KVM, virt-manager, etc.

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Mon, Jan 28, 2008 at 02:22:19PM +0100, Soren Hansen wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 28, 2008 at 12:19:50PM +0000, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> > * The only option available on "Choose a virtualization method" was
> > "fully virtualized" (presumably that is expected) and "Enable kernel /
> > hardware acceleration" was disabled.  The processor in my test system
> > (AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+) seems to be listed on
> > http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/HVM_Compatible_Processors though
> > perhaps it is the wrong stepping.  Is there a canonical way to
> > determine whether it supports the extensions?  
> 
> Yes. From kvm's package description:
> 
>    * Run this command in a shell: egrep '^flags.*(vmx|svm)'
>      /proc/cpuinfo
> 
>    If it prints anything, the processor provides hardware virtualization
>    support and is suitable for use with KVM.

OK, so this CPU seems to be missing the extensions.  My laptop seems to have
them, though, so I can test there.

> > * We should provide reasonable defaults for every aspect of creating a
> > new VM.  The experience we are aiming for is to enable a new Ubuntu
> > installation to have a virtual guest created immediately, with no
> > decisions necessary: this should be a single command, or
> > "next->next->next->finish" operation.
> 
> Just to clarify: You want to avoid having the user interact with the
> installer inside the vm altogether?

Correct.  I think we ought to provide a fully non-interactive bootstrap of a
new guest.  If that's not fully feasible in this first iteration, we should
work toward it.

> > - Should point to an installable Ubuntu image of some sort by default.
> > I have ISOs lying around, but most servers won't.  What can we do
> > here?
> 
> Good question. Offer to download it or let the admin point to a local
> copy on the file system?

I think two good options are:

 * Copy the packages from the CD at install time, so they're cached for use
   in creating VMs

 * Install via Internet from a mirror

The former being a better user experience, and the latter being simpler to
implement.

-- 
 - mdz