How to Create Virtual Machine using virt-install Command

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The virt-install command is what we are going to use for creating a virtual machine in a KVM environment. This tool can be used in both interactive and non-interactive mode. To create Virtual Machine using virt-install command, the KVM need to be installed on your host machine. Read the article install KVM in Linux. Read more about virt-install command examples and usages.

The virt-install options we are going to use for creating a VM.

  • n Specifying the name of virtual machine.
  • description VM description. Example: App server, database VM, etc.
  • os-type Operating system type: Linux, Unix, or Windows.
  • os-variant Distribution type for the above os-type. For example, for Linux, it can be rhel8.0, centos8.0, ubuntu20.4, etc. For the Windows OS, this could be win2k19, win2k22, win10, win11
  • ram Memory for the VM in MB
  • vcpu Total number of virtual CPUs for the VM.
  • disk path The virtual disk of the VM where the VM image files is stored.
  • graphics none This instructs virt-install to use a text console on VM serial port instead of graphical VNC window.
  • location Indicates the location of installation image. You can specify the NFS or http (location=http://.com/pub/rhel6/x86_64/).
  • network The VM network connection.

Create Virtual Machine using virt-install

Let’s create and launch a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x installation using virt-install command.

virt-install \
-n AppServer \
--description "App Server - RHEL8.x" \
--os-type=Linux \
--os-variant=rhel8.0 \
--ram=2048 \
--vcpus=2 \
--disk path=/mnt/vmstorage/AppSrv-RHEL80x.img,bus=virtio,size=20 \
--location /home/shais/Downloads/rhel-8.4-x86_64-dvd.iso \
--network bridge:virbr1 \
--extra-args='console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial' \
--nographics
Create Virtual Machine using virt Command
Create Virtual Machine using virt Command

You can use the “virt-viewer –connect qemu:///vm” to open up the VM in a new window if you are installing server with GUI.

Once the virt-install command has run successfully, continue to complete the Linux installation. Select the the server features and settings:

  1. Language settings.
  2. Time settings.
  3. Installation source.
  4. Software selection.
  5. Installation Destination.
  6. Kernel Dump.
  7. Network configuration.
  8. Root password.
  9. User creation.

And finally press b to begin the installation and follow up the rest of the Linux installation to finalise and complete it.

Linux Server Installation Features
Linux Server Installation Features

Installation complete. Press ENTER to quit:

Done!

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