6 Installation of Virtualization Components #
There are multiple options for installing virtualization environments. You may install minimum KVM or Xen environments, install LXC, add the libvirt virtual machine management tools, and the graphical Virtual Machine Manager.
None of the virtualization tools are installed on your system by default. They will be automatically installed when configuring the hypervisor with the YaST module yast2-vm.
› . In case this module is not available in YaST, install the package6.1 Installing KVM and Xen #
These are the steps to install KVM and Xen with YaST:
Start YaST and navigate to
› › › . Click the appropriate checkbox to install , , or both. (Note than KVM will not run when you boot to the Xen kernel, so you cannot run both at the same time.)If you accept the default package selection you will install only a minimal virtualization environment. You may also install the libvirt virtual machine management stack (see the packages list in the right pane), and the graphical Virtual Machine Manager packages for a nice graphical interface. Install the YaST virtualization management module with the yast2-vm package.
To enable normal networking for the VM Guest, using a network bridge is recommended. YaST offers to automatically configure a bridge on the VM Host Server. Agree to do so by choosing
, otherwise choose .After the setup is finished, you can start setting up VM Guests. Rebooting the VM Host Server is not required.
You may change the default boot kernel with YaST and make the Xen-enabled kernel the default. For more information about changing the default kernel, see Section 14.3, “Configuring the Boot Loader with YaST”. Again, note that KVM does not run on the Xen kernel, so you cannot run both at the same time.
6.2 Installing Containers #
To install containers with YaST proceed as follows:
Install the yast2-vm package, then restart YaST. The navigate to the virtualization module at › .
Select
and confirm with .
6.3 Patterns #
It is possible using Zypper and patterns to install virtualization
packages. Run the command zypper in -t pattern
PATTERN. Available patterns are:
- KVM
kvm_server
: sets up the KVM VM Host Server with QEMU tools for managementkvm_tools
: installs thelibvirt
tools for managing and monitoring VM Guests
- Xen
xen_server
: sets up the Xen VM Host Server with Xen tools for managementxen_tools
: installs thelibvirt
tools for managing and monitoring VM Guests
- Containers
There is no pattern for containers; install the libvirt-daemon-lxc package.
6.4 Installing UEFI Support #
KVM guests support secure boot by using the OVMF firmware. Xen HVM guests support booting from the OVMF firmware as well, but they do not support secure boot.
UEFI support is provided by OVMF (Open Virtual Machine Firmware). To enable UEFI boot, first install the qemu-ovmf-x86_64 or qemu-uefi-aarch64 package depending on the architecture of the guest.
libvirt
is configured to use
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-4m-code.bin
and
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-4m-vars.bin
as
default UEFI firmware and VARS images. For Arm the defaults are
/usr/share/qemu/aavmf-aarch64-code.bin
and
/usr/share/qemu/aavmf-aarch64-vars.bin
.
The packages contain the following files:
#
rpm -ql qemu-ovmf-x86_64
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-code.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-vars.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-opensuse-code.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-opensuse-vars.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-opensuse.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-suse-code.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-suse-vars.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-suse.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-code.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-vars.bin /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64.bin
The *-code.bin
files are the UEFI firmwares.
The *-vars.bin
files are corresponding variable
store images that can be used as a template for a per-VM non-volatile
store. libvirt
copies the specified vars
template to a per-VM path under
/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/
when first
creating the VM. Files without code
or
vars
in the name can be used as a single UEFI
image. They are not as useful since no UEFI variables persist
across power cycles of the VM.
The *-ms*.bin
files contain Microsoft keys as
found on real hardware. Therefore, they are configured as the default in
libvirt
. Likewise, the *-suse*.bin
files
contain preinstalled SUSE and openSUSE keys. There is also a set
of files with no preinstalled keys.
For details, see Using UEFI and Secure Boot and http://www.linux-kvm.org/downloads/lersek/ovmf-whitepaper-c770f8c.txt.