How can I manage KVM in Windows?

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AveryFreeman

consummate homelabber
Mar 17, 2017
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Near Seattle
averyfreeman.com
Hi,

I am experimenting with a KVM machine I put together using Alpine 3.6.2 with ZFS, and I was wondering if anyone has any ideas how I can manage it from a Windows laptop? I tried to install virt-viewer MSI, but the installer just exits after clicking the first 'next'.

Can anyone suggest any alternatives for KVM management? Doesn't have to be Windows software necessarily, server-side web client would be fine, too... I'm all ears.

Also, does anyone know of a manager that can manage hypervisors of several ilks? Is there anything out there that can manage, say, ESXi, KVM, Hyper-V and Xen, all in one tool?

Thanks,
Avery
 

vl1969

Active Member
Feb 5, 2014
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I am not sure about ESXi, but check out Cloudmin Webmin
you can play with free GPL version but for it to manage multiple servers you will need paid version.
 

saivert

Member
Nov 2, 2015
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Norway
Proxmox is absolutely the easiest but if you are already set on a different distro there are some alternatives.

If you use Windows you can run VcXsrv and X11 forward virt-manager running on your server. With Windows Subsystem for Linux (available in Windows 10) you can also run virt-manager locally (which I do).

How do I get X11 Forwarding to work on Windows with PuTTY and Xming?

As for web interfaces yon can try GitHub - retspen/webvirtcloud: WebVirtCloud is virtualization web interface for admins and users in addition to the Cloudmin mentioned previously in this thread. WebVirtCloud is fairly minimalistic and is geared more towards customer use but it does cover the basics of storage, networking and lets you edit the domain XML for more advanced settings.
There is also do oVirt but that is far more than just a web interface.
 

vl1969

Active Member
Feb 5, 2014
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Hi, thanks -- I've used Webmin before just for bare metal *NIX installs -- does one of those manage virtual machines, as well? (I noticed they have one called "VirtualMin" ... hmm)
no VirtualMin is different.

VirtualMin is for management of hosted virtual system themself, as in you install and use VirtualMin on the VM instance alongside of webmin to manage the websites and other related things on that one instance.
Cloudmin is more like host management as in you use it to manage the hypervisor host.
create and configure VM, manage VM. cloudmin can manage multiple hypervisor hosts.

here is a quick and dirty outline of what is what Webmin: One big drawback to using this data center management tool
 

whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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This 'may' be a good case for oVirt...or proxmox like others have said. VirtViewer works well when paired w/ oVirt or native console pops in browser. Gotta have a lil' chops to get it installed/setup...more than proxmox for sure.

My vote (if it counts)
Option 1:

Proxmox or oVirt, web manage (java/flash/html5, etc.) or use native tools (RDP/ssh for brunt of work) or platform tools/clients for console access.


Option 2: (example/screenshot in next post)

Base KVM install on CentOS7 (distro of choice) host then use ssh X11 forwarding from your windows machine (IE: use MobaXterm, native PC-X server built in, solid). of the 'virt-manager' client/GUI frontend once ssh'ed into the KVM host will work pretty reliably as well.

Quick...painless...yeah I like quick/painless :-D
 
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whitey

Moderator
Jun 30, 2014
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Al la "ssh X11 forwarding 'virt-viewer' KVM client/frontend"
(you can tell how long my standalone/nested KVM host has been down, win7 I rock/win lol)

upload_2017-11-7_22-58-30.png
 
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