ArchLinux:KVM

UNDER CONSTRUCTION: The document is currently being modified!

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GitLab: kyaulabs/autoarch: Arch Linux installation automation.

Introduction

This is a tutorial for setting up and using KVM on Arch Linux utilizing QEMU as the back-end and libvirt as the front-end. Additional notes have been added for creating system images.

UPDATE (2019): Tested/Cleaned Up this document using a Dell R620 located in-house at KYAU Labs as the test machine.

Installation

Before getting started it is a good idea to make sure VT-x or AMD-V is enabled in BIOS.

# egrep --color 'vmx|svm' /proc/cpuinfo

 

If hardware virtualization is not enabled, reboot the machine and enter the BIOS to enable it.

Once hardware virtualization has been verified install all the packages required.

# pikaur -S bridge-utils dmidecode libguestfs libvirt \ openbsd-netcat openssl-1.0 ovmf qemu-headless \ qemu-headless-arch-extra virt-install

Configuration

After all of the packages have been installed libvirt/QEMU need to be configured.

User/Group Management

Create a user for KVM.

# sudo useradd -g kvm -s /usr/bin/nologin kvm

Then modify the libvirt QEMU config to reflect this.

filename: /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

... user = "kvm" group = "kvm" ...

Fix permission on /dev/kvm

# sudo groupmod -g 78 kvm

 

# sudo usermod -u 78 kvm

 

systemd as of 234 assigns dynamic IDs to groups, but KVM expects 78

User Access

If non-root user access to libvirtd is desired, add the libvirt group to polkit access.

filename: /etc/polkit-1/rules.d/50-libvirt.rules

/* Allow users in kvm group to manage the libvirt daemon without authentication */ polkit.addRule(function(action, subject) { if (action.id == "org.libvirt.unix.manage" && subject.isInGroup("libvirt")) { return polkit.Result.YES; } });

 

If HAL was followed to secure the system after installation and you would like to use libvirt as a non-root user, the hidepid security feature from the /proc line in /etc/fstab will need to be removed. This will require a reboot.

Add the users who need libvirt access to the kvm and libvirt groups.

# sudo gpasswd -a username kvm

 

# sudo gpasswd -a username libvirt

To make life easier it is suggested to set a couple shell variables for virsh, this will default to qemu:///session when running as a non-root user.

# setenv VIRSH_DEFAULT_CONNECT_URI qemu:///system

 

# setenv LIBVIRT_DEFAULT_URI qemu:///system

These can be added to /etc/bash.bashrc, /etc/fish/config.fish or /etc/zsh/zshenv depending on which shell is being used.

Hugepages

Enabling hugepages can improve the performance of virtual machines. First add an entry to the fstab, make sure to first check what the group id of the group kvm is (it should be 78.

# grep kvm /etc/group

 

filename: /etc/fstab

hugetlbfs /dev/hugepages hugetlbfs mode=1770,gid=78 0 0

Instead of rebooting, remount instead.

# sudo umount /dev/hugepages # sudo mount /dev/hugepages

This can then be verified.

# sudo mount | grep huge # ls -FalG /dev/ | grep huge

Now to set the number of hugepages to use. For this one has to do a bit of math, for each gigabyte of the system RAM that you want to use for VMs you divide the size in megabytes by two.

On my setup I will dedicated 40GB out of the 48GB of system RAM to VMs. This means (40 * 1024) / 2 or 20480

Set the number of hugepages.

# echo 20480 | sudo tee /proc/sys/vm/nr_hugepages

Also set this permanently by adding a file to /etc/sysctl.d.

filename: /etc/sysctl.d/40-hugepages.conf

vm.nr_hugepages = 20480

Again verify the changes.

# grep HugePages_Total /proc/meminfo

Edit the libvirt QEMU config and turn hugepages on.

filename: /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

... hugetlbfs_mount = "/dev/hugepages" ...

Kernel Modules

In order to mount directories from the host inside of a virtual machine, the 9pnet_virtio kernel module will need to be loaded.

# sudo modprobe 9pnet_virtio

Also load the module on boot.

filename: /etc/modules-load.d/virtio-9pnet.conf

9pnet_virtio

In addition change the global QEMU config to turn off dynamic file ownership.

filename: /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

... dynamic_ownership = 0 ...

UEFI & PCI-E Passthrough

The Open Virtual Machine Firmware (OVMF) is a project to enable UEFI support for virtual machines and enabling IOMMU will enable PCI pass-through among other things. This extends the possibilities for operating system choices significantly and also provides some other options.

GRUB

Enable IOMMU on boot by adding an option to the kernel line in GRUB.

filename: /etc/default/grub

... GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="intel_iommu=on" ...

Re-generate the GRUB config.

# sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

REfind

Enable IOMMU on boot by adding an option to the

filename: /boot/EFI/BOOT/refind.conf

... options "root=/dev/mapper/skye-root rw add_efi_memmap nomodeset intel_iommu=on zswap.enabled=1 zswap.compressor=lz4 \ zswap.max_pool_percent=20 zswap.zpool=z3fold initrd=\intel-ucode.img" ...

Reboot the machine and then verify IOMMU is enabled.

# sudo dmesg | grep -e DMAR -e IOMMU

If it was enabled properly, there should be a line similar to [ 0.000000] DMAR: IOMMU enabled.

OVMF

Adding the OVMF firmware to libvirt.

filename: /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

... nvram = [ "/usr/share/ovmf/x64/OVMF_CODE.fd:/usr/share/ovmf/x64/OVMF_VARS.fd" ] ...

SPICE TLS

Enable SPICE over TLS will allow SPICE to be exposed externally.

Edit the libvirt QEMU config to enable SPICE over TLS.

filename: /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf

... spice_listen = "0.0.0.0" spice_tls = 1 spice_tls_x509_cert_dir = /etc/pki/libvirt-spice ...

Then use the following script to generate the required certificates.

filename: spice-tls.sh

SERVER_KEY=server-key.pem # creating a key for our ca if [ ! -e ca-key.pem ]; then openssl genrsa -des3 -out ca-key.pem 1024 fi # creating a ca if [ ! -e ca-cert.pem ]; then openssl req -new -x509 -days 1095 -key ca-key.pem -out ca-cert.pem -utf8 -subj "/C=WA/L=Seattle/O=KYAU Labs/CN=KVM" fi # create server key if [ ! -e $SERVER_KEY ]; then openssl genrsa -out $SERVER_KEY 1024 fi # create a certificate signing request (csr) if [ ! -e server-key.csr ]; then openssl req -new -key $SERVER_KEY -out server-key.csr -utf8 -subj "/C=WA/L=Seattle/O=KYAU Labs/CN=myhostname.example.com" fi # signing our server certificate with this ca if [ ! -e server-cert.pem ]; then openssl x509 -req -days 1095 -in server-key.csr -CA ca-cert.pem -CAkey ca-key.pem -set_serial 01 -out server-cert.pem fi # now create a key that doesn't require a passphrase openssl rsa -in $SERVER_KEY -out $SERVER_KEY.insecure mv $SERVER_KEY $SERVER_KEY.secure mv $SERVER_KEY.insecure $SERVER_KEY # show the results (no other effect) openssl rsa -noout -text -in $SERVER_KEY openssl rsa -noout -text -in ca-key.pem openssl req -noout -text -in server-key.csr openssl x509 -noout -text -in server-cert.pem openssl x509 -noout -text -in ca-cert.pem

Create the directory for the certificates.

# sudo mkdir -p /etc/pki/libvirt-spice

Change permissions on the directory.

# sudo chmod -R a+rx /etc/pki

Move the generate files to the new directory.

# sudo mv ca-* server-* /etc/pki/libvirt-spice

Correct permissions on the files.

# sudo chmod 660 /etc/pki/libvirt-spice/*

 

# sudo chown kvm:kvm /etc/pki/libvirt-spice/*

Services

Once the bridge is up and running libvirtd can be started, enable and start the libvirtd service.

# sudo systemctl enable libvirtd

 

# sudo systemctl start libvirtd

Verify that libvirt is running.

# virsh --connect qemu:///system

 

Welcome to virsh, the virtualization interactive terminal. Type: 'help' for help with commands 'quit' to quit virsh #

If you end up at the virsh prompt, simply type quit to exit back to the shell.

Networking

The server being used for testing has quad gigabit network cards in it. For this type of setup one NIC will be used for management of the host OS, while the other three will be bonded together using 802.3ad (combines all NICs for optimal throughput).

NIC Bonding

Pull up a list of all network cards in the machines.

# ip -c=auto l

 

1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00 2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether d4:be:d9:b2:95:43 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 3: eth1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether d4:be:d9:b2:95:45 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 4: eth2: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether d4:be:d9:b2:95:47 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff 5: eth3: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000 link/ether d4:be:d9:b2:95:49 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff

Create a management .network file, replace M.M.M.M with the management IP address and G.G.G.G with the gateway IP.

filename: /etc/systemd/network/management.network

[Match] Name=eth0 [Network] DHCP=no NTP=pool.ntp.org DNS=1.1.1.1 LinkLocalAddressing=no [Address] Address=M.M.M.M/24 Label=management [Route] Gateway=G.G.G.G

 

WARNING: If IPv6 is being used, remove the LinkLocalAddressing=no line from the file as this defaults to ipv6.

