[et-mgmt-tools] running virt-manager with existing windows or qemu

[Hugh Brock]

Jerry Geis wrote:
> I am running RHEL beta 5 number 2 with the xen kernel.
> 
> I have an existing disk that has windows XP on it.
> I wish to run that XP under virt-manager and xen. I dont see how yet.
> I was looking at the faq at http://virt-manager.et.redhat.com/faq.html 
> and did not see it.
> 
> Also, I have an image that I played with under qemu - it worked
> but I could never get networking to work. I was wanting to
> try that image under xen and virt-manager and I dont see that either.
> 
> How do I run that image under virt-manager and xen.
> 
> When I run the virt-manager it always prompts me to install.
> I already have existing images or partitions.
> 
> I am running the xen kernel.
> 
> Jerry

Hi Jerry.

You can probably get your existing XP install to work under HVM, but to 
set it up with virt-manager you will actually need to have an XP CD so 
that the installer has some installation media to look for. In this case 
you would enter the parameters for your VM and virt-manager would write 
a config for it and boot your CD. The CD, being Windows, will look at 
the disk and say "Oh there's an existing install here, I'll boot it." At 
least this is the way things have been working for me with Windows 2000.

A more sensible way to do this is to manually create a config file in 
/etc/xen that describes your guest -- how much memory, how many vcpus, 
the address of the guest's disk, and so on. Then start that guest with 
"xm create <guest-name>".

You should probably make a backup of your XP disk before you do this...

Take care,
--Hugh



-- 
Red Hat Virtualization Group http://redhat.com/virtualization
Hugh Brock           | virt-manager http://virt-manager.org
hbrock at redhat.com    | virtualization library http://libvirt.org