QEMU 0.13 Final Is Ready With New Features

[phoronix]

Phoronix: QEMU 0.13 Final Is Ready With New Features

QEMU, the processor emulator that can be used alone for running unmodified guest operating systems and can optionally take advantage of KVM (the Kernel-based Virtual Machine) for greater virtualization performance with Intel and AMD hardware, has finally reached version 0.13 after suffering from a few delays. As was reported by us back in January of this year, QEMU 0.13 would focus on bringing new features and with this release they have achieved introducing several new features...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=ODY4NQ

[dacresbu]

Sweet, now we can PXEboot from a virtuio nic on an internal network. I couldn't do this in Virtualbox i had to use a virtual nic. Now i can improve the performance of our virtual Rocks Cluster for testing.

[pvtcupcakes]

Can anyone explain what this means?

The new features to be found in QEMU 0.13 include a helper-based network setup...

Does this mean it'll be easier to set up networking? Setting up networking was the only thing I didn't like about using Qemu. I used to use vde which was simple enough except the host and guest couldn't communicate to each other which is something I wanted. I never could get tun/tap to work.

I'm just using Qemu for personal reasons and not as part of an enterprise, so I'd appreciate some simpler networking configuration.

[cb88]

Mouse input for the sparc target is working again.

Tryed with AuroraLinux 2 and 2.99

[jbrown96]

Can anyone explain what this means?


Does this mean it'll be easier to set up networking? Setting up networking was the only thing I didn't like about using Qemu. I used to use vde which was simple enough except the host and guest couldn't communicate to each other which is something I wanted. I never could get tun/tap to work.

I'm just using Qemu for personal reasons and not as part of an enterprise, so I'd appreciate some simpler networking configuration.

Why would you bother with a tap device? The recommended and easiest method is to create a bridge and assign an address to it.
brctl addbr br0
ifconfig br0 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
ifconfig br0 up

Then when you configure a guest just attach it to the bridge. If you need internet<-->guest connection just setup nat in iptables.

Yes, it would be nicer if this could be automatically configured, but it's nothing more than 2 minutes if you know what to do.

[gilboa]

Why would you bother with a tap device? The recommended and easiest method is to create a bridge and assign an address to it.
brctl addbr br0
ifconfig br0 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0
ifconfig br0 up

Then when you configure a guest just attach it to the bridge. If you need internet<-->guest connection just setup nat in iptables.

Yes, it would be nicer if this could be automatically configured, but it's nothing more than 2 minutes if you know what to do.

?
You require tap device (at the guest level) to connect to the bridge.
(E.g. brctl addif brX tapX in qemu-ifup)

- Gilboa

[jbrown96]

?
You require tap device (at the guest level) to connect to the bridge.
(E.g. brctl addif brX tapX in qemu-ifup)

- Gilboa

I've never had to do that, and I'm running six guests simultaneously right now. I think you've been mislead into the complexity of network configuration.

[gilboa]

Please type the following on your host:
$ brctl show

Plus, what's your qemu command line?

[drag]

having a br0 for all your guests is convenient and often gets what you want if all your doing is running a virtual server, but often it's important to get complex virtual networking setup.

But he is right. You'll have to have to a tap or tun device to hook up to the br0. If you never had to deal with that complexity it's probably because your having the work done for you by system scripts or if your using something like virt-manager or whatever. (I have no problem with that at all. Lazy is good as it allows you to get your real work done)

---------------------------

For full virtualize support you should be able to run multiple switches, vlan support, virtual firewalls, virtual routers, etc etc. I should be able to replicate a small business network using a quad-core system with firewalls, routers, routing protocols, vlans, vpns, multiple different OSes, etc etc etc.

Imagine the usefulness in that for prototyping networks, training, developing cluster software, VoIP testing, etc. You should be able to do all that stuff virtually.

That's the sort of stuff I am interested in.

[gilboa]

For full virtualize support you should be able to run multiple switches, vlan support, virtual firewalls, virtual routers, etc etc. I should be able to replicate a small business network using a quad-core system with firewalls, routers, routing protocols, vlans, vpns, multiple different OSes, etc etc etc.

Imagine the usefulness in that for prototyping networks, training, developing cluster software, VoIP testing, etc. You should be able to do all that stuff virtually.

That's the sort of stuff I am interested in.

Amen to that.
Using NIC-less bridges (used to crate host only networks) coupled with vlan support within qemu is very useful in creating a complete network of servers (from firewalls to application servers) on a single host.

- Gilboa