RHEL VM with Apache httpd

Deploy a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 virtual machine on OpenShift Virtualization, install Apache httpd, and serve a webpage accessible via an OpenShift Route.

Prerequisites

• OpenShift Virtualization installed and healthy
• A default virtualization StorageClass with RWX support
• RHEL 9 boot source available (oc get datasources -n openshift-virtualization-os-images | grep rhel9)
• oc and virtctl installed locally

Create the Project

oc new-project rhel-httpd

Create the Virtual Machine

Choose one of the two options below.

Option A: Full YAML (Recommended)Option B: Quick CLI

Apply a VirtualMachine manifest with cloud-init that sets credentials, installs httpd, and creates a landing page:

apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1
kind: VirtualMachine
metadata:
  name: rhel-httpd
  namespace: rhel-httpd
spec:
  runStrategy: Always
  template:
    spec:
      domain:
        resources:
          requests:
            memory: 2Gi
        devices:
          disks:
            - name: rootdisk
              disk:
                bus: virtio
            - name: cloudinit
              disk:
                bus: virtio
      volumes:
        - name: rootdisk
          dataVolume:
            name: rhel-httpd-rootdisk
        - name: cloudinit
          cloudInitNoCloud:
            userData: |
              #cloud-config
              user: cloud-user
              password: Pass123!
              chpasswd:
                expire: false
              packages:
                - httpd
              runcmd:
                - systemctl enable httpd --now
                - echo '<html><body><h1>Hello from OpenShift Virtualization</h1><p>Served by Apache httpd on RHEL 9</p></body></html>' > /var/www/html/index.html
                - restorecon -Rv /var/www/html
  dataVolumeTemplates:
    - metadata:
        name: rhel-httpd-rootdisk
      spec:
        sourceRef:
          kind: DataSource
          name: rhel9
          namespace: openshift-virtualization-os-images
        storage:
          accessModes:
            - ReadWriteMany
          volumeMode: Block
          resources:
            requests:
              storage: 30Gi

oc apply -f rhel-httpd-vm.yaml

Create the VM using virtctl with cloud-init credentials. This does not install httpd automatically — install and start it manually after the VM boots (see step 3).

echo 'Pass123!' > /tmp/vm-password
virtctl create vm \
  --name rhel-httpd \
  --instancetype u1.medium \
  --preference rhel.9 \
  --volume-import type:ds,src:openshift-virtualization-os-images/rhel9 \
  --user cloud-user \
  --password-file /tmp/vm-password \
  | oc apply -n rhel-httpd -f -

1. Wait for the VM to reach Running:

oc get vmi rhel-httpd -n rhel-httpd -w

Verify httpd is Running Inside the VM

1. Once the VM is running, open a console session:

virtctl console rhel-httpd -n rhel-httpd

1. Log in as cloud-user / Pass123!. If you used Option A, verify httpd:

systemctl status httpd
curl localhost

If you used Option B, install and start httpd first:

sudo dnf install -y httpd
sudo systemctl enable httpd --now
echo '<html><body><h1>Hello from OpenShift Virtualization</h1><p>Served by Apache httpd on RHEL 9</p></body></html>' | sudo tee /var/www/html/index.html
sudo restorecon -Rv /var/www/html
curl localhost

You should see the HTML page content. Press Ctrl+] to exit the console.

Expose httpd via a Service and Route

1. Create a Service targeting port 80 on the VM:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: rhel-httpd
  namespace: rhel-httpd
spec:
  selector:
    vm.kubevirt.io/name: rhel-httpd
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 80

oc apply -f rhel-httpd-svc.yaml

1. Create a Route to expose the service externally:

oc expose service rhel-httpd -n rhel-httpd

1. Verify the page is accessible:

ROUTE=$(oc get route rhel-httpd -n rhel-httpd -o jsonpath='{.spec.host}')
curl http://$ROUTE

You should see:

<html><body><h1>Hello from OpenShift Virtualization</h1><p>Served by Apache httpd on RHEL 9</p></body></html>

Cleanup

oc delete vm rhel-httpd -n rhel-httpd
oc delete project rhel-httpd