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Chapter 2. Requirements

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2.1. Red Hat Virtualization Manager Requirements

2.1.1. Hardware Requirements

The minimum and recommended hardware requirements outlined here are based on a typical small to medium-sized installation. The exact requirements vary between deployments based on sizing and load.

Hardware certification for Red Hat Virtualization is covered by the hardware certification for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/725243. To confirm whether specific hardware items are certified for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see https://access.redhat.com/ecosystem/#certifiedHardware.

Table 2.1. Red Hat Virtualization Manager Hardware Requirements
ResourceMinimumRecommended

CPU

A dual core CPU.

A quad core CPU or multiple dual core CPUs.

Memory

4 GB of available system RAM if Data Warehouse is not installed and if memory is not being consumed by existing processes.

16 GB of system RAM.

Hard Disk

25 GB of locally accessible, writable disk space.

50 GB of locally accessible, writable disk space.

You can use the RHV Manager History Database Size Calculator to calculate the appropriate disk space for the Manager history database size.

Network Interface

1 Network Interface Card (NIC) with bandwidth of at least 1 Gbps.

1 Network Interface Card (NIC) with bandwidth of at least 1 Gbps.

2.1.2. Browser Requirements

The following browser versions and operating systems can be used to access the Administration Portal and the VM Portal.

Browser support is divided into tiers:

  • Tier 1: Browser and operating system combinations that are fully tested and fully supported. Red Hat Engineering is committed to fixing issues with browsers on this tier.
  • Tier 2: Browser and operating system combinations that are partially tested, and are likely to work. Limited support is provided for this tier. Red Hat Engineering will attempt to fix issues with browsers on this tier.
  • Tier 3: Browser and operating system combinations that are not tested, but may work. Minimal support is provided for this tier. Red Hat Engineering will attempt to fix only minor issues with browsers on this tier.
Table 2.2. Browser Requirements
Support TierOperating System FamilyBrowser

Tier 1

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Mozilla Firefox Extended Support Release (ESR) version

Tier 2

Windows

Internet Explorer 11 or later

 

Any

Most recent version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox

Tier 3

Any

Earlier versions of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox

 

Any

Other browsers

2.1.3. Client Requirements

Virtual machine consoles can only be accessed using supported Remote Viewer (virt-viewer) clients on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows. To install virt-viewer, see Installing Supporting Components on Client Machines in the Virtual Machine Management Guide. Installing virt-viewer requires Administrator privileges.

Virtual machine consoles are accessed through the SPICE protocol. The QXL graphical driver can be installed in the guest operating system for improved/enhanced SPICE functionalities. SPICE currently supports a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 pixels.

Supported QXL drivers are available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Windows XP, and Windows 7.

SPICE support is divided into tiers:

  • Tier 1: Operating systems on which Remote Viewer has been fully tested and is supported.
  • Tier 2: Operating systems on which Remote Viewer is partially tested and is likely to work. Limited support is provided for this tier. Red Hat Engineering will attempt to fix issues with remote-viewer on this tier.
Table 2.3. Client Operating System SPICE Support
Support TierOperating System

Tier 1

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 and later

 

Microsoft Windows 7

Tier 2

Microsoft Windows 8

 

Microsoft Windows 10

2.1.4. Operating System Requirements

The Red Hat Virtualization Manager must be installed on a base installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 that has been updated to the latest minor release.

Do not install any additional packages after the base installation, as they may cause dependency issues when attempting to install the packages required by the Manager.

Do not enable additional repositories other than those required for the Manager installation.

2.2. Host Requirements

Hardware certification for Red Hat Virtualization is covered by the hardware certification for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For more information, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/725243. To confirm whether specific hardware items are certified for use with Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see https://access.redhat.com/ecosystem/#certifiedHardware.

For more information on the requirements and limitations that apply to guests see https://access.redhat.com/articles/rhel-limits and https://access.redhat.com/articles/906543.

2.2.1. CPU Requirements

All CPUs must have support for the Intel® 64 or AMD64 CPU extensions, and the AMD-V™ or Intel VT® hardware virtualization extensions enabled. Support for the No eXecute flag (NX) is also required.

The following CPU models are supported:

  • AMD

    • Opteron G1 (deprecated)
    • Opteron G2 (deprecated)
    • Opteron G3 (deprecated)
    • Opteron G4
    • Opteron G5
  • Intel

    • Conroe (deprecated)
    • Penryn (deprecated)
    • Nehalem
    • Westmere
    • Sandybridge
    • Haswell
    • Haswell-noTSX
    • Broadwell
    • Broadwell-noTSX
    • Skylake (client)
    • Skylake (server)
  • IBM POWER8

2.2.1.1. Checking if a Processor Supports the Required Flags

You must enable virtualization in the BIOS. Power off and reboot the host after this change to ensure that the change is applied.

