[et-mgmt-tools] user access to virt-manager guests

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Fri, Feb 08, 2008 at 10:32:01AM -0500, Bob Tennent wrote:
>  >|> Hi. Is it possible to allow non-root users to access a guest operating
>  >|> system? Once the guest is set up, it should be possible to choose to
>  >|> allow the guest to look after its own security and authentication. As
>  >|> far as I can see, this isn't now possible. Perhaps some /etc/sudoers
>  >|> incantation?  The difficulty is that virt-manager is used both
>  >|> to set up *and* to use guests; those functions should be separated.
>  >|
>  >|Users can access the guest via SSH (or any network login service
>  >|running inside the guest), or they can use a standalone viewer program
>  >|like virt-viewer to access the graphical console without needing admin
>  >|privileges. 
> 
> I want to be able to "connect" and initiate a guest in a *script* (so
> it can be done automatically when the host boots), and then allow users
> (without admin privileges) to access the guest graphically. Is this a
> reasonable mode of operation? If so, how do I do it? If I call qemu-kvm
> directly the -nographic option doesn't seem to do what I expect. And I
> don't know how to use virt-viewer to view a guest initiated directly
> rather than by using virt-manager.

There is a manual page for virt-viewer which illustrates the examples
on how to access the console.

eg, one example is:

   virt-viewer --connect qemu:///system {NAME OF GUEST}

If you want a guest to start automatically when a host boots, then you
need to turn on the 'autostart' flag for that guest. This is described
in the virsh manual page

eg,

   virsh --connect qemu:///system  autostart {NAME OF GUEST}


> If this kind of stuff is explained somewhere in documentation I haven't
> managed to find, please refer me to it and my apologies for using the
> mail-list inappropriately. It might be helpful if the list archives were
> searchable.

The man pages for virsh, virt-viewer, and online help for virt-manager

Finally the virt-manager Wiki site is available if anyone wants to add
tips on use cases:

  http://virt-manager.org/wiki/


You can search the mailing list trivially using google. Just enter this
in the google search box:

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Regards,
Dan.
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