Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux Systems As Virtual Guests
General Information
Installing RHEL as a virtual machine.
GUI Method: Virtual Machine Manager
- Applications > System Tools > Virtual Machine Manager
- File > New Virtual Machine
- Follow prompts to select installation source and configure VM specs.
- Install OS as normal.
- Login to OS and enable network interface at boot time.
CLI Method: Virt-Install
The CLI method uses the command “virt-install”.
Run by itself, you will see the required options
virt-install ERROR --name is required --memory amount in MiB is required --disk storage must be specified (override with --disk none) An install method must be specified (--location URL, --cdrom CD/ISO, --pxe, --import, --boot hd|cdrom|...)
Example virt-install
virt-install \ --name=server1.example.com \ --vcpus 2 \ --memory 1024 \ --disk size=20 \ --location http://192.168.1.50/repo/CentOS/7/os/x86_64/ \ --extra-args="console=ttyS0 ks=http://192.168.1.50/repo/kickstart.cfg"
- name ⇒ fully qualified hostname of VM
- vcpus 2 ⇒ give guest VM 2 CPUs
- memory ⇒ in MBs
- disk size ⇒ in GB (since no disk path is specified, it will be stored in the default location /var/lib/libvirt/images/)
- location ⇒ location of installation files
- extra-args ⇒ a console is specified so CLI console access is enabled if needed and a path to a kickstart file will be used for install.