What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?
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I've found that the very best way to manage your KVM virtual machines is to SSH into the KVM hypervisor and use the
virshcommand. Nothing beats that.If you need a GUI, I've found Virt-Manager to be the next best.
If you would like a whole management interface GUI that is similar to Microsoft's System Center Virtual Machine Manager, then you should look into oVirt. I'm currently doing some things with oVirt and I really like it.
As other's mentioned, the Kimchi-Project is an excellent way to manage your KVM server and VMs via HTML5 web interface. I've got a guide on my blog on how to set it up here: https://www.timothygruber.com/linux/fedora-26-kvm-html5-remote-access-with-web-console-via-kimchi-part-1/
There is also
cockpit-machines, a part of Cockpit, a web interface, but that only allows you to reboot/shutdown/on/off your virtual machines, and also allows you to view your VMs through your browser. -
I'm not sure to get Kimchi architecture. Do you need to install it on each node? There is no "pool" concept in KVM world?
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@olivier Have you looked at oVirt + Gluster https://www.ovirt.org/blog/2017/04/up-and-running-with-ovirt-4.1-and-gluster-storage/
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@olivier said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
I'm not sure to get Kimchi architecture. Do you need to install it on each node? There is no "pool" concept in KVM world?
Nope. It can manage several different KVM servers via a single VM.
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@Tim_G I need to take 4.2 for a spin https://www.ovirt.org/blog/2017/11/introducing-ovirt-4.2.0-beta/
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@fateknollogee said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@Tim_G I need to take 4.2 for a spin https://www.ovirt.org/blog/2017/11/introducing-ovirt-4.2.0-beta/
Let me know how it goes, I haven't tried 4.2 yet.
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@Tim_G Will Kimchi display vm info from multiple hosts in a single pane? (I assume it's 1:1)
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@fateknollogee said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@Tim_G Will Kimchi display vm info from multiple hosts in a single pane? (I assume it's 1:1)
No it's per server basis. If it can, I'm not aware of it and haven't even had the thought to look or try.
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@fateknollogee said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@olivier Have you looked at oVirt + Gluster https://www.ovirt.org/blog/2017/04/up-and-running-with-ovirt-4.1-and-gluster-storage/
I'm not searching for a "complete" solution, I'm asking for an API to possibly use on top.
Beyond that, oVirt is a but ugly in some ways (probably because there is not "complete" native stack for KVM
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@tim_g said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@fateknollogee said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@Tim_G Will Kimchi display vm info from multiple hosts in a single pane? (I assume it's 1:1)
No it's per server basis. If it can, I'm not aware of it and haven't even had the thought to look or try.
That's even worse than I assumed
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@olivier said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
I'm not searching for a "complete" solution, I'm asking for an API to possibly use on top.
Beyond that, oVirt is a but ugly in some ways (probably because there is not "complete" native stack for KVM
I know you aren't looking for a complete solution.
I thought you might look at oVirt, see how they are doing whatever they do & then you would do it "better" -
Within ALL people using KVM in the world, nobody took time to make a valid API that's not a Rube Goldberg machine? (OpenStack or so) I can't understand that.
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@fateknollogee said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@olivier said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
I'm not searching for a "complete" solution, I'm asking for an API to possibly use on top.
Beyond that, oVirt is a but ugly in some ways (probably because there is not "complete" native stack for KVM
I know you aren't looking for a complete solution.
I thought you might look at oVirt, see how they are doing whatever they do & then you would do it "better"Last time I did, I had a headache and my eyes bleed for a week
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@olivier said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
Within ALL people using KVM in the world, nobody took time to make a valid API that's not a Rube Goldberg machine? I can't understand that.
I hear what you're saying about the lack of API, but there must be some reason KVM is kicking the crap out of XS...
Nutanix, GCP, AWS, IBM....all using/moving/switching to KVM -
@fateknollogee That's not that simple. And you can't compare apple to carrots.
You can compare KVM and Xen. You can't compare XS and KVM.
In terms of "full stack" API, there is no "standard" for KVM. Everyone is doing is own stuff. That's not what I call a success
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@olivier said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@fateknollogee That's not that simple. And you can't compare apple to carrots.
Apples to carrots, bananas (insert fav veggie or fruit)..
You can define success any way you want...at the end of the day, any of those companies could have chosen Xen/XS, they all decided not to. I have to assume these companies did their homework! -
@fateknollogee Companies switch from various hypervisors for their own reasons, especially big ones (when you can get specific hardware from Intel, you are in a Top10 hardware user in general).
But there is also companies switching from KVM to Xen (eg Gandi, a relatively important hosting company): https://news.gandi.net/en/2017/07/a-more-xen-future/
So, as you can see, it's not binary. Xen is also very popular in embed world (automotive etc.), and China is also a powerful player now.
I'm not telling Xen is better. It's different: this is a microkernel that boot before Linux, with the good (sec, isolation) and the bad (less easy to understand/manage by default). It's also the oldest open source hypervisor!
So in the end, having multiple hypervisors is a good thing. Frankly, I don't care about the "bare" hypervisor market "behavior", it's already a commodity.
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@olivier said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
I'm not telling Xen is better. It's different: this is a microkernel that boot before Linux, with the good (sec, isolation) and the bad (less easy to understand/manage by default). It's also the oldest open source hypervisor!
Oldest period (that went into production) for IA32. It predates ESXi.
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@olivier said in What is KVM Best Management Tools in 2017?:
@fateknollogee That's not that simple. And you can't compare apple to carrots.
You can compare KVM and Xen. You can't compare XS and KVM.
In terms of "full stack" API, there is no "standard" for KVM. Everyone is doing is own stuff. That's not what I call a success
What exactly are you looking for with KVM? There are lots of ways to fully manage KVM... the best way is with CLI "virsh", and virt-manager.
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@scottalanmiller To be fair I had IBM mainframes in mind ^^
