Otdfbt

We've been using KVM for almost a year strictly on CentOS 5.x as the KVM host, with Fedora and Ubuntu workstations accessing the KVM host and its guests using virt-manager, virt-viewer, and ssh.

Is anyone aware of a way to access the KVM host using virt-manager from a Windows workstation? We have one co-worker who would like to access the KVM host, from a Win7 system.

EDIT #1

I'm familiar with running a X11 server on windows such as Xming, and remote displaying virt-manager from the KVM host to a windows workstation, but what I'd really like here is to know of any solutions native to windows, i.e. is there a version of virt-manager that'll run on windows.

EDIT #2

Still no progress on this myself wrt. a native virt-manager client. I did come across a compiled version of libvirtd for windows along with a discussion on a mailing list about how to get libvirtd working on windows. I'm adding the links to this question in the hopes that someone will figure out how to get virt-manager working.

• virt-manager for windows forum thread


• libvirtd for windows

EDIT #3

Finally some progress. Came across this project on github called msys_setup which includes a windows port of virt-manager. It's partially functional, doesn't support qem+ssh:// connection type so it's still not usable for our needs, but it's a start.

Use putty and some X Server software on the Windows side (e.g. Xming) and use X11 tunneling with putty to display the remote virt-manager console.

I would use Cygwin.
Then you can install virt-manager and openssh and place a shortcut on the Desktop.
It is native.

Cygwin provides the linux tools and facilities around programs so that it feels like a linux environment. For instance, virt-manager can call ssh to make the connection to your KVM Server and would be able to run virsh and send comamnds to it. It also provides an X-Server.
Which is all natively compiled.

If you have the time:
You can easily customize the cygwin installation to exactly fit your needs. Just go through the folders, throw everything out you don't need. Write a script that starts the X Server and then virt-manager, zip it up and ey presto! there's your virt-manager for Windows.

I would simply use ssh (putty) and virsh, and a VNC/Spice client (like virt-viewer for Windows), if I were confined to a Windows workstation

You could use Bash on Ubuntu on Windows ( https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/commandline/wsl/about ).

Then, you are able to install virt-manager as on Ubuntu:

$ apt-get install virt-manager

Then you'll need a X server. You can install Xming.

You'll need to add DISPLAY=:0.0 to your environment. To do that, add export DISPLAY=':0.0' to ~/.bashrc and restart your terminal.

You may want to enable a ssh agent:

eval `ssh-agent` ; ssh-add

After that, you should be able to run virt-manager as you'll do on Linux. There are some bugs but it works :-).

edit by a z:

d-bus error?
Per: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/4rsmzp/bash_on_windows_getting_dbus_and_x_server_working/

Run:
sudo sed -i 's$<listen>.*</listen>$<listen>tcp:host=localhost,port=0</listen>$' /etc/dbus-1/session.conf

close/open bash, try again, use virt-manager --debug for more info

Yes. There is virt-viewer for Windows

http://virt-manager.org/download/sources/virt-viewer/

Update:

I see you were asking about virt-manager on windows and not virt-viewer.

Please consider using XMing

here is a snapshot of running SSH with X11 forwarding on Xming and virt-manager working on windows (X11 forwarded)

http://blog.allanglesit.com/2011/03/linux-kvm-managing-kvm-guests-using-virt-manager-on-windows/

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/run_any_gnu_linux_app_on_windows_without_any_virtualization

http://www.straightrunning.com/XmingNotes/