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{{Anchor|Virtualization}}
{{Anchor|Virtualization}}


== Virtualization ==
== Virtualization ==
In this section, we cover discussion of Fedora virtualization technologies on the @et-mgmnt-tools-list, @fedora-xen-list, @libvirt-list and @ovirt-devel-list lists.
In this section, we cover discussion of Fedora virtualization technologies on the
@fedora-virt list.


Contributing Writer: [[User:Dale | Dale Bewley]]
Contributing Writer: [[User:Dale | Dale Bewley]]
=== Enterprise Management Tools List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the
[http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/et-mgmt-tools et-mgmt-tools list]
==== More Device Support in virt-manager 'Add Hardware' Wizard ====
[[ColeRobinson|Cole Robinson]]
patched<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/msg00013.html</ref>
{{package|virt-manager}} to implement adding of virtual video devices in the
'Add Hardware' wizard.  Cole also implemented<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/msg00012.html</ref> attaching serial and parallel devices.
Both these features were added to
{{package|python-virtinst|virt-install}}<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/msg00010.html</ref>. Serial ports can be directed to sockets listening on remote hosts. For example: <code>--serial udp,host=192.168.10.20:4444</code>. That may come in handy for the F12 Hostinfo feature<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Hostinfo</ref>.
<references />
==== Xen, Windows, and ACPI ====
[[GuidoGünther|Guido Günther]]
noted<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/msg00000.html</ref>
that <code>virt-install</code> disables ACPI and APIC for Windows XP guests.
Adding, that it seems "that Windows XP is working fine with acpi/apic enabled which has
the immediate advantage that poweroff via ACPI works as expected.
So does it make sense to handle winxp the same win2k3?". Windows 2003 guests have ACPI enabled.
[[PasiKärkkäinen|Pasi Kärkkäinen]]
went to the xen-devel list and confirmed<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-July/msg00007.html</ref>
and relayed "Keir Fraser replied that ACPI with Windows has been working properly at least since Xen 3.1.0 days".
Pasi then updated the Xen wiki page<ref>http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenWindowsACPI</ref>.
<references />


=== Fedora Virtualization List ===
=== Fedora Virtualization List ===
Line 42: Line 14:
[http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-virt fedora-virt list].
[http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-virt fedora-virt list].


==== New Mailing List and New Releases of libguestfs ====
==== Virt Status Report ====
[[RichardJones|Richard Jones]]
[[JustinForbes|Justin Forbes]]
announced<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-July/msg00107.html</ref>
posted<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-December/msg00056.html</ref> a Fedora virtualization status report.  
the creation of a new list<ref>http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libguestfs</ref> dedicated to
Justin pointed out F13 bugs<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Virtualization_bugs</ref> now include Important and Pony classifications in addition to Blocker and Target.
"{{package|libguestfs}}/<code>guestfish</code>/<code>virt-inspector</code> discussion/development".
 
The current release is now 1.0.57<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2009-July/msg00011.html</ref>, but Richard is so fast that may change by the time you read this.
 
'''Recent new features:'''
* <code>virt-df</code> - like 'df' for virtual machines
* New Perl library called Sys::Guestfs::Lib
* Now available for EPEL
* Tab completion in guestfish now completes files and devices
* Big change to the code generator
* Lots more regression tests
* guestfish commands: time, glob, more, less
* new commands: readdir, mknod*, umask, du, df*, head*, tail*, wc*, mkdtemp, scrub, sh, sh-lines.
* Debian native<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-July/msg00088.html</ref> (debootstrap, debirf) support
 
See previous release announcement for 1.0.14 in FWN#179<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue179#New_Release_libguestfs_1.0.41</ref>
and be sure to see the project homepage<ref>http://libguestfs.org/</ref> for
extensive usage examples.
 
<references />
 
==== Fedora Virt Status Update ====
[[MarkMcLoughlin|Mark McLoughlin]]
posted<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-July/msg00083.html</ref>
another Fedora Virt Status Update reminding that [[releases/12|Fedora 12]] is
quickly approaching with the Feature Freeze on 2009-07-28.
 
