Virt-install usage example

Building VMs with virt-install

The script that builds the VM:

#!/bin/bash

#####Setup up for the guest

host_name='myhostname'
user_name='myusername'
password='mypassword'

distro='bionic'
virt_ram='2048'
disk_path='/var/lib/kvm'
disk_size=9
virt_cpu='2'

network_bridge="br0"
ip_adress='192.168.0.36'
netmask='255.255.255.0'
gateway='192.168.0.1'
nameservers='192.168.0.1'

##### Change variables into the preseed.cfg file

sed -i "s|^d-i netcfg/get_hostname string.*|d-i netcfg/get_hostname string $host_name|" preseed.cfg
sed -i "s|^d-i netcfg/get_domain string.*|d-i netcfg/get_domain string $host_name|" preseed.cfg

sed -i "s|^d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string.*|d-i netcfg/get_ipaddress string $ip_adress|" preseed.cfg
sed -i "s|^d-i netcfg/get_netmask string.*|d-i netcfg/get_netmask string $netmask|" preseed.cfg
sed -i "s|^d-i netcfg/get_gateway string.*|d-i netcfg/get_gateway string $gateway|" preseed.cfg
sed -i "s|^d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string.*|d-i netcfg/get_nameservers string $nameservers|" preseed.cfg

sed -i "s|^d-i passwd/user-fullname string.*|d-i passwd/user-fullname string $user_name|" preseed.cfg
sed -i "s|^d-i passwd/username string.*|d-i passwd/username string $user_name|" preseed.cfg
sed -i "s|^d-i passwd/user-password password.*|d-i passwd/user-password password $password|" preseed.cfg
sed -i "s|^d-i passwd/user-password-again password.*|d-i passwd/user-password-again password $password|" preseed.cfg

##### Create folder where disk will be stored

mkdir -p /var/lib/kvm/${host_name}

#### Run virt-install command

virt-install \
--name $host_name \
--ram $virt_ram \
--disk path=${disk_path}/${host_name}/${host_name}.qcow2,size=${disk_size},format=qcow2,bus=virtio \
--vcpus ${virt_cpu} \
--os-type linux \
--os-variant auto \
--autostart \
--network bridge=$network_bridge \
--graphics none \
--console pty,target_type=serial \
--location "http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/${distro}/main/installer-amd64/" \
--initrd-inject=preseed.cfg \
--extra-args 'locale=en_US auto=true priority=critical console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial file=file:/preseed.cfg'

preseed.cfg file can be found here.