Create the bond interface with systemd-networkd.

filename: /etc/systemd/network/bond0.netdev

[NetDev] Name=bond0 Description=KVM vSwitch Kind=bond [Bond] Mode=802.3ad TransmitHashPolicy=layer3+4 MIIMonitorSec=1s LACPTransmitRate=fast

Use the last three network cards to create a bond0.network file.

filename: /etc/systemd/network/bond0.network

[Match] Name=eth1 Name=eth2 Name=eth3 [Network] Bond=bond0

Finally create the .network file attaching it to the bridge that is created in the next section.

filename: /etc/systemd/network/kvm0.network

[Match] Name=bond0 [Network] Bridge=kvm0

Network Bridge

Setting up a network bridge for KVM is simple with systemd. Create the bridge interface with systemd-networkd.

filename: /etc/systemd/network/kvm0.netdev

[NetDev] Name=kvm0 Kind=bridge

Create the .network file for the bridge, replace X.X.X.X with the IP address desired for the KVM vSwitch, G.G.G.G with the gateway IP and modify the DNS if Cloudflare is not desired.

filename: /etc/systemd/network/vswitch.network

[Match] Name=kvm0 [Network] DHCP=no NTP=pool.ntp.org DNS=1.1.1.1 IPForward=yes LinkLocalAddressing=no [Address] Address=X.X.X.X/24 Label=vswitch [Route] Gateway=G.G.G.G

And finally restart networkd.

# sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd

The bridge should now be up and running, this should be verified.

# ip -c=auto a

Before adding the bridge to libvirt, check the current networking settings.

# virsh net-list --all

 

Name State Autostart Persistent ---------------------------------------------- default inactive no yes

Create a libvirt configuration for the bridge.

filename: /etc/libvirt/bridge.xml

<network> <name>kvm0</name> <forward mode="bridge"/> <bridge name="kvm0"/> </network>

Enable the bridge in libvirt.

# virsh net-define --file /etc/libvirt/bridge.xml

Set the bridge to auto-start.

# virsh net-autostart kvm0

Start the bridge.

# virsh net-start kvm0

With the bridge now online, the default NAT network can be removed if it will not be used.

# virsh net-destroy default

 

# virsh net-undefine default

This can then be verified.

# virsh net-list --all

 

Name State Autostart Persistent ---------------------------------------------- kvm0 active yes yes

Firewall

Since libvirt cannot directly interface with nftables, it can only interface with iptables, firewalld can be used as a gateway in-between the two. Before it can be started nftables will have to be disabled if it is currently being used.

# sudo systemctl disable nftables

 

# sudo systemctl stop nftables

Install firewalld and dnsmasq.

# pikaur -S dnsmasq firewalld

Start and enable the service.

# sudo systemctl enable firewalld

 

# sudo systemctl start firewalld

Verify the firewall started properly, it should return running.

# sudo firewall-cmd --state

Add both interfaces to the public zone.

# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-interface=eth0

 

# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-interface=kvm0

Reboot the machine to verify the changes stick upon reboot.

# sudo systemctl reboot

The SSH service is added by default to the firewall, allowing one to log back in after reboot.

Look up the default zone config to verify the interfaces were added.

# sudo firewall-cmd --list-all

 

public   target: default   icmp-block-inversion: no   interfaces: eth0 kvm0   sources:   services: dhcpv6-client ssh   ports:   protocols:   masquerade: no   forward-ports:   source-ports:   icmp-blocks:   rich rules:

If any other services need to be added, do so now (a couple examples have been listed below).

# sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-service=https

 

# sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=5900-5950/udp

With the firewall now setup, libvirtd should be fully started without any warnings about the firewall.

# sudo systemctl status libvirtd

 

● libvirtd.service - Virtualization daemon    Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirtd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)    Active: active (running) since Tue 2019-02-26 14:27:12 PST; 16min ago      Docs: man:libvirtd(8)            https://libvirt.org  Main PID: 693 (libvirtd)     Tasks: 17 (limit: 32768)    Memory: 61.3M    CGroup: /system.slice/libvirtd.service            └─693 /usr/bin/libvirtd Feb 26 14:27:12 skye.wa.kyaulabs.com systemd[1]: Started Virtualization daemon.

Storage Pools

A storage pool in libvirt is merely a storage location designated to store virtual machine images or virtual disks. The most common storage types include netfs, disk, dir, fs, iscsi, logical, and gluster.

List all of the currently available storage pools.

# virsh pool-list --all

 

Name State Autostart ---------------------------

ISO Images

Begin by adding a pool for iso-images. If you wish to use something other than an existing mount-point you will have to change the type, options include the ones listed above (more can be found in the man page). A couple of examples are as follows:

filename: iso-images.vol

<pool type='dir'> <name>iso-images</name> <target> <path>/pool/iso</path> <permissions> <mode>0770</mode> <owner>78</owner> <group>78</group> </permissions> </target> </pool>

 

filename: iso-images.vol

<pool type='fs'> <name>iso-images</name> <source> <device path="/dev/vgroup/lvol" /> </source> <target> <path>/pool/iso</path> <permissions> <mode>0770</mode> <owner>78</owner> <group>78</group> </permissions> </target> </pool>

 

filename: iso-images.vol

<pool type='netfs'> <name>iso-images</name> <source> <host name="nfs.example.com" /> <dir path="/nfs-path-to/images" /> <format type='nfs'/> </source> <target> <path>/pool/iso</path> <permissions> <mode>0770</mode> <owner>78</owner> <group>78</group> </permissions> </target> </pool>

After creating the pool XML file, define the pool in libvirt.

