11.2. Creating a virtual machine from a KVM guest image

Procedure

1. Move the .qcow2 image that you created by using RHEL image builder to the /var/lib/libvirt/images/ directory.

2. Create a directory, for example, cloudinitiso, and navigate to this newly created directory:

   $ mkdir cloudinitiso
   $ cd cloudinitiso

3. Create a file named meta-data. Add the following information to this file:

   instance-id: citest
   local-hostname: vmname

4. Create a file named user-data. Add the following information to the file:

   # cloud-config
   user: admin
   password: password
   chpasswd: {expire: False}
   ssh_pwauth: True
   ssh_authorized_keys:
     - ssh-rsa AAA...fhHQ== your.email@example.com

   ssh_authorized_keys is your SSH public key. You can find your SSH public key in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub\.

5. Use the genisoimage utility to create an ISO image that includes the user-data and meta-data files.

   # genisoimage -output cloud-init.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data
   
   I: -input-charset not specified, using utf-8 (detected in locale settings)
   Total translation table size: 0
   Total rockridge attributes bytes: 331
   Total directory bytes: 0
   Path table size(bytes): 10
   Max brk space used 0
   183 extents written (0 MB)

6. Create a new VM from the KVM Guest Image by using the virt-install command. Include the ISO image you created in step 4 as an attachment to the VM image.

   # virt-install \
       --memory 4096 \
       --vcpus 4 \
       --name myvm \
       --disk rhel-10-x86_64-kvm.qcow2,device=disk,bus=virtio,format=qcow2 \
       --disk cloud-init.iso,device=cdrom \
       --os-variant rhel 10 \
       --virt-type kvm \
       --graphics none \
       --import

   • --graphics none means it is a headless RHEL 10 VM.
   • --vcpus 4 means that it uses 4 virtual CPUs.
   • --memory 4096 means it uses 4096 MB RAM.

7. The VM installation starts:

   Starting install...
   Connected to domain mytestcivm
   ...
   [  OK  ] Started Execute cloud user/final scripts.
   [  OK  ] Reached target Cloud-init target.
   
   Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 (Ootpa)
   Kernel 4.18.0-221.el8.x86_64 on an x86_64

1. Enter admin as a username and press Enter.

2. Enter password as password and press Enter.

   After the login authentication is complete, you have access to the VM by using the CLI.