0% found this document useful (0 votes)

78 views101 pages

Oracle Linux KVM Guide

Uploaded by

Merna Ayman Shawky Habib

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

0% found this document useful (0 votes)

78 views101 pages

Oracle Linux KVM Guide

Uploaded by

Merna Ayman Shawky Habib

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 101

Oracle Linux

KVM User's Guide

F29966-32
December 2024
Oracle Linux KVM User's Guide,

F29966-32

Copyright © 2020, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Contents
Preface
Documentation License vi
Conventions vi
Documentation Accessibility vi
Access to Oracle Support for Accessibility vi
Diversity and Inclusion vii

1 Deployment Overview: Oracle Linux KVM

KVM Management: Deployment Options 1-1
KVM Guest: Operating Systems 1-3
Linux Guest Operating Systems 1-3
Microsoft Windows Guest Operating Systems 1-4
Oracle Solaris Guest Operating System 1-5
KVM Host: System Requirements 1-6
KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended 1-7
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN 1-10
Oracle Linux 9: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels 1-10
Oracle Linux 8: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels 1-13
Oracle Linux 7: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels 1-15

2 Installation: Oracle Linux KVM

Enable Yum Repositories 2-1
Oracle Linux 9: Enable Yum Repositories 2-1
Oracle Linux 8: Enable Yum Repositories 2-2
Oracle Linux 7: Enable the Yum Repository 2-3
Subscribe to ULN Channels 2-4
Oracle Linux 9: Subscribe to ULN Channels 2-4
Oracle Linux 8: Subscribe to ULN Channels 2-5
Oracle Linux 7: Subscribe to ULN Channels 2-5
Install Virtualization Packages 2-6
Oracle Linux 9: Install Virtualization Packages 2-6
Oracle Linux 8: Install Virtualization Packages 2-7

iii
Oracle Linux 7: Install Virtualization Packages 2-9
Validate Host System 2-10
Switch KVM Stacks 2-10
Oracle Linux 9: Switch KVM Stacks 2-11
Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack 2-11
Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack 2-12
Oracle Linux 8: Switch KVM Stacks 2-12
Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack 2-13
Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack 2-14
Upgrade the Oracle KVM Stack 2-15
Oracle Linux 7: Switch KVM Stacks 2-16
Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack 2-16
Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack 2-17

3 Libvirtd Service: Management Tasks

Oracle Linux 9: Manage the Libvirtd Service 3-1
Oracle Linux 9: Types of libvirt Driver Daemons 3-2
Oracle Linux 8: Manage the libvirtd Service 3-3
Oracle Linux 7: Manage the libvirtd Service 3-4

4 KVM Instances: Create and Manage

Create: KVM Instance 4-1
Virt-Install: Command Line Examples 4-4
Clone: Existing KVM Instance 4-5
Prepare KVM for Cloning: Using virt-sysprep 4-6
Prepare KVM for Cloning: Manually 4-7
Create a KVM Clone Using virt-clone Command 4-9
View: KVM Instances, Status, and Configuration 4-10
Connect to KVM: virsh Serial Console 4-12
Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM 4-13
KVM: Start Instance 4-14
KVM: Shut Down Instance 4-14
KVM: Suspend or Resume Instance 4-16
KVM: Reboot Instance 4-17
KVM: Remove KVM Instance 4-17

5 KVM Instances: Hardware Configuration

Add Watchdog Device to KVM Instance 5-1
Add vTPM Security to KVM Instance 5-4

iv
KVM Network Configuration 5-5
Overview: Virtual Networking 5-6
Command Usage: Manage Virtual Network 5-7
Command Usage: Add or Remove vNIC 5-9
Bridged Networking: Setup 5-10
Setup Guidelines: Bridged Network 5-10
Create: Bridge Network Connection 5-12
Bonded Interfaces for Increased Throughput 5-13
PCIe Passthrough: Setup 5-14
Create: Direct PCIe Passthrough Connection 5-14
Setup Guidelines: SR-IOV PCIe Passthrough 5-17
Create: SR-IOV PCIe Passthrough Connection 5-17
KVM Storage Configuration 5-23
Storage Pools: Create and Manage 5-24
Creating a Storage Pool 5-25
Creating a Storage Pool from XML 5-26
Removing a Storage Pool 5-27
Storage Volumes: Create and Manage 5-27
Creating a Storage Volume 5-28
Creating a Storage Volume from XML 5-29
Cloning a Storage Volume 5-29
Resizing a Storage Volume 5-30
Deleting a Storage Volume 5-30
Virtual Disks: Create and Manage 5-30
Attaching a Virtual Disk to an Existing VM 5-31
Attaching a Virtual Disk when Creating a VM 5-31
Detaching a Virtual Disk 5-32
Resizing a Virtual Disk 5-32
KVM Memory and CPU Allocation Configuration 5-33
Command Usage: Set Virtual CPU Count 5-33
Command Usage: Allocate Memory 5-34

6 KVM Known Issues

KVM Not Starting After Upgrade On QEMU 6-1
KVM Guest With vTPM Fails 6-2
Downgrade Stream Conflict Error Messages 6-2

v
Preface

Preface
Oracle Linux: KVM User's Guide provides information about how to install, configure, and use
the Oracle Linux KVM packages to run guest system on top of a bare metal Oracle Linux
system. This documentation provides information on using KVM on a standalone platform in an
unmanaged environment. Typical usage in this mode is for development and testing purposes,
although production level deployments are supported. Oracle recommends that customers use
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager for more complex deployments of a managed KVM
infrastructure.

Documentation License
The content in this document is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution–Share Alike
4.0 (CC-BY-SA) license. In accordance with CC-BY-SA, if you distribute this content or an
adaptation of it, you must provide attribution to Oracle and retain the original copyright notices.