# virsh pool-define iso-images.vol

Before you begin using the pool it must also be built, it is also a good idea to set it to auto-start.

# virsh pool-build iso-images

 

# virsh pool-start iso-images

 

# virsh pool-autostart iso-images

The iso-images pool should now be properly setup, feel free to import some images into the directory.

# sudo cp archlinux-2019.02.01-x86_64.iso /pool/iso

Permissions and ownership will need to be set correctly.

# sudo chown kvm:kvm /pool/iso/archlinux-2019.02.01-x86_64.iso

 

# sudo chmod 660 /pool/iso/archlinux-2019.02.01-x86_64.iso

After copying over images and correcting permissions refresh the pool.

# virsh pool-refresh iso-images

The image should now show up in the list of volumes for that pool.

# virsh vol-list iso-images

 

Name Path ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ archlinux-2019.02.01-x86_64.iso /pool/iso/archlinux-2019.02.01-x86_64.iso

Check on the status of all pools that have been added.

# virsh pool-list --all --details

 

Name State Autostart Persistent Capacity Allocation Available --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- iso-images running yes yes 108.75 GiB 4.77 GiB 103.97 GiB

LVM

If LVM is going to be used for the VM storage pool, that can be setup now.

If the volume group has been created manually, the <source> section can be omitted from the XML and skip the build step as that is used to create the LVM volume group.

Begin by creating a storage pool file.

filename: vdisk.vol

<pool type='logical'> <name>vdisk</name> <source> <device path="/dev/sdX3" /> <device path="/dev/sdX4" /> </source> <target> <path>/dev/vdisk</path> <permissions> <mode>0770</mode> <owner>78</owner> <group>78</group> </permissions> </target> </pool>

After creating the pool XML file, define the pool in libvirt, build it and set it to auto-start.

# virsh pool-define vdisk.vol

 

# virsh pool-build vdisk

 

# virsh pool-start vdisk

 

# virsh pool-autostart vdisk

Grant ownership of the LVM volumes to the kvm group in order to properly mount them using Libvirt.

filename: /etc/udev/rules.d/90-kvm.rules

ENV{DM_VG_NAME}=="vdisk" ENV{DM_LV_NAME}=="*" OWNER="kvm"

Continuing as is will allow libvirtd to automatically manage the LVM volume on its own.

LVM Thin Volumes

Before going down this road, there are a couple of things to consider.

WARNING: If thin provisioning is enabled, LVM automation via libvirtd will be broken.

In a standard LVM logical volume, all of the block are allocated when the volume is created, but blocks in a thin provisioned LV are allocated as they are written. Because of this, a thin provisioned logical volume is given a virtual size, and can then be much larger than physically available storage.

WARNING: Over-provisioning is NEVER recommended, whether it is CPU, RAM or HDD space.

With the warnings out of the way, if thin provisioning is desired begin by creating a thin pool.

# sudo lvcreate -l +100%FREE -T vdisk/thin

A volume group named vdisk was prepared using the previous steps via virsh build, if this was skipped either go back and redo it or prepare the volume group yourself. Doing it this way has the added benefit of breaking only most of the LVM functionality of libvirt.

VM Creation

With libvirt setup completed, time to create the first VM. Before we can begin with the VM installation a logical volume needs to be created for the VM.

If you chose the default setup using regular LVM, feel free to use virsh.

# virsh vol-create-as vdisk vmname 32GiB

If you went the route of thin volumes, create the logical volume manually.

# sudo lvcreate -V 32G -T vdisk/thin -n vmname

Take the time now to install virt-manager on a client machine running X11. Connection to the KVM machine over SSH using virt-manager should now be possible.

Adding a hosts entry is only required for console access over SSH when both machines are on the same local network.

Add a hosts entry for the KVM machine on the client machine if required.

filename: /etc/hosts

X.X.X.X vmhost

Start the VM installation.

# virt-install \ --virt-type=kvm --hvm \ --name vmname \ --cpu host-model --vcpus=2 --ram 2048 \ --network=bridge=kvm0,model=virtio \ --graphics spice,port=4901,tlsport=5901,listen=127.0.0.1,password=moo \ --cdrom=/pool/iso/archlinux-2019.02.01-x86_64.iso \ --disk path=/dev/vdisk/vmname,bus=virtio \ --console pty,target_type=serial --wait -1 --boot uefi

If this fails with a Permission denied error having to do with an nvram file, change the permissions accordingly and then re-run virt-install.