Also mentioned were:
* Details of a fix for "a dramatic slowdown in virtio-blk performance in F-11 guests"<ref>https://bugzilla.redhat.com/509383</ref>
* Note on Xen Dom0 support.
* New wiki pages created.
* Detailed run-down of current virt bugs.
 
<references />
 
==== USB Passthrough to Virtual Machines ====
[[MarkMcLoughlin|Mark McLoughlin]]
posted instructions<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-June/msg00182.html</ref> for attaching a USB device to a guest using {{package|virt-manager}} in Fedora 11. This could previously (FWN#165<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue165#Hot_Add_USB_Device_to_Guest</ref>) be accomplished only on the command line.
 
Unfortunately, those wishing to manage their iPhone or newer iPods in a guest (yours truly included), KVM does not yet support the required USB 2.


<references />
<references />


=== Libvirt List ===
==== RHEL and Fedora Virtualization Feature Parity ====
This section contains the discussion happening on the
Robert Day wondered how the virtualization features<ref>http://www.redhat.com/virtualization/rhev/</ref> of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4
[http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/libvir-list libvir-list].
compared to Fedora 12.
 
==== New Release libvirt 0.6.5 ====
[[DanielVeillard|Daniel Veillard]]
announced<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00060.html</ref>
a new {{package|libvirt}} release, version 0.6.5.
"This is mostly a bug fix release, though it includes some serious
improvements for storage/NPIV<ref>http://www.libvirt.org/storage.html</ref> and on the OpenNebula driver<ref>http://www.libvirt.org/drvone.html</ref>."


'''New features:'''
[[DanielBerrange|Daniel Berrange]]
* create storage columes on disk backend (Henrik Persson)
explained<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-December/msg00040.html</ref>
* drop of capabilities based on libcap-ng when possible (Daniel Berrange)
"The KVM based virtualization in RHEL-5.4 is not nearly so far behind
 
Fedora as you might think. The {{package|libvirt}} mgmt stack in RHEL-5.4 was
'''Improvements:'''
rebased to be near parity with [[Releases/11|Fedora 11]], and KVM in RHEL-5.4 is
* create and destroy NPIV support (David Allan)
also pretty close to that using what's best described as a hybrid of
* networking in UML driver (Daniel Berrange)
kvm-83 and kvm-84."
* HAL driver restart thread safety (Daniel Berrange)
* capabilities and nodeinfo APIs for LXC (Daniel Berrange)
* iNUMA API for VBox (Daniel Berrange)
* dynamically search and use kvm-img qemu-img or qcow-create (Doug Goldstein)
* fix qemu and kvm version parsing (Mark McLoughlin)
* serial number for HAL storage (Dave Allan)
* improve error reporting for virConnectOpen URIs (Daniel Berrange)
* include OS driver name in device XML (Daniel Berrange)
* fix qemu command flags fetching (Cole Robinson)
* check that qemu support -drive format= (Cole Robinson)
* improve emulator detection (Cole Robinson)
* changes to config parser to accomodate VMX syntax (Matthias Bolte)
* update network schemas and driver for missing elements (Satoru SATOH)
* avoid changing file context if not needed (Tim Waugh)
* skip labelling if no src path (Cole Robinson)
* add arm emulation if qemu-system-arm is present (C.J. Adams-Collier)
 
<code>libvirt</code> 0.6.4 was
released<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue179#New_Release_libvirt_0.6.4</ref>
on May 29.
[[DanielVeillard|Daniel Veillard]]
is "shooting for a slightly smaller
development cycle, in order to be able to push the next version in time
for [[Releases/12|Fedora 12]] Beta, this means a new release at the end of July, so only
a bit more than a couple of weeks for pushing the changes, I really hope
we will be able to include a first version of the ESX driver and Power
Hyprvisor, if it's the case I think it will be worth bumping the release
name to 0.7.0."
 
Finally, development of libvirt recently moved go git<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00007.html</ref> as the source control management system.


