Let me first say, that it does work for Linux guest. It doesn’t work on Windows guest because there is a know bug (/issue) with the default hardware layout – made of i440FX BIOS. VirtManager would not allow us to replace the settings, so we need to create the VM ourselves using XML. You can export your XML settings (of an existing VM) using the command
virsh dumpxml > /tmp/VM_NAME.xml
There are relevant fields there which you might want to save for later, like MAC addresses, network settings, and so on.
You can use this XML file to build your VM anew. Note that you will want to modify the network settings, the name and the UUID. Also – you will need a newer QEMU command (through the package qemu-system-x86), you can find in the Centos updates repository, . It has been providing me with /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 command, which I am using, instead of the default qemu command used by default by VirtManager.
My Windows VM XML file (as a reference you can copy and use) is provided below. Major modifications are required to the hardware settings of the Windows VM – moving from PCI to PCIE, changing from IDE to SATA or VirtIO – and the provided XML gives a good reference of how this file should look like. This was taken from a machine tested to allow USB hot-add/remove via the method provided in my previous post.
I have come across a requirement to boot a thin client on a very cheap hardware into Linux. Due to the tight hardware requirements, and the tight budget, I have decided to focus on diskless systems, which can be easily modified and purchased to our needs. Not only that, but due to the hardware configuration…
Every Linux admin is familiar with the long time running through a large directory tree (with hundred of thousands of files and more) can take. Most are aware that if you re-run the same run-through, it will be shorter. This is caused by a short-valid filesystem cache, where the memory is allocated to other tasks,…
The following procedure was tested by me, and was found to be working. The version of the XenServer I am using in this particular case is 6.1, however, I belive that this method is generic enough so that it could work for every version of XS, assuming you’re using iSCSI and LVM (aka – not…
In this part I will discuss a possible solution to a problem I encountered several times already – failure to understand XenServer use of LVM, but first – a little explanation of the topic. XenServer makes extensive use of LVM technology in order to support the storage requirements of virtual disks. It is being utilized…
DRBD is a low-cost shared-SAN-like solution, which has several great benefits, among which are no single point of failure, and very low cost (local storage and network cable). Its main disadvantages are in the need to constantly monitor it, and make sure it does what’s expected. Also – in some cases – performance might be affected greatly….
Using the GUI, it could be somewhat complex identifying a VM based on its MAC address. There are several solutions on the network using PowerShell, but I will demonstrate it using a simple bash script, below. Save, make executable, and run. Enjoy #!/bin/bash if [ -z “$1” ] then echo “Requires parameter – MAC…
