Entropy starvation isn't that common so for the vast majority of users it's not
something that concerns them.
But obviously it's important enough that we invested in creating a paravirtualized
solution.
RHEL 6.4 and 6.5 includes support within QEMU for virt-rng but not in libvirt.
RHEL 6.6 will pickup the appropriate libvirt support for virtio-rng and it is in RHEL 7
beta.
If I remember correctly it's in fedora 19 and later.
If you are compiling your own then you need a QEMU version 1.3 or later and libvirt 1.0.3
or later.
virt-rng is something we'd like to finish off in 3.4 it's effectively done
already.
The challenge will be where it's supported - since EL6 hosts won't be able to use
it unless we get creative.
If you're running on ovirt 3.2+ now with Fedora 19+ hosts then you can use a vdsm
hook[1] to configure virt-rng for your guests.
The XML required to inject in the hook would be relatively simple[2]
On the topic of EL6 (before 6.6 comes out) then there is a way to work around this.
libvirt has a mechanism to pass through qemu command line options[3] . It's somewhere
inbetween a great hack and a risky solution - but it's certainly helped up out many
times. With this qemu namespace option in libvirt you could easily make it work in a
custom hook on EL6.
Aic
[1]
From: "Sven Kieske" <S.Kieske(a)mittwald.de>
To: users(a)ovirt.org
Sent: Friday, December 13, 2013 3:32:22 AM
Subject: Re: [Users] virtio-rng / crypto inside vms
Answering myself, it seems
virtio-rng will be in 3.4:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=977079
But I don't find it in the planning:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuAtmJW_VMCRdHJ6N1M3d1F1UTJT...
Nevertheless it would be cool if someone could give some advice
how to handle entropy until 3.4 gets released
(and I have time to upgrade).
Am 13.12.2013 09:09, schrieb Sven Kieske:
> Hi,
>
> I'm just wondering: How is the state
> of the virtio-rng implementation?
>
> I'm asking because I need to regenerate
> ssh host keys in newly deployed vms.
>
> (I seem to be the only person, or everybody
> else has found the solution, or nobody thinks
> about security, or a mixture of the above?)
>
> Additional I found no really guidance
> on how much entropy bits should be
> available to generate a secure key
> inside a vm, beside these numbers:
>
>
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1750.txt
> suggests about 128 bits of entropy
> for a single cryptographic operation.
>
> various other sources mention ranges
> between 100-200 or even at least 4096
> entropy bits.
>
> Would it be a workaround to add a virtual
> sound device and use this one for /dev/random ?
> (But it would be useless if you have no real sound hardware I
> guess).
>
> Additional when you want to regenerate host keys in e.g. Ubuntu
> 3 Keys get generated so you need even more entropy to be on the
> save side.
>
> If you got any links to best practices or some
> good news regarding the state of virtio-rng that would be awesome.
>
> Currently my vms have around 130-160 entropy bits available.
>
--
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Regards
Sven Kieske
Systemadministrator
Mittwald CM Service GmbH & Co. KG
Königsberger Straße 6
32339 Espelkamp
T: +49-5772-293-100
F: +49-5772-293-333
https://www.mittwald.de
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Oeynhausen
Komplementärin: Robert Meyer Verwaltungs GmbH, HRB 13260, AG Bad
Oeynhausen
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