[clug] I need help with KVM vitualization

[eyal at eyal.emu.id.au]

On 2020-07-19 19:29, Michael Still via linux wrote:
> KVM is a totally cromulent tool to do this sort of thing, but you'd have a
> better experience if you were using libvirt or a libvirt wrapper
> (virt-manager, a hobby project from a burnt out cloud engineer, that sort
> of thing).

I am not even clear about how kvm, qemu and libvirt relate to each other.
Hence my search for a good doco.

> What you describe should just work.

"should"...

I did use virt-manager in this case. I pointed it at the vdi file and let it boot.
It then failed etc.

My plan now is this:
- start virt-manager, tell it the disk size I want, memory, CPUS... boot a clonezilla iso.
then:
- clone from the original machine to this empty disk.
or:
- create an ext4 partition. Mount it.
- rsync the content of the original machine into this partition
- probably fix fstab and install grub

> Michael
> 
> On Sun, 19 Jul 2020, 4:51 pm Eyal Lebedinsky via linux, <
> linux at lists.samba.org> wrote:
> 
>> The first thing I need is a pointer at a good doco that explains what
>> linux kvm is and how to import
>> a physical machine into the virtual domain.
>>
>> I dd'ed the root disk (/dev/sda) to a file on a local disk of the machine
>> that will be the VM host.
>> I searched for instructions and found most are missing what I consider
>> essential detail, like where
>> exactly I should run each step etc. Others have a more complicated setup
>> (lvm and what not).
>>
>> My main worry is that I tried it once, used the GUI tool (virt-manager)
>> and pointed it at a disk
>> image (from a VirtualBox I had lying around). It started booting (offered
>> the grub selection)
>> then showed a screen with three dots and gone quiet. After a few minutes I
>> got an error message
>> and a dracut prompt.
>>
>> Not knowing how to proceed I decided to just abandon this vm. I issued
>> 'halt' inside the small
>> console window and it did it.
>> It also shut down the host machine (and probably every other linux machine
>> in Australia - I
>> could not tell).
>>
>> I was surprised that a virtual tool can do this to the host, having used
>> Vmware and VirtualBox
>> where there is a clear fence around the VM world.
>>
>> So much fun, but I probably need to educate myself better about what KVM
>> really is.
>>
>> My need is simple:
>>     - I have an image (dd) of the disk from a physical machine. I want to
>> run it as a virtual
>>       machine on another host. How do I import the image?
>>     - Is kvm the correct tool for this? Should I go back to using
>> VirtualBox?
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> --
>> Eyal at Home (eyal at eyal.emu.id.au)
>>
>> --
>> linux mailing list
>> linux at lists.samba.org
>> https://lists.samba.org/mailman/listinfo/linux
>>


-- 
Eyal at Home (eyal at eyal.emu.id.au)