[CentOS] KVM Setup for Win7 Pro on CentOS 5.x

Thu Aug 16 13:41:19 UTC 2012
Arun Khan <knura9 at gmail.com>

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 3:04 AM, Bill Campbell <centos at celestial.com> wrote:
> Can somebody point me to a HowTO or other documentation describing the
> tools available under the CentOS 5 KVM package to create and manage a
> Windows 7 Pro VM?  All my VM experience to date has been the old free
> VMware Server.

Assuming you have hardware acceleration and 64 bit version installed,
look for the virt-manager package.

The interface is very similar to virtual box.

>
> I need to:
>    + Create the VM instance allowing for about 50GB total disk space which
>      will be either a single image partitioned into two Windows 'Drives'
>      for the OS and applications/data, or two images.

The default location for the hard disk image file is under /var/lib
path.    This can be changed to point to a different location if you
are planning many such large installation.   An alternate method could
be to define a file or a LVM and then tell virt-manager the location
of this file/LVM volume.

>    + Install Windows 7 from an OEM System Builder Pack, either using the
>      CD/DVD drive on the Linux server or from an image created with 'dd'
>      from the Win7 media.

Any x86 OS can be installed.  Choose a NIC like Realtek or Intel Pro,
drivers for which should be recognizable by the Windows installer.

>    + Set up network bridging on the private LAN so that the Windows system
>      is accessible via OpenVPN connections from the outside world and by
>      users on the LAN to run a client/server accounting application.

I have done KVM VLANs but I am not sure if it can be done from the
virt-manager.   Experiment and see how far you can go.

Best,
-- 
Arun Khan
"As a layman, I would say we have it, but as a scientist I have to
say, 'What do we have?'"
Rolf Heuer, Director General CERN on the announcement of Higgs Boson particle.