Creating a new virtual machine in Virtual Machine Manager¶

Step one: Running Virtual Machine Manager¶

Virtual Machine Manager tool is available under virt-manager command. It can be run from console, or desktop window manager application launcher. Once you have started it, you should see a window like this:

Step two: New Virtual Machine dialog¶

This dialog can be brought up by hitting the leftmost button in the top toolbar. This button is also highlighted in the picture above. After you should see this dialog:

Here you need first to enter the name of the new VM and choose way how you want to install the operating system.

Step three: Choposing the location of instalation media¶

In this step you choose location of instalation media and also the operating system type and version.

Please choose the right options in this step, so libvirt choose the right hypervisor settings.

Step four: Memory and CPU settings¶

Now you need to decide how much of your physical RAM can be alocated by VM and how many processors can be used by it.

Step five: Storage¶

Although you may create a diskless machine, you may also create a new virtual disk or attach existing one. You may decide how big should the new virtual disk (also referenced as volume) be.

You may also choose wheter to allocate entire disk now or use so called sparse one. Fully allocating storage may take a longer now, but the operating system instalation phase will be quicker. Skipping allocation can also cause space issues on the host machine, it the maximum image size exceeds available storage space.

Note: If you choose creating a image on the computer's hard drive, by default a raw format will be used. If you want to use any other, choose "Select managed or other existing storage". A file dialog will come up where you can create a new volume by hitting the "New Volume" button.

Step six: Network and summarization¶

In this step you can see the summarization and choose the network VM should be connected to.

You can also specify a MAC address for newtork device and/or customize configuration before install.

Last step: Running a new Virtual Machine¶

The last step is actually running your fresh new VM.