Use virt-install to install LVM based virtual machines (PVM).

There are few different options while you want to install virtual servers. you can also use default utility available with xen. virt-install is very famous among others. Its very simple and easy to use. In this article I will explain you how to install LVM based virtual server. I will assume that you have installation try available so that we can use kick start method to do quick install. If you don’t have installation tree available then please visit my previous article. “How to create local yum repository” available at http://www.linux4beginners.info/?q=node/local-centos-yum-repo.

Lets start :
In my case physical volume is /dev/sda2. to find out which device is setup as PV in your system, you can use

This command will also show you volume group name identified by VG.
if you want to find out VolumeGroup name then you can use vgscan command also. NOW…

First of all we will need to create a logical volume which will be a disk for your virtual server. There is no need to format this lvm as we are going to use it as a raw disk. to create a disk use following command. I presume that you have enough unused disk space available in your volume group.

well done. now you have your disk (logical volume) named xenvm00 ready to install virtual machine.
use following command to install virtual machine.

1. #virt-install -p –name=xenvm00 –location=http://www.linux4beginners.info/ –bridge=xenbr0 –file=/dev/VolGroup00/xenvm00 –ram=2048 -x “ks=http://1.2.3.4/xenvm00.ks

   In above command :
   -p specifies it is para virtualized system,
   –name specifies hostname of virtual system you are installing.
   –location tells the location of your local centos / redhat / fedora repository. Please change it as per your convenience.
   –bridge tells which network device to specify for VM.
   –file specifies the disk for installation for your virtual system.
   –ram specifirs how much memory to be allocated.
   -x is for extra arguments. in this scenario we have spceified kick start file location. sample kick start file is also listed below.

   Follow the screen and answer the questions asked. as we are installing it through kickstart method, it will ask you minimum questions only…

1. #Sample kickstart configuration

   install
   url –url http://1.2.3.4/centos52_64/

   network –device eth0 –bootproto static –ip 192.168.X.Y –netmask 255.255.X.Y –gateway 192.168.X.Z –nameserver ns1,ns2 –hostname xenvm00
   lang en_US.UTF-8
   skipx
   langsupport –default=en_GB.UTF-8 en_GB.UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8
   keyboard uk
   reboot

   rootpw –iscrypted $1$1kdfjalsr8099404=-459qkfjdfoiaisfoalasdkfasdf0aw348r0
   firewall –enabled
   selinux –permissive
   authconfig –enableshadow –enablemd5
   timezone [put your timezone]
   bootloader –location=mbr –append=”console=ttyS0,115200 rhgb quiet”

   clearpart –all
   part /boot –fstype ext3 –size=256
   part pv.2 –size=0 –grow
   volgroup vg0 –pesize=32768 pv.2
   logvol swap –fstype swap –name=lvswap –vgname=vg0 –size=2048
   logvol / –fstype ext3 –name=lvroot –vgname=vg0 –size=4096
   logvol /usr –fstype ext3 –name=lvusr –vgname=vg0 –size=2048
   logvol /var –fstype ext3 –name=lvvar –vgname=vg0 –size=2048
   logvol /tmp –fstype ext3 –name=lvtmp –vgname=vg0 –size=2048

   #List of required packages to install. please add / remove packages or package groups as per your requirement.it
   #very straight forward and easy.

   %packages
   @text-internet
   @legacy-software-support
   @web-server
   emacs
   kexec-tools
   device-mapper-multipath
   e2fsprogs
   lvm2
   sendmail-cf
   grub
   sysstat
   net-snmp
   -htmlview
   -pinfo
   -redhat-menus
   -GConf2
   -gtk2
   -libnotify
   -notification-daemon
   -pango
   -paps
   -redhat-lsb
   -dosfstools
   -ppp
   -rp-pppoe
   -rdist
   ntp
   ruby
   gpm
   vim-common
   vim-minimal
   vim-enhanced
   xen
   kernel-xen
   kernel-xen-devel
   gcc

   %post

   rpm –import http://www.linux4beginners.info/centos52_64/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release

   chkconfig pcscd off
   chkconfig ntpd on
   chkconfig kudzu off
   chkconfig iptables off
   chkconfig ip6tables off
   chkconfig firstboot off
   chkconfig xinetd off
   chkconfig smartd off
   chkconfig isdn off
   chkconfig rhnsd off
   chkconfig gpm off
   chkconfig xfs off
   chkconfig cups-config-daemon off
   chkconfig cups off
   chkconfig yum-updatesd off
   chkconfig bluetooth off
   chkconfig portmap on
   chkconfig nfs on
   chkconfig nfslock on
   chkconfig nscd on

   # make sure default runlevel is 3
   sed -i “s/^id:5:init/id:3:init/g” /etc/inittab

   #enable listening to break on serial
   sed -i “s/^kernel.sysrq = 0/kernel.sysrq = 1/g” /etc/sysctl.conf

   echo “ttyS0” >> /etc/securetty
   echo “as:123456:respawn:/sbin/agetty ttyS0 115200 -h vt100-nav” >> /etc/inittab

   # dom0_mem
   sed -i “s/\(.*kernel.*xen.gz.*$\)/\1 dom0_mem=1024M/” /boot/grub/grub.conf
   cat > /etc/xen/xend-config.sxp <(xend-unix-server yes)
   (xend-relocation-server yes)
   (xend-unix-path /var/lib/xend/xend-socket)
   (xend-relocation-port 8002)
   (xend-relocation-address ”)
   (xend-relocation-hosts-allow ‘^localhost$ ^xen$’)
   (network-script ‘network-bridge netdev=bond0’)
   (vif-script vif-bridge)
   (dom0-min-mem 256)
   (dom0-cpus 0)

   (vncpasswd ”)
   EOF