<references />
<references />


==== libvirt Repositories Mirrored on Gitorious ====
[[DanielBerrange|Daniel Berrange]]
announced<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00252.html</ref>
"I have created a {{package|libvirt}} project<ref>http://gitorious.org/libvirt</ref> on gitorious which has a mirror of
the master branch of the libvirt.git repository. This mirror is *readonly*
and updated automatically every 15 minutes. The purpose of this mirror is
to allow people to easily publish their personal <code>libvirt</code> working repos
to the world. The master upstream repository for <code>libvirt</code> does not change<ref>http://libvirt.org/git</ref>".


====  ====
<references />
<references />


==== The Role of libvirtd ====
====  ====
[[HughBrock|Hugh Brock]]
described<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00179.html</ref>
a client's desire to make
"libvirtd be a one-stop shop for everything they need
to do on a virtualization host, including things we have traditionally
held out-of-scope for <code>libvirt</code>. A partial list of those things would
include:"
 
* In-depth multipath config management
* Hardware lifecycle management (power-off, reboot, etc.)
* HA configuration
 
Hugh then asked "why *not* expand the scope of <code>libvirtd</code>
to be a one-stop shop for managing a node? Is there a really good
reason it shouldn't have the remaining capabilities <code>libvirt</code> users
want?"
 
[[DanielBerrange|Daniel Berrange]]
replied<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00182.html</ref>
"This is essentially suggesting that <code>libvirtd</code> become a general purpose
RPC layer for all remote management tasks. At which point you have
just re-invented QPid/AMQP or CIM or any number of other general
purpose message buses. <code>libvirtd</code> has a core well defined goal:"
* Provide a remote proxy for <code>libvirt</code> API calls
 
"If you want todo anything more than that you should be considering an
alternative remote management system. We already have 2 good ones to
choose from supported with <code>libvirt</code>"
* QPid/AMQP, with <code>libvirt-qpid</code><ref>http://libvirt.org/qpid/</ref>  agent + your own custom agents
* CIM, with libvirt-CIM<ref>http://libvirt.org/CIM/</ref> + your own custom CIM providers
 
"Furthermore, adding more plugins to <code>libvirtd</code> means we will never
be able to reduce its privileges to an acceptable level, because we'll
never know what capabilities the plugins may want."
 
Hugh countered <ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00183.html</ref>
"given a <code>libvirt-qpid</code> daemon on the node that handles RPC over
QMF (for example), is there not some value in having <code>libvirt</code> expose a
consistent API for the operations people want to do on a host regardless
of whether they have directly to do with managing a virtual machine or
not?"
 
[[DanielBerrange|Daniel Berrange]]
didn't "really see any value in that"
"You're just putting in another
abstraction layer where none need exist. Just have whatever QMF agent
you write talk directly to the thing you need to manage."
 
Hugh
"I will note that when I presented the large client with the option of
QMF talking to multiple agents on the node but exposing (effectively) a
single API and a single connection, they seemed much happier. So perhaps
the right way to attack this is with the
<code>ovirt-qpid</code><ref>http://ovirt.org/</ref> daemon we are
currently working on."
 
[[DanielVeillard|Daniel Veillard]]
was<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00186.html</ref>
"a bit synpathetic to the suggestion though."
"I think <code>libvirt</code> API
should help run those virtualization nodes, I would not open the gate
like completely, but if we could provide all APIs needed to manage the
node on a day by day basis  then I think this is not really beyond our
scope. I think that netcf(FWN#170<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue170#First_Release_netcf_0.0.1</ref>) is an example of such API where we start to
add admin services for the purpose of running virtualization. Things
like rebooting or shutting down the node would fit in this, maybe
editing a drive partition too."
 
"Basically if we take the idea of a stripped down Node used only for
virtualization, then except for operations which are first time setup
options or maintainance, I think we should try to cover the requirements
of normal operations of that node. To some extend that means we would
step on the toes of CIM, but we would stick to a subset that's sure."
 
<references />
 
==== virsh Dump for QEMU Guests ====
[[PaoloBonzini|Paolo Bonzini]]
submitted<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00255.html</ref>
a patch that "uses a stop/migrate/cont combination to implement
"virsh dump" for QEMU guests
{{bz|507551}}. The code is mostly based on qemudDomainSave
, except that the XML
prolog is not included as it is not needed to examine the dump
with e.g. crash."
 
