How to install KVM on CentOS 7 / RHEL 7 Headless Server

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/how-to-install-kvm-on-centos-7-rhel-7-headless-server

How do I install and configure KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) on a CentOS 7 or RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 7 server? How can I setup KMV on a CentOS 7 and use cloud images/cloud-init for installing guest VM?

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is virtualization software for CentOS or RHEL 7. KVM turn your server into a hypervisor. This page shows how to setup and manage a virtualized environment with KVM in CentOS 7 or RHEL 7. It also described how to install and administer Virtual Machines (VMs) on a physical server using the CLI. Make sure that Virtualization Technology (VT) is enabled in your server’s BIOS. You can also run the following command to test if CPU Support Intel VT and AMD-V Virtualization tech:
$ lscpu | grep Virtualization
Virtualization: VT-x

Follow installation steps of KVM on CentOS 7/RHEL 7 headless sever

Step 1: Install kvm

Type the following yum command:
# yum install qemu-kvm libvirt libvirt-python libguestfs-tools virt-install

Start the libvirtd service:
# systemctl enable libvirtd
# systemctl start libvirtd

Step 2: Verify kvm installation

Make sure KVM module loaded using lsmod command and grep command:
# lsmod | grep -i kvm

Step 3: Configure bridged networking

By default dhcpd based network bridge configured by libvirtd. You can verify that with the following commands:
# brctl show
# virsh net-list

All VMs (guest machine) only have network access to other VMs on the same server. A private network 192.168.122.0/24 created for you. Verify it:
# virsh net-dumpxml default
If you want your VMs avilable to other servers on your LAN, setup a a network bridge on the server that connected to the your LAN. Update your nic config file such as ifcfg-enp3s0 or em1:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/enp3s0
Add line:

BRIDGE=br0

Save and close the file in vi. Edit /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0 and add:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0
Append the following:

DEVICE="br0"
# I am getting ip from DHCP server #
BOOTPROTO="dhcp"
IPV6INIT="yes"
IPV6_AUTOCONF="yes"
ONBOOT="yes"
TYPE="Bridge"
DELAY="0"

Restart the networking service (warning ssh command will disconnect, it is better to reboot the box):
# systemctl restart NetworkManager
Verify it with brctl command:
# brctl show

Step 4: Create your first virtual machine

I am going to create a CentOS 7.x VM. First, grab CentOS 7.x latest ISO image using the wget command:
# cd /var/lib/libvirt/boot/
# wget https://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/7.4.1708/isos/x86_64/CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1708.iso
Verify ISO images:
# wget https://mirrors.kernel.org/centos/7.4.1708/isos/x86_64/sha256sum.txt
# sha256sum -c sha256sum.txt

Create CentOS 7.x VM

In this example, I’m creating CentOS 7.x VM with 2GB RAM, 2 CPU core, 1 nics and 40GB disk space, enter:
# virt-install \
--virt-type=kvm \
--name centos7 \
--ram 2048 \
--vcpus=1 \
--os-variant=centos7.0 \
--cdrom=/var/lib/libvirt/boot/CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal-1708.iso \
--network=bridge=br0,model=virtio \
--graphics vnc \
--disk path=/var/lib/libvirt/images/centos7.qcow2,size=40,bus=virtio,format=qcow2
To configure vnc login from another terminal over ssh and type:
# virsh dumpxml centos7 | grep vnc

Please note down the port value (i.e. 5901). You need to use an SSH client to setup tunnel and a VNC client to access the remote vnc server. Type the following SSH port forwarding command from your client/desktop/macbook pro system:
$ ssh vivek@server1.cyberciti.biz -L 5901:127.0.0.1:5901
Once you have ssh tunnel established, you can point your VNC client at your own 127.0.0.1 (localhost) address and port 5901 as follows:

You should see CentOS Linux 7 guest installation screen as follows:

Now just follow on screen instructions and install CentOS 7. Once installed, go ahead and click the reboot button. The remote server closed the connection to our VNC client. You can reconnect via KVM client to configure the rest of the server including SSH based session or firewall.

Step 5: Using cloud images

The above installation method is okay for learning purpose or a single VM. Do you need to deploy lots of VMs? Try cloud images. You can modify pre built cloud images as per your needs. For example, add users, ssh keys, setup time zone, and more using Cloud-init which is the defacto multi-distribution package that handles early initialization of a cloud instance. Let us see how to create CentOS 7 vm with 1024MB ram, 20GB disk space, and 1 vCPU.

