Setting up the ConVirt 1.0 environment involves:

• Installing ConVirt software on at least one computer.
• Preparing each Managed Server to be managed by ConVirt. If ConVirt is only used to manage virtual machines on the local computer, you can skip this step.
• Starting ConVirt and discovering the managed servers you have prepared.

To make the installation process as easy as possible, Convirture hosts a repository of ConVirt packages that include distribution-specific dependencies.

Contents 1 Download, Install & Set Up ConVirt 1.0 1.1 Before you begin 1.2 ConVirt Download and Installation 1.2.1 CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x 1.2.2 SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES 10.x) 1.2.3 Debian 5.0 1.2.4 Ubuntu 8.10 1.2.5 Other Linux distributions and Installation from the tarball 1.2.5.1 Download the ConVirt package 1.2.5.2 Download and install the required dependencies 1.2.5.3 Install and perform the post install steps for ConVirt 1.2.5.4 Start ConVirt 1.3 Preparing Managed Servers 1.4 Adding a Managed Server to ConVirt 1.5 Public Bridge setup for KVM

Before you begin

You should take the following steps to prepare for installing and using ConVirt:

• Identify the type of configuration scenario you want to support:
  • Basic configuration in which the Xen or KVM virtualization platform is on the local computer where ConVirt is installed.
  • Advanced configuration in which one ConVirt Workstation manages virtual machines running on one or more remote servers.
• Check whether the host computer where you plan to install ConVirt is a certified Linux platform. ConVirt can be installed and run on most Linux platforms, but is only tested and certified on a subset of the Linux platforms available. Check out the following.
  • Convirture Certified Configurations
  • Community Tested Configurations
• If you plan to managing virtual machines on the local ConVirt Workstation, you should also verify that computers includes a supported version of Xen hypervisor (Xen) or a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM).
• Verify the ConVirt Workstation has X server installed to enable it to display the ConVirt console.
• Verify the ConVirt Workstation can connect to its remote managed servers using SSH.
• Check that any remote computer where you plan to manage virtual machines includes a supported version of Xen hypervisor (Xen) or the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM).

ConVirt Download and Installation

To set up ConVirt, you need get the appropriate repository for your operating environment distribution, then use a native package manager like yum or apt-get to download,check for dependencies and install the package. For specific instructions for your distribution, see one of the following sections:

• CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x
• SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES 10.x)
• Debian 5.0
• Ubuntu 8.10
• Other Linux distributions (and tarball)

CentOS/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x

To install on CentOS or Red Hat Linux 5.x:

• Log on or switch to the root user.
• Change to the yum.repos.d directory.
• Get the ConVirt repository definition from Convirture.
• Run the install command.
• Start ConVirt.

For example:

  cd /etc/yum.repos.d
  wget --no-cache http://www.convirture.com/repos/definitions/rhel/5.x/convirt.repo
  yum install convirt
  convirt

SUSE Enterprise Linux Server (SLES 10.x)

To install on SUSE Enterprise Linux Server 10.x:

• Log on or switch to the root user.
• Get the ConVirt repository definition from Convirture.
• Run the install command.
• Start ConVirt.

For example:

  zypper sa http://www.convirture.com/repos/convirt/SLES/10.x convirt
  zypper sa http://www.convirture.com/repos/deps/SLES/10.x convirt-dep
  zypper install convirt
  convirt

Debian 5.0

To install on Debian Linux 5.0:

• Log on or switch to the root user.
• Change to the /tmp directory.
• Get the packaging key for the ConVirt repository from Convirture.
• Install the key.
• Change to the /etc/source.list.d directory.
• Get the repository for ConVirt from Convirture.
• Run the install commands.
• Start ConVirt.

For example :

  cd /tmp
  wget --no-cache http://www.convirture.com/repos/convirture_packaging_pub_key
  apt-key add convirture_packaging_pub_key
  cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d
  wget --no-cache http://www.convirture.com/repos/definitions/debian/5.x/debian_5x_convirt.list
  apt-get update
  apt-get install convirt
  convirt

Ubuntu 8.10

To install on Ubuntu 8.10:

• Log on or switch to the root user.
• Change to the /tmp directory.
• Get the packaging key for the ConVirt repository from Convirture.
• Install the key.
• Change to the /etc/source.list.d directory.
• Get the repository for ConVirt from Convirture.
• Run the install commands.
• Start ConVirt.

For example:

  cd /tmp
  wget --no-cache http://www.convirture.com/repos/convirture_packaging_pub_key
  apt-key add convirture_packaging_pub_key
  cd /etc/apt/sources.list.d
  wget --no-cache http://www.convirture.com/repos/definitions/ubuntu/8.x/ubuntu_8x_convirt.list
  apt-get update
  apt-get install convirt
  convirt

Other Linux distributions and Installation from the tarball

For other Linux distributions and versions, you can follow the steps given below.

• Download ConVirt package (.rpm, .deb or tarball)
• Download and install required dependencies
• Install and perform post install steps for ConVirt
• Start ConVirt

Download the ConVirt package

Download the ConVirt software package from the Convirture Web site. For example, go to:

 http://www.convirture.com/downloads/convirt

Download and install the required dependencies

Convirt depends on a bunch of other packages. This section outlines detail about installing them. You will need to be a logged in as root to install them.

• python-paramiko and socat

The python-paramiko along with socat are required to run ConVirt. The python-paramiko package itself depends on the python-crypto package so you would have to install that first.

To install them on Debian or Ubuntu, use the following command:

 apt-get python-paramiko socat

For other platforms try the native package manager (yum/yast etc.) first. If the package is not available, download the install them from one of the following locations.

