Domain Creation

A domain is where the KVM Guest is running. Creating a new domain is just one simple command. virt-install. It takes a lot of parameters though, so it is adviseable to read the virt-install manpage.

Creating

Use the following script to create your domains.

createdomain.sh

   1 #!/bin/sh
   2 
   3 NAME="stretch-template"
   4 RAM="1024"
   5 LVM_SIZE="4G"
   6 LVM_GROUP="vg2"
   7 GRAPHICS_PROTOCOL="spice" #spice, vnc
   8 OS="debian9"
   9 MEDIA="/mnt/media/debian/stretch/debian-9.1.0-amd64-netinst.iso"
  10 
  11 if [ $# -gt 0 ]
  12 then
  13         NAME=${1}
  14 fi
  15 LVM_NAME="kvm_${NAME}_vda"
  16 
  17 if [ ! -e /dev/${LVM_GROUP}/${LVM_NAME} ]
  18 then
  19         # create lvm partition
  20         lvcreate --size ${LVM_SIZE} --name ${LVM_NAME} ${LVM_GROUP}
  21         # create the domain
  22         virt-install --name ${NAME} --memory ${RAM} --disk /dev/${LVM_GROUP}/${LVM_NAME},bus=virtio,format=raw --os-variant ${OS} --network bridge=br0,model=virtio --cdrom ${MEDIA} --graphics ${GRAPHICS_PROTOCOL},listen=192.168.1.33,password=${NAME} --noautoconsole --virt-type kvm
  23 else
  24         echo "${0}: refusing to overwrite existing domain"
  25 fi

Parameters

`--name`	Give the domain its name. This name is used byt the virsh software as a reference to the domain.
`--memory`	The amount of memory for the domain. Setting a high value to make the istallation run smoother can be a good idea. It is possible to lower the memory later on.
`--disk`	The place where the domain has its virtual disk. Here it is an lvm volume using the raw format, but other formats can be used.
`--os-variant`	Determines the OS running in the domain.
`--network`	Configure the network interface.
`--cdrom`	Set the installation media.
`--graphics`	Configure the guest console.
`--noautoconsole`	Do not try to connect to the guest console, just start the domain.
`--virt-type`	Set the hypervisor.