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We've got a single Ubuntu 9.10 root server on which we want to run multiple KVM virtual machines. To administer these virtual machines I'd like a web based KVM management tool, but I don't know which one to choose from the list of tools mentioned on linux-kvm.org.

I've used virsh & virt-manager on my desktop, but would like a web interface for the server. I tested ConVirt on my desktop, but it failed to pickup KVM machines from virsh / virt-manager, and I could not get KVM virtual machine import to work (only Xen).

oVirt looks good, but I can't find out if and how I can install it on Ubuntu 9.10.. (And I'd really rather not waste another few days on testing stuff that might not work in the end.)

Can anyone recommend any good web based KVM management tools that are easy to install on Ubuntu 9.10?

I'm looking for something that will also allow me to run other services like apache and postgresql besides hosting virtual machines, so preferably fairly lightweight & no dedicated OS installs. We don't need any professional clustering / migration or anything, just something that will let us create, start, inspect, administer & stop virtual machines from a web page.

Best regards, Tim

Update:
Anyone have any suggestions? It's awfully quiet here..

Tim
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15 Answers15

4

Cloud.com Cloudstack runs on Ubuntu 10.04. Obviously Eucalyptus too. I know you don't want cloud features, but you can just ignore them if you want. Perfectly viable as plain hypervisor management, so long as you have an external management box.

As you've noticed, other tools like Karesansui and oVirt are packaged only for RHEL/Centos

Convirture is alright, I'm actually surprised you had trouble importing. I think their update / patching process could be improved.

jjv
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4

As reported in libvirtd official site there is basically two open source web interface for administering and manage libvirtd+KVM :

  • AbiCloud
  • oVirt

There is also other alternatives for administering and managing KVM through web interface, you can find a list at this address .

Maybe the best choice is RED HAT Enterprise Virtualization.

aleroot
  • 3,248
3

Try these:

Archipel's look-and-feel looks the best among the others (imho). As Archipel and oVirt both use libvirt as a backend their features are supposed to be pretty much equal; it's the UI layout that differs mostly. Though I haven't checked them both so it is merely a guess.

Ihor Kaharlichenko
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2

Try Proxmox VE, it has a nice web interface to manage KVM and OpenVZ guests. However, it runs on Debian rather than Ubuntu — is that close enough for you?

200_success
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1

Never tried it, but some friends have recommended me Eucalyptus before.

sybreon
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Unfortunately, I don't think there's a mature product out there that does what you're looking for well for KVM. We've looked around periodically for something like this in the past, but the list on linux-kvm.org doesn't seem to have added anything useful since then.

We're pretty well resigned to the virt-manager client from Linux desktops and virsh over ssh via putty from Windows to manage. For the relatively simple requirements we have, though -- which match pretty well with the ones you've outlined -- I don't feel like we've been missing too much for a (relatively) small number of hosts and guests to administer. If you're just looking to administer 1 server and its guests, this may be more trouble than it's worth with the current array of options.

nedm
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ganeti from google http://code.google.com/p/ganeti/

Good piece of software for managing KVM clusters

Laurent Coustet
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1

Try WebVirtMgr, it very nice service for managing virtual machines. It allows create and configure new virtual machines and adjust resource allocation.

Maxim Derzhak
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0

A somewhat tangential answer:

VMware Server is available at no cost (for internal use) and has a web-based admin tool.

RedGrittyBrick
  • 3,872
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convirt, now has the web gui

chocripple
  • 2,134
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Apparently, there's an project to add a web based management console to OpenNebula: http://dev.opennebula.org/projects/15/wiki/Wiki

I've (coincidentally) worked with this through SARA and it seemed all right (but still a work in progress). Thought I'd mention it here as a possible new development.

Tim
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In 2008, a Drupal project was started for implementing a virtual machine manager as a web UI for libvirt within Drupal.

Sounds a like a good idea to me.... but it looks like they didn't get very far.

http://drupal.org/project/vps_api

Paul
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SolusVM recently announced KVM support in V 1.3.00:

http://wiki.solusvm.com/index.php/Versions#1.3.00

I've used Solus fairly extensively for managing OpenVZ containers and found it to be a reasonable product so far.

Alasdair
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Check Cloudmin, it's basically webmin + virtualisation modules. It's quite usable, easy to install and does what it says on the can.

Nux
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OpenQRM is pretty kewl.

I've worked with SolusVM and it's nice, but was still searching for something that would handle VMware, Xen, and KVM - http://OpenQRM.com fits that bill, and offers so many different ways to handle your virtualization, HA, cloning, snapshots, immediate deployment, etc.

And it comes with Debian and CentOS image support for quick sandboxing too.

You can move VMs to Physical machines, Physical machines to VMs, one type of VM (say, Xen) to another (say, VMware), etc.

It's really very robust and highly extensible.

tallship
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