Install Windows 2012R2 in KVM

Not a fan of windows. Some app requires windows though. We figured (after some google search) to install Windows 2012R2 in KVM loading the virtio drives from a cdrom iso over the setup process.

First of all you need to have the iso media (cdrom) and download it at your KVM (i.e. evaluation version at https://www.microsoft.com/en-US/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2012-r2). In our case, and for the sake of this post, we have renamed it to ‘/var/lib/libvirt/images/win2012/win2012.iso’
Now download the iso image with the virtio drivers from https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/virtio-win-0.1.126-2/virtio-win.iso (stable version). We renamed it to ‘/var/lib/libvirt/images/win2012/virtio-win.iso’
Create a disk:

qemu-img create -f raw /var/lib/libvirt/images/win2012/win2012.img 80GB

Create you domain using the following xml as an example:

<domain type='kvm' id='25'>
  <name>win2012</name>
  <memory unit='KiB'>16777207</memory>
  <vcpu placement='static'>8</vcpu>
  <resource>
    <partition>/machine</partition>
  </resource>
  <os>
    <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-rhel7.0.0'>hvm</type>
    <boot dev='cdrom'/>
    <boot dev='hd'/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <hyperv>
      <relaxed state='on'/>
      <vapic state='on'/>
      <spinlocks state='on' retries='8191'/>
    </hyperv>
  </features>
  <cpu mode='custom' match='exact'>
    <model fallback='allow'>Broadwell</model>
  </cpu>
  <clock offset='localtime'>
    <timer name='rtc' tickpolicy='catchup'/>
    <timer name='pit' tickpolicy='delay'/>
    <timer name='hpet' present='no'/>
    <timer name='hypervclock' present='yes'/>
  </clock>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
  <pm>
    <suspend-to-mem enabled='no'/>
    <suspend-to-disk enabled='no'/>
  </pm>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/win2012/win2012.iso'/>
      <target dev='hda' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/win2012/virtio-win.iso'/>
      <target dev='hdb' bus='ide'/>
      <readonly/>
      <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' target='0' unit='0'/>
    </disk>
    <disk type='file' device='disk'>
      <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='none'/>
      <source file='/var/lib/libvirt/images/win2012/win2012.img'/>
      <backingStore/>
      <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
      <alias name='virtio-disk0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
    </disk>
    <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-ehci1'>
      <alias name='usb'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x7'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci1'>
      <alias name='usb'/>
      <master startport='0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0' multifunction='on'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci2'>
      <alias name='usb'/>
      <master startport='2'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x1'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='usb' index='0' model='ich9-uhci3'>
      <alias name='usb'/>
      <master startport='4'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x2'/>
    </controller>
    <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'>
      <alias name='pci.0'/>
    </controller>
    <interface type='bridge'>
      <mac address='52:54:00:85:03:00'/>
      <source bridge='core'/>
      <virtualport type='openvswitch'>
        <parameters interfaceid='ac23897e-6f36-4697-9b06-727b9b0c561e'/>
      </virtualport>
      <target dev='vnet6'/>
      <model type='virtio'/>
      <alias name='net0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
    </interface>
    <serial type='pty'>
      <source path='/dev/pts/6'/>
      <target port='0'/>
      <alias name='serial0'/>
    </serial>
    <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/6'>
      <source path='/dev/pts/6'/>
      <target type='serial' port='0'/>
      <alias name='serial0'/>
    </console>
    <input type='tablet' bus='usb'>
      <alias name='input0'/>
      <address type='usb' bus='0' port='1'/>
    </input>
    <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'>
      <alias name='input1'/>
    </input>
    <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'>
      <alias name='input2'/>
    </input>
    <graphics type='vnc' port='5905' autoport='yes' listen='0.0.0.0'>
      <listen type='address' address='0.0.0.0'/>
    </graphics>
    <video>
      <model type='cirrus' vram='16384' heads='1' primary='yes'/>
      <alias name='video0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
    </video>
    <memballoon model='virtio'>
      <alias name='balloon0'/>
      <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>
    </memballoon>
  </devices>
  <seclabel type='none' model='none'/>
  <seclabel type='dynamic' model='dac' relabel='yes'>
    <label>+107:+107</label>
    <imagelabel>+107:+107</imagelabel>
  </seclabel>
</domain>

Define and start your server via:

virsh define win2012.xml
virsh start win2012

Connect though vnc and load the drivers for storage and network interface as the following: I got the following images from https://serverfault.com/questions/703675/install-windows-2012-r2-over-kvm-virtualizaton. When you are on this step:

Load disk drivers as follow from secondary cdrom:

I think the rest is business as usual. Thanks for reading this post and learn how to install Windows 2012R2 in KVM with virtio drivers

See ya!