Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Kernel based Virtual Machine (KVM) is a Linux kernel infrastructure for virtualization and runs on x86 hardware with the hardware virtualization techniques from Intel (VT) or AMD (AMD-V) like Virtualization Capable Processors and on the System z architecture.

Overview of Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM)

Components of Kernel Based Virtual Machine (KVM) are kernel modules which will also run on older versions of Linux and hardware-specific modules, examples of Kernel Based Virtual Machine modules are like kvm-intel.ko amd.ko.

Kernel Based Virtual Machine itself creates no emulation, but only provides the infrastructure ready to deploy, a modified system is currently the only way to use them. This system is called QEMU, which provides virtualized guest operating systems with the necessary equipment such as hard drives, network, sound and graphics cards to run properly.

After loading the module of the Linux kernel, it itself works as a hypervisor for virtual machines. As a Kernel Based Virtual Machine, the supported guest systems are Linux, both 32 and 64 bit, Windows (both 32 and 64 bit), AROS , ReactOS , Solaris and various BSD.

Kernel Based Virtual Machine runs on SMP host systems. The support for paravirtualization is now available in Kernel Based Virtual Machine and Linux using the paravirtualization interface.

Benefits include reduced overhead and improved performance, as the guest system knows that it is running on virtualized hardware, and cooperates with the hypervisor.

Management Tools and Other Points of Kernel Based Virtual Machine

Kernel Based Virtual Machine performs far ahead of the niche. Compared to the products of VMware (VMware ESXi), Microsoft (Hyper-V) or Citrix (XenServer) Kernel Based Virtual Machine has no appreciable market share. The free hypervisor, however, was integrated with kernel version 2.6.20 fixed in the Linux kernel. BMC Software, Eucalyptus Systems, HP, IBM, Intel, Red Hat and SUSE formed Open Virtualization Alliance (OVA) for Kernel Based Virtual Machine.  The major distributors are Ubuntu, Red Hat and SuSE.