  1. At the Red Hat Enterprise Linux or Red Hat Virtualization Host boot screen, press any key and select the Boot or Boot with serial console entry from the list.
  2. Press Tab to edit the kernel parameters for the selected option.
  3. Ensure there is a space after the last kernel parameter listed, and append the parameter rescue.
  4. Press Enter to boot into rescue mode.
  5. At the prompt, determine that your processor has the required extensions and that they are enabled by running this command:

    # grep -E 'svm|vmx' /proc/cpuinfo | grep nx

If any output is shown, the processor is hardware virtualization capable. If no output is shown, your processor may still support hardware virtualization; in some circumstances manufacturers disable the virtualization extensions in the BIOS. If you believe this to be the case, consult the system’s BIOS and the motherboard manual provided by the manufacturer.

2.2.2. Memory Requirements

The minimum required RAM is 2 GB. The maximum supported RAM is 2 TB.

However, the amount of RAM required varies depending on guest operating system requirements, guest application requirements, and guest memory activity and usage. KVM can also overcommit physical RAM for virtualized guests, allowing you to provision guests with RAM requirements greater than what is physically present, on the assumption that the guests are not all working concurrently at peak load. KVM does this by only allocating RAM for guests as required and shifting underutilized guests into swap.

2.2.3. Storage Requirements

Hosts require local storage to store configuration, logs, kernel dumps, and for use as swap space. The minimum storage requirements of Red Hat Virtualization Host are documented in this section. The storage requirements for Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts vary based on the amount of disk space used by their existing configuration but are expected to be greater than those of Red Hat Virtualization Host.

The minimum storage requirements for host installation are listed below. However, Red Hat recommends using the default allocations, which use more storage space.

  • / (root) - 6 GB
  • /home - 1 GB
  • /tmp - 1 GB
  • /boot - 1 GB
  • /var - 15 GB
  • /var/log - 8 GB
  • /var/log/audit - 2 GB
  • swap - 1 GB (for the recommended swap size, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/15244)
  • Anaconda reserves 20% of the thin pool size within the volume group for future metadata expansion. This is to prevent an out-of-the-box configuration from running out of space under normal usage conditions. Overprovisioning of thin pools during installation is also not supported.
  • Minimum Total - 45 GB

If you are also installing the RHV-M Appliance for self-hosted engine installation, /var/tmp must be at least 5 GB.

2.2.4. PCI Device Requirements

Hosts must have at least one network interface with a minimum bandwidth of 1 Gbps. Red Hat recommends that each host have two network interfaces, with one dedicated to supporting network-intensive activities, such as virtual machine migration. The performance of such operations is limited by the bandwidth available.

For information about how to use PCI Express and conventional PCI devices with Intel Q35-based virtual machines, see Using PCI Express and Conventional PCI Devices with the Q35 Virtual Machine.

2.2.5. Device Assignment Requirements

If you plan to implement device assignment and PCI passthrough so that a virtual machine can use a specific PCIe device from a host, ensure the following requirements are met:

  • CPU must support IOMMU (for example, VT-d or AMD-Vi). IBM POWER8 supports IOMMU by default.
  • Firmware must support IOMMU.
  • CPU root ports used must support ACS or ACS-equivalent capability.
  • PCIe devices must support ACS or ACS-equivalent capability.
  • Red Hat recommends that all PCIe switches and bridges between the PCIe device and the root port support ACS. For example, if a switch does not support ACS, all devices behind that switch share the same IOMMU group, and can only be assigned to the same virtual machine.
  • For GPU support, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 supports PCI device assignment of PCIe-based NVIDIA K-Series Quadro (model 2000 series or higher), GRID, and Tesla as non-VGA graphics devices. Currently up to two GPUs may be attached to a virtual machine in addition to one of the standard, emulated VGA interfaces. The emulated VGA is used for pre-boot and installation and the NVIDIA GPU takes over when the NVIDIA graphics drivers are loaded. Note that the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 is not supported, nor is the Quadro K420 card.

Check vendor specification and datasheets to confirm that your hardware meets these requirements. The lspci -v command can be used to print information for PCI devices already installed on a system.

2.2.6. vGPU Requirements

If you plan to configure a host to allow virtual machines on that host to install a vGPU, the following requirements must be met:

  • vGPU-compatible GPU
  • GPU-enabled host kernel
  • Installed GPU with correct drivers
  • Predefined mdev_type set to correspond with one of the mdev types supported by the device
  • vGPU-capable drivers installed on each host in the cluster
  • vGPU-supported virtual machine operating system with vGPU drivers installed

2.3. Networking Requirements

2.3.1. DNS Requirements

The Manager and all hosts must have a fully qualified domain name and full, perfectly aligned forward and reverse name resolution. Red Hat strongly recommends using DNS; using the /etc/hosts file for name resolution typically requires more work and has a greater chance for errors.

