[Ovirt-devel] Provisioning Windows

Fri Sep 10 08:04:45 UTC 2010

Hello Justin,

1. managing images using cobbler
I have not tried to do this. I import the NFS share in ovirt hardware pool.
Then, the images are imported as libvirt storage volumes and they are
available when I create a VM.
Cobbler version has been upgraded between fedora 11 and fedora 13. You are
probably the first one trying this under f13.
Is there a particular reason why you are using cobbler for this purpose ?

2. booting from cdrom
I assume adding the cdrom iso in ovirt would also fix that issue. Besides
you will just encounter it once, for installation. Afterwards, you will
always boot from HD.

3. too old qemu-kvm
You have several choices here :
a. download a more recent RPM and install it in the nodes manually each time
you start them
b. enable the fedora virtualization preview repository in your build
environment and build a newer ovirt-node-image.iso
c. try to build ovirt under fedora 14

On Fri, Sep 10, 2010 at 7:55 AM, Justin Clacherty <justin at redfish.com.au>wrote:

> >   How do I go about provisioning a windows VM?  I've added the iso to
> > cobbler using the following command.
> >
> > cobbler image add --name=W2k8Prov --
> > file=nfs://192.168.50.190/ovirt/w2k8.iso
> >
> > The image then appears in the list of Operating Systems to choose when
> > creating a VM.  I select the image when I create the VM but then when I
> go
> > to save I get the error:
> >
> > undefined method `keys' for "~":String
> >
> > How are people provisioning Windows VMs?
> >
>
> My guess is that people don't.  I've spent a bit of time on this today and
> have managed to get a VM booting using an installation ISO.  It seems
> there's some problems with cobbler (or how it's used).  I'm still having
> problems though so bear with me.
>
> The problem with installing off ISOs are two-fold.
>
> 1) Provisioning the VM fails because Cobbler::System.find_one() does not
> behave as expected.
> 2) The xml sent to libvirtd on the node is incorrect.
>
> Provisioning Windows Server 2008 R2 is still a problem once this is
> resolved.  This is seemingly because the version of KVM on the node doesn't
> work with W2k8R2.
>
> Here's the first two problems which I've managed to work around.  I hope
> this a) helps out anyone else trying to install off an ISO, and b) helps
> the
> developers fix the issue which as far as I can tell from the mailing list
> has been around for a while.
>
> This is the error I was seeing in rails.log
>
> Processing VmController#update (for 192.168.42.111 at 2010-09-10 01:57:16)
> [POST]
>  Parameters: {"vm"=>{"nics"=>"#<Nic:0x7f9df2ec3e60>",
> "provisioning_and_boot_settings"=>"image at cobbler:W2k8Prov",
> "storage_volume_ids"=>["16"], "vm_resource_pool_id"=>"5",
> "uuid"=>"59048cfa-d91d-bb65-27b2-edfc5e863d79",
> "description"=>"Exchange2010", "memory_allocated_in_mb"=>"4096",
> "num_vcpus_allocated"=>"4"}, "id"=>"8", "macs"=>["00:16:3e:76:7b:36", ""],
> "networks"=>["1", ""]}
>
> NoMethodError (undefined method `keys' for "~":String):
>  (eval):9:in `find_one'
>  app/services/vm_service.rb:297:in `vm_provision'
>  app/services/vm_service.rb:169:in `svc_update'
>  app/services/vm_service.rb:160:in `svc_update'
>  app/controllers/vm_controller.rb:81:in `update'
>
> The line in vm_provision is
>
> System = Cobbler::System.find_one(name)
>
> Looking at the code around it I'm guessing that the author assumed that
> Cobbler::System.find_one() would return null (or is it nil in ruby?) if the
> system wasn't found in cobbler.  It seems that what actually happens is
> that
> some exception is thrown (or whatever the ruby equivalent to an exception
> is) instead so everything failed.  Not knowing ruby at all and knowing that
> the system wasn't there I just commented out the check and let it simply
> add
> the system.  That allowed the VM settings to be saved and the VM was
> created
> in the user interface.  I then put the code that I commented out back in to
> see if find_one would still be a problem.  Wasn't a problem anymore, could
> edit the VM and everything which is why I'm assuming that the assumptions
> about what find_one does when the system isn't in cobbler are incorrect.
>
> Now when you boot the VM it tries to boot of the cdrom as you'd expect only
> it can't actually find the cdrom.  I logged on to the node and did a dump
> of
> the xml for the vm.  The OS was set to boot off cdrom as expected, however,
> there's no cdrom entry in there at all.  The ISO is described as a "disk".
>
> To get around this I:
> - started the VM
> - logged in to the node running the VM
> - dumped the xml for the VM to a file
> - in the disk entry for the ISO I changed <disk type='block' device='disk'>
> to <disk type='block' device='cdrom'>
> - destroyed the running VM
> - created the VM from the edited xml file
>
> The VM boots, finds the cdrom and does its thing.
>
> Sorry if that's all a bit long winded but I hope it helps.
>
> Now as far as installing W2k8R2 goes, has anyone managed that?  It starts
> to
> boot and then just stops, the VM gets destroyed so I'm assuming it crashes.
> The same problem occurs with Win7 and SBS2008R2 at about the same point.  I
> have installed SBS2008R2 under kvm on a RHEL5.5 box without issue.  I've
> seen mention of a bug where W2k8R2 has a BSOD under KVM.  This has
> apparently been fixed but perhaps it hasn't made it to the version of
> qemu-kvm in ovirt.
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Cheers,
> Justin.
>
>
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