Or I should say hidden gem of Fedora, CentOS and RHEL. This fantastic tool is part of package named libguestfs-tools-c and it’s fast image builder. To create Fedora 27 10GB image with root password set to “redhat”:
virt-builder fedora-27 --size=10G \
--root-password password:redhat
To start the image use libvirt utility:
virt-install --import --name fedora --ram 2048 \
--disk path=fedora-27.img,format=raw --os-variant fedora27
To start Fedora 25 and immediately install Xfce desktop:
virt-builder fedora-25 --install "@Xfce Desktop"
To build Debian Wheezy image, update it and inject your SSH key to root:
virt-builder debian-7 --update --ssh-inject root:~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
To create CentOS 7.4 image on LVM volume with a hostname set:
virt-builder centos-7.4 --output /dev/vg_virt/centos \
--root-password password:redhat --hostname centos.lan
To ___________________ (complete the sentence):
virt-builder fedora-25 \
--hostname client.example.com \
--update \
--install puppet \
--append-line '/etc/puppet/puppet.conf:[agent]' \
--append-line '/etc/puppet/puppet.conf:server = puppetmaster.example.com/' \
--run-command 'systemctl enable puppet' \
--selinux-relabel
To list available images do:
[lzap@box ~]$ virt-builder -l
centos-6 x86_64 CentOS 6.6
centos-7.0 x86_64 CentOS 7.0
centos-7.1 x86_64 CentOS 7.1
centos-7.2 aarch64 CentOS 7.2 (aarch64)
centos-7.2 x86_64 CentOS 7.2
centos-7.3 x86_64 CentOS 7.3
centos-7.4 x86_64 CentOS 7.4
cirros-0.3.1 x86_64 CirrOS 0.3.1
cirros-0.3.5 x86_64 CirrOS 0.3.5
debian-6 x86_64 Debian 6 (Squeeze)
debian-7 sparc64 Debian 7 (Wheezy) (sparc64)
debian-7 x86_64 Debian 7 (wheezy)
debian-8 x86_64 Debian 8 (jessie)
debian-9 x86_64 Debian 9 (stretch)
fedora-18 x86_64 Fedora® 18
fedora-19 x86_64 Fedora® 19
fedora-20 x86_64 Fedora® 20
fedora-21 aarch64 Fedora® 21 Server (aarch64)
fedora-21 armv7l Fedora® 21 Server (armv7l)
fedora-21 ppc64 Fedora® 21 Server (ppc64)
fedora-21 ppc64le Fedora® 21 Server (ppc64le)
fedora-21 x86_64 Fedora® 21 Server
fedora-22 aarch64 Fedora® 22 Server (aarch64)
fedora-22 armv7l Fedora® 22 Server (armv7l)
fedora-22 i686 Fedora® 22 Server (i686)
fedora-22 x86_64 Fedora® 22 Server
fedora-23 aarch64 Fedora® 23 Server (aarch64)
fedora-23 armv7l Fedora® 23 Server (armv7l)
fedora-23 i686 Fedora® 23 Server (i686)
fedora-23 ppc64 Fedora® 23 Server (ppc64)
fedora-23 ppc64le Fedora® 23 Server (ppc64le)
fedora-23 x86_64 Fedora® 23 Server
fedora-24 aarch64 Fedora® 24 Server (aarch64)
fedora-24 armv7l Fedora® 24 Server (armv7l)
fedora-24 i686 Fedora® 24 Server (i686)
fedora-24 x86_64 Fedora® 24 Server
fedora-25 aarch64 Fedora® 25 Server (aarch64)
fedora-25 armv7l Fedora® 25 Server (armv7l)
fedora-25 i686 Fedora® 25 Server (i686)
fedora-25 ppc64 Fedora® 25 Server (ppc64)
fedora-25 ppc64le Fedora® 25 Server (ppc64le)
fedora-25 x86_64 Fedora® 25 Server
fedora-26 aarch64 Fedora® 26 Server (aarch64)
fedora-26 armv7l Fedora® 26 Server (armv7l)
fedora-26 i686 Fedora® 26 Server (i686)
fedora-26 ppc64 Fedora® 26 Server (ppc64)
fedora-26 ppc64le Fedora® 26 Server (ppc64le)
fedora-26 x86_64 Fedora® 26 Server
fedora-27 aarch64 Fedora® 27 Server (aarch64)
fedora-27 armv7l Fedora® 27 Server (armv7l)
fedora-27 i686 Fedora® 27 Server (i686)
fedora-27 ppc64 Fedora® 27 Server (ppc64)
fedora-27 ppc64le Fedora® 27 Server (ppc64le)
fedora-27 x86_64 Fedora® 27 Server
freebsd-11.1 x86_64 FreeBSD 11.1
scientificlinux-6 x86_64 Scientific Linux 6.5
ubuntu-10.04 x86_64 Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid)
ubuntu-12.04 x86_64 Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise)
ubuntu-14.04 x86_64 Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty)
ubuntu-16.04 x86_64 Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial)
rhel-3.9 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.9
rhel-4.9 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.9
rhel-5.10 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.10
rhel-5.11 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11
rhel-5.11 i686 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.11 (i686)
rhel-6.1 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1
rhel-6.2 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2
rhel-6.3 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3
rhel-6.4 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4
rhel-6.5 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5
rhel-6.6 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6
rhel-6.7 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.7
rhel-6.8 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8
rhel-6.8 i686 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.8 (i686)
rhel-7.0 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0
rhel-7.1 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1
rhel-7.1 ppc64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 (ppc64)
rhel-7.1 ppc64le Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 (ppc64le)
rhel-7.2 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2
rhel-7.2 aarch64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 for aarch64
rhel-7.2 ppc64le Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.2 (ppc64le)
rhel-7.3 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3
rhel-7.3 aarch64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 for aarch64
rhel-7.3 ppc64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 (ppc64)
rhel-7.3 ppc64le Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.3 (ppc64le)
rhel-7.4 x86_64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4
rhel-7.4 aarch64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 for aarch64
rhel-7.4 ppc64 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 (ppc64)
rhel-7.4 ppc64le Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 (ppc64le)
Keep in mind that RHEL systems are only available to redhatters, a repository
must be configured via /etc/virt-builder/repos.d/rhel.conf file to have them.
Search the intranet.
This post barely scratched the surface. This utility can do more. Much more.
Send beer, t-shirts and flowers to Richard W.M. Jones and his team of contributors and maintainers. Thanks folks!