Virtualization

You can use Uyuni to manage virtualized clients. In this type of installation, a virtual host is installed on the Uyuni Server to manage any number of virtual guests. If you choose to, you can install several virtual hosts to manage groups of guests.

The range of capabilities that virtualized clients have depends on the third-party virtualization provider you choose.

Xen and KVM hosts and guests can be managed directly in Uyuni. This enables you to autoinstall hosts and guests using AutoYaST or Kickstart, and manage guests in the Web UI.

For VMware, including VMware vSphere, and Nutanix AHV, Uyuni requires you to set up a virtual host manager (VHM) to control the VMs. This gives you control over the hosts and guests, but in a more limited way than available with Xen and KVM; Uyuni cannot create or edit VMs on VMware vSphere or Nutanix AHV.

Other third-party virtualization providers are not directly supported by Uyuni. However, if your provider allows you to export a JSON configuration file for the VM, you can upload that configuration file to Uyuni and manage it with a VHM.

For more information about using VHMs to manage virtualization, see Virtual Host Managers.

1. Manage Virtualized Hosts

Before you begin, ensure that the client you want to use as a virtualization host has the Virtualization Host system type assigned to it. Navigate to Systems  Systems List and click the name of the client to use as a virtualization host. If the Virtualization Host system type is not listed, initialize the Virtualization Host formula. For more information, see client-configuration:virt-xenkvm.adoc#virt-xenkvm-host.

When a client has the Virtualization Host system type, the Virtualization tab is available in the System Details page for the client. The Virtualization tab allows you to create and manage virtual guests, and manage storage pools and virtual networks.

2. Create Virtual Guests

You can add virtual guests to your virtualization hosts within the Uyuni Web UI.

Procedure: Creating a Virtual Guest

  1. In the Uyuni Web UI, navigate to Systems  Systems List, click the name of the virtualization host, and navigate to the Virtualization tab.

  2. In the General section, complete these details:

    • In the Guests subtab, click Create Guest.

    • In the Name field, type the name of the guest.

    • In the Hypervisor field, select the hypervisor to use.

    • In the Virtual Machine Type field, select either fully virtualized or para-virtualized.

    • In the Maximum Memory field, type the upper size limit for the guest disk, in MiB.

    • In the Virtual CPU count, type the number of vCPUs for the guest.

    • In the Architecture field, select the emulated CPU architecture to use on the guest. By default, the architecture selected matches the virtual host.

    • In the Auto-installation Profile field, select the auto-installation tool to use to install the guest. Leave this field blank if you do not want to use auto-installation.

  3. In the Disks section, complete the details of the virtual disk to use with the client. In the Source template image URL field, ensure you type the path to an operating system image. If you do not do this, your guest is created with an empty disk.

  4. In the Networks section, complete the details of the virtual network interface to use with the client. Leave the MAC address field blank to generate a MAC address.

  5. In the Graphics section, complete the details of the graphics driver to use with the client.

  6. Schedule a time for the guest to be created, and click Create to create the guest.

  7. The new virtual guest starts as soon as it has successfully been created.

You can add virtual guests on a pacemaker cluster within the Uyuni Web UI, too.

Procedure: Creating a Cluster Managed Virtual Guest

  1. Follow the Creating a Virtual Guest procedure on one of the nodes of the cluster with the following additions:

    • Ensure the Define as a cluster resource field is checked.

    • In the Path to the cluster shared folder for VM definitions field, type the path to a folder shared by all cluster nodes where the guest configuration will be stored.

    • Make sure every disk is located on a storage pool shared by all the cluster nodes.

Virtual Guests managed by a cluster can be live migrated.