KVM Setup

black3dynamite

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

You can use putty to ssh into the server and then use virsh commands to manage VMs.

You can setup a Fedora VM and use a light desktop environment or just a windows manager only to help with using less resources and then install virt-manager. That's the same way I would do it when I need to manage a Hyper-V host from Fedora or any other distros.

FATeknollogee

@black3dynamite said in KVM Setup:

sudo dnf install openssh-askpass

Or use ssh keys instead

Ooops brain fart of the week...

I wasn't paying attention, I installed openssh-askpass on the host instead of my workstation....(that was pretty stupid)
All is good!!

coliver

@tim_g said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

SSH (I like Putty)

Pretty much or running a Fedora VM. The command line tools are incredibly robust and very easy to learn.

stacksofplates

@coliver said in KVM Setup:

@tim_g said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

SSH (I like Putty)

Pretty much or running a Fedora VM. The command line tools are incredibly robust and very easy to learn.

Ansible has a libvirt module as well (http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/virt_module.html). However it doesn't have clone because libvirt doesn't have a clone function. Virt-clone does a bunch of other work like snapshotting, copying, etc. And you can just run the commands with it like this simple setup here https://mangolassi.it/topic/15257/ansible-create-kvm-guests that builds a disk with virt-builder. By default the OS disks from virt-builder are really small (like 6GB), so you will need to add the logic in to create the second disk.

coliver

@stacksofplates said in KVM Setup:

@coliver said in KVM Setup:

@tim_g said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

SSH (I like Putty)

Pretty much or running a Fedora VM. The command line tools are incredibly robust and very easy to learn.

Ansible has a libvirt module as well (http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/virt_module.html). However it doesn't have clone because libvirt doesn't have a clone function. Virt-clone does a bunch of other work like snapshotting, copying, etc. And you can just run the commands with it like this simple setup here https://mangolassi.it/topic/15257/ansible-create-kvm-guests that builds a disk with virt-builder. By default the OS disks from virt-builder are really small (like 6GB), so you will need to add the logic in to create the second disk.

I really need to dig into Ansible. AWX as well could be really useful.

stacksofplates

@coliver said in KVM Setup:

@stacksofplates said in KVM Setup:

@coliver said in KVM Setup:

@tim_g said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

SSH (I like Putty)

Pretty much or running a Fedora VM. The command line tools are incredibly robust and very easy to learn.

Ansible has a libvirt module as well (http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/virt_module.html). However it doesn't have clone because libvirt doesn't have a clone function. Virt-clone does a bunch of other work like snapshotting, copying, etc. And you can just run the commands with it like this simple setup here https://mangolassi.it/topic/15257/ansible-create-kvm-guests that builds a disk with virt-builder. By default the OS disks from virt-builder are really small (like 6GB), so you will need to add the logic in to create the second disk.

I really need to dig into Ansible. AWX as well could be really useful.

I run AWX at home and Tower at work. It's really amazing how easy it makes everything.

Kelly

@tim_g said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

SSH (I like Putty)

@black3dynamite said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

You can use putty to ssh into the server and then use virsh commands to manage VMs.

You can setup a Fedora VM and use a light desktop environment or just a windows manager only to help with using less resources and then install virt-manager. That's the same way I would do it when I need to manage a Hyper-V host from Fedora or any other distros.

Any GUI options?

coliver

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

@tim_g said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

SSH (I like Putty)

@black3dynamite said in KVM Setup:

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

You can use putty to ssh into the server and then use virsh commands to manage VMs.

You can setup a Fedora VM and use a light desktop environment or just a windows manager only to help with using less resources and then install virt-manager. That's the same way I would do it when I need to manage a Hyper-V host from Fedora or any other distros.

Any GUI options?

Not on Windows no. There is Kimchi which does an ok job of managing VMs but it's clunky and not as powerful as Hyper-V Manager or vCenter.

BRRABill

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

Any GUI options?

As a heavy (in more ways than one) Windows user, I found installing Fedora in a VM was the eaiest way when I was playing with this.

Obsolesce

It's the same in reverse too. How do you manage (via GUI) Hyper-V from Linux? You do it through a Win10 VM.

How do you manage (via GUI) KVM from Windows? You do it through a Linux VM.

That's really the easiest way to do it, without adding software to your hypervisors to be able to do it all via HTML5.

DustinB3403

@tim_g said in KVM Setup:

It's the same in reverse too. How do you manage (via GUI) Hyper-V from Linux? You do it through a Win10 VM.

How do you manage (via GUI) KVM from Windows? You do it through a Linux VM.

That's really the easiest way to do it, without adding software to your hypervisors to be able to do it all via HTML5.

XenServer doesn't have to add software to the hypervisor.

But I think I'm going to setup a basic lab at the office for this. I want to test it out, really I do.

stacksofplates

@dustinb3403 said in KVM Setup:

XenServer doesn't have to add software to the hypervisor.

Neither does KVM. IMO KVM has always been so much easier to use than XenServer. No weird proprietary formats. No strange matching UUIDs of disks to UUIDs of VMs. It's just super easy overall.

bnrstnr

@stacksofplates What is your distro of choice for running your Ansible "control machine?"

stacksofplates

@bnrstnr said in KVM Setup:

@stacksofplates What is your distro of choice for running your Ansible "control machine?"

I use Fedora for AWX and Ansible core. For Tower, CentOS which is what they recommend.

Romo

@kelly said in KVM Setup:

All scorn and derision aside, if I wanted to manage a KVM host from Windows what are my options?

Any GUI options?

How about testing either of the following two options if you dont want to have a linux vm or manage everything with virsh. Can't test them properly myself since currenty working out of my office and dont have any KVM server available:

If you have Win 10

WSL (Windows Subsystem for LInux) + VcXsrv+ virt-manger

If you have Win 7 you can use Cygwin
2. Cygwin + virtmanager

Obsolesce

@romo now there's a workaround if I've ever seen one...