Best methods to setup a hypervisor from command line?

#1

After the latest test-cycle for NethServer-arm 7.7.1908 I started dreaming of a test environment in wich you can run and snapshot armhfp (32bit) and aarch64 (64bit) virtual machines. Full emulated-virtualization on x86_64 is to slow to be practicable.
However after some reading it may be feasible to run aarch64 hypervisor. No emulation for arm32 is needed as armv8 (which includes aarch64) is backward compatible with armv7.

Moreover a first exploration proves it is worthwhile to pursuit. (1)

Problem is i’m a complete noob is these matters. Still trying to grasp how kvm, kvm-qemu, libvirt and virtsh work together in my first prove of concept

  • Has somebody setup hyporvisor / VM-enviorment before from scratch? (I mean from the command-line using general availible packges) - if so:
  • Which dirsto? ATM in considering debian/ubuntu or arch linux arm because of matured arm support. - and:
  • Which tools/packages ?
  • what is the preferred disk format, ATM using qcow2 (ZFS is out of the question on a tiny arm SBC… could LVM2 be a solution?

Any info/ directions / further-reading are welcome !

#2

(1) prove of concept:

The rpi4 runs a (experimental) unofficial Ubuntu image.
(https://jamesachambers.com/raspberry-pi-ubuntu-server-18-04-2-installation-guide/)
(https://github.com/TheRemote/Ubuntu-Server-raspi4-unofficial)

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EDIT:

Played around with my - i do not completely understand how it works - VirtualMachine.
It works like a charm ! Excuses for my excitement but running a arm 32bit VM with Nethserver installed running a DC in a container on a arm64 bit Raspberry PI … is cool. :grinning:
Has no use case other than testing , still amazingly cool. :rofl:

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#3

There is a lot to be explored. I found this and it just looks awesome: https://blog.alexellis.io/build-your-own-bare-metal-arm-cluster/
Imagine to have an rpi-cluster running where you can host your VM’s… :drooling_face:

Over-the-top-example: https://hackaday.com/2018/01/24/firing-up-750-raspberry-pis/ based on BitScope rpi cluster: http://cluster.bitscope.com/

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#4

I can barely grasp all the virtualization and ARM stuff but check if this is of some use to you:

Using CentOS 7 armhfp VM on CentOS 7 aarch64

https://www.yoctoproject.org/

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#5

Thank you @dnutan

came across yocto too @

However this seems to be focused (as many posts) on containers and for testing NS we need VM’s
But will investigate it further!