Hi All,
Can KVM be run "Headless", like Virtual Box?
If so, how do I open a window to it?
How do I start and stop it?
Many thanks, -T
I own a few headless centos servers running kvm. Vnc-server is probably easiest to setup to access the server's desktop. Or use ssh if you don't want a gui desktop on the server.
I use the ultravnc viewer on my windows PC to access centos.
Linux vm guests can run vnc as well, and windows vm guests have remote desktop, of course.
SPICE is a new way to access guests, but I haven't figured out how to use it yet...
On 11/10/2010 06:46 PM, compdoc wrote:
I own a few headless centos servers running kvm. Vnc-server is probably easiest to setup to access the server's desktop. Or use ssh if you don't want a gui desktop on the server.
I use the ultravnc viewer on my windows PC to access centos.
Linux vm guests can run vnc as well, and windows vm guests have remote desktop, of course.
SPICE is a new way to access guests, but I haven't figured out how to use it yet...
Please forgive the redundancy of my question here.
If I am running a windows client, I would run something like Ultra VNC server. And on my host, communicate with something like krdc. Am I correct?
How do you start and stop your headless machines?
Many thanks, -T
Greetings,
----- Original Message -----
On 11/10/2010 06:46 PM, compdoc wrote: If I am running a windows client, I would run something like Ultra VNC server. And on my host, communicate with something like krdc. Am I correct?
There are a few ways to do it.
If I'm on a Linux box (which I am 99.9% of the time), I ssh -X into the host running the KVM virtual machines, and run "virt-viewer {vm-name}" and a graphical display of the machine pops up. If I just want text access, I ssh into the VM directly. If I want to run just one graphical app, I might ssh -X into the VM.
If you are on a Windows client then you can use an ssh client (PuTTY for example) or if you want the GUI stuff, you can install an Xserver app on Windows and tunnel the X traffic over ssh. A nice free Xserver for Windows is Xming.
If you would prefer to run a remote display protocol server inside of the VM and connect with that you can install vnc-server or No Machine's NX server. NX is a ton faster but the free version (not open source but free of charge) limits you to two user connections which is plenty for most people on a server. Then you install the vnc-client or NX client on your Windows box and use that to connect to the remote display server in the VM.
How do you start and stop your headless machines?
You can use virt-manager if you have GUI access to the host or you can use the command line tool virsh. For example:
virsh list --all (Shows all VMs on the host and shows their status) virsh start {vm-name} (Starts a VM) virsh shutdown {vm-name} (Shuts down your VM)
You really should check out Red Hat's Virtualizaiton Guide. They have a book quality guide that explains KVM, virt-manager and virsh.
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5/html/Virtualiza...
RHEL6 just came out today and they have greatly enhanced virt-manager and KVM... and you can expect a CentOS 6 release in 1 - 2 months... or so goes the pattern. If you want to see what KVM is like in RHEL6 you can check out their updated Virtualization Guide:
http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Virtualiza...
TYL,
Greetings,
----- Original Message -----
On 11/10/2010 06:46 PM, compdoc wrote: If I am running a windows client, I would run something like Ultra VNC server. And on my host, communicate with something like krdc. Am I correct?
Opps, I need to add a more details... because I assumed in my last reply that your VMs were Linux... but of course they can be Windows. If you want to access your Windows VM then yes, you can access it via RDP assuming you have turned on remote access in Windows.
Of course virt-manager and virt-viewer can also give you VNC-based GUI access to your Windows VM, but RDP is much faster.
It'll be nice when Red Hat adds SPICE support to virt-manager and virt-viewer. Expect that in RHEL 6.1 and CentOS 6.1. I believe SPICE can be done manually but I have yet to find any good instructions on how to do it. Even in Fedora 14 it is a manual process that I haven't figured out yet. Expect Fedora 15 to include SPICE support integrated into virt-manager and virt-viewer... and RHEL 6.1 to follow shortly thereafter. That's my guess anyway.
TYL,
On 11/10/2010 07:30 PM, Scott Dowdle wrote:
Greetings,
----- Original Message -----
On 11/10/2010 06:46 PM, compdoc wrote: If I am running a windows client, I would run something like Ultra VNC server. And on my host, communicate with something like krdc. Am I correct?
Opps, I need to add a more details... because I assumed in my last reply that your VMs were Linux... but of course they can be Windows. If you want to access your Windows VM then yes, you can access it via RDP assuming you have turned on remote access in Windows.
Of course virt-manager and virt-viewer can also give you VNC-based GUI access to your Windows VM, but RDP is much faster.
It'll be nice when Red Hat adds SPICE support to virt-manager and virt-viewer. Expect that in RHEL 6.1 and CentOS 6.1. I believe SPICE can be done manually but I have yet to find any good instructions on how to do it. Even in Fedora 14 it is a manual process that I haven't figured out yet. Expect Fedora 15 to include SPICE support integrated into virt-manager and virt-viewer... and RHEL 6.1 to follow shortly thereafter. That's my guess anyway.
TYL,
Thank you!
Can not wait for CentOS 6.0. Hmmm, an excuse to upgrade my machine!
-T
Just to get the terms correct: you would run a vnc-server on the host, (or in a linux vm guest) and use a client to connect to the vnc-server.
Centos comes with a vnc server built in - you just have to enable it. And vnc is only needed to use the graphical desktop. It's not needed if you use command line administration.
As far as headless operations - I use the power button to turn it on, and the shutdown command in a terminal window to shut it down. (after manually shutting down the vm guests)
I suppose you can script the automatic shutdown of guests, but I haven't gotten around to that...
Sorry, I don't know what krdc is. You use the network (ethernet) to connect.
-
compdoc -
MargoAndTodd -
Scott Dowdle