Create VM From RHEL 9.6 QCOW2 Image on Ubuntu

Below we will cover steps to create a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) virtual machine on Ubuntu using a QCOW2 image.

Prerequisites

1. Download the RHEL QCOW2 Image:

Download the virtualization image for RHEL 9.* from the Red Hat Portal. It should be in .qcow2 format.

For this guide, we assume the downloaded file is named rhel9.qcow2.

💡 Tip: You can also create a custom image from the Red Hat portal. This allows you to embed your SSH key and subscription activation directly into the image. With a free Red Hat Developer Subscription, you're allowed to run up to 16 RHEL instances. You will have to signup first.

2. Install `virt-manager` if not present:

Ensure that virt-manager and virtualization tools are installed:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install virt-manager

Steps >>>

1. Clone the Base Image:

Create a copy of the downloaded QCOW2 image. This prevents modifying the original:

cp rhel9.qcow2 my-vm.qcow2

2. Create the Virtual Machine:

Use virt-install to create a VM from the QCOW2 image:

virt-install \
   --name my-vm \
   --noautoconsole \
   --import \
   --memory 2048 --vcpus=2 \
   --osinfo rhel9-unknown \
   --disk bus=virtio,path=my-vm.qcow2 \
   --network default \
#   --cloud-init user-data=user-data # Uncomment if using cloud-init

For custom built images, you can use username/password or ssh to access the vm.

💡 If you're not using a custom image with your ssh keys baked in it, then you'll need to pass an SSH key via --cloud-init during init to access the VM later. You can ssh into the vm using ssh cloud-user@<ip>.

To get IP address of vm run: virsh domifaddr --domain my-vm.

💡 Here we have used rhel9-unknown for --osinfo. You can find what is suitable for your os using virt-install --osinfo list | grep rhel

3. Managing the Virtual Machine:

List running VMs:

virsh list

Connect to the VM Console:

virsh console my-vm

Shut Down the VM:

virsh shutdown my-vm

List All VMs (Including Stopped):

virsh list --all

4. Remove the VM and Disk:

virsh undefine --domain my-vm --remove-all-storage

⚠️ The --remove-all-storage flag will delete my-vm.qcow2. If you skip this, you can reuse the disk image to spin up the VM again from its last state.

Bonus

1. Register using Subscription-Manager

To register run: subscription-manager register --username <username>.

Verify using: subscription-manager identity (it should show org ID).

Later to unregister, run:
subscription-manager remove --all
subscription-manager unregister
subscription-manager clean

References:

@parthyadav3105