Due to the extensive use of DNS in a Red Hat Virtualization environment, running the environment’s DNS service as a virtual machine hosted in the environment is not supported. All DNS services that the Red Hat Virtualization environment uses for name resolution must be hosted outside of the environment.

2.3.2. Red Hat Virtualization Manager Firewall Requirements

The Red Hat Virtualization Manager requires that a number of ports be opened to allow network traffic through the system’s firewall.

The engine-setup script can configure the firewall automatically, but this overwrites any pre-existing firewall configuration if you are using iptables. If you want to keep the existing firewall configuration, you must manually insert the firewall rules required by the Manager. The engine-setup command saves a list of the iptables rules required in the /etc/ovirt-engine/iptables.example file. If you are using firewalld, engine-setup does not overwrite the existing configuration.

The firewall configuration documented here assumes a default configuration.

Table 2.4. Red Hat Virtualization Manager Firewall Requirements
Port(s)ProtocolSourceDestinationPurpose

-

ICMP

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Optional.

May help in diagnosis.

22

TCP

System(s) used for maintenance of the Manager including backend configuration, and software upgrades.

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Secure Shell (SSH) access.

Optional.

2222

TCP

Clients accessing virtual machine serial consoles.

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Secure Shell (SSH) access to enable connection to virtual machine serial consoles.

80, 443

TCP

Administration Portal clients

VM Portal clients

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

REST API clients

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Provides HTTP and HTTPS access to the Manager.

6100

TCP

Administration Portal clients

VM Portal clients

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Provides websocket proxy access for a web-based console client, noVNC, when the websocket proxy is running on the Manager. If the websocket proxy is running on a different host, however, this port is not used.

7410

UDP

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Must be open for the Manager to receive Kdump notifications, if Kdump is enabled.

54323

TCP

Administration Portal clients

Red Hat Virtualization Manager (ImageIO Proxy server)

Required for communication with the ImageIO Proxy (ovirt-imageio-proxy).

2.3.3. Host Firewall Requirements

Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts and Red Hat Virtualization Hosts (RHVH) require a number of ports to be opened to allow network traffic through the system’s firewall. The firewall rules are automatically configured by default when adding a new host to the Manager, overwriting any pre-existing firewall configuration.

To disable automatic firewall configuration when adding a new host, clear the Automatically configure host firewall check box under Advanced Parameters.

To customize the host firewall rules, see https://access.redhat.com/solutions/2772331.

Table 2.5. Virtualization Host Firewall Requirements
Port(s)ProtocolSourceDestinationPurpose

22

TCP

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Secure Shell (SSH) access.

Optional.

2223

TCP

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Secure Shell (SSH) access to enable connection to virtual machine serial consoles.

161

UDP

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Simple network management protocol (SNMP). Only required if you want Simple Network Management Protocol traps sent from the host to one or more external SNMP managers.

Optional.

111

TCP

NFS storage server

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

NFS connections.

Optional.

5900 - 6923

TCP

Administration Portal clients

VM Portal clients

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Remote guest console access via VNC and SPICE. These ports must be open to facilitate client access to virtual machines.

5989

TCP, UDP

Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM)

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Used by Common Information Model Object Managers (CIMOM) to monitor virtual machines running on the host. Only required if you want to use a CIMOM to monitor the virtual machines in your virtualization environment.

Optional.

9090

TCP

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Client machines

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Required to access the Cockpit user interface, if installed.

16514

TCP

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Virtual machine migration using libvirt.

49152 - 49216

TCP

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Virtual machine migration and fencing using VDSM. These ports must be open to facilitate both automated and manual migration of virtual machines.

54321

TCP

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

VDSM communications with the Manager and other virtualization hosts.

54322

TCP

Red Hat Virtualization Manager (ImageIO Proxy server)

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Required for communication with the ImageIO daemon (ovirt-imageio-daemon).

6081

UDP

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Red Hat Virtualization Host(s)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux host(s)

Required, when Open Virtual Network (OVN) is used as a network provider, to allow OVN to create tunnels between hosts.

2.3.4. Database Server Firewall Requirements

Red Hat Virtualization supports the use of a remote database server for the Manager database (engine) and the Data Warehouse database (ovirt-engine-history). If you plan to use a remote database server, it must allow connections from the Manager and the Data Warehouse service (which can be separate from the Manager).

Similarly, if you plan to access a local or remote Data Warehouse database from an external system, such as Red Hat CloudForms, the database must allow connections from that system. Accessing the Manager database from external systems is not supported.

Table 2.6. Database Server Firewall Requirements
Port(s)ProtocolSourceDestinationPurpose

5432

TCP, UDP

Red Hat Virtualization Manager

Data Warehouse service

External systems

Manager (engine) database server

Data Warehouse (ovirt-engine-history) database server

Default port for PostgreSQL database connections.

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