# sudo chown kvm:kvm /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/vmname_VARS.fd

 

# sudo chmod 660 /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/vmname_VARS.fd

Normally one would use --location instead of --cdrom so that --extra-args could be used to enable the console. However, Arch Linux being a hybrid iso cannot do this.

If all went well it should print out the following:

Starting install... Domain installation still in progress. Waiting for installation to complete.

At this point return to virt-manager on the client machine and connect to the remote libvirt instance. Then select the new virtual machine and choose Open. The remote virtual machine installation should now be on screen.

If you were lucky enough to catch the installation at the boot menu, press the <TAB> key to add the console to the kernel line before booting.

...archiso.img console=ttyS0

Follow through with the installation via the console.

See also: Arch Linux Installation 

After installation make sure to re-add the kernel parameter console=ttyS0, then reboot the VM.

If the console resolution is too large, it can be shrunk with the kernel parameter nomodeset vga=276 to set it to 800x600. More information here

Once the console kernel parameter(s) have been added, verify this is working.

# virsh console vmname

Once connected press <ENTER> to get to the login prompt.

Editing Marker

QCOW2 images can be converted directly to the LVM volumes.

# sudo qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw system-image.qcow2 /dev/data/lvmvol

Virsh

Virsh is the command line interface for libvirt. It can be used to import the QEMU arguments into an XML format that libvirt will understand.

To make life easier it is suggested to make a shell alias for virsh.

# alias virsh="virsh -c qemu:///system"

Save the QEMU arguments used before to a temporary file.

# echo "/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 --enable-kvm -machine q35,accel=kvm -device intel-iommu \ -m 512 -smp 1 -cpu Broadwell -drive file=/dev/data/dns,cache=none,if=virtio,format=raw \ -net bridge,br=kvm0 -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=00:00:00:00:00:00 -vga qxl \ -spice port=5900,addr=127.0.0.1,disable-ticketing \ -monitor unix:/tmp/monitor-dns.sock,server,nowait" > kvm.args

Temporarily changing the CPU because virsh cannot recognize host

Convert this to XML format.

# virsh domxml-from-native qemu-argv kvm.args > dns.xml

Then open up the XML file in an editor and change the name, cpu and graphics block.

filename: dns.xml

… <name>DNS (Arch64)</name> … <cpu mode='host-passthrough' /> … <graphics type='spice' port='5900' autoport='no' listen='127.0.0.1'> <listen type='address' address='127.0.0.1' /> </graphics> …

The last two qemu:commandline arguments can also be removed as they were setting up the SPICE server which is done through the graphics block.

The XML should now be in a similar state as to when it was executed with the QEMU binary.

Import the XML into libvirt.

# virsh define dns.xml

The VM can now be launched.

# virsh start DNS

SSH and SPICE over SSH should both now work and the machine should be running. Use the following to start the machine on boot.

# virsh autostart DNS

If you have issues auto-starting the machine, check the logfile /var/log/libvirt/qemu/.

A reboot of the host machine at this point should yield the virtual machine DNS starting up automatically.

Virt-Manager

Virt-manager can be used to manage the virtual machines remotely.

Virt-manager can now be installed on the local machine (the one viewing this tutorial not the KVM host machine), this can be used to connect to libvirt remotely via SSH.

# pacaur -S virt-manager

Connect remotely to QEMU/KVM with virt-manager over SSH and the virtual machine should be shown as running.

Packer

Packer is a tool for automating the creation of virtual machines, in this instance it will be used to automate the creation of Vagrant boxes. I have already taken the time to create a packer template for Arch Linux based off of my installation tutorials, but I encourage you to use this only as a basis and delve deeper to create your own templates. I could have very easily just have downloaded someone else's templates, but then I would lack understanding.

GitHub: kyau/packer-kvm-templates

Vagrant-Libvirt

The libvirt plugin installation for vagrant requires some cleanup first.

# sudo mv /opt/vagrant/embedded/lib/libcurl.so{,.backup} # sudo mv /opt/vagrant/embedded/lib/libcurl.so.4{,.backup} # sudo mv /opt/vagrant/embedded/lib/libcurl.so.4.4.0{,.backup} # sudo mv /opt/vagrant/embedded/lib/pkgconfig/libcurl.pc{,backup}

Then build the plugin.

# vagrant plugin install vagrant-libvirt

Templates

The Packer templates are in JSON format and contain all of the information needed to create the virtual machine image. Descriptions of all the template sections and values, including default values, can be found in the Packer docs. For Arch Linux, the template file archlinux-x86_64-base-vagrant.json will be used to generate an Arch Linux qcow2 virtual machine image.