Grab CentOS 7 cloud image

# cd /var/lib/libvirt/boot
# wget http://cloud.centos.org/centos/7/images/CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2

Create required directories

# D=/var/lib/libvirt/images
# VM=centos7-vm1 ## vm name ##
# mkdir -vp $D/$VM
mkdir: created directory '/var/lib/libvirt/images/centos7-vm1'

Create meta-data file

# cd $D/$VM
# vi meta-data
Append the following:

instance-id: centos7-vm1
local-hostname: centos7-vm1

Crete user-data file

I am going to login into VM using ssh keys. So make sure you have ssh-keys in place:
# ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "VM Login ssh key"

See “How To Setup SSH Keys on a Linux / Unix System” for more info. Edit user-data as follows:
# cd $D/$VM
# vi user-data
Add as follows (replace hostname, users, ssh-authorized-keys as per your setup):

#cloud-config   # Hostname management preserve_hostname: False hostname: centos7-vm1 fqdn: centos7-vm1.nixcraft.com   # Users users: - default - name: vivek groups: ['wheel'] shell: /bin/bash sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL ssh-authorized-keys: - ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIIMP3MOF2ot8MOdNXCpHem0e2Wemg4nNmL2Tio4Ik1JY VM Login ssh key   # Configure where output will go output: all: ">> /var/log/cloud-init.log"   # configure interaction with ssh server ssh_genkeytypes: ['ed25519', 'rsa']   # Install my public ssh key to the first user-defined user configured # in cloud.cfg in the template (which is centos for CentOS cloud images) ssh_authorized_keys: - ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAIIMP3MOF2ot8MOdNXCpHem0e2Wemg4nNmL2Tio4Ik1JY VM Login ssh key   # set timezone for VM timezone: Asia/Kolkata   # Remove cloud-init runcmd: - systemctl stop network && systemctl start network - yum -y remove cloud-init

Copy cloud image

# cd $D/$VM
# cp /var/lib/libvirt/boot/CentOS-7-x86_64-GenericCloud.qcow2 $VM.qcow2

Create 20GB disk image

# cd $D/$VM
# export LIBGUESTFS_BACKEND=direct
# qemu-img create -f qcow2 -o preallocation=metadata $VM.new.image 20G
# virt-resize --quiet --expand /dev/sda1 $VM.qcow2 $VM.new.image

Overwrite it resized image:
# cd $D/$VM
# mv $VM.new.image $VM.qcow2

Creating a cloud-init ISO

# mkisofs -o $VM-cidata.iso -V cidata -J -r user-data meta-data

Creating a pool

# virsh pool-create-as --name $VM --type dir --target $D/$VM
Pool centos7-vm1 created

Installing a CentOS 7 VM

# cd $D/$VM
# virt-install --import --name $VM \
--memory 1024 --vcpus 1 --cpu host \
--disk $VM.qcow2,format=qcow2,bus=virtio \
--disk $VM-cidata.iso,device=cdrom \
--network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio \
--os-type=linux \
--os-variant=centos7.0 \
--graphics spice \
--noautoconsole
Delete unwanted files:
# cd $D/$VM
# virsh change-media $VM hda --eject --config
# rm meta-data user-data centos7-vm1-cidata.iso

Find out IP address of VM

# virsh net-dhcp-leases default

Log in to your VM

Use ssh command:
# ssh vivek@192.168.122.85

Useful commands

Let us see some useful commands for managing VMs.

List all VMs

# virsh list --all

Get VM info

# virsh dominfo vmName
# virsh dominfo centos7-vm1

Stop/shutdown a VM

# virsh shutdown centos7-vm1

Start VM

# virsh start centos7-vm1

Mark VM for autostart at boot time

# virsh autostart centos7-vm1

Reboot (soft & safe reboot) VM

# virsh reboot centos7-vm1
Reset (hard reset/not safe) VM
# virsh reset centos7-vm1

Delete VM

# virsh shutdown centos7-vm1
# virsh undefine centos7-vm1
# virsh pool-destroy centos7-vm1
# D=/var/lib/libvirt/images
# VM=centos7-vm1
# rm -ri $D/$VM
To see a complete list of virsh command type
# virsh help | less
# virsh help | grep reboot

See also

• How to install KVM on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Headless Server