Chapter 3. Setting Up Virtual Machines
	2.4. Starting the Virtual Machine Host		3.2. Installing an Operating System

Setting Up Virtual Machines

Contents

3.1. Creating a Virtual Machine
3.2. Installing an Operating System
3.3. Including Add-On Products in the Installation
3.4. Using the Command Line to Create Virtual Machines
3.5. Deleting Virtual Machines
3.6. Troubleshooting

A virtual machine is comprised of data and operating system files that define the virtual environment. Virtual machines are hosted and controlled by the virtual machine host. This section provides generalized instructions for installing virtual machines.

Virtual machines have few if any requirements above those required to run the operating system. If the operating system has not been optimized for the virtual machine host environment, the unmodified OS can run only on hardware-assisted virtualization computer hardware, in full virtualization mode, and requires specific device drivers to be loaded.

You should be aware of any licensing issues related to running a single licensed copy of an operating system on multiple virtual machines. Consult the operating system license agreement for more information.

	Virtual Machine Architectures
The virtual machine host runs only on x86, AMD64 and Intel 64 hardware. It does not run on other system architectures such as Itanium, or POWER. A 64-bit virtual machine host can also run a 32-bit operating system, while a 32-bit host cannot run a 64-bit client. This holds true for both, the controlling domain and all further guests.

Creating a Virtual Machine

Before creating a virtual machine, you need the following:

Install a host server as described in Chapter 2, Setting Up a Virtual Machine Host.
If you want to use an automated installation file (AutoYaST, NetWare® Response File, or RedHat Kickstart), you should create and download it to a directory on the host machine server or make it available on the network.
For NetWare and OES Linux virtual machines, you need a static IP address for each virtual machine you create.
If you are installing Open Enterprise Server (OES) 2 Linux, you need a network installation source for OES 2 Linux software including the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 media and the OES 2 Linux add-on CD. For procedures to create the installation sources, see "Setting Up the Server Holding the Installation Sources" in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Installation and Administration Guide

For further prerequisites, consult the manuals of the respective operating system to install.

The Create Virtual Machine Wizard helps you through the steps required to create a virtual machine and install its operating system. The information that follows is generalized for installing any operating system. In addition to these instructions, you should consult Chapter 6, Xen Guest Systems for information specific to the operating system you are installing.

The actual configuration files for the Xen guests are stored at /etc/xen/vm/. The default location for image files is /var/lib/xen/images.

Launch the Create Virtual Machine Wizard by using one of the following methods:

From the virtualization host server desktop, click YaST+Virtualization+Create Virtual Machine
From within Virtual Machine Manager, click New.
At the command line, enter vm-install.

If the wizard does not appear or the vm-install command does not work, review the process of installing and starting the virtualization host server. The virtualization software might not be installed properly.