Deploying Edge Microvisor Toolkit on Virtual Machines as Guest OS#

Below you will find all methods of deployment on Virtual Machines (VMs) supported by Edge Microvisor Toolkit.

The methods presented below assume the use of “dev” versions of Edge Microvisor Toolkit, published as RAW and VHD images. If you want to start virtual machines using “non-dev” images, built with edge-image-json or edge-image-rt.json , you need to unseal disk encryption key with TPM, or rebuild them with the "EMTEncryptionEnabled": false parameter in the corresponding JSON config file.

Hyper-V#

When using Hyper-V, you can install the ISO to a virtual hard drive that you create. See the steps below:

  1. From Hyper-V select Action-> New-> Virtual Machine.

  2. Provide a name for your VM and press Next.

  3. Select Generation 1 (VHD) or Generation 2 (VHDX), then press Next.

  4. Set the desired amount of memory to allocate, then press Next.

  5. Select a virtual network switch, then press Next.

  6. Select Create a virtual hard disk and one of two options:

    1. Select a location for your VHD(X) and set your desired disk size, then press Next.

    2. Select Install an operating system from a bootable image file and browse to your microvisor ISO.

    3. Press Finish.

[Gen2/VHDX Only] Fix Boot Options

  1. Right click your virtual machine from Hyper-V Manager. Select Settings…

  2. Select Security and disable Secure Boot.

  3. Select Firmware and adjust the boot order so DVD is the first and Hard Drive is second.

  4. Select Apply to apply all changes.

  5. Right click your VM and select Connect…. Select Start.

  6. Follow the installer prompts to install your image.

  7. When installation completes, select Restart to reboot the machine. The installation ISO will be automatically ejected.

  8. When prompted, sign in to your Edge Microvisor Toolkit using the username and password provisioned through the installer.

NOTE: When using an existing VHD, the default username/password is root/root.

Oracle Virtual Box#

  1. Start Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager.

  2. Create a new VM and chose a name for the virtual machine.

  3. Select the ISO image of Edge Microvisor Toolkit.

  4. Under Operating System, select Linux, sub-type Ubuntu (64-bit).

  5. Configure the number of CPUs and the amount of memory to allocate to the virtual machine.

  6. Enable EFI.

  7. Create the virtual disk image. If you use a pre-existing disk image (VHD or RAW), convert it to VDI first.

Converting Image File to VDI#

You can convert a VHD or RAW image to the VDI format, which is natively supported by VirtualBox. Simply navigate to the installation folder of VirtualBox, e.g. C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox and run the commands below in a terminal to convert:

  • a VHD disk image:

    VBoxManage clonehd --format VDI <input-vhd-image.vhd> <output-vdi-image.vdi>

  • a RAW disk image:

    VBoxManage convertfromraw <input-vhd-image.img> <output-vdi-image.vdi> --format VDI

KVM#

On Linux you can install and use Edge Microvisor Toolkit directly with KVM using the graphical virt-manager and virsh. Install the OS using the ISO image, or by importing an existing disk image in a supported format.

On Ubuntu, install virt-manager or virsh:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install virt-manager
sudo apt install libvirt-clients
sudo apt install libvirt-daemon-system
sudo usermod -a -G libvirt $(whoami)

Start virt-manager and create a New Virtual Machine. Choose the preferred installation method:

  • Local install media (ISO image)

    1. Click Browse to open the Locate ISO media volume window.

    2. Click Browse local and navigate to the folder with the ISO image. Select the image file and click Open.

    3. You may be prompted with the “The emulator may not have search permissions for the specified path. Do you want to correct this now?” Click Yes.

    4. Deselect Automatically detect from the installation /source and choose the Fedora OS type manually and click Forward.

    5. Configure the number of CPUs and the amount of memory to allocate to the virtual machine.

    6. Check Enable storage for this virtual machine and choose Create a disk image for the virtual machine. Then, specify the size of the disk image.

    7. Create a name for the virtual machine, configure network as desired, check the Customize configuration before install option and click Finish.

    8. In Overview tab, go to Hypervisor Details and change Firmware to UEFI x86_64: /usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_4M.fd.

    9. Click Begin Installation. The virtual machine will boot and run the installation of Edge Microvisor Toolkit.

    10. Select the desired installer when prompted and proceed.

    11. Choose an Installation Type.

    12. Select the Virtual Disk for installation and click Next if you want to use the default partitioning method. Otherwise, select Custom Partition to set it up manually.

