Quick installation guide of QVD 4.2 for Ubuntu 22.04

1. Warnings

The current guide contains the necessary commands to make a mononode QVD installation, where all the components will installed into the same machine. In a multinode installation will exist additional steps and network configuration may be different.

During the process, some packages will be installed and the network configuration will be affected. It is recommended use a testing environment.

For practical purposes, the hostname will be identified with the name qvdhost, in your case you must replace it with the name corresponding to your server.

2. Requirements

2.1. Operating System

To download Ubuntu 22.04 you can go directly to the website ubuntu.com to its section downloads or directly from Manual server installation.

2.2. Hardware

2 CPU cores
4 GB of RAM
Hard disc at least 32GB

2.3. Database

PostgreSQL 14 or higher

2.4. HKD

x86_64 architecture.

3. Pre-installation

wget -qO - https://www.theqvd.com/packages/key/public.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb http://theqvd.com/packages/ubuntu-jammy QVD-4.2.0 main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/qvd.list
apt-get update

Install firewall

apt-get install -y firewalld

Open the ports that will be needed to perform the configuration:

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=ssh --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=https --permanent
firewall-cmd --permanent --direct --passthrough ipv4 -t nat -I POSTROUTING -o $NETWORK_INTERFACE -j MASQUERADE -s 10.3.15.0/24
firewall-cmd --add-forward-port=port=8443:proto=tcp:toport=8443:toaddr=10.3.15.1 --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Be sure to replace $NETWORK_INTERFACE with the name of your server’s network interface.

4. Database installation and configuration

apt-get install postgresql
service postgresql start

4.1. Create a user account

su - postgres

Once logged in, create a user and assign a password:

createuser -SDRP qvd

You will be asked to enter your password and confirm:

Enter password for new role: passw0rd
Enter it again: passw0rd

4.2. Create the QVD database

The database is created with the postgres user, then the user must be logged out.

createdb -O qvd qvddb
exit

4.3. Change the PostgreSQL configuration

Edit the file /etc/postgresql/14/main/pg_hba.conf

Find the section that contains:

# TYPE  DATABASE        USER            ADDRESS                 METHOD

and add after that line the following:

host    qvddb           qvd             127.0.0.0/24            md5

Make sure to replace the default network 127.0.0.0/24 with the network that your platform uses.

Edit the file /etc/postgresql/14/main/postgresql.conf and set the following parameters:

listen_addresses = '*'
default_transaction_isolation = 'serializable'

Restart PostgreSQL.

service postgresql restart

5. HKD installation

apt-get install perl-qvd-hkd

5.1. Basic configuration

Copy the example configuration file to the path /etc/qvd/, save it as node.conf, and modify the permissions on it:

cp -v /usr/lib/qvd/config/sample-node.conf /etc/qvd/node.conf
chown root:root /etc/qvd/node.conf
chmod 0640 /etc/qvd/node.conf

Edit the file /etc/qvd/node.conf and modify/add the following entries:

nodename=$NODE_NAME
database.host=localhost
database.name=qvddb
database.user=qvd
database.password=passw0rd

Change the variable $NODE_NAME to the server name

5.2. QVD tables population

/usr/lib/qvd/bin/qvd-deploy-db.pl

6. Administration tools installation

6.1. SSL Configuration

If you already have a certificate signed by a third party, you can skip the auto signed certificate creation and use your signed certificate instead.

Auto signed certificate creation

apt-get install -y openssl
mkdir /etc/qvd/certs
cd /etc/qvd/certs

In /etc/qvd/certs generate a private key.

openssl genrsa 2048 > key.pem

Create an auto signed certificate.

openssl req -new -x509 -nodes -sha256 -days 3650 -key key.pem > cert.pem

OpenSSL will prompt you to enter the various fields that it requires for the certificate. In the field Common Name you must insert the fully qualified domain name of the $HOST_NAME ($HOSTNAME) which will run your QVD node as shown below.

Common Name (e.g. server FQDN or YOUR name) []: $NODE_NAME

6.2. API

apt-get install -y perl-qvd-api

Create the file /etc/qvd/api.conf with the following content:

database.host=localhost
database.name=qvddb
database.user=qvd
database.password=passw0rd
api.user=root
api.group=root
path.api.ssl=/etc/qvd/certs

To execute either the CLI or the WAT we must enable the API.

systemctl enable --now qvd-api
systemctl start qvd-api

Calling to the endpoint info from the browser or using the following command, we will check that the API is working.

curl -k https://localhost:443/api/info

It should return a JSON with system information.