# git clone https://github.com/kyau/packer-kvm-templates

To explain the template a bit, inside of the builders section the template is specifying that it is a qcow2 image running on QEMU KVM. A few settings are being imported from user variables that are being set in the previous section, this includes the ISO url and checksum, the country setting, disk space for the VMs primary hard drive, the amount of RAM to dedicate to the VM, how many vCores to dedicated to the VM, whether or not it is a headless VM or not, and the login and password for the primary SSH user. These are all set as user variables and placed in a section at the top to be able to make quick edits. The template also specifies that the VM should use virtio for the disk and network interfaces. Lastly the builtin web server in Packer and the boot commands; the http_directory specifies which directory will be the main root of the builtin web server (this enables one to host files up for the VM to access during installation). The boot_command is an array of commands that are to be executed upon boot in order to kick-start the installer. Finally, the qemuargs should be rather apparent as they are the arguments passed to QEMU.

# cd packer-kvm-templates

Looking then at the provisioners section which is executing three separate scripts after the machine has booted. These scripts are also being passed the required user variables that are set at the top of the file as shell variables. The install.sh script is the one that installs Arch Linux, hardnening.sh is the script that applies hardening the Arch Linux installation and finally cleanup.sh is there for general cleanup after the installation is complete. While the README.md does have all of this information for the packer templates, it will also be detailed here.

For added security generate a new moduli for your VMs (or copy from /etc/ssh/moduli.

# ssh-keygen -G moduli.all -b 4096 # ssh-keygen -T moduli.safe -f moduli.all # mv moduli.safe moduli && rm moduli.all

Enter the directory for the Arch Linux template and sym-link the moduli.

# cd archlinux-x86_64-base/default # ln -s ../../moduli . && cd ..

Build the base virtual machine image.

# ./build archlinux-x86_64-base-vagrant.json

This runs: PACKER_LOG=1 PACKER_LOG_PATH="packer.log" packer-io build archlinux-x86_64-base-vagrant.json, it logs to the current directory

Once finished, there should be a qcow2 vagrant-libvirt image for Arch Linux in the box directory.

Add this image to Vagrant.

# vagrant box add box/archlinux-x86_64-base-vagrant-libvirt.box --name archlinux-x86_64-base

Vagrant-Libvirt

Vagrant can be used to build and manage test machines. The vagrant-libvirt plugin adds a Libvirt provider to Vagrant, allowing Vagrant to control and provision machines via the Libvirt toolkit.

To bring up the first machine initialize Vagrant in a new directory first create a directory for the machine.

# cd # mkdir testmachine # cd testmachine

Init the machine the Vagrant.

# vagrant init archlinux-x86_64-base

Then bring up the machine.

# vagrant up

Then SSH into the machine directly.

# vagrant ssh

Additional Notes

These notes are here from my own install.

# cd ~/packer-kvm-templates/archlinux-x86_64-base # ./build archlinux-x86_64-base.json

 

# sudo lvcreate -V 20G --thin -n bind data/qemu # sudo lvcreate -V 20G --thin -n sql data/qemu # sudo lvcreate -V 20G --thin -n nginx data/qemu

 

# sudo qemu-img convert -f qcow2 -O raw qcow2/archlinux-x86_64-base.qcow2 /dev/data/bind # sudo virt-sparsify --in-place /dev/data/bind

 

# vim virshxml # ./virshxml # virsh define ~/newxml-bind.xml

Then repeat this for sql and nginx.

Don't forget about the notes virshxml gives for replacing the networkd service

# virsh start bind # virsh start sql # virsh start nginx

 

# virsh autostart bind # virsh autostart sql # virsh autostart nginx

DNS

Login to the dns virtual machine and install BIND.

# pacaur -S bind

Setup the zones for all domains and reverse IPs.

DNSSEC

Adding DNSSEC to BIND is always a good idea, first add the following lines to the options inside of the BIND config.

filename: /etc/named.conf

dnssec-enable yes; dnssec-validation yes; dnssec-lookaside auto;

Install haveged for key generation inside of VMs.

# pacaur -S haveged # haveged -w 1024

Gain root privileges.

# sudo -i # cd /var/named

Create zone signing keys for all domains.

# dnssec-keygen -a ECDSAP384SHA384 -n ZONE kyau.net # dnssec-keygen -a ECDSAP384SHA384 -n ZONE kyau.org

Create a key signing keys for all domains.

# dnssec-keygen -f KSK -a ECDSAP384SHA384 -n ZONE kyau.net # dnssec-keygen -f KSK -a ECDSAP384SHA384 -n ZONE kyau.org

Run the following for each domain to include the keys in the zone files.

# for key in `ls Kkyau.net*.key`; do echo "\$INCLUDE $key" >> kyau.net.zone; done # for key in `ls Kkyau.org*.key`; do echo "\$INCLUDE $key" >> kyau.org.zone; done

Run a check on each zone.

