Chapter 9. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Hosts

9.1. Red Hat Enterprise Linux Hosts

A Red Hat Enterprise Linux host, also known as a RHEL-based hypervisor is based on a standard basic installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on a physical server, with Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server and the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization entitlements enabled. For detailed installation instructions, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Installation Guide.
See Appendix G, Configuring a Hypervisor Host for PCI Passthrough for more information on how to enable the hypervisor hardware and software for device passthrough.

Important

By default, SELinux is in enforcing mode upon installation. To verify, run getenforce. While it is highly recommended to have SELinux in enforcing mode, it is not required for Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization to host virtual machines. Disabling SELinux eliminates a core security feature of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Problems also occur when migrating virtual machines between hypervisors that have different SELinux modes. For more information, see Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Virtualization Security Guide.
If you need to live migrate virtual machines from a hypervisor that has SELinux disabled to a hypervisor that has SELinux enabled, see the workaround in https://access.redhat.com/solutions/1982023.

Important

Virtualization must be enabled in your host's BIOS settings. For information on changing your host's BIOS settings, refer to your host's hardware documentation.

Important

Third-party watchdogs should not be installed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux hosts, as they can interfere with the watchdog daemon provided by VDSM.