<references />
 
==== F11 and KVM Migrations ====
[[ScottBaker|Scott Baker]]
tried<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00187.html</ref>
"to do a 'migration' from one host to another and I'm getting an error."
"Where can I look next to figure out why it didn't work?"
  virsh # migrate --live Narwhal qemu+ssh://10.1.1.1/system
error: operation failed: failed to start listening VM
 
[[DanielVeillard|Daniel Veillard]]
suggested checking {{filename|/var/log/libvirt/qemu/Narwhal.log}} on the target server. It came out that one server was running x86_64 while the other was i586.
[[ChrisLalancette|Chris Lalancette]]
said<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-July/msg00202.html</ref>
"that's just not going to work.  In theory it might work, but it's never
been tested, so I'm not surprised it doesn't.  In general migration is extremely
finicky when it comes to CPU versions, and versions of the software." And
suggested trying again after starting libvirtd by hand with debugging turned
up.
<code>LIBVIRT_DEBUG=1 /usr/sbin/libvirtd --verbose --listen</code>
 
<references />
 
=== Fedora-Xen List ===
This section contains the discussion happening on the
[http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-xen fedora-xen list].
 
==== Xen dom0 Forward Ported to Latest Kernel ====
Previously, Xen dom0 support in Fedora was provided by forward porting the Xensource patches from kernel 2.6.18 to the version found in the Fedora release at the time. This consumed developer resources and led to separate {{package|kernel}} and {{package|kernel-xen}} packages for a time. As of
[[Releases/9|Fedora 9]]<ref>http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f9/en_US/sn-Virtualization.html</ref> this practice was deamed<ref>https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2007-November/msg00106.html</ref> untenable, and support for hosting Xen guests was dropped from Fedora.
 
Work has since focused on creating a paravirt operations dom0<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/XenPvopsDom0</ref> kernel based on the most recent upstream vanilla kernel. This work is incomplete and not expected to be done before F12 or even F13. However, experimental dom0 kernels<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FWN/Issue170#Experimental_Dom0_Kernel_Update</ref> have been created for the adventurous.
 
[[PasiKärkkäinen|Pasi Kärkkäinen]]
tells<ref>http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-xen/2009-July/msg00000.html</ref> us
the Xen 2.6.18 patches have now been forward-ported to the current 2.6.29 and
2.6.30 kernel. "Forward-porting has been done by Novell for OpenSUSE. Novell also has a forward-port to 2.6.27 for SLES11."
 
The patches can be found
here<ref>http://www.nabble.com/2.6.30-dom0-Xen-patches-td24293721.html</ref>
here <ref>http://code.google.com/p/gentoo-xen-kernel/downloads/list</ref>
and here<ref>http://x17.eu/xen/</ref>.
 
Pasi added "These patches are still more stable and mature than the
pv_ops dom0 code.. Also, these patches have the full Xen feature set
(pv_ops still lacks some features)."
 
More history is avilable<ref>http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Virtualization/History</ref>.
 
<references />
<references />

Latest revision as of 18:09, 18 December 2009



Virtualization

In this section, we cover discussion of Fedora virtualization technologies on the @fedora-virt list.

Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley

Fedora Virtualization List

This section contains the discussion happening on the fedora-virt list.

Virt Status Report

Justin Forbes posted[1] a Fedora virtualization status report. Justin pointed out F13 bugs[2] now include Important and Pony classifications in addition to Blocker and Target.

RHEL and Fedora Virtualization Feature Parity

Robert Day wondered how the virtualization features[1] of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 compared to Fedora 12.

Daniel Berrange explained[2] "The KVM based virtualization in RHEL-5.4 is not nearly so far behind Fedora as you might think. The Package-x-generic-16.pnglibvirt mgmt stack in RHEL-5.4 was rebased to be near parity with Fedora 11, and KVM in RHEL-5.4 is also pretty close to that using what's best described as a hybrid of kvm-83 and kvm-84."