# named-checkzone kyau.net /var/named/kyau.net.zone # named-checkzone kyau.org /var/named/kyau.org.zone

Sign each zone with the dnssec-signzone.

# dnssec-signzone -A -3 $(head -c 1000 /dev/random | sha1sum | cut -b 1-16) -N INCREMENT -o kyau.net -t kyau.net.zone # dnssec-signzone -A -3 $(head -c 1000 /dev/random | sha1sum | cut -b 1-16) -N INCREMENT -o kyau.org -t kyau.org.zone

To update a zone at any point just edit the zone, check the zone and then re-sign as root sudo -i.

# cd /var/named # dnssec-signzone -A -3 $(head -c 1000 /dev/random | sha1sum | cut -b 1-16) -N INCREMENT -o kyau.net -t kyau.net.zone # systemctl restart named

WARNING: DO NOT increment the zone file this will be done automatically!

Modify the bind config to read from the signed zone files.

filename: /etc/named.conf

zone "kyau.net" IN { type master; file "kyau.net.zone.signed"; allow-update { none; }; notify no; }; zone "kyau.org" IN { type master; file "kyau.org.zone.signed"; allow-update { none; }; notify no; };

Make sure all is in order.

# named-checkconf /etc/named.conf

Next visit the domain registrar for the domain.

SQL

Create a directory on the host machine for the nginx and sql server.

# sudo mkdir /www/sql /www/nginx

Make sure it has the right permissions.

# sudo chown -R kvm:kvm /www

Edit the sql virtual machine to mount the folder inside of the VM.

# sudo virsh edit sql

 

… <filesystem type='mount' accessmode='passthrough'> <source dir='/www/sql'/> <target dir='neutron-sql'/> </filesystem> …

Shutdown the virtual machine, then restart it back up.

Login to the sql virtual machine and create a directory for SQL.

# mkdir /sql

Mount the partition from the HOST system.

# mount neutron-sql /sql -t 9p -o trans=virtio

Also set this to mount on boot.

filename: /etc/fstab

neutron-sql /sql 9p trans=virtio 0 0

After the directory is mounted make sure it has the right permissions.

# sudo chown mysql:mysql /sql # sudo chmod 770 /sql

Install mariadb.

# pacaur -S mariadb

Initialize the SQL database directory.

# sudo mysql_install_db --user=mysql --basedir=/sql/base --datadir=/sql/db

Modify the MySQL global config to support a different basedir, bind to IPv6 in addition to IPv4 and disable filesystem access.

filename: /etc/mysql/my.cnf

… [mysqld] bind-address = :: port = 3306 socket = /run/mysqld/mysqld.sock datadir = /sql/db local-infile = 0 … tmpdir = /tmp/ …

Enable and start the systemd service.

# sudo systemctl enable mariadb # sudo systemctl start mariadb

Run the MySQL post-install security check, change the remove password and remove all demo/test related material.

# sudo mysql_secure_installation

User Setup

Open mysql and change the root username and allow access from the nginx virtual machine.

# mysql -u root -p

 

MariaDB> RENAME USER 'root'@'localhost' to 'kyau'@'localhost'; MariaDB> RENAME USER 'root'@'127.0.0.1' to 'kyau'@'127.0.0.1'; MariaDB> RENAME USER 'root'@'::1' to 'kyau'@'::1'; MariaDB> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'kyau'@'142.44.172.255' IDENTIFIED BY 'my-password' WITH GRANT OPTION; MariaDB> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Confirm the changes by listing all users.

MariaDB> SELECT User,Host,Password FROM mysql.user;

UTF8MB4

Optionally, enable UTF8MB4 support, which is recommended over UTF8 as it will provide full unicode support.

filename: /etc/mysql/my.cnf

[client] default-character-set = utf8mb4 … [mysqld] collation_server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci character_set_client = utf8mb4 character_set_server = utf8mb4 skip-character-set-client-handshake … [mysql] default-character-set = utf8mb4 …

Importing Databases

Head over to the current SQL server and export the needed database.

# mysqldump -u kyau -p --databases <db1> <db2>… > backup.sql

Import them to the new database server.

# mysql -u kyau -p # MariaDB> source backup.sql

Database Maintenance

MariaDB includes mysqlcheck to check, analyze, repair and optimize database tables.

To check all tables in all databases:

# mysqlcheck --all-databases -u root -p -m

To analyze all tables in all databases:

# mysqlcheck --all-databases -u root -p -a

To repair all tables in all databases:

# mysqlcheck --all-databases -u root -p -r

To optimize all tables in all databases:

# mysqlcheck --all-databases -u root -p -o

To check if any tables require upgrades:

# mysqlcheck --all-databases -u root -p -g

If any tables require upgrades, it is recommended to run a full upgrade (this should also be done in-between major MariaDB version releases).

