[PVE-User] Networking, external IP and KVM guest help request

[Daniel Pittman]

On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 01:12, Matthew Edmondson
<suitable.name at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> I would suggest you work through and identify which component is not
>> working: check the NIC shows inside the container, and is configured
>> correctly.  Send some traffic over it and check that it reaches the
>> pair device in the "hardware" node, and then the bridge.
>
> my issue seems to be with routing a veth NIC in OpenVZ or KVM.  Debian
> (netinst) wont install inside the KVM because it cannot get to the
> mirrors. i am not sure i can get to the console in the Debian
> installer.

Yup.  Alt-F2 (and Alt-F3) should bring you to a shell, where you will
have a basic set of tools available to probe the system.  In an OpenVZ
container things should just work(tm) if you configure the eth0
interface with a static IP, so it *can't* be a driver (or Debian)
problem.  In KVM, maybe drivers, if the installer lacks the
appropriate "hardware" support.

> What do people do to solve this? use a ready made Debian KVM image?
> Install the complete Debian iso (not netinst) or would it help to run a
> temporary DHCP server?

We used the netinst CD pretty much exclusively for KVM installation of
Etch and Squeeze.

It really sounds to me like something in your bridging isn't working.
Can you post:

In the netinst container: "/sbin/ip addr show || /sbin/ifconfig -a"

In the hardware host:
 * /sbin/ip addr show || /sbin/ifconfig -a
 * brctl show
 * the ID of the KVM virtual machine that isn't working
 * what model you configured the KVM NIC to for that guest
 * iptables -nvL OUTPUT ; iptables -NVL FORWARD

> I am going to try with the full iso, and see if that works, but I was
> hoping for a nice minimal install netinst and would be suprised if that
> didnt work and would love to figure out what i am doing wrong.

I very strongly suspect that it will install, but networking will fail
in the same way.  At least in my experience the Debian installer works
or fails in exact proportion to the success or failure of the final
system. :)

Regards,
    Daniel
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