Conventions
The following text conventions are used in this document:

Convention Meaning
boldface Boldface type indicates graphical user interface
elements associated with an action, or terms
defined in text or the glossary.
italic Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or
placeholder variables for which you supply
particular values.
monospace Monospace type indicates commands within a
paragraph, URLs, code in examples, text that
appears on the screen, or text that you enter.

Documentation Accessibility
For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility
Program website at https://www.oracle.com/corporate/accessibility/.

Access to Oracle Support for Accessibility

Oracle customers that have purchased support have access to electronic support through My
Oracle Support. For information, visit https://www.oracle.com/corporate/accessibility/learning-
support.html#support-tab.

vi
Preface

Diversity and Inclusion

Oracle is fully committed to diversity and inclusion. Oracle respects and values having a
diverse workforce that increases thought leadership and innovation. As part of our initiative to
build a more inclusive culture that positively impacts our employees, customers, and partners,
we are working to remove insensitive terms from our products and documentation. We are also
mindful of the necessity to maintain compatibility with our customers' existing technologies and
the need to ensure continuity of service as Oracle's offerings and industry standards evolve.
Because of these technical constraints, our effort to remove insensitive terms is ongoing and
will take time and external cooperation.

vii
1
Deployment Overview: Oracle Linux KVM
For a high-level overview of the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) deployment options,
operating requirements, and virtualization package descriptions, see these topics:
• KVM Management: Deployment Options
• KVM Guest: Operating Systems
• KVM Host: System Requirements
• KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended
• KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

KVM Management: Deployment Options

Oracle Linux offers the following KVM deployment management options:

Standalone KVM Hypervisor This KVM option provides a set of modules

that enable you to use the Oracle Linux kernel
as a hypervisor. KVM can be used on both
x86_64 and aarch64 processor architectures
and is available on Oracle Linux 7, Oracle
Linux 8, and Oracle Linux 9 systems using
either Red Hat Compatible Kernel (RHCK) or
Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK).
By default, KVM is built into the kernel. KVM
features are actively developed and might
vary depending on platform and kernel
release. Information on how to use the KVM
hypervisor option is described in this guide.
Oracle UEK users have the options of using
either the default kernel version or an Oracle
kernel version for KVM deployment. Finally,
UEK users can choose to switch between the
KVM stacks as needed. For more details
about the virtualization packages available for
each Linux release, see KVM Repositories
and Channels: Yum and ULN. For details
about switching between KVM stacks, see
Switch KVM Stacks.

1-1
Chapter 1
KVM Management: Deployment Options

Note:
For UEK users,
also see the kernel
version release
notes to obtain
more information
about the KVM
features and any
known issues that
might apply. For
these type of
details, see the
Unbreakable
Enterprise Kernel
documentation.

Note:
As an alternative to
using the
command-line
interface to
manage KVM
instances on a
host, the Cockpit
web console
provides a
graphical interface
to interact with
KVM and
libvirtd. For
more details about
setting up VMs on
a system using the
Cockpit web
console interface,
see Oracle Linux:
Using the Cockpit
Web Console.

Managed KVM Server Virtualization This KVM option is for enterprise or clustered
KVM deployment environments on Oracle
Linux. For these KVM environments, consider
using Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager
which is a server virtualization management
platform.
Using Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager's
administration or virtual machine (VM) portals,
you can configure, monitor, and manage an

1-2
Chapter 1
KVM Guest: Operating Systems

Oracle Linux KVM environment, including

hosts, VMs, storage, networks, and users.
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager also
provides a REST API for managing Oracle
Linux KVM infrastructure, enabling you to
integrate Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager
with other management systems or to
automate repetitive tasks with scripts.
For more details on how to use Oracle Linux
Virtualization Manager, see the Oracle Linux
Virtualization Manager Documentation at
https://docs.oracle.com/en/virtualization/
oracle-linux-virtualization-manager/.

KVM Guest: Operating Systems

When installing standalone instances of KVM, consider using one of the following guest
operating systems:
• Linux Guest Operating Systems
• Microsoft Windows Guest Operating Systems
• Oracle Solaris Guest Operating System

Linux Guest Operating Systems

The following Oracle Linux versions support the use of guest operating installations on KVM
instances.

Note:
Oracle Linux ISO images and disk images are available for download from Oracle
Software Delivery Cloud: https://edelivery.oracle.com/linux.

Table 1-1 Linux Guest Operating Systems

Linux Operating System 32-bit Architecture 64-bit Architecture

Oracle Linux 6 Yes* Yes
Oracle Linux 7 N/A Yes
Oracle Linux 8 N/A Yes
Oracle Linux 9 N/A Yes
Oracle Container Host for N/A Yes
Kubernetes
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Yes* Yes
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 N/A Yes
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 N/A Yes
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 N/A Yes
CentOS 6 Yes* Yes

1-3
Chapter 1
KVM Guest: Operating Systems

Table 1-1 (Cont.) Linux Guest Operating Systems

Linux Operating System 32-bit Architecture 64-bit Architecture

CentOS 7 N/A Yes
AlmaLinux OS 8 N/A Yes
AlmaLinux OS 9 N/A Yes
Rocky Linux 8 N/A Yes
Rocky Linux 9 N/A Yes
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server N/A Yes
12
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server N/A Yes
15
Ubuntu 16.04 N/A Yes
Ubuntu 18.04 N/A Yes
Ubuntu 20.04 N/A Yes
Ubuntu 22.04 N/A Yes

Table footnote:
• *cloud-init is unavailable for 32-bit architectures.

Microsoft Windows Guest Operating Systems

The following Microsoft Windows versions support the use of guest operating installