KubeVirt Quickstart

This demo will deploy KubeVirt on an existing Kubernetes (1.9 or later) or OpenShift Origin (3.9 or later) cluster. For a quick way to bring up a Kubernetes or OpenShift Origin cluster, see Minikube and Minishift.

Deploy KubeVirt

KubeVirt deploys as an add-on to a Kubernetes (1.9 or later) cluster, using the kubectl tool and the following manifest file:

$ export VERSION=v0.4.1
$ kubectl create \
    -f https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/$VERSION/kubevirt.yaml

Note: The initial deployment to a new cluster can take a long time, because a number of containers have to be pulled from the internet. Use watch kubectl get --all-namespaces pods to monitor the progress.

Deploying KubeVirt on OpenShift Origin

On OpenShift Origin, the following SCCs need to be added prior kubevirt.yaml deployment:

$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged system:serviceaccount:kube-system:kubevirt-privileged
$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged system:serviceaccount:kube-system:kubevirt-controller
$ oc adm policy add-scc-to-user privileged system:serviceaccount:kube-system:kubevirt-infra

$ export VERSION=v0.4.1
$ oc apply -f https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/${VERSION}/kubevirt.yaml

Install virtctl

Note: This requires kubectl from Kubernetes 1.9 or later on the client

An additional binary is provided to get quick access to the serial and graphical ports of a VM, and handle start/stop operations. The tool is called virtctl and can be retrieved from the release page of KubeVirt:

$ curl -L -o virtctl \
    https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/releases/download/$VERSION/virtctl-$VERSION-linux-amd64
$ chmod +x virtctl

Deploy a VirtualMachine

Once you deployed KubeVirt you are ready to launch a VM:

# Creating a virtual machine
$ kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubevirt/demo/master/manifests/vm.yaml

# After deployment you can manage VMs using the usual verbs:
$ kubectl get ovms
$ kubectl get ovms -o yaml testvm

# To start an offline VM you can use
$ ./virtctl start testvm
$ kubectl get vms
$ kubectl get vms -o yaml testvm

# To shut it down again
$ ./virtctl stop testvm

# To delete
$ kubectl delete vms testvm
# To create your own
$ kubectl create -f $YOUR_VM_SPEC

Accessing VMs (serial console & spice)

# Connect to the serial console
$ ./virtctl console testvm

# Connect to the graphical display
# Note: Requires `remote-viewer` from the `virt-viewer` package.
$ ./virtctl vnc testvm

User Guide

Now that KubeVirt is up an running, you can take a look at the user guide to understand how you can create and manage your own virtual machines.

Appendix: Deploying minikube

  1. If not installed, install minikube as described here

    1. Install the kvm2 driver
    2. Download the minikube binary

  2. Launch minikube with CNI:

$ minikube start \
  --vm-driver kvm2 \
  --network-plugin cni

  1. Install kubectl via a package manager or download it

KubeVirt on an existing Kubernetes cluster

If you already have a Kubernetes cluster, you can use kubevirt-ansible to deploy KubeVirt.

First clone the kubevirt-ansible repo on your master Kubernetes node.

git clone https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt-ansible
cd kubevirt-ansible

KubeVirt with no additional storage

To install KubeVirt without adding additional storage capabilities:

ansible-playbook -i localhost -e cluster=k8s -e storage_role=storage-none playbooks/kubevirt.yml

KubeVirt with storage environment for development and testing

KubeVirt can also be installed with a self-contained storage environment, using Ceph and Cinder, that is geared for non-production use. To install KubeVirt with the demo storage environment, first edit the inventory file and populate the section named “masters”, “etcd”, and “nodes”.

# inventory
# BEGIN CUSTOM SETTINGS
[masters]
# Your master FQDN

[etcd]
# Your etcd FQDN

[nodes]
# Your nodes FQDN's

[nfs]
# Your nfs server FQDN

[glusterfs]
# Your glusterfs nodes FQDN
# Each node should have the "glusterfs_devices" variable, which
# points to the block device that will be used by gluster.

#
# If you run openshift deployment
# You can add your master as schedulable node with option openshift_schedulable=true
# Add at least one node with lable to run on it router and docker containers
# openshift_node_labels="{'region': 'infra','zone': 'default'}"
# END CUSTOM SETTINGS

Once you have your inventory file filled in:

ansible-playbook -i inventory -e cluster=k8s -e storage_role=storage-demo playbooks/kubevirt.yml

KubeVirt with GlusterFS and Heketi storage environment

To install GlusterFS and Heketi on Kubernetes, follow the setup guide in gluster-kubernetes repo. You will need to configure the admin key with gk-deploy and at end of the install note the Heketi URL.

Once you have GlusterFS and Heketi installed on your Kubernetes cluster, you can deploy KubeVirt with the storage-glusterfs role to setup a Secret and a StorageClass to allow you to provision Persistent Volume Claims to store your VM images.

First edit the inventory file and populate the sections “master”, “etcd”, “nodes”, and “glusterfs”.

# inventory
# BEGIN CUSTOM SETTINGS
[masters]
# Your master FQDN

[etcd]
# Your etcd FQDN

[nodes]
# Your nodes FQDN's

[nfs]
# Your nfs server FQDN

[glusterfs]
# Your glusterfs nodes FQDN
# Each node should have the "glusterfs_devices" variable, which
# points to the block device that will be used by gluster.

#
# If you run openshift deployment
# You can add your master as schedulable node with option openshift_schedulable=true
# Add at least one node with lable to run on it router and docker containers
# openshift_node_labels="{'region': 'infra','zone': 'default'}"
# END CUSTOM SETTINGS

Then run this playbook, substituting the namespaces and heketi_url to match your environment:

ansible-playbook -i inventory -e cluster=k8s -e storage_role=storage-glusterfs -e namespace=kube-system -e glusterfs_namespace=kube-system -e glusterfs_name= -e heketi_url=http://10.32.0.4:8080 playbooks/kubevirt.yml