Note : Pick the right package for your distributions and architecture (32 bit or 64 bit)

• python-crypto (Fedora, Cent OS, and Red Hat, SUSE/SLES) see: rpm.pbone.net, Virtualization Repository

• python-paramiko rpms (Fedora, Cent OS, and Red Hat, SUSE/SLES) see: rpm.pbone.net, Virtualization Repository Paramiko site

• socat rpms : rpm.pbone.net

• Check and install other required packages:

The table below outlines required packages for various distributions. In most cases, they should be available in the distribution or can be installed using the native package manager, such as yum, apt-get, zypper, or yast2.

Distributions with corresponding package dependencies

Distribution	Packages
SUSE/SLES	xen xen-tools xen-libs python xml python-gtk vte
Fedora/RHEL/CentOS	xen pygtk2 vte vnc
Ubuntu	ssh python-xen-3.3 libxen3 vncviewer
Debian	ssh xen-utils vncviewer

Note If you are only managing the KVM virtualization platform, you can ignore all *xen* dependencies.

Install and perform the post install steps for ConVirt

• Run the appropriate command to install the package.

For the .rpm file, run the following as root :

 rpm -Uvh convirt-1.0-1.fedora.noarch.rpm

For the .deb file, run as root :

 dpkg -i convirt-1.0_1_all.deb

For the compressed tarball file, run:

 tar -xzf convirt-1.0.tar.gz

• Check and patch paramiko,

For example, run the following command to check the version of paramiko installed:

 python -c 'import paramiko; print paramiko.__version__'

If the version returned is < 1.7.2, then you need to patch paramiko using following commands.

For the .rpm or .deb package, run as root:

 cd /usr/share/convirt/install/common/patches
 ./patch_paramiko

For tarball, run as root:

 cd <convirt_install_dir>/install/common/patches
 ./patch_paramiko

Start ConVirt

For .rpm and .deb you can start ConVirt with superuser privileges :

 sudo convirt

or login as a root user and run

 convirt

For tarball :

 cd <convirt_install_dir> 
 ./ConVirt

Preparing Managed Servers

Before you start managing a remote server using ConVirt, you need to ensure that it's properly configured. This can be done easily in a few quick steps.

• Install (if necessary) and configure Xen (3.0.4 or higher) or KVM (kvm-70 or higher) on the managed server. Note: chances are your linux distribution already includes either Xen or KVM. Almost all modern distributions do.

Here are some tips and pointers :

For Xen on CentOS/RHEL : Select the Virtualization option at the time of installation.

For Xen on SLES : Select Xen Virtual Machine Host Server option. Here is a good link. Novell Doc

For KVM on Debian lenny/Ubuntu 8.10: apt-get install ssh kvm socat uml-utilities lvm2 should do the trick.

Here are couple of links that might be also be useful. Virtualization KVM, KVM downloads.

• From your ConVirt workstation (the machine where you installed ConVirt), verify that you can log on to the managed server using ssh.

• For KVM, install socat using native package managers. Please refer to the following if it is not available via yum/apt-get/yast etc.

• socat rpms : rpm.pbone.net

• Download the convirture-tools tar ball from:

 http://www.convirture.com/downloads/convirture-tools/1.0/

• Extract the contents of the archive into a directory. For example:

 tar -xzf convirture-tools-1.0.tar.gz

• Change to the <install_dir>/convirture-tools/install/managed_server/scripts directory, then use the convirt-tool command to check or configure the managed server. You will need to login as root user.

For example:

  cd ./convirture-tools/install/managed_server/scripts

To view the usage message, run:

  ./convirt-tool -h

To validate the platform without making any changes, run:

  ./convirt-tool --detect_only setup

To configure the server, run:

  ./convirt-tool setup

For the Xen platform, running this command configures the Xend Server to listen on port 8006 and opens port 8002 for migration. The command also detects the default bridge and writes a summary of its operations to the /var/cache/convirt/server_info file.

For the KVM platform, the command detects the bridge and writes a summary of its operations to the /var/cache/convirt/server_info file. The convirt-tool currently does not do the bridge setup for KVM, please refer to bridge setup section towards the end of the page.

If you are using a firewall on Debian/Ubuntu you should verify that TCP port 8002 is open to allow migration (for both KVM and Xen), and TCP port 8006 is open in case of Xen to allow ConVirt to talk to the xend server.

Adding a Managed Server to ConVirt

Once the managed server is prepared,

• Start ConVirt
• Select the Server Pool to which you'd like to add the new managed server. For example : QA Pool
• Right mouse click to get to the context menu and select 'Add Server'.
• Select the virtualization platform.
• Provide the IP address or hostname of the managed server prepared in the previous section. Also provide ssh credentials and press ok.

The new managed server would show up under the Server Pool. Now you can use ConVirt to create and manage complete life cycle of Virtual Machines on this server. Refer to documentation for more details.

Public Bridge setup for KVM

Although setting up a bridge is optional, it is required if you want Virtual Machines to communicate with each other or to access services provided by VM from other machines.

The steps for setting up a public bridge are distribution-specific. You should consult the documentation for the distribution you are using. For example, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KVM/Networking for information about setting up the bridge on Ubuntu.

For more general instructions about setting up a bridge, see the steps described under "public bridge" section in http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Networking under with the following caveats.

• You may need to install tunctl, if it is not included in your distribution.
• You should set the name of the bridge as br0 instead of switch.
• You should remove the /sbin/sudo as the ConVirt-generated qemu command line is not compatible with the use of sudo.

Once the bridge setup is done, run the convirt-tool again. This will set the bridge name in the /var/cache/convirt/server_info file.

To use the bridge, from ConVirt UI, you will select a VM, choose "Edit Settings", and set network_mode to tap in the Miscellaneous tab. You will also have to shutdown and start the VM again for this setting to take effect.