Overview

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is the main virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware that contains virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of the loadable KVM kernel modules (one that provides the core virtualization infrastructure and several processor-specific modules), but the complete KVM virtualization stack usually also contains the user-space machine hardware emulator QEMU accelerated by the KVM and virtual machines management tool libvirt.

By using KVM, you can run multiple Virtual Machines with unmodified Linux or Windows images. Each Virtual Machine has private virtualized hardware - network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc.

How Should I Read This Chapter

This chapter focuses on the configuration options for KVM-based Nodes. Read the installation section to add a KVM Node to your OpenNebula cloud to start deploying VMs. Continue with the driver section to understand the specific requirements, functionalities, and limitations of the KVM driver.

You can then move on to the Open Cloud Storage and Networking chapters to be able to deploy Virtual Machines on your KVM nodes and access them remotely over the network.

Hypervisor Compatibility

This chapter applies only to KVM.