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Introduction

This guide gets you started on a full featured Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization deployment using your existing resources. From installing a hypervisor, setting up shared storage and running a fully functional virtual machine, see how you can implement virtualization in your own organization. The tutorials are organized to reflect typical deployments from a small office with a few hosts, to a large enterprise with multiple data centers, and you can even test out a single host version at home. The tracks and tutorials are color coded to provide clear paths through this guide.
Once you have completed the tutorials (labs), arrange your own tracks for further evaluation or training. The tracks are suggested examples only. Use them to understand how to deploy Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, and then work with our Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization solution architects to build your own unique environments.
Depending on your needs, use one of these tracks to evaluate Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for your organization:
Evaluation Tracks
For both the tracks you need an evaluation license and a valid Red Hat Network subscription to the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux channels. Contact your sales representative if you do not have both of the above.

1. Track A: Standard Setup

Use Track A to install and configure a basic working Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization environment on several hosts using shared storage.
Track A consists of four basic labs and four advanced (optional) labs. In the basic labs, you learn how to create virtual machines and assign them to users. After you have completed the basic labs, you can do the advanced labs, if you wish.
The advanced labs describe how to apply Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization to real-life enterprise operations. For example, protect against hardware failure for mission-critical operations by using high availability. If you have employees with different responsibilities, assign different levels of user permissions to virtual machines, storage and servers. If you have a number of existing hosts, you can learn how to reconfigure Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers to be used as virtual machine hosts. You will also learn how to provision virtual desktops for end users.
If you have three to four physical servers and one shared storage resource, set up a Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization environment by following the labs in Track A - Standard Setup. The labs in this track are color coded red, so to determine if a lab is part of Track A, look for a red square in the diagram at the start of each lab.
Evaluation Track A
Figure 1. Evaluation Track A

After you complete Track A, you will have the following environment with two virtual machines hosts, shared storage, a network, two portals, end-user clients and a host running the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager.
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Standard Setup
Figure 2. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Standard Setup

Track A - Standard Setup Labs
While the basic labs allow you to evaluate how Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization can be deployed in your environment, the advanced labs show you how to optimize your Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization setup. Note that the advanced labs have additional hardware requirements, which are listed at the start of each advanced lab.
Track A - Advanced Labs (optional)

1.1. Track A Requirements

Both the tracks assume that you have an evaluation license and a valid Red Hat Network subscription to the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and Red Hat Enterprise Linux channels. Contact your sales representative if you do not have both of the above. Before you begin Track A, ensure that you have the following with the recommended values:
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager
  • Minimum - Dual core server with 4 GB RAM, 25 GB free disk space and 1 Gbps network interface.
  • Recommended - Dual Sockets/Quad core server with 16 GB RAM, 50 GB free disk space on multiple disk spindles and 1 Gbps network interface.
    The breakdown of the server requirements is:
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 operating system: 1 GB RAM and 5 GB local disk space
    • Manager: 3 GB RAM, 3 GB local disk space and 1 Gbps network controller bandwidth
    • Local ISO domain: 15 GB disk space

    Important — Supported Locales

    The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager setup script, rhevm-setup, supports the en_US.UTF-8, en_US.utf8, and en_US.utf-8 locales. Ensure that you install the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager on a system where the locale in use is one of these supported values.
  • A valid Red Hat Network subscription to the following channels:
    • rhel-x86_64-server-6-rhevm-3
    • jbappplatform-5-x86_64-server-6-rpm
    • rhel-x86_64-server-supplementary-6
  • A client to connect to Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager with:
    • Microsoft Windows (7, XP, 2003 or 2008) with Internet Explorer 7 and above
    • Microsoft .NET Framework 4
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hosts
  • Minimum - Dual Core server, 10 GB RAM and 10 GB Storage, 1 Gbps network interface
  • Recommended - Dual socket server, 16 GB RAM and 50 GB storage, two 1 Gbps network interfaces
    The breakdown of the server requirements is:
    • For each host: AMD-V or Intel VT enabled, AMD64 or Intel 64 extensions, minimum 1 GB RAM, 3 GB free storage and 1 Gbps network interface.
    • For virtual machines running on each host: 8 GB RAM to run four virtual machines.
  • A valid Red Hat Network subscription to the rhel-x86_64-server-6-rhevh channel.
Storage and Networking
  • At least one of the supported storage types (NFS, iSCSI or FCP).
  • At least three static IP addresses: One for the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager server and one for each server running Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor.
  • DNS service which can resolve (forward and reverse) all the IP addresses.
  • An existing DHCP server which can allocate network addresses for the virtual machines.
  • Display subnet (extra Network Interface Card on both servers) to create a new display network in addition to the default existing management network.
Virtual Machines
  • Installation images for creating virtual machines, depending on which operating system you wish to use.
    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, 4, 5 or 6.
    • Microsoft Windows XP, 7, 2003 or 2008.
  • Valid licenses or subscription entitlements for each operating system.
  • At least one valid user account in the IPA directory or Active Directory.