KVM confusion

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volo
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Joined: September 17th, 2013, 7:58 am

KVM confusion

Post by volo »

Hello.

First of all I wanted to express my gratitude for the resources that are available in this site. I've been actually researching this last couple of months and next week I'll start setting up my home server, this site being one of my major sources of information.

Basically I wanted to follow the given advice of running a core install and numerous VMs to provide additional services. For me I was thinking on a windows VM for running remote apps, an ubuntu media server VM and another ubuntu VM for printing, backups and file server.

My confusion is the following. I know that the VMs are installed on the host root partition (I mean, their installations take up space on the hosts' root partition, and you can alternatively install the VM's on the host's /home directory). Now, the VM need files and space to provide their services. For example the media server needs music files or example to be able to stream them and the VM that'll be running backups will need someplace to store these backups. Now, where is this space??

I was thinking of locating the VM's home partitions on a bigger drive. For example, for the media server having a very large partition in a large drive and mounting /home there. I don't know how to do that using KVM, and I'm not even sure if that's the best solution.
Another alternative would be to not care about that and hope for the best. And later mounting a media partition (which would be filled with music files and video files) to the media server VM. Now if I use this approach where would be the VM /home be mounted? In the host's root partition? In the host home directory? elsewhere?

Basically I want some help on how to create the VM guests so they can access large partitions with files (music and video files or example).

Another thing that is bugging me is the host's root partition size. If all the guest VMs are going to be installed in there, it's probably good idea to give the core install a lot of space. Or maybe a better idea would be to install the VM guest on another place? Is that even possible?

I truly appreciate any help you can give me! I know that my post may not be very clear, but the reason is that I'm really confused and writing in English doesn't make anything easier. If something I said is not clear I'll happily try to clarify it. Thanks again!
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