass through to any ip address.
noautoconsole # Do not automatically connect to the console of the virtual machine.
os-type # General flavor of the operating system. Can pass {windows} to use a Microsoft variant.
os-variant # The specific operating system, pass {win2k8} as the argument.
accelerate # To use the hardware-assisted acceleration.
network= # Pass the {bridge=br0} to specify the bridge we created earlier.
hvm # To use full virtualization on the virtual machine.
cdrom # Pass the {/path/to/file.iso} to link up a virtual CDROM onto the machine.

You can always pass the -h. You can also gather your favorite options from the virt-install website.
I took a gander at the website and came up with this for a Server 2008 R2 machine (note I pre-staged the
ISO file in /opt/ISO/:
virt-install --connect qemu:///system --graphics vnc,listen=0.0.0.0
--name=NPGENERALS01 --ram=4096 --vcpus=2 --cdrom=/opt/ISO/Server2008R2.iso --osvariant=win2k8 --disk /opt/VirtualMachines/NPGNERALS01.img,size=60
--network=bridge:br0 --autostart

This gave me some nice getting it done output:

Starting install...
Creating storage file NPGNERALS01.img
Creating domain...
Connected to domain NPGENERALS01
Escape character is ^]
Domain installation still in progress. Waiting for installation to complete.

At this point, you are going to need to connect to the server via VNC on port 5900. Im using OSX
Yosemite. I could not use the built-in VNC, nor could I use realVNC. Fortunately Chicken VNC worked
just fine. Heres a screenshot connecting into this Server 2008R2 machine:

From there, you can run your install routine.

Considerations and Management Commands

Notes about VNC/Firewall-CMD/SSH

From this point, you can get fancy with the virt-install man page and install a linux host or what have you.
There is something to be said about the firewall, VNC, and new machines. Each machine you create
increments a port up from 5900. The first VM will be 5900, the second will be 5901, and so on. Your
firewall will have to be either opened on those ports as I demonstrated earlier, or you need to tunnel the
traffic via SSH. You can always find the VNC port of the guest machine by this command:
virsh vncdisplay {servername}

Management Commands
The virsh command will get you through all the things that you needed to do. Namely you can
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.

Get a list of the guests with {virsh connect qemu:///system list}

Get more info on a guest with {virsh dominfo {servername}}
Shutdown a guest with {virsh connect qemu:///system shutdown {servername}}
Force reboot a guest with {virsh connect qemu:///system destroy {servername}}
Power on a guest with {virsh connect qemu:///system start {servername}}
Delete a guest
{virsh connect qemu:///system destroy {servername}}

2.
3.

{virsh connect qemu:///system undefine {servername}}

{rm -Rf /path/to/servername.iso}

Conclusion
This has been a simple rundown on installing KVM on CentOS 7 x64. I hope I have taken into
consideration everything I needed. Feel free to drop me an email if something is awry. Happy admining.