[CentOS] Hypervisor and access method for workstation VM

Thu Nov 22 01:55:34 UTC 2018
Scot P. Floess <sfloess at nc.rr.com>

> I am planning to set up a virtualization host to host a Linux
> workstation 
> VM. It may also host a Windows VM down the road but not on the initial 
> list. I'm looking for suggestions as far as:
>
> * oVirt or CentOS? (Did I miss a CentOS equivalent of RHV somewhere?)
> I'm 
> not interested in running VMware. Is it easy to upgrade oVirt or is it 
> disruptive to do so?
>
> * Does anyone have real world experience running SPICE over a WAN with 
> VPN? I hear great things about SPICE .. but haven't heard much about
> how 
> it performs over a WAN .. which in this case is the Internet with an 
> SSL-based VPN.
>
> I have plenty of Linux experience and am very comfortable with a
> command 
> line and config files, but wouldn't mind a graphical interface for some
> of 
> the virtualization components. I may expand to a second virtualization 
> host at some point, but it is not in the initial plan.
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Barry
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
>

Barry,

Using KVM isn't too bad - setting up a bridge is a little work but not 
hard.  I got tired of manually configuring so I wrote some Anisble scripts 
to provision my hosts for KVM and virtualization.   I do run Xen as my 
hypervisor on a Dell Precision 470 (paravirtualization using CentOS).

Running virt-manager to assist you with installing VMs from ISOs is not 
hard at all - but I'd recommend getting your bridge working first.  For 
RHEL/CentOS/Fedora VMs I use Cobbler and KOAN to spin up my VMs as I hate 
doing so manually - but virt-manager works fine (and as an initial way to 
install VMs is great).  For Windows VMs, I use virt-manager.

As far as spice, yeah works great.  Most of my VMs run non-gui mode, but 
if I do need a desktop I happen to use tiger vnc.  As for desktops, I used 
FVWM forever and moved to KDE.  Now I am all about LXDE as its really 
lightweight (not as much as FVWM), but has just enough integration that 
emails and IRC messages get me some sound and balloon notifications.  And 
a nice right click to get on the VPN.  Alas it's supported on Fedora but I 
never got around to attempt a RHEL/CentOS build from source.

My home network runs all my VMs - some for work related stuff (software 
engineer not a sysadmin - but sometimes I play one in real life).  At work 
I typically use RHEV.

I'm on my tablet of I'd share some links I have...happy to follow up with 
you if you want...


Sincerely,

Scot P. Floess

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