Install WebVirtCloud KVM Web Dashboard on Ubuntu 20.04

Commands to install WebVirtCloud on Ubuntu 20.04 to provide KVM with a web-based graphical user interface.

WebVirtCloud is a free and open-source project that offers a GUI web interface for the command-line KVM virtualization of Linux systems. Well, if you don’t know about the KVM – stands for Kernel Virtual Machine. It is a Type-1 Hypervisor that uses the kernel of Linux to offer the virtualization environment. Whereas VirtualBox and Vmware Workstation are Type-2 hypervisors where the Guest OS doesn’t have direct as to hardware.

An advantage of KVM is that the guest systems run at almost native speeds, i.e. the guest system responds almost as quickly as a native system.

To manage and communicate KVM using the tools like Virt Manager we required Libvirt, a virtualization management layer. The same Libvirt API is used by the WebVirtCloud web UI to manage KVM.

It can delegate Virtual Machines to users. A noVNC viewer presents a full graphical console to the guest domain. KVM is currently the only hypervisor supported. Although RedHat’s Virt-Manager is already a great GUI option to connect KVM, however, the user needs to access the server physically or over an SSH session. However, this can bypass using WebVirtCloud, a python-based software still in its initial stage of development. It offers an easy-to-understand interface that can be used to create, deploy, manage, and delete virtual machines running on a remote server using the local browser.

Features:

QEMU/KVM Hypervisor and Instance Management
Get Instance status
Manage Multiple QEMU/KVM Hypervisor, Datastore pools, Networks
User-Based Authorization and Authentication
Instance Console Access with Browsers
Libvirt API-based web management UI
Supports cloud-init Datasource interface
Users can add SSH public key to root in Instance and can change root password in Instances.

Steps to install WebVirtCloud on Ubuntu 20.04

1. Requirements

Debian based Ubuntu system
Virtualization-supported hardware
A non-root user with sudo rights
Terminal Access
• Internet Connection

 

2. Run system update using DNF

It is good to run the system update command on your system before installing any software, this reduces the chances of errors caused by the old packages.

sudo dnf update && sudo dfn upgrade

 

3. Install KVM on Ubuntu 2004

Well, if you already have KVM enabled on your Ubuntu 20.04 then you don’t need to follow this step. Move to the next one. However, if you don’t have one, then of course go through all the given commands:

Check Virtualization supported by your CPU

cat /proc/cpuinfo | egrep "vmx|svm"

If the Hardware virtualization is enabled then for Intel CPU you will get VMX in the result and for AMD – it will be SVM.

Next, Install KVM

sudo apt install qemu qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon bridge-utils virt-manager virtinst -y

Start & Enable KVM service:

sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd

 

4. Script to install WebVirtCloud on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

There are a few packages we are required to set up WebVirtCloud on Ubuntu 20.04 such as Python, Gcc, Nginx, and others… However, downloading all dependencies and setting up WebVirtCloud can be done with a single script provided by the developers of this KVM web interface platform.

Download Script:

sudo apt install wget
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/retspen/webvirtcloud/master/install.sh

Change permission to make it read, write, and execute by the owner of the file:

sudo chmod 744 install.sh

Run the WebVirtCloud installation script:

./install.sh
Script to install WebVirtCloud on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

5. Access the web interface and log in to WebVirtCloud

Once the installation is completed, open the local system browser or the remote system that can access the server IP address where WebVirtCloud has been installed.

In the URL box- type the server-ip-address in the following format:

http://server-ip-addres/

Note: Don’t forget to replace server-ip-address with the actual address.

Login

The first page you will have – is the log-in one. Enter the default username – admin and password – admin, and click on the Sign-in button.

log in to WebVirtCloud Install WebVirtCloud KVM Web Dashboard on Ubuntu 20.04

Conclusion:

Well, Virt-Manager is one of the best ways to manage KVM machines, however, those who are interested in web-based UI can go to WebVirtCloud. To know more about this tool refer to its GitHub Page.

Other Articles:

How to Install and Configure KVM on Debian 11 Bullseye Linux
Install VirtualBox hypervisor on Rocky Linux 8
How to install and use Virt-Manager on Windows 10

 

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