Using Qemu on cloud server to run emulated virtual machines

We know that there is not support for nested hypervisors on cloud instances: Nested virtualization support on Rackspace public cloud.

Problem

How to use Qemu on cloud server and start virtual machine to overcome the nested virtualization limitation.

Demonstration and results description

To overcome this limitation we will use Qemu in its emulated mode. Qemu in this mode doesn't require any specials virtualization support in CPU (HVM - Hardware-assisted virtualization).

The VM image was downloaded from here: http://people.debian.org/~aurel32/qemu/i386/. The default u/p is root.

Alternatively we could use Virtualbox. Although I'm not quite sure what would work better yet and give more options to customizing the VMs.

References

https://wiki.debian.org/QEMU
http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/FAQ - this is more to show what can be missing as the CS don't support KVM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QEMU
http://www.linuxforu.com/2012/05/virtualisation-faceoff-qemu-virtualbox-vmware-player-parallels-workstation/

How to emulate Raspberry Pi computer

How much money we would you have to spent to assemble a simple x86 PC (Intel/AMD compatible PC)? With the prices on the market it sounds almost impossible to buy all the necessary elements under a 100$ budget. But if Intel binary compatibility is not your requirements you can try a cheapest ARM based computer called Raspberry Pi.

What is Raspberry Pi

For about only 35$ you can buy a complete ARM compatible PC. 

The Raspberry Pi (short: RPi or RasPi) is an ultra-low-cost ($25-$35) credit-card sized Linux computer.

The Raspberry Pi measures 85.60mm x 56mm x 21mm, with a little overlap for the SD card. It weighs 45g. 

Graphics capabilities are roughly equivalent to Xbox 1 level of performance.

Overall real world performance is something like an old 300MHz Pentium 2, with kind of better graphics.

The device is powered by 5v micro USB.

Raspberry Pi emulator

You can use qemu emulator that works on Linux and Windows to run and test almost any Raspberry compatible distribution. The emulator will take care of abstracting the necessary ARM underlying hardware when the system is turned on. For detailed instruction we can use Google or follow one of these links:

• windows qemu 

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5743
http://sourceforge.net/projects/rpiqemuwindows/

• Linux qemu

http://www.smallbulb.net/2012/225-emulating-raspberry-pi
http://hexample.com/2012/01/10/emulating-raspberry-pi-debian/
http://xecdesign.com/qemu-emulating-raspberry-pi-the-easy-way/

Some screens from booting of the Raspbian “wheezy” image can be seen below.

References

• Others

http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs
http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads