After you have installed the virtualization packages on the host system you can create guest operating systems. This chapter describes the general processes for installing guest operating systems on virtual machines. You can create guests using the New button in virt-manager or use the command line interface virt-install. Both methods are covered by this chapter.
Detailed installation instructions are available for specific versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, other Linux distributions, Solaris and Windows. Refer to Chapter 6, Guest operating system installation processes for those procedures.
5.1. Creating a guest with virt-install
You can use the virt-install command to create virtualized guests from the command line. virt-install is used either interactively or as part of a script to automate the creation of virtual machines. Using virt-install with Kickstart files allows for unattended installation of virtual machines.
The virt-install tool provides a number of options one can pass on the command line. To see a complete list of options run:
$ virt-install --help
An important option is the --vnc option which opens a window for graphical guest installation.
