Install a new guest remotely?

Hello I am going crazy trying to figure out a way to do a fedora install on our kvm server... Ubuntu installs are easy I dont need X, but fedora is a pain I'm using virt-install but I need X installed, we do not install X on our servers at all, and will rather not to. So can I do this remotely from my linux desktop with X? if so do I need to mount a partition on both the host and my desktop computer? I have try to do a remote install but keeps complaining about the storage place..
PS: any way to do a fedora12 install with out a stupid GUI?

Thanks
Chris F.

Hello:

Our KVM servers are remote and do not have X installed.

When we install a guest, we tell it to use vnc by adding --vnc --noautoconsole to the virt-install command.

Then use virsh vncdisplay to get the port on the server to connect your VNC viewer. We use an SSH tunnel for the connection to ensure security.

Neil

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Yep, that is the best way to run virt-install on a head-less machine

You can also use "virt-viewer" to automate that bit of the process

  virt-viewer --connect qemu+ssh://root@servername/system GUESTNAME

and virt-viewer will connect to libvirt on the remote host, query the VNC port and setup an SSH tunnel for the VNC connection. It is essentially a VNC client that knows about libvirt. It can do TLS or SASL security instead of SSH tunnels too if desired

Regards,
Daniel

|: Red Hat, Engineering, London   -o-   http://people.redhat.com/berrange/ :|
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connect

ensure

ok so I must to be doing something wrong..
here is my line:
virt-install --connect qemu:///system -n fedora_core12 -r 1048576 --vcpus=2 -f /var/kvm_image
s_local/fedora_core12.qcow2 -s 20 -c ~/Fedora-12-x86_64-netinst.iso --os-type linux --acce
lerate --vnc --noautoconsole --network=bridge:br0 --hvm

then I get:

Starting install...
monitor socket did not show up.: Connection refused Domain installation may not have been
successful. If it was, you can restart your domain by running 'virsh start fedora_core12'; otherwise, please restart your installation.
ERROR monitor socket did not show up.: Connection refused
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/virt-install", line 780, in <module>

    main()

File "/usr/bin/virt-install", line 678, in main
start_time, guest.start_install)
File "/usr/bin/virt-install", line 733, in do_install
dom = install_func(conscb, progresscb, wait=(not wait))
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 541,
in start_install
return self._do_install(consolecb, meter, removeOld, wait)
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/virtinst/Guest.py", line 633,
in _do_install
self.domain = self.conn.createLinux(install_xml, 0)
File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/libvirt.py", line 1077, in
createLinux
if ret is None:raise libvirtError('virDomainCreateLinux() failed',
conn=self)
libvirtError: monitor socket did not show up.: Connection refused

Thanks.

[snip]

This all basically says the KVM guest failed to start. Check the log file in /var/log/libvirt/qemu/$NAME.log for possible further details

Regards,
Daniel

|: Red Hat, Engineering, London   -o-   http://people.redhat.com/berrange/ :|
|: http://libvirt.org  -o-  http://virt-manager.org  -o-  http://ovirt.org :|
|: http://autobuild.org       -o-         http://search.cpan.org/~danberr/ :|
|: GnuPG: 7D3B9505  -o-  F3C9 553F A1DA 4AC2 5648 23C1 B3DF F742 7D3B 9505 :|

Thanks but this is the only info I got in the log
cat fedora_core12.log
LC_ALL=C PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin /usr/bin/kvm -S -M pc-0.11 -m 1048576 -smp 2 -name fedora_core12 -uuid f1038428-1cda-764b-f35c-f5270f8022cb -monitor unix:/var/run/libvirt/qemu/fedora_core12.monitor,server,nowait -no-reboot -boot d -drive file=/var/kvm_images_local/fedora_core12.qcow2,if=ide,index=0 -drive file=/root/Fedora-12-x86_64-netinst.iso,if=ide,media=cdrom,index=2 -net nic,macaddr=54:52:00:03:63:c4,vlan=0,name=nic.0 -net tap,fd=19,vlan=0,name=tap.0 -serial pty -parallel none -usb -vnc 127.0.0.1:4 -k en-us -vga cirrus
char device redirected to /dev/pts/5

ok found this on syslog
qemudDomainLookupByName:2677 : Domain not found: no domain with
matching name 'fedora_core12'

I have 4 guest running on this server with no issues why is telling me it cant find a domain?

virsh list --all

       Architecte Informatique chez Blueline/Gulfsat:
    Administration Systeme, Recherche & Developpement
                +261 34 29 155 34 / +261 33 11 207 36

I dont know about the command you are using.
I usually use a command like this:

virt-install -n v1067 -r 512 --vcpus=1 --os-type=linux --os-variant=ubuntuhardy -v --accelerate -c /tmp/turnkey-lamp-2009.10-hardy-x86.iso -f /var/lib/libvirt/images/v1067.img -s 15 -b br0 --vnc --noautoconsole

Also, if I understand correctly, the -r command is in megabytes so you are allocating a very large amount of ram to your guest.

Neil

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86.iso -f /var/lib/libvirt/images/v1067.img

you got it!!! it was the ram.. thanks so much:

Domain installation still in progress. You can reconnect to the console to complete the installation process.

so now I can use

virt-viewer --connect qemu+ssh://root@servername/system GUESTNAME

going to try this. thanks again