# mysql_upgrade -u root -p

Firewall

Add rules to the firewall to allow access from the nginx virtual machine to MySQL.

filename: /etc/nftables.conf

ip saddr 142.44.172.255 tcp dport 3306 ct state new,established counter accept

Nginx

Login to the nginx virtual machine and shut it down. Then edit the virtual machine on the host.

# virsh edit nginx

Add a mountpoint for the nginx directory on the host.

<filesystem type='mount' accessmode='mapped'> <source dir='/www/nginx'/> <target dir='neutron-nginx'/> </filesystem>

Restart the nginx machine and login via ssh.

# virsh start nginx

Create a directory for nginx files.

# sudo mkdir /nginx

Set the directory to mount on boot.

filename: /etc/fstab

neutron-nginx /nginx 9p trans=virtio 0 0

Reboot the machine to make sure the mounting works.

Install nginx-mainline.

# pacaur -S nginx-mainline

Enable http and https in nftables.

filename: /etc/nftable.conf

tcp dport {http,https} accept

Restart nftables to apply the new rules.

# sudo systemctl restart nftables

Start and enable the nginx service.

# sudo systemctl enable nginx # sudo systemctl start nginx

You should be able to visit the IP address of the machine and see the nginx default page.

For configuration first create blank configs and directories needed.

# sudo touch /nginx/nginx.conf /nginx/http.conf # sudo mkdir /nginx/logs /nginx/conf.d /nginx/https

Set permissions accordingly.

# sudo chown -R http:http /nginx/*

Edit the main nginx config, replace all of it with a single include.

filename: /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

include /nginx/nginx.conf

Create the actual main configuration, use sudo to edit the configs.

# sudoedit /nginx/nginx.conf

 

filename: /nginx/nginx.conf

user http; worker_processes auto; worker_cpu_affinity auto; pcre_jit on; events { worker_connections 4096; } error_log /nginx/logs/nginx-error.log; include /nginx/http.conf;

Create the http block configuration.

filename: /nginx/http.conf

http { include mime.types; default_type application/octet-stream; log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" ' '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" ' '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"'; access_log /nginx/logs/nginx-access.log main; sendfile on; tcp_nopush on; aio threads; charset utf-8; keepalive_timeout 65; gzip on; gzip_disable "msie6"; limit_conn_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=conn_limit_per_ip:10m; include /nginx/conf.d/*.conf; }

Then create configs for each website in /nginx/conf.d/ with the naming scheme *.conf. There is a great post on Stack Overflow about achieving an A+ rating with 100 points in every category on SSL Labs.

PHP

Install the packages required for PHP.

# pacaur -S php php-fpm php-gd php-intl php-mcrypt php-sqlite imagemagick

Open up the main php-fpm config.

filename: /etc/php/php-fpm.conf

error_log = /nginx/logs/php-fpm.log

Then edit the config for your server instance.

filename: /etc/php/php-fpm.d/www.conf

listen.allowed_clients = 127.0.0.1 ... php_admin_flag[log_errors] = on php_admin_value[error_log] = /nginx/logs/php.log php_admin_value[memory_limit] = 256M php_admin_value[post_max_size] = 2048M php_admin_value[upload_max_filesize] = 2048M php_admin_value[date.timezone] = America/Toronto

Open up the PHP config /etc/php/php.ini and enable the modules: bz2, exif, gd, gettext, iconv, intl, mcrypt, mysqli, pdo_mysql, sockets, sqlite3 by commenting out the extension lines. Start and enable the php-fpm service.

# sudo systemctl enable php-fpm # sudo systemctl start php-fpm

Import all of the web files and update the configs in conf.d for all websites.

Let's Encrypt

Using SSL encryption is a must. First install the required packages.

# pacaur -S certbot

Bring down nginx temporarily.

# sudo systemctl stop nginx

Use certbot to get a certificate for all domains needed.

# sudo certbot certonly --agree-tos --standalone --email your@address.com --rsa-key-size 4096 -d domain.com,www.domain.com,subdomain.domain.com

Generate a dhparam.

# sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/letsencrypt/live/kyau.net/dhparam4096.pem 4096

Start back up nginx.

# sudo systemctl start nginx

A timer can then be setup to run certbot twice daily.

filename: /etc/systemd/system/certbot.timer

[Unit] Description=Twice daily renewal of Let's Encrypt's certificates [Timer] OnCalendar=0/12:00:00 RandomizedDelaySec=1h Persistent=true [Install] WantedBy=timers.target

Also create the service for certbot.

filename: /etc/systemd/system/certbot.service

[Unit] Description=Let's Encrypt renewal [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/usr/bin/certbot renew --pre-hook "/usr/bin/systemctl stop nginx.service" --post-hook "/usr/bin/systemctl start nginx.service" --quiet --agree-tos

Enable and start the timer.

# sudo systemctl enable certbot.timer # sudo systemctl start certbot.timer