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Virtualization Guide / Introduction / Installation of Virtualization Components
Applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5

6 Installation of Virtualization Components

  

None of the virtualization tools is installed by default. They will be automatically installed when configuring the hypervisor with the YaST module Virtualization › Install Hypervisor and Tools. In case this module is not available in YaST, install the package yast2-vm.

6.1 Installing KVM

  

To install KVM and KVM tools, proceed as follows:

  1. Verify that the yast2-vm package is installed. This package is YaST's configuration tool that simplifies the installation of virtualization hypervisors.

  2. Start YaST and choose Virtualization › Install Hypervisor and Tools.

  3. Select KVM server for a minimal installation of QEMU tools. Select KVM tools if a libvirt-based management stack is also desired. Confirm with Accept.

  4. To enable normal networking for the VM Guest, using a network bridge is recommended. YaST offers to automatically configure a bridge on the VM Host Server. Agree to do so by choosing Yes, otherwise choose No.

  5. After the setup has been finished, you can start setting up VM Guests. Rebooting the VM Host Server is not required.

6.2 Installing Xen

  

To install Xen and Xen tools, proceed as follows:

  1. Start YaST and choose Virtualization › Install Hypervisor and Tools.

  2. Select Xen server for a minimal installation of Xen tools. Select Xen tools if a libvirt-based management stack is also desired. Confirm with Accept.

  3. To enable normal networking for the VM Guest, using a network bridge is recommended. YaST offers to automatically configure a bridge on the VM Host Server. Agree to do so by choosing Yes, otherwise choose No.

  4. After the setup has been finished, you need to reboot the machine with the Xen kernel.

    Tip
    Tip: Default Boot Kernel

    If everything works as expected, change the default boot kernel with YaST and make the Xen-enabled kernel the default. For more information about changing the default kernel, see Book “Administration Guide”, Chapter 13 “The Boot Loader GRUB 2”, Section 13.3 “Configuring the Boot Loader with YaST”.

6.3 Installing Containers

  

To install containers, proceed as follows:

  1. Start YaST and choose Virtualization › Install Hypervisor and Tools.

  2. Select libvirt lxc daemon and confirm with Accept.

6.4 Patterns

  

It is possible using Zypper and patterns to install virtualization packages. Run the command zypper in -t pattern PATTERN. Available patterns are:

KVM

  • kvm_server: sets up the KVM VM Host Server with QEMU tools for management

  • kvm_tools: installs the libvirt tools for managing and monitoring VM Guests

Xen

  • xen_server: sets up the Xen VM Host Server with Xen tools for management

  • xen_tools: installs the libvirt tools for managing and monitoring VM Guests

Containers

There is no pattern for containers; install the libvirt-daemon-lxc package.

6.5 Installing UEFI Support

  

UEFI support is provided by OVMF (Open Virtual Machine Firmware). To enable UEFI boot, first install the qemu-ovmf-x86_64 or qemu-uefi-aarch64 package.

libvirt is configured to use /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-4m-code.bin and /usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-4m-vars.bin as default UEFI firmware and VARS images. For ARM the defaults are /usr/share/qemu/aavmf-aarch64-code.bin and /usr/share/qemu/aavmf-aarch64-vars.bin.

The packages contain the following files: 

root # rpm -ql qemu-ovmf-x86_64
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-code.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms-vars.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-ms.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-opensuse-code.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-opensuse-vars.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-opensuse.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-suse-code.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-suse-vars.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-suse.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-code.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64-vars.bin
/usr/share/qemu/ovmf-x86_64.bin

The *-code.bin files are the UEFI firmwares. The *-vars.bin files are corresponding variable store images that can be used as a template for a per-VM non-volatile store. libvirt copies the specified vars template to a per-VM path under /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/ when first creating the VM. Files without code or vars in the name can be used as a single UEFI image. They are not as useful since no UEFI variables persist across power cycles of the VM.

The *-ms*.bin files contain Microsoft keys as found on real hardware. Therefore, they are configured as the default in libvirt. Likewise, the *-suse*.bin files contain preinstalled SUSE and openSUSE keys. There is also a set of files with no preinstalled keys.

For details, see Using UEFI and Secure Boot and http://www.linux-kvm.org/downloads/lersek/ovmf-whitepaper-c770f8c.txt.