Ubuntu on the bin

Linux KVM: Ubuntu 12.10 with Openvswitch

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today I am revisiting my previous post on Openvswitch on Ubuntu 12.04. Things have changed since then. Previously Openvswitch was relatively new and as such the userland tools (with libvirt being the one I use) didn’t support it yet, so while you could have used Openvswitch by executing the kvm processes for each VM manually. Since this was a predictable problem the Openvswitch guys created a brcompat module, which would take the place of the bridge_utils functionality and expose Openvswitch bridges as legacy bridges. This allowed the existing userland which already had the legacy bridge functionality builtin to continue to operate the same way. Anyways as of libvirt 0.9.11 the native Openvswitch functionality is present and supported. As such I am updating my documentation to include this alternate and preferred method of operation.

Oracle VM: Using Oracle VM Manager 3 from Ubuntu Linux

Wed, 16 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In my initial work with Oracle VM, I have run into a few fringe cases, which are not well documented, but actually have rather simple solutions. This one actually cropped up over the weekend for me. Over the weekend I decided to rebuild my company-issued laptop with Ubuntu Linux (12.04 amd64) to be specific. I did this for a number of reasons…

1) I am far more effective with Linux, due to the nature of the shell, and tools which I am familiar with (vim, dd, really take your pick they are everywhere).

Linux-KVM: Ubuntu 12.04 with Openvswitch

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

UPDATE: October 29, 2012

This article doesn’t work on Ubuntu 12.10, to use Ubuntu 12.10 please refer to my new article here.

Openvswitch is a better way of managing your virtual networking stacks for KVM and Xen. This can be used instead of the bridge-utils package, and has the ability to use VLANs, LACP, QoS, sFlow, and others. In this article we will be using Ubuntu 12.04 (beta1) to configure Openvswitch to hand out networking interfaces to KVM guests.

Securing SSH with Publicly Accessible Servers

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Just about every IT environment has some sort of remotely managed environment which requires that they have SSH open to the Internet. Perhaps this is a VPS, dedicated server, or colocation. Regardless of your reason, the fact is that there is just some times where you need to have SSH open to the internet.

However regardless of if it is necessary doesn’t mean that you should just do it… One look at your auth.log will reveal that.

Linux-KVM Management: Live Migration Without Shared Storage

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Everyday I learn something new about Linux-KVM, this is why I love this platform. Today we are going to talk about Live Migration. The kicker? Shared storage not required. Now please keep in mind that just because shared storage is not required, doesn’t mean there is not a benefit to it. Shared storage will accelerate this process, since the data will not have to move. However virtualization is all about flexibility and so is Linux for that matter, so why shouldn’t we be able to make the choice? That said this process is not documented by the libvirt team, as such it sounds like an “undocumented” feature. Please use this at your own risk, and for heaven’s sake please test and understand thoroughly before using this in production.

Bash: Using pv to Display Progress of dd

Tue, 09 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

One of the biggest weaknesses of dd is that it has no way to display progress on its actions. You can send a signal to the process which will pause, display statistics, and resume the process however this takes up alot of your terminal screen if you are doing any sort of long running copy. Enter pv. Pv allows us to monitor the progress of data through a pipe.

Create A 1GB Test File

This is the file that we will use to peform the following tests.

Linux-KVM Management: Offline Migration

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When you compare Linux-KVM to Hyper-V or VMWare your initial results will indicate that Linux-KVM is lacking when it comes to management tools, and basic functionality. You would be correct, however you would also be incorrect. You see with Linux-KVM we can leverage the underlying power of the Linux userland, and with this frankly all things are possible. Here is one of the basic bits of management functionality which can be attained with a little bit of bash scripting knowledge. I started by writing a VM backup script, then a VM export script, and of course a VM import script. Eventually I ended up with a full-blown end-to-end VM migration script.

KVM Guests: Using Virt-Install to Install VMs from a CD or ISO Image

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In my previous article KVM Guests: Using Virt-Install to Import an Existing Disk Image we discussed how to use virt-install to import an existing disk image, which already has an OS installed into it. Additionally in KVM Guests: Using Virt-Install to Install Debian and Ubuntu Guests I documented how to initiate an install directly off of the apt mirror of your choice for Debian and Ubuntu Guests using virt-install. In this article we will use virt-install to create a guest and begin the installation using a CD or ISO image for installation media.

KVM Guests: Using Virt-Install to Install Debian and Ubuntu Guests

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I like to be able to spin up a VM without looking for CD media so for a while now I have been using ISO images for all of my installs directly, however I found my self scurrying around “digitally” looking for the correct iso in much the same way I used to scurry about looking for physical CDs, except I was not physically moving. So anyways the time was wasted either way, I figured it is time that I find a better (read: lazier) way to do this. So the idea is that since the apt package manager contains all the packages and files needed to install and upgrade a system, we ought to be able to find a way to initiate the install over the wire.

Hyper-V Guests: Linux Integration Components Ubuntu and Debian

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

In this article I am documenting the process for installing the Hyper-V Integration Components within a Ubuntu or Debian VM. I am specifically writing this for Ubuntu 8.04.2 and Debian 5, however I have additionally confirmed that this process works on both Ubuntu 8.10 and Ubuntu 9.04. My environment consists of x64 VMs, I have not taken the time to test this process for x86 VMs, however it should hold true, as long as you update the package names to reflect the appropriate architecture.