docs/windows.html.in

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   5     <h1 >Windows support</h1>
   6
   7     <ul id="toc"></ul>
   8
   9     <p>
  10       Libvirt is known to work as a client (not server) on Windows XP
  11       (32-bit), and Windows 7 (64-bit).  Other Windows variants likely work
  12       as well but we either haven't tested or received reports for them.
  13     </p>
  14
  15     <h2><a id="installer">Installation packages</a></h2>
  16
  17     <p>
  18       Users who need pre-built Windows DLLs of libvirt are advised
  19       to use the <a href="http://virt-manager.org">Virt Viewer</a>
  20       pre-compiled <a href="http://virt-manager.org/download/">Windows MSI packages</a>
  21     </p>
  22
  23     <p>
  24       These installers include the libvirt, gtk-vnc and spice-gtk DLLs
  25       along with any of their pre-requisite supporting DLLs, the virsh
  26       command line tool and the virt-viewer &amp; remote-viewer graphical
  27       tools. The development headers are not currently provided in this
  28       installer, so this cannot be used for compiling new applications
  29       against libvirt.
  30     </p>
  31
  32     <h2><a id="conntypes">Connection types</a></h2>
  33
  34     <p>
  35       These connection types are known to work:
  36     </p>
  37
  38     <ul>
  39       <li>QEMU with TLS (qemu+tls://)</li>
  40       <li>QEMU with direct TCP (qemu+tcp://)</li>
  41       <li>VMware ESX (esx://)</li>
  42       <li>VMware VPX (vpx://)</li>
  43     </ul>
  44
  45     <p>
  46       These connection types are known not to work:
  47     </p>
  48
  49     <ul>
  50       <li>QEMU with SSH (qemu+ssh://)</li>
  51     </ul>
  52
  53     <p>
  54       All other connection types may or may not work, and haven't been
  55       tested.
  56     </p>
  57
  58     <p>
  59       Please let us know either the results (either way) if you do.
  60     </p>
  61
  62     <p>
  63       <b>Special note</b> - Support for VirtualBox *on windows* was added in
  64       libvirt 0.8.7, so reports on success and failure if you're using that
  65       would be really helpful and appreciated.
  66     </p>
  67
  68     <p>
  69       <b>WARNING - The qemu+tcp:// connection type passes all traffic
  70       without encryption.  This is a security hazard, and should <i>not</i>
  71       be used in security sensitive environments.</b>
  72     </p>
  73
  74     <h2><a id="esx">Connecting to VMware ESX/vSphere</a></h2>
  75
  76     <p>
  77       Details on the capabilities, certificates, and connection string
  78       syntax used for connecting to VMware ESX and vSphere can be found
  79       online here:<br />
  80     </p>
  81
  82     <a href="https://libvirt.org/drvesx.html">https://libvirt.org/drvesx.html</a>
  83
  84     <h2><a id="tlscerts">TLS Certificates</a></h2>
  85
  86     <p>
  87       TLS certificates need to have been created and placed in the correct
  88       locations, before you will be able to connect to QEMU servers over
  89       TLS.
  90     </p>
  91
  92     <p>
  93       Information on generating TLS certificates can be found here:
  94     </p>
  95
  96     <a href="http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/TLSSetup">http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/TLSSetup</a>
  97
  98     <p>
  99       These instructions are for *nix, and have not yet been adapted for
 100       Windows.  You'll need to figure out the Windows equivalents until
 101       that's done (sorry).  If you can help us out with this, that would be
 102       really welcome.
 103     </p>
 104
 105     <p>
 106       The locations of the TLS certificates and key file on Windows are hard
 107       coded, rather than being configurable.
 108     </p>
 109
 110     <p>
 111       The Certificate Authority (CA) certificate file must be placed in:
 112     </p>
 113
 114     <ul>
 115       <li>%APPDATA%\libvirt\pki\CA\cacert.pem</li>
 116     </ul>
 117
 118     <p>
 119       The Client certificate file must be placed in:
 120     </p>
 121
 122     <ul>
 123       <li>%APPDATA%\libvirt\pki\libvirt\clientcert.pem</li>
 124     </ul>
 125
 126     <p>
 127       The Client key file must be placed in:
 128     </p>
 129
 130     <ul>
 131       <li>%APPDATA%\libvirt\pki\libvirt\private\clientkey.pem</li>
 132     </ul>
 133
 134     <p>
 135       On an example Windows 7 x64 system here, this resolves to these paths:
 136     </p>
 137
 138     <ul>
 139       <li>C:\Users\someuser\AppData\Roaming\libvirt\pki\CA\cacert.pem</li>
 140       <li>C:\Users\someuser\AppData\Roaming\libvirt\pki\libvirt\clientcert.pem</li>
 141       <li>C:\Users\someuser\AppData\Roaming\libvirt\pki\libvirt\private\clientkey.pem</li>
 142     </ul>
 143
 144     <h2><a id="feedback">Feedback</a></h2>
 145
 146     <p>
 147       Feedback and suggestions on changes to make and what else to include
 148       <a href="contact.html">are desired</a>.
 149     </p>
 150
 151     <h2><a id="compiling">Compiling yourself</a></h2>
 152
 153     <p>
 154       Libvirt can be compiled on Windows using the free
 155       <a href="http://www.mingw.org/">MinGW compiler</a>.
 156     </p>
 157
 158     <h3><a id="msys_setup">MSYS Build script</a></h3>
 159
 160     <p>
 161       The easiest way is to use the <b>msys_setup</b> script, developed by
 162       Matthias Bolte.  This is actively developed and kept current with
 163       libvirt releases:
 164     </p>
 165
 166     <a href="https://github.com/photron/msys_setup">https://github.com/photron/msys_setup</a>
 167
 168     <h3><a id="cross-compile">Cross compiling</a></h3>
 169
 170     <p>
 171       You can also cross-compile to a Windows target from a Fedora machine
 172       using the packages available in the Fedora repos.
 173     </p>
 174
 175     <h3><a id="configure">By hand</a></h3>
 176
 177     <p>
 178       Use these options when following the instructions on the
 179       <a href="compiling.html">Compiling</a> page.
 180     </p>
 181
 182 <pre>
 183 ./configure \
 184   --without-sasl \
 185   --without-polkit \
 186   --without-python \
 187   --without-libxl \
 188   --without-qemu \
 189   --without-lxc \
 190   --without-openvz \
 191   --without-libvirtd
 192 </pre>
 193
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