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Chapter 4. Preparing Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor installation media

This chapter covers creating installation media and preparing your systems before installing a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) Hypervisor.
This chapter covers installing RHEV Hypervisors on a local storage device. This storage device can be a removable USB storage device, or an internal hard disk drive or solid state drive. Once the RHEV Hypervisor is installed, the system will boot the RHEV Hypervisor and all configuration data is preserved on the system.

4.1. Preparation instructions
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The rhev-hypervisor package is needed for installation of RHEV Hypervisors. The rhev-hypervisor package contains the RHEV Hypervisor CD-ROM image. The following procedure installs the rhev-hypervisor package.
Entitlements to the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor 5 channel must be available to your RHN account to download the RHEV Hypervisor images.

Procedure 4.1. Downloading and Installing the Package

The rhev-hypervisor* package contains the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor ISO image. The ISO itself contains additional tools for USB and PXE installations.
  1. Download the latest rhev-hypervisor* package from Red Hat Network onto a Red Hat Enterprise Linux system to which you have root access. The list of Hypervisor packages is available at https://rhn.redhat.com/rhn/channels/PackageList.do?cid=9462.
  2. As root, navigate to the location of the downloaded package. Install it to the system in preparation for creation of the boot media. 
    # yum localinstall rhev-hypervisor*.rpm
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  3. Extract the livecd-iso-to-pxeboot and livecd-iso-to-disk commands from the ISO. To do this:
    1. Change to the directory the Hypervisor ISO is installed in, while logged in as root. 
      # cd /usr/share/rhev-hypervisor
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    2. Create a directory to which the ISO file will be mounted on a temporary basis. 
      # mkdir iso/
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    3. Mount the ISO file as a loopback device. Use the directory created in the previous step as the mount target. 
      # mount -o loop rhev-hypervisor.iso iso/
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    4. Copy the livecd-iso-to-pxeboot and livecd-iso-to-disk scripts to the current directory. 
      # cp iso/LiveOS/livecd-iso-to-* ./
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    5. Unmount the ISO file and remove the temporary directory. 
      # umount iso/
# rmdir iso/
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The RHEV Hypervisor ISO image is located in the /usr/share/rhev-hypervisor/ directory and named rhev-hypervisor.iso.
Before installing RHEV Hypervisors you should verify your BIOS is correctly configured for the installation method you intend to use. Many motherboard and PC manufacturers disable different booting methods in the BIOS. Most BIOS chips boot from the following devices in order:
  1. 3.5 inch diskette
  2. CD-ROM or DVD device
  3. Local hard disk
Many BIOS chips have disabled one or more of the following boot methods: USB storage devices, CD-ROMs, DVDs or network boot. To boot from your chosen method, enable the method or device and set that device as the first boot device in BIOS.
Not all motherboards support the boot methods described in this chapter. Consult your motherboard or system manufacturer's documentation on whether it is possible to use a particular boot method. That said, many modern systems support all of the boot methods listed in this chapter.

Warning

BIOS settings vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Therefore, any examples of settings may be inaccurate for some systems. Due to this inconsistency, you should review your motherboard or system manufacturer's documentation.

4.1.2. Confirm hardware virtualization support
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Verify that your system supports RHEV Hypervisors. RHEV Hypervisors require that the virtualization extensions are present and enabled in the BIOS before the Hypervisor is installed.
  1. Boot the RHEV Hypervisor from removable media. For example, a USB stick or CD-ROM.
  2. Once the Hypervisor boot prompt is displayed, enter the command: 
    : linux rescue
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  3. Once the Hypervisor boots, verify your CPU contains the virtualization extensions with the following command: 
    # grep -E 'svm|vmx' /proc/cpuinfo
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    Output displays if the processor has the hardware virtualization extensions.
  4. Verify that the KVM modules load by default: 
    # lsmod | grep kvm
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    If the output includes kvm_intel or kvm_amd then the kvm hardware virtualization modules are loaded and the system meets the requirements.
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