Create and deploy Linux virtual machines in the VMM fabric
This article describes how to create and deploy Linux VMs in the System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) fabric.
Before you start
VMM supports virtual machines that contain Linux as the guest operating system. Ensure that:
Linux Integration Services (LIS) must be installed on the virtual machine.
The VMM guest agent for Linux must be installed on the virtual machine. It's required for service template integration, and it allows you to modify properties on the Linux computer, such as the host name.
Note
The SCVMMLinuxGuestAgent (XPlat) cfghostdomain garbles the hosts file if hostname is already set to localhost. We recommend you not to set the hostname as localhost when deploying Linux VMs through VMM.
VMM doesn't verify that the VM meets these requirements. However, if it doesn't, VM deployment will fail.
Create the VM
Create a VM running Linux using any of the available methods in the VMM fabric. Learn more.
Install LIS on the VM
By default, LIS is included with some distributions of Linux. If LIS isn't included in the distribution of Linux that you're using for the virtual machine, install it manually. Learn more.
Install the VMM guest agent
- Open an elevated command prompt on the VMM server.
- Go to the c:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center 2016\Virtual Machine Manager\agents\Linux folder.
- Go to the c:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center\Virtual Machine Manager\agents\Linux folder.
Copy all the agent installation files from that folder to a new folder on the VM.
Open the new folder on the VM and run the following command: chmod +x install.
Run either of these commands depending on the operating system.
./install scvmmguestagent.1.0.0.544.x64.tar./install scvmmguestagent.1.0.0.544.x86.tar
When the agent installs on the VM, the following files and folders will be created on the VHD:
- A default installation folder (/opt/microsoft/scvmmguestagent), and an installation log file (scvmm-install.log)
- A default log files folder - /var/opt/microsoft/scvmmagent/log
- A specialization log file (scvmm.log). This file is created when the virtual machine is deployed and specialized.
- A configuration file (scvmm.conf). This file contains the location of the log file and is used to control logging during deployment and specialization.