6.3. CLI

apt-get install -y perl-qvd-admin4

Create the file /etc/qvd/qa.conf with the following content:

qa.url = https://localhost:443/
qa.tenant = *
qa.login = superadmin
qa.password = superadmin
qa.format = TABLE
qa.insecure = 1

Be sure to keep the spaces between the variable, the = sign and the value, and make sure there are no blank spaces at the end of the lines.

This is just a testing installation guide. Never for be using in production environment. The parameter qa.insecure must be replaced by the parameter qa.ca with your Authority certification path.

With the following command we will check that QA4 is working.

qa4 admin get

It should return the two administrators of the system: admin and superadmin.

.----+------------+----------+-------.
| id | name       | language | block |
+----+------------+----------+-------+
|  1 | superadmin | auto     |    10 |
|  2 | admin      | auto     |    10 |
'----+------------+----------+-------'
Total: 2

6.4. WAT

apt-get install -y qvd-wat

Executing the WAT

Visit https://localhost:443

Credentials:

username: superadmin@*
password: superadmin

Get lxc version

lxc-start --version

Once QVD WAT has been accessed, in the Section Start\QVD Management\WAT Configuration look for the following parameters, modify and save the values:

vm.network.use_dhcp = 0
command.version.lxc = 5.0

The value obtained from lxc-start --version is the one that will replace the value of command.version.lxc.

7. Basic and indispensable configuration

7.1. Network configuration

7.1.1. Set dnsmasq to be controlled by QVD

Check if dnsmasq is installed:

dpkg -s dnsmasq

If it is not installed, run:

apt-get install -y dnsmasq
[ `systemctl is-enabled dnsmasq.service` == "enabled" ] && systemctl disable dnsmasq.service || echo "success disabled"

7.1.2. Configure IP forwarding

Edit the file /etc/sysctl.conf and uncomment the line:

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Execute:

sysctl -p

7.1.3. Configure a network bridge

Edit the file /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml and add the following lines:

bridges:
    qvdnet0:
      addresses: [10.3.15.1/24]
      mtu: 1500
      parameters:
          stp: true
          forward-delay: 4
      dhcp4: no
      dhcp6: no

the file should be similar to the following:

network:
  ethernets:
    $NETWORK_INTERFACE_NAME:
      dhcp4:true
  version: 2
  bridges:
    qvdnet0:
      addresses: [10.3.15.1/24]
      mtu: 1500
      parameters:
          stp: true
          forward-delay: 4
      dhcp4: no
      dhcp6: no

$NETWORK_INTERFACE_NAME must match the network interface name

In case the file already exists, the bridges: section must be aligned with the ethernets: section

The range 10.3.15.0/24 should be unique within your infrastructure.

Generate and apply changes

netplan generate
netplan apply

7.1.4. Configure QVD for your network

qa4 config set tenant_id=-1,key=vm.network.ip.start,value=10.3.15.50
qa4 config set tenant_id=-1,key=vm.network.netmask,value=24
qa4 config set tenant_id=-1,key=vm.network.gateway,value=10.3.15.1
qa4 config set tenant_id=-1,key=vm.network.dns_server,value=10.3.15.254
qa4 config set tenant_id=-1,key=vm.network.bridge,value=qvdnet0

7.2. Configure QVD to use the SSL certificates

qa4 config ssl key=/etc/qvd/certs/key.pem, cert=/etc/qvd/certs/cert.pem
openssl version -d

The previous command may return the following response by default:

OPENSSLDIR: "/usr/lib/ssl"

If other directory is returned, use it instead /usr/lib/ssl for the following steps.

The trusted certificates are stored in /usr/lib/ssl/certs.

trusted_ssl_path=/usr/lib/ssl/certs
cert_path=/etc/qvd/certs/cert.pem
cert_name=`openssl x509 -noout -hash -in $cert_path`.0
cp $cert_path $trusted_ssl_path/QVD-L7R-cert.pem
ln -s $trusted_ssl_path/QVD-L7R-cert.pem $trusted_ssl_path/$cert_name

7.3. Configure HKD Node

Now, add the node to the solution by running:

qa4 host new name=$(echo $HOSTNAME),address=10.3.15.1

Edit the /etc/default/grub file and add/modify the following line:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=false"

run:

/usr/sbin/update-grub2

Enable the HKD service:

systemctl enable --now qvd-hkd

And restart the server

shutdown -r now

8. And now, what?

If you have had any problem, consult the Complete QVD Installation Guide

If you have already done all the steps of this guide, congratulations, you already have a solution QVD installed. Now you should:

Configure your first OSF
Install your first image
Add your first user
Add a VM for your user

We recommend that you follow the WAT Guide to perform these steps

Once finished, you will only have to:

Connect and try the solution

Check the Quick guide to install the QVD client in your system.

If you have any question or need additional support, visit our website at http://theqvd.com/ or contact with us at info@theqvd.com.