FWN/Beats/Virtualization

Virtualization

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

Contributing Writer: Dale Bewley

Enterprise Management Tools List

This section contains the discussion happening on the et-mgmt-tools list

Improved Device Configuration Support in virt-manager

Cole Robinson posted several device related enhancements to virt-manager including:

• Support[1] for listing, viewing details of, and removing VM hostdev[2] devices
• Add hardware wizard[3] for sound devices
• Support[4] for specifing the model[5] when adding a network device

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-January/msg00039.html

[2] http://www.libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsUSB

[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-January/msg00033.html

[4] http://www.redhat.com/archives/et-mgmt-tools/2009-January/msg00032.html

[5] http://www.libvirt.org/formatdomain.html#elementsNICSModel

Fedora Virtualization List

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

Fedora 11 Virtualization Features

Mark McLoughlin announced[1] the virtualization features in development for Fedora 11.

• VirtVNCAuth

Define a mapping of SASL authentication into the VNC protocol, and implement it for QEMU and GTK-VNC, providing strongly authenticated, securely encrypted remote access of virtual guest consoles.

• KVM PCI Device Assignment

Assign PCI devices from your KVM host machine to guest virtual machines. A common example is assigning a network card to a guest.

• KVM and QEMU Merge

Combine the kvm and qemu packages into a single package.

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-January/msg00024.html

Weekly Status Report

Mark McLoughlin "started sending out a 'Fedora Virtualization status report' to folks at Red Hat to keep people informed about what's going on." Mark also forwarded[1] the report to @fedora-virt. The report identified 186 open bugs, and included information for effectively monitoring the package commits on the @fedora-virt-main[2] list.

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-virt/2009-January/msg00037.html

[2] http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-virt-maint/

New Virtualization Wiki Pages

Mark McLoughlin has been busy revising[1] existing, creating new, and archiving[2] old Fedora Virtualization wiki pages. You can help[3].

[1] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:Virtualization

[2] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:Virtualization_archive

[3] http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Help:Editing#Gaining_Edit_Access

Fedora Xen List

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

Libvirt List

This section contains the discussion happening on the libvir-list.

QEMU VM Channel Support

Richard W.M. Jones proposed[1] adding support for qemu vmchannels to libvirt. A vmchannel is a "communication channel between [a VM] host and various agents that are running inside a VM guest."[2] Richard did note that "One problem is that it is qemu/kvm-only."

As far as Daniel P. Berrange knew[3] "this support is not yet merged in upstream QEMU and the syntax is still being debated." This made Daniel "wary of committing to support it in libvirt" at this time.

The fact that it is a feature only for QEMU did not concern Daniel, saying "I've no problem adding vmchannel support to libvirt even if its only [implemented] for QEMU/KVM. If applications/users of it find that they really badly need it for xen too, then someone will step up to [implement] it."

[1] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-January/msg00446.html

[2] http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kvm/2008/12/14/4413984

[3] http://www.redhat.com/archives/libvir-list/2009-January/msg00448.html

oVirt Devel List

This section contains the discussion happening on the ovirt-devel list.