Red Hat Virtualization Host (RHVH) is installed using a special build of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with only the packages required to host virtual machines. It uses an Anaconda installation interface based on the one used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts, and can be updated through the Red Hat Virtualization Manager or via yum. Using the yum command is the only way to install additional packages and have them persist after an upgrade.

RHVH features a Cockpit user interface for monitoring the host’s resources and performing administrative tasks. Direct access to RHVH via SSH or console is not supported, so the Cockpit user interface provides a graphical user interface for tasks that are performed before the host is added to the Red Hat Virtualization Manager, such as configuring networking and deploying a self-hosted engine, and can also be used to run terminal commands via the Terminal sub-tab.

Access the Cockpit user interface at https://HostFQDNorIP:9090 in your web browser. Cockpit for RHVH includes a custom Virtualization dashboard that displays the host’s health status, SSH Host Key, self-hosted engine status, virtual machines, and virtual machine statistics.

RHVH uses the Automatic Bug Reporting Tool (ABRT) to collect meaningful debug information about application crashes. For more information, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administrator’s Guide.

Note

Custom boot kernel arguments can be added to Red Hat Virtualization Host using the grubby tool. The grubby tool makes persistent changes to the grub.cfg file. Navigate to the Terminal sub-tab in the host’s Cockpit user interface to use grubby commands. See the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administrator’s Guide for more information.

Warning

Red Hat strongly recommends not creating untrusted users on RHVH, as this can lead to exploitation of local security vulnerabilities.