Deploying RHEL Virtualization profiles

Make sure that you understand the IBM Flex System Manager management software conditions for the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Virtualization profile before you attempt to deploy this type of operating system image.

When you import the Red Hat Enterprise Linux ISO image, the management software generates three different OS image profiles: Minimal, Basic and Virtualization. The RHEL Virtualization profile configures Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) Platform Agent and other VMControl integration steps.

Note: If VMControl is not activated before you deploy the image and you want to manage the virtual server/host through VMControl, you must activate the VMControl plug-in and then collect inventory on the virtual server/host manually for the deployed operating system. See Activating VMControl for more information.

Accessing deployed virtual machines through Remote Control

The KVM QEMU virtualization technology supports VNC pass-through connections from the hypervisor host to deployed virtual machines. To enable this support, you must modify the iptables or ip6tables on the host to allow connections to the ports that are used for the VNC pass-through. Typically, the port that corresponds to the first VM is 5900, the port for the second VM is 5901, and so on. After the ports are opened in the firewall, you can use VNC and the management software Remote Control application to access the VM.

The following example shows iptables calls from the KVM host to open 50 ports on the host for VNC access:

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 5900:5950 -j ACCEPT

service iptables save

service iptables restart

For more information about how to use Remote Control (which uses VNC) from Linux and Windows clients, and how to set up a secure tunnel between the VNC client and VNC server, see Accessing your KVM host remotely.

For more information about VMControl KVM requirements, including NFS-based and SAN storage configurations, see Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) requirements and support.