    13. Skip disk encryption (optional).

    14. Use the default Hostname and select Next to set up the user account.

    15. Select Yes to Start Installation.

    16. Upon successful installation, you need to press ENTER to restart.

  • Import existing disk image (RAW, QCOW2)

    1. Click Browse to open the Locate or create storage volume window.

    2. Click Browse local and navigate to the folder with the disk image. Select the image file and click Open.

    3. Choose the Fedora OS type manually and click Forward.

    4. Configure CPU and memory settings.

    5. Specify the name for the virtual machine and check the Customize configuration before install option and click Finish.

    6. In Overview tab, go to Hypervisor Details and change Firmware to UEFI x86_64: /usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_4M.fd.

    7. Click Begin Installation to boot and run Edge Microvisor Toolkit.

You are now ready to use Edge Microvisor Toolkit!

Support for Disk Image Formats#

Image

Support

RAW (.img, .raw)

✅ Best performance, directly supported

QCOW2 (.qcow2)

✅ KVM’s native format, supports snapshots and compression

VHD (.vhd, .vpc)

⚠️ Limited. Direct use is unreliable, conversion is recommended.

VDI (.vdi)

❌ No

Converting Image File to QCOW2#

You can convert a RAW or VHD image to the QCOW2 format, which is natively supported by KVM. Start a terminal and use qemu-img to convert:

  • a RAW disk image:

    qemu-img convert -f raw -O qcow2 <input-image.img> <output-image.qcow2>

  • a VHD disk image:

    qemu-img convert -f vpc -O qcow2 <input-image.vhd> <output-image.qcow2>

NOTE: You can also run qemu-img without the -f parameter to let it detect the input format:

qemu-img convert -O qcow2 <input-image.vhd> <output-image.qcow2>

QEMU and UEFI#

You can launch Edge Microvisor Toolkit in a virtual machine using qemu-img and the (OVMF firmware), which provides UEFI support. See the examples below to learn how to install Edge Microvisor Toolkit from the ISO image, or launch the toolkit from existing RAW/ VHD disk images.

Use an appropriate acceleration type based on your platform, such as accel=kvm for Linux or accel=hvf for macOS on Intel-based Macs. Specify the path to the virtual machine firmware (OVMF). The path may vary depending on your OS and the version of Qemu.

Create Virtual Machine using ISO#

  1. Create a virtual disk image, specifying a disk size appropriate for your usage and available storage:

    qemu-img create -f qcow2 emt_rootfs.img 10G

  2. Start the virtual machine and install Edge Microvisor Toolkit.

    qemu-system-x86_64 \
   -nodefaults -M accel=kvm -cpu host \
   -device virtio-rng-pci \
   -machine q35 -smp 2 -m 2048M \
   -vga std \
   -nic user \
   -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \
   -drive id=disk,file=/path/to/emt_rootfs.img,if=none,format=qcow2 \
   -device virtio-blk-pci,drive=disk,bootindex=1 \
   -drive id=cdrom,file=/path/to/EdgeMicrovisorToolkit-3.0.iso,if=none,media=cdrom \
   -device ide-cd,drive=cdrom,bootindex=2

Create Virtual Machine using RAW or VHD#

  • RAW

    qemu-system-x86_64 \
   -nodefaults -M accel=kvm -cpu host \
   -device virtio-rng-pci \
   -machine q35 -smp 2 -m 2048M \
   -vga std \
   -nic user \
   -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \
   -drive id=disk1,file=/path/to/EdgeMicrovisorToolkit-3.0.raw,if=none,format=raw,cache=none \
   -device virtio-blk-pci,drive=disk1,bootindex=1

  • VHD

    qemu-system-x86_64 \
   -nodefaults -M accel=kvm -cpu host \
   -device virtio-rng-pci \
   -machine q35 -smp 2 -m 2048M \
   -vga std \
   -nic user \
   -drive if=pflash,format=raw,readonly=on,file=/usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \
   -drive id=disk1,file=/path/to/EdgeMicrovisorToolkit-3.0.vhd,if=none,format=vpc,cache=none \
   -device virtio-blk-pci,drive=disk1,bootindex=1