kvm-vm-metal

README

kvm-vm-metal

Defines empty KVM virtual machines that imitate the hardware shape of a physical server.

What it does

Creates empty libvirt domains for PXE-based OS installation testing.

Prerequisites

• sudo
• qemu-img
• virsh
• virt-install
• ovmf

Usage

$ kvm-vm-metal [OPTIONS] -nic ... -disk ... VM_NAME

At least one -nic and one -disk are required. Both flags are repeatable.

NIC specification

-nic bridge=NAME[,model=MODEL]

• bridge (required): host bridge name
• model (default e1000e): NIC model. Examples: e1000e, e1000, igb, virtio, rtl8139

Disk specification

-disk size=SIZE[,bus=BUS]

• size (required): disk size accepted by qemu-img create (e.g. 20G, 500G)
• bus (default sata): disk bus. Examples: sata, virtio, scsi

Disk image files are created under /var/lib/libvirt/images/ as VM_NAME-disk0.qcow2, VM_NAME-disk1.qcow2, and so on.

Examples

Minimal VM with one NIC and one disk:

$ kvm-vm-metal -nic bridge=br0 -disk size=50G node-01

Two NICs on different bridges and three disks:

$ kvm-vm-metal \
    -nic bridge=br-prov \
    -nic bridge=br-data \
    -disk size=20G \
    -disk size=500G \
    -disk size=500G \
    node-01

Custom CPU and memory:

$ kvm-vm-metal -memory 4096 -vcpus 4 -nic bridge=br0 -disk size=100G node-03

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.