KVM Requirements

Contents

1.1. The kvm package
1.2. Installing KVM
1.3. Hardware Requirements
1.4. Supported Guest Operating Systems

The kvm package

Originally the kvm package also provided the KVM kernel modules, but these modules are included with the kernel now, and only userspace components are included in the current kvm package.

The kvm package provides qemu-kvm, the program that performs the actual emulation. In addition to the qemu-kvm program the kvm package also comes with a monitoring utility (kvm-stat), firmware components, key-mapping files, scripts, and windows drivers (/usr/share/qemu-kvm/win-virtio-drivers.iso).

Interoperability with other virtualization tools has been tested and is an essential part of Novell's support stance. These tools include:

  • virt-manager: A graphical management tool for virtual machines. virt-manager is provided by a package of the same name.

  • vm-install: Define a virtual machine and install its operating system. vm-install is provided by a package of the same name.

  • qemu-img: A utility to create and convert images. qemu-img is provided by the package virt-utils.

  • virt-viewer: An X viewer client for virtual machines which supports SSL/TLS encryption of x509 certificate authentication. virt-viewer is provided by a package of the same name.

  • libvirt: A tool collection to manage virtual machines and virtualization functionality like network interface storage. libvirt provides an API, a daemon, and a shell (virsh).

Installing KVM

KVM is not installed by default. To install KVM and all virtualization tools, proceed as follows:

  1. Start YaST and choose Virtualization+Installing Hypervisor and Tools

  2. Select KVM and confirm with Accept

  3. Confirm the list of packages that is to be installed with Install.

  4. Agree to set up a network bridge by clicking Yes. It is recommended using a bridge on a virtual machine host, but if you prefer to manually configure a different network setup, you can safely skip this step by clicking No.

  5. After the setup has been finished, you can either reboot the machine as YaST suggests, or manually load the required drivers and start the libvirtd to avoid a reboot:

    1. Load the kernel modules:

      modprobe kvm-intel # on Intel machines only
      modprobe kvm-amd   # on AMD machines only
    2. Start libvirtd:

      rclibvirtd start

Hardware Requirements

Currently Novell only supports KVM full virtualization on x86_64 hosts. KVM is designed around hardware virtualization features included in AMD (AMD-V) and Intel (VT-x) CPUs, and virtualization features of chipsets and PCI devices, such as an I/O Memory Mapping Unit (IOMMU) and Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)).

You can test whether your CPU supports hardware virtualization with the following command:

egrep '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If this command returns no output, your processor wither does not support hardware virtualization, or this feature has been disabled in the BIOS.

The following websites identify processors which support hardware virtualization:

http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/HVM_Compatible_Processors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86_virtualization
[Warning]

The KVM kernel modules will not load if the cpu does not support hardware virtualization or if this feature is not enabled in the BIOS.

The general minimum hardware requirements for the host system are the same as outlined in Section “Hardware for AMD64 and Intel 64” (Chapter 2, Installation on x86, AMD64, Intel 64, and Itanium, ↑Deployment Guide). However, additional RAM for each virtualized guest is needed—it should at least be the same amount that is needed for a physical installation. It is also strongly recommended to have at least one processor core or hyper-thread for each guest.

Supported Guest Operating Systems

The following itemization lists guest operating systems tested, and the support status. Alloperating systems listed are supported in both 32 and 64 bit x86 versions.

[Note]

Guest images created under a previous SUSE Linux Enterprise version are not supported.

To improve the performance of the guest operating system, para-virtualized drivers (PV drivers) are provided when available. Although they are not required, it is strongly recommended to use them. The following para-virtualized drivers are available in principle:

  • virtio-net: Network driver.

  • virtio-blk: Device driver for accessing para-virtualized block devices.

  • virtio-balloon: Memory driver for dynamic memory allocation. Allows to dynamically change the amount of memory allocated to a guest.

  • kvm-clock: Clock synchronisation driver.

Supported KVM Guest Operating Systems on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1

Virtualiztion Type:

Fully virtualized

PV drivers:

kvm-clock, virtio-net, virtio-blk, virtio-balloon

Support Status:

Fully Supported

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3

Virtualiztion Type:

Fully virtualized

PV drivers:

kvm-clock, virtio-net, virtio-blk, virtio-balloon

Support Status:

Fully Supported

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP4

Virtualiztion Type:

Fully virtualized

Support Status:

Fully Supported

Note:

  • 32 bit kernel: specify clock=pmtmr on linux boot line

  • 64 bit kernel: specify ignore_lost_ticks on linux boot line

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 SP1

Virtualiztion Type:

Fully virtualized

PV drivers:

kvm-clock, virtio-net, virtio-blk, virtio-balloon

Support Status:

Tech Preview

RedHat Enterprise Linux 4.x / 5.x

Virtualiztion Type:

Fully Virtualized

PV drivers:

See http://www.redhat.com/

Support Status:

Best Effort

Note:

  • Refer to http://www.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/5.5/html/Virtualization_Guide/chap-Virtualization-KVM_guest_timing_management.html

Windows XP SP3+ / Windows Server 2003 SP2+ / Windows Server 2008+ / Windows Vista SP1+ / Wondows 7

Virtualiztion Type:

Best Effort

PV drivers:

virtio-net, virtio-blk, virtio-balloon

Support Status:

Best Effort

Availability of para-virtualized Drivers

The para-virtualized drivers are available as follows:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1

included in kernel

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP3

FIXME: fhassel will provide a TID

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP4

not available

RedHat

available in RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.4 and newer

Windows

/usr/share/qemu-kvm/win-virtio-drivers.iso