Vnx-rootfskvmdebian

How to create a KVM Debian Linux root filesystem for VNX

Basic installation

Follow this procedure to create a KVM Debian Linux based root filesystem for VNX. The procedure has been tested with Debian 6, 7 and 8, as well as Debian based Kali Linux distribution (http://www.kali.org).

• Create the filesystem disk image:

qemu-img create -f qcow2 vnx_rootfs_kvm_debian.qcow2 8G

• Get Ubuntu installation CD. For example:

wget http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/6.0.7/i386/iso-cd/debian-6.0.7-i386-netinst.iso
cp debian-6.0.7-i386-netinst.iso /almacen/iso

• Create the virtual machine with:

vnx --create-rootfs vnx_rootfs_kvm_debian.qcow2 --install-media /almacen/iso/debian-6.0.7-i386-netinst.iso --mem 512M

Note: add "--arch x86_64" option for 64 bits virtual machines

• Follow Debian Linux installation menus to install a the system (with or without GUI).
• Configure a serial console on ttyS0:
• Edit /etc/default/grub:

GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="console=ttyS0"

• Add the following line to /etc/inittab (skip this step for Debian 8 Jessie):

0:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 ttyS0

• Make grub process the previous config changes:

update-grub

• Finally, delete the net udev rules file and halt the system:

rm /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules
halt -p

Configuration

• Restart the system with the following command:

vnx --modify-rootfs vnx_rootfs_kvm_debian.qcow2 --update-aced --mem 512M

Note: add "--arch x86_64" option for 64 bits virtual machines Note: ignore the errors "timeout waiting for response on VM socket".

• Access the system through the text console to easy the copy-paste of commands:

virsh console vnx_rootfs_kvm_debian.qcow2

• Access the console with root account and update the system

apt-get update
apt-get dist-upgrade

• Install XML::DOM perl package and ACPI daemon:

apt-get install libxml-libxml-perl libnetaddr-ip-perl acpid

• Install VNX autoconfiguration daemon:

mount /dev/sdb /mnt/
perl /mnt/vnxaced-lf/install_vnxaced

• Edit /etc/network/interfaces file and comment all lines related to eth0, eth1, etc interfaces. Leave only the loopback (lo) interface.
• Optional: install other services:
• Apache server:

apt-get install apache2
update-rc.d -f apache2 remove   # to avoid automatic start

• Create a file /etc/vnx_rootfs_version to store version number and informacion about modification:

VER=v0.25
OS=debian 6.0.7
DESC=Basic Debian 6.0.7 root filesystem

• Stop the machine with vnx_halt:

sudo vnx_halt

If everything went well, your root filesystem will be ready to be used with VNX. You can make a simple test using the simple_debian.xml scenario distributed with VNX.

Installing additional software

To install additional software or to modify your root file system, you just have to:

• Start a virtual machine from it:

vnx --modify-rootfs vnx_rootfs_kvm_debian.qcow2

• Check network connectivity. Maybe you have to activate the network interface by hand:

dhclient eth0

Note: use "ip link show" to know which network interface to use.

• Do the modifications you want.
• Finally, halt the system using:

vnx_halt

Examples

• dhcp server and relay:
• Install dhcp3 packages:

apt-get install dhcp3-server dhcp3-relay

• Disable autostart (optional):

update-rc.d -f isc-dhcp-server remove
update-rc.d -f isc-dhcp-relay remove

Updating VNXACED

You can automatically update the VNXACE daemon with the following command:

vnx --modify-rootfs vnx_rootfs_kvm_debian.qcow2 --update-aced -y

If VNXACE daemon is not updated automatically, you can do it manually by accessing the virtual machine console and type:

mount /dev/sdb /mnt/
perl /mnt/vnxaced-lf/install_vnxaced

Known problems

• None described yet