Most articles/videos for virt-manager on OSX connecting to Unraid seemed a bit dated so thought I'd share what I did to get things running. What's outlined below seems like a lot but once you've done it once it can be repeated in under 5 minutes. 

 

My requirements:

 

- Create, start and stop VM's on Unraid from OSX
- Create + manage snapshots on Unraid from OSX
- Clone VM's on Unraid from OSX
- Monitor basic stats like cpu/ram/network usage

 

Guide:

 

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## Unraid

##########

1. Setup libvirt + qemu to listen on "0.0.0.0"

 

A lot of articles referred to editing "/etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf" but this didn't exist in "/etc/libvirt/". Restarting VM service + array fixed it for me.

 

a) Restart VM service + array 

 

Settings -> VM Manager -> Set "Enable VM's" to No 
Main - Stop Array 
Main -> Start Array
Settings -> VM Manager -> Set "Enable VM's" to Yes

 

b) SSH to Unraid server and change two files:

 

/etc/libvirt/libvirtd.conf

listen_addr = "0.0.0.0" <-- default is "127.0.0.1"

 

/etc/libvirt/qemu.con

vnc_listen = "0.0.0.0" <-- default is "127.0.0.1"

 

c) Again, restart VM service and array (doing both is likely redundant)

 

Settings -> VM Manager -> Set "Enable VM's" to No 
Main - Stop Array 
Main -> Start Array
Settings -> VM Manager -> Set "Enable VM's" to Yes

 

##########

## OSX

##########

 

1. Install virt-manager on OSX

 

a) Prerequisites:

 

Install Homebrew @ https://brew.sh 

 

b) Install virt-manger + dependencies:  

 

brew cask install xquartz
brew tap jeffreywildman/homebrew-virt-manager
brew install virt-manager virt-viewer
mkdir -p /usr/local/Cellar/libosinfo/1.7.1/share/libosinfo
cd /usr/local/Cellar/libosinfo/1.7.1/share/libosinfo/
curl http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids -O
curl https://pci-ids.ucw.cz/v2.2/pci.ids -O

 

2. Create virt-manager app instead of launching via Terminal

 

Why? There are tools such as "appify" that will wrap a shell script and create pseudo OSX App but it will still launch a Terminal window in addition to virt-manager. I wanted virt-manager to launch like a native OSX app.

 

a) Create virt-manager app via Automator

 

Applications -> Automator -> New Document -> Workflow -> Choose 
Scroll down and double click "Run Shell Script"
Paste (w/ quotes) -> "/usr/local/bin/virt-manager"
File -> Save -> Click down arrow to expand view -> Choose "Applications" -> Save As: virt-manager -> File Format: Application -> Save

 

b) Add virt-manger icon to app:

 

Grab virt-manager icon @ https://icon-icons.com/icon/virt-manager/94317 (just click icon and drag to desktop)
Double click icon (it will open in Preview)
CTRL-C to copy
Applications -> virt-manager -> Right Click -> Get Info
Click on icon and CTRL-V to paste 

 

3. Connect to Unraid 

 

a) Launch virt-manager

 

Applications -> virt-manager

 

b) Add connection to Uraid

 

File -> Add Connection 

Hypervisor: Custom URI
Autoconnect: Checked
Custom URI: qemu+tcp://root@<unraid-server-ip>/system

 

** Note - There is no TLS or password auth setup. If you are running in environment where this is required I would suggest looking into ssh auth vs. tcp. 

Instead of making holes in Unraid isn't it better to do it via SSH?

 

install the virt-manager local

 

ssh -L 8080:127.0.0.1:80 -L 16509:127.0.0.1:16509 <unraiduser>@<UnraidIP>

 

Open virt-manager

File -> Add Connection 

Hypervisor: Custom URI
Autoconnect: Checked
Custom URI: qemu+tcp://[email protected]:16509/system

 

And you have now a open webUI 127.0.0.1:8080 with no password

Hello
I don't understand this part : Paste (w/ quotes) -> "/usr/local/bin/virt-manager"?