When using QEMU/KVM, there are many methods to share data between the host system and guest virtual machines. In this tutorial, we focus on creating a filesystem passthrough, using virt-manager or by manually editing a virtual machine definition, and we learn how to mount a host directory inside a virtualized guest.
kvm
Converting VirtualBox OVA to QCOW2 for QEMU/KVM Deployment
In this detailed guide, we will explore the process of converting a VirtualBox OVA file to the QCOW2 format, a necessary step for deploying virtual machines in a QEMU/KVM environment. This conversion is essential for users looking to transition from VirtualBox to a more scalable and open-source virtualization option like QEMU/KVM. We’ll cover each step of the process, from exporting your VirtualBox machine to finally deploying it on QEMU/KVM.
Setting Up Virtual Machines with QEMU, KVM, and Virt-Manager on Debian/Ubuntu
Virtualization technology has become an indispensable tool in software development, testing, and deployment. It allows you to run multiple virtual machines (VMs) on a single physical machine, each with its own isolated operating system and resources. This tutorial focuses on setting up a virtualization environment on Debian or Ubuntu Linux using QEMU, KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine), and Virt-Manager.
Virtualization solutions on Linux systems – KVM and VirtualBox
Introduction
Virtualization packages are means for users to run various operating systems without “bare-metal” hardware – basically, you can run more than one operating system on a single computer without dual-booting or similar approaches. Virtualization software emulates a real machine and “fools” the guest operating system into thinking it’s running on a real computer. Besides the more obvious advantages, virtual machines help create a greener and easier to administer computing environment. Looking at the trends in the IT industry, virtualization has seen quite a boom in the last few years, because it fits the concepts of utility computing and/or software as a service. Virtualization can be useful to you if you are an enterprise architect, developer, a home user or basically everything in between. We will begin with a short introduction about virtualization in general, then we will specifically treat VirtualBox and KVM as they seem to be most popular open source full virtualization solutions. You are expected to know your way around Linux systems, how to install a Linux distribution and how to install software on it, although we will show you how to install the two aforementioned virtualization packages on some of the popular Linux distributions.
There are two types of virtualization : one that can run the guest system as-is (as in, unmodified) and another that request a modified kernel on the guest’s side in order to run. The first category is named full virtualization, because it emulates a complete hardware environment, the second is named paravirtualization , because it doesn’t emulate hardware and hence needs special modifications at guest level, a good example of this type of virtualization being Xen. These are part of a bigger category named hardware virtualization, but there are also other (software, network or storage, amongst others) virtualization types, which we will not detail here. The two pieces of software we will talk about fit into the full virtualization category. Other popular hardware virtualization technologies include QEMU, Bochs, VMware, Parallels, HyperV or OpenVZ.
Install And Set Up KVM On Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux
Objective
Install KVM with bridged networking and virt-manager on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver
Distributions
Ubuntu 18.04
Requirements
A working install of Ubuntu 18.04 with root privileges
Conventions
- # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of
sudocommand - $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user
Other Versions of this Tutorial
Introduction
KVM is the Linux kernel’s own answer to virtualization. As a result, it’s the lightest, most stable, and most universal virtualization option for Linux systems. While, KVM isn’t as simple to set up as packaged solutions like VirtualBox, it’s ultimately more efficient and flexible.