Install Edge Microvisor Toolkit#

Edge Microvisor Toolkit can be installed on bare metal, or as a virtual machine. This section describes in detail how to quickly install and try out Edge Microvisor Toolkit on your system.

Virtual Machine with Hyper-V#

When using Hyper-V, you can install the ISO to a virtual hard drive that you create, or you can attach an existing VHD artifact produced by the build pipeline. 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:

    • either:

      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.

    • or:

      1. Select Use existing VHD to proceed with the VHD(X) produced by the build infrastructure.

      2. This option does not need the ISO, just press Next and 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.

Virtual Machine with 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 Fedora (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

Virtual Machine with KVM#

On Linux you can install and use Edge Microvisor Toolkit directly with KVM using the graphical virt-manager and virsh. You can install the OS using the ISO image, or the image file. On KVM it is preferred to use a RAW image, although it does support multiple image formats.

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)

  1. Start virt-manager.

  2. Create a New Virtual Machine.

  3. Select Local installation media (ISO image) or alternatively Import existing disk image and select the RAW disk image.

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

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

  6. Create the virtual disk image.

  7. Create a name for the virtual machine and configure network as desired.

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

Virtual Machine with QEMU and UEFI#

Instead of using virt-manager you can also use qemu commands directly:

  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

  1. Start the virtual machine

Launch and install the Edge Microvisor Toolkit in a Virtual Machine with UEFI virtual machine firmware (OVMF):

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

Use the appropriate acceleration based on your platform, such as accel=kvm for Linux or accel=hvf for macOS on Intel based Mac systems. The path to the virtual machine firmware may vary depending on your operating system and qemu package.

Bare metal with ISO#

Requirements#

You will need:

  • EMT-D 3.0 latest release.

  • USB flash drive (min. 8GB).

  • Access to the target machine.

  • Optional: Monitor and keyboard, or BMC/iDRAC/iKVM access.

Create Bootable USB (Linux)#

Follow the steps below to create a bootable USB device to install Edge Microvisor Toolkit on your bare metal system.

Ensure you have the microvisor ISO file you want to flash saved on your system. Insert the USB drive and identify it.

lsblk

Compare the output before and after inserting your USB to identify its device name (e.g., /dev/sdb). Flash the ISO Image. Use the dd command to write the ISO image. Replace /path/to/your.iso with the ISO’s location and /dev/sdb with your USB device.

sudo dd if=/path/to/your.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync
# Warning: Double-check the device name. Using a wrong device can overwrite data.

Sync and Eject: Once dd has finished, run:

sudo sync

Then, safely remove the USB drive.

Create Bootable USB (Windows)#

On Windows, download and install ISO writer software such as Rufus.

  1. Insert the USB device (8GB or more).

  2. Launch Rufus.

  3. Select the USB drive from the dropdown list.

  4. Boot selection: Select your EMT 3.0 ISO file.

  5. Image option: Leave default or choose Standard Installation.

  6. Partition scheme: MBR (for legacy BIOS) or GPT (for UEFI).

  7. File system: FAT32 (recommended).

  8. Click Start.

  9. Confirm warnings about data being erased.

  10. Wait for completion and safely eject the USB.

Boot and Install Edge Microvisor Toolkit#

Boot from USB

  1. Insert the USB into the target machine.

  2. Enter BIOS/Boot menu.

  3. Choose USB drive as the boot device.

Select Installer

  1. Choose Terminal Installer or Graphical Installer when prompted Select installer

Follow Installation Prompts

  1. Accept license.

  2. Select target disc to install EMT on Partition.

  3. Skip disc encryption (optional).

  4. Host name - keep as default System config.

  5. Create username and password.

  6. Confirm and begin installation.

Restart the System

  1. After completion, click Restart Complete.

  2. EMT image will boot from the installed disc.

Post Installation Check#

After reboot, login and check the EMT OS version. Run the following command:

cat /etc/os-release

You should see the EMT image version. Installation Complete. You are now ready to use the EMT 3.0 image!

Next#