[libvirt-users] Virtualizing a an old SuSE system
I'm in the midst of an attempt to convert an old and rather large SuSE server (5 disks) into a virsh loadable VM. Has anyone else dealt with the issues of systems of this sort? I'm at the moment trying to hand construct a machine xml file for it. I managed to create one which would load but not start. I'd appreciate some pointers and can supply whatever info you'd like about what I am trying to do and what the dd'd image of the system disk and other disks are like. Not that they do have LVM's, although the boot should be off a base partition that is not in the LVM.
On 02/25/2012 07:42 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
I'm in the midst of an attempt to convert an old and rather large SuSE server (5 disks) into a virsh loadable VM. Has anyone else dealt with the issues of systems of this sort? I'm at the moment trying to hand construct a machine xml file for it. I managed to create one which would load but not start.
Personally, rather than trying to hand-create XML, I've found it handy to use virt-manager's ability to create a new machine XML description around existing disk images. That is, use virt-manager to create a new VM, but instead of telling it to install the new machine from scratch, you instead tell it to attach to the pre-existing storage of the eventual guest, and the OS that is installed in that storage, and it generates pretty good defaults for the XML that will then boot that guest. -- Eric Blake eblake@redhat.com +1-919-301-3266 Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:14:41AM -0700, Eric Blake wrote:
On 02/25/2012 07:42 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
I'm in the midst of an attempt to convert an old and rather large SuSE server (5 disks) into a virsh loadable VM. Has anyone else dealt with the issues of systems of this sort? I'm at the moment trying to hand construct a machine xml file for it. I managed to create one which would load but not start.
Personally, rather than trying to hand-create XML, I've found it handy to use virt-manager's ability to create a new machine XML description around existing disk images. That is, use virt-manager to create a new VM, but instead of telling it to install the new machine from scratch, you instead tell it to attach to the pre-existing storage of the eventual guest, and the OS that is installed in that storage, and it generates pretty good defaults for the XML that will then boot that guest.
Hmmm... this is a very remote (from me) virtual host server. I can get a remote xterm but it throws a fit when I try to run virt-manager as root over ssh. ERROR:root:Unable to initialize GTK: could not open display Suggestions?
On 02/27/2012 05:15 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:14:41AM -0700, Eric Blake wrote:
On 02/25/2012 07:42 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
I'm in the midst of an attempt to convert an old and rather large SuSE server (5 disks) into a virsh loadable VM. Has anyone else dealt with the issues of systems of this sort? I'm at the moment trying to hand construct a machine xml file for it. I managed to create one which would load but not start.
Personally, rather than trying to hand-create XML, I've found it handy to use virt-manager's ability to create a new machine XML description around existing disk images. That is, use virt-manager to create a new VM, but instead of telling it to install the new machine from scratch, you instead tell it to attach to the pre-existing storage of the eventual guest, and the OS that is installed in that storage, and it generates pretty good defaults for the XML that will then boot that guest.
Hmmm... this is a very remote (from me) virtual host server. I can get a remote xterm but it throws a fit when I try to run virt-manager as root over ssh.
ERROR:root:Unable to initialize GTK: could not open display
Suggestions?
Run virt-manager locally, and tell the local virt-manager to connect to the remote qemu+ssh://root@remote/system, rather than trying to run a remote X virt-manager. (Same goes for things like 'virsh -c qemu+ssh://remote/system' rather than ssh to remote before doing 'virsh -c qemu:///system') -- Eric Blake eblake@redhat.com +1-919-301-3266 Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 05:41:49PM -0700, Eric Blake wrote:
On 02/27/2012 05:15 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:14:41AM -0700, Eric Blake wrote:
On 02/25/2012 07:42 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
I'm in the midst of an attempt to convert an old and rather large SuSE server (5 disks) into a virsh loadable VM. Has anyone else dealt with the issues of systems of this sort? I'm at the moment trying to hand construct a machine xml file for it. I managed to create one which would load but not start.
Personally, rather than trying to hand-create XML, I've found it handy to use virt-manager's ability to create a new machine XML description around existing disk images. That is, use virt-manager to create a new VM, but instead of telling it to install the new machine from scratch, you instead tell it to attach to the pre-existing storage of the eventual guest, and the OS that is installed in that storage, and it generates pretty good defaults for the XML that will then boot that guest.
Hmmm... this is a very remote (from me) virtual host server. I can get a remote xterm but it throws a fit when I try to run virt-manager as root over ssh.
ERROR:root:Unable to initialize GTK: could not open display
Suggestions?
Run virt-manager locally, and tell the local virt-manager to connect to the remote qemu+ssh://root@remote/system, rather than trying to run a remote X virt-manager. (Same goes for things like 'virsh -c qemu+ssh://remote/system' rather than ssh to remote before doing 'virsh -c qemu:///system')
virt-manager --connect qemu+ssh://root@myhost.domain.net fails to connect. Unable to open a connection to the libvirt management daemon I know that I have used similar commands on other machines a year ago... I checked my notes. I'm on my laptop doing this and attempting to connect to a production machine 4000 miles away, ie my options are limited and I cannot really fiddle with the server there without having a teleconference first and having everyone sign off that doing X will definitely not affect any customers... I'm sure you know the drill for production machines.
On 02/27/2012 08:56 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 05:41:49PM -0700, Eric Blake wrote:
On 02/27/2012 05:15 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:14:41AM -0700, Eric Blake wrote:
On 02/25/2012 07:42 PM, Dale Amon wrote:
I'm in the midst of an attempt to convert an old and rather large SuSE server (5 disks) into a virsh loadable VM. Has anyone else dealt with the issues of systems of this sort? I'm at the moment trying to hand construct a machine xml file for it. I managed to create one which would load but not start.
Personally, rather than trying to hand-create XML, I've found it handy to use virt-manager's ability to create a new machine XML description around existing disk images. That is, use virt-manager to create a new VM, but instead of telling it to install the new machine from scratch, you instead tell it to attach to the pre-existing storage of the eventual guest, and the OS that is installed in that storage, and it generates pretty good defaults for the XML that will then boot that guest.
Hmmm... this is a very remote (from me) virtual host server. I can get a remote xterm but it throws a fit when I try to run virt-manager as root over ssh.
ERROR:root:Unable to initialize GTK: could not open display
Suggestions?
Run virt-manager locally, and tell the local virt-manager to connect to the remote qemu+ssh://root@remote/system, rather than trying to run a remote X virt-manager. (Same goes for things like 'virsh -c qemu+ssh://remote/system' rather than ssh to remote before doing 'virsh -c qemu:///system')
virt-manager --connect qemu+ssh://root@myhost.domain.net
This needs to have /system at the end, as Eric mentioned. Probably easier to test the URI with 'virsh --connect' first. - Cole
On Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 12:29:04PM -0500, Cole Robinson wrote:
virt-manager --connect qemu+ssh://root@myhost.domain.net
This needs to have /system at the end, as Eric mentioned.
Probably easier to test the URI with 'virsh --connect' first.
virsh --connect qemu+ssh://root@<an ip address>/system does get me to the machine. virt-manager --connect qemu+ssh://root@<an ip address>/system gives a complaint about not connecting locally and then does supply the list of remote VM's.
participants (3)
-
Cole Robinson -
Dale Amon -
Eric Blake