Virt-install

External

• RHEL7 Virtualization Administration - Creating Guests with virt-install

Internal

• Linux Virtualization Operations

Overview

virt-install is a command-line utility for provisioning new virtual machines. It comes as part of the "virt-install" RPM package.

virt-install needs root privileges to work.

Documentation

virt-install --help

Mandatory Options

Guest Virtual Machine Name

The name of the guest virtual machine must be specified with --name or -n:

--name test-01

Memory Amount

virt-install needs the amount of memory allocated to the guest, in MiB, which must be specified with --memory:

--memory 1024

Guest Storage Specification

One of the following must be specified:

--disk

Specifies guest storage, relative to the storage provided by the virtualization host. The most common option is to refer storage from a storage pool, but other options are also available.

--disk size=10

Specified a new 10 GiB image on the default storage pool.

--disk /storage-pool-path/volume-path,size=8,sparse=false,cache=none

--disk device=cdrom,bus=scsi

--disk=?

Installation Method Option

--os-type

The quest operating system type.

Example:

--os-type=linux

--os-variant

This is an important option, used to optimize guest configuration. Valid "--os-variant" values can be obtained with osinfo-query os command

Example:

--os-variant=rhel7.3

Distribution Tree Installation Source

The distribution tree installation source is specified with --location. virt-install can fetch a bootable kernel/initrd pair to launch the install.

Options:

--location http://host/path 
--location ftp://host/path
--location nfs:host:/path
--location nfs://host/path

--location /directory

Path to a local directory containing an installable distribution image. Note that the

              directory will not be accessible by the guest after initial boot, so the OS installer will
              need another way to access the rest of the install media.

--cdrom

--cdrom CDROM specifies a CD-ROM installation media.

Optional Installation Method Option

--boot

--boot BOOT_OPTS is used to configure guest boot settings:

--boot hd,cdrom,menu=on

--boot init=/sbin/init

--pxe

Boot from the network using the PXE protocol.

--import

Build guest around an existing disk image.

--extra-args=

--extra-args EXTRA_ARGS Additional arguments to pass to the install kernel booted from --location.

Optional Configuration

Graphics

Specifies the type of graphical tool to use for interactive installation or can be set to "none" for a fully automated installation.

--graphics none|spice|...

Network Specification

The network specification is optional, if not defined, a ? will be configured on the guest. Otherwise, it can be specified with '--network NETWORK-SPEC', as follows:

TODO

--network bridge=mybr0

If using a bridge, the bridge must be previously created, as described here Bridged Networking Configuration.

--network network=my_libvirt_virtual_net

--network network=mynet,model=virtio,mac=00:11..

--network none

--vcpus

Specifies the number of virtual CPUs for the guest.

Virtualization Platform Options

-v, --hvm

This guest should be a fully virtualized guest.

-p, --paravirt

This guest should be a paravirtualized guest.

--container

This guest should be a container guest.

--virt-type

Represents the hypervisor name to use ("kvm", "qemu", "xen", etc.)

Access to a Host Directory

"--filesystem" can be used to specify a host directory to be available on the guest.

Example:

--filesystem /my/host/source/dir,/dir/in/guest

Examples

Text-Based Anaconda Guest Installation

virt-install --name testvm-01 --memory 1024 --os-type=linux --os-variant=rhel7.3 --location /mnt/RHEL7DVD --graphics none \
--disk=/main-storage-pool/testvm-01.img,size=4 \
--extra-args="console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8"

TO TEST:

NAT:

virt-install --network=default --name=rhel7-machine --ram=756 --vcpus=4 --os-type=linux --os-variant=rhel7

External DHCP server:

virt-install --network=br0 \ --name=rhel7-machine --ram=756 --vcpus=4 \ --os-type=linux --os-variant=rhel7

Static IPV4 Address:

virt-install \ --network=br0 \
--name=rhel7-machine --ram=756 --vcpus=4 \ --os-type=linux --os-variant=rhel7 \ --extra-args="ip=192.168.1.2::192.168.1.1:255.255.255.0:test.example.com:eth0:n one

The arguments of the --extra-args parameter specify the static network setting, using the following structure:

ip=[ip]::[gateway]:[netmask]:[hostname]:[interface]:[autoconf]