Chapter 9. Provisioning Virtual Machines on KVM (libvirt)

Procedure

1. On Satellite Server, switch to the foreman user:

   # su foreman -s /bin/bash

2. Generate the key pair:

   $ ssh-keygen

3. Copy the public key to the KVM server:

   $ ssh-copy-id root@kvm.example.com

4. Exit the bash shell for the foreman user:

   $ exit

5. Install the libvirt-client package:

   # satellite-maintain packages install libvirt-client

6. Use the following command to test the connection to the KVM server:

   # su foreman -s /bin/bash -c 'virsh -c qemu+ssh://root@kvm.example.com/system list'

Procedure

1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Compute Resources and click Create Compute Resource.
2. In the Name field, enter a name for the new compute resource.
3. From the Provider list, select Libvirt.
4. In the Description field, enter a description for the compute resource.

5. In the URL field, enter the connection URL to the KVM server. For example:

    qemu+ssh://root@kvm.example.com/system

6. From the Display type list, select either VNC or Spice.

7. Optional: To secure console access for new hosts with a randomly generated password, select the Set a randomly generated password on the display connection check box. You can retrieve the password for the VNC console to access the guest virtual machine console from the output of the following command executed on the KVM server:

   # virsh edit your_VM_name
   <graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes' listen='0.0.0.0' passwd='your_randomly_generated_password'>

   The password is randomly generated every time the console for the virtual machine is opened, for example, with virt-manager.

8. Click Test Connection to ensure that Satellite Server connects to the KVM server without fault.
9. Verify that the Locations and Organizations tabs are automatically set to your current context. If you want, add additional contexts to these tabs.
10. Click Submit to save the KVM connection.

Procedure

1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Compute Resources and click the name of the KVM connection.
2. Click Create Image.
3. In the Name field, enter a name for the image.
4. From the Operating System list, select the image’s base operating system.
5. From the Architecture list, select the operating system architecture.
6. In the Username field, enter the SSH user name for image access. This is normally the root user.
7. In the Password field, enter the SSH password for image access.

8. In the Image path field, enter the full path that points to the image on the KVM server. For example:

    /var/lib/libvirt/images/TestImage.qcow2

9. Optional: Select the User Data check box if the image supports user data input, such as cloud-init data.
10. Click Submit to save the image details.

Procedure

1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Infrastructure > Compute Profiles.
2. In the Compute Profiles window, click the name of an existing compute profile, or click Create Compute Profile, enter a Name, and click Submit.
3. Click the name of the KVM compute resource.
4. In the CPUs field, enter the number of CPUs to allocate to the new host.
5. In the Memory field, enter the amount of memory to allocate to the new host.
6. From the Image list, select the image to use if performing image-based provisioning.
7. From the Network Interfaces list, select the network parameters for the host’s network interface. You can create multiple network interfaces. However, at least one interface must point to a Capsule-managed network.
8. In the Storage area, enter the storage parameters for the host. You can create multiple volumes for the host.
9. Click Submit to save the settings to the compute profile.

CLI procedure

1. To create a compute profile, enter the following command:

   # hammer compute-profile create --name "Libvirt CP"

2. To add the values for the compute profile, enter the following command:

   # hammer compute-profile values create --compute-profile "Libvirt CP" \
   --compute-resource "My_KVM_Server" \
   --interface "compute_type=network,compute_model=virtio,compute_network=examplenetwork" \
   --volume "pool_name=default,capacity=20G,format_type=qcow2" \
   --compute-attributes "cpus=1,memory=1073741824"

Procedure

1. In the Satellite web UI, navigate to Hosts > Create Host.
2. In the Name field, enter a name for the host.
3. Click the Organization and Location tabs to ensure that the provisioning context is automatically set to the current context.
4. From the Host Group list, select the host group that you want to use to populate the form.
5. From the Deploy on list, select the KVM connection.
6. From the Compute Profile list, select a profile to use to automatically populate virtual machine settings.
7. Click the Interface tab and click Edit on the host’s interface.

8. Verify that the fields are automatically populated, particularly the following items:

   • The Name from the Host tab becomes the DNS name.
   • Satellite Server automatically assigns an IP address for the new host.
   • The MAC address field is blank. The KVM server assigns a MAC address to the host.
   • The Managed, Primary, and Provision options are automatically selected for the first interface on the host. If not, select them.
   • The KVM-specific fields are populated with settings from your compute profile. Modify these settings if required.
9. Click the Operating System tab, and confirm that all fields automatically contain values.

10. Select the Provisioning Method that you want to use:

    • For network-based provisioning, click Network Based.
    • For image-based provisioning, click Image Based.
11. Click Resolve in Provisioning templates to check the new host can identify the right provisioning templates to use.
12. Click the Virtual Machine tab and confirm that these settings are populated with details from the host group and compute profile. Modify these settings to suit your needs.
13. Click the Parameters tab, and ensure that a parameter exists that provides an activation key. If not, add an activation key.
14. Click Submit to save the host entry.