As you proceed throughout this lab, you will be required to fill in the comparison chart for three of the VMs (virtual machines) that you will be installing.

# Launch the '''VMware Workstation''' application.

:: '''File System (root partition):''' ext4

:: '''CPUs:''' 1

# Make certain you used the wget command to download the LiveGNOME iso file from the Belmont server (from previous instructions).

:: '''Disk space:''' 20GB

:: '''CPUs:''' 1

# Create the VM (called '''centos2''') as you did with the ''centos1'' machine, except for the following differences:<br><br><ol type="a"><li>Select '''Network Installation''' using the installation source URL displayed above.</li><li>When customizing your partitions, do the same operation that you did in centos2, but after automatically creating the partitions, reduce the size of the root LVM partition to '''8000 MB''' and add an LVM partition with a size of '''2000 MB''' (mount point: '''/home''', name: '''home''', and make certain root and /home partitions have '''ext4''' file system).</li><li>Don't forget to install the GNOME desktop here as you will need a GUI for Centos2<br><br></li></ol>

:: '''Disk space:''' 15GB

:: '''CPUs:''' 1

# Create the VM as you did with the ''centos2'' virtual machine, specifying a network install as before, but specify the kickstart location under the "options section" for network install. What do you think is the purpose of this kickstart file?

|colspan="2"|{{Admon/important|Backing up VMs|There are two general processes in order to back up your images:<ol><li>'''Compressing your images''' (also recommended to backup up to external storage USB Key) using the '''gzip''' command.</li><li>'''Backup the VM xml configuration file''' (preferably to USB key) using '''virsh''' shell command to add VM to virtual machine manager list (in the event that the HOST machine is "wiped" and re-installed, but VM images and xml configuration files have been backed up external storage).</li></ol><br />Taking the time to backup the image of the Operating System's file system allows the user to return to a '''"restoration point"''' using the '''gunzip''' command in case something bad occurs to the OS during a lab.<br />Failure to take the time to make and confirm backups can result in loss of lab work for the student!|}}

|}

# Shut down all of the virtual machines.

# Change to the directory <b><code>/var/lib/libvirt/images/</code></b>. Note the size of the files in this directory. What do these files contain?

You will continue our use of Bash Shell scripting by first creating a Bash Shell script that will allow the Linux sysadmin to select their created VMs for backup to root's home directory. Afterwards you will download, view and run a couple Bash Shell scripts that use the virsh command to start and stop your virtual machines.

# Start the '''centos1''' virtual machine, and stop the '''centos2''' and '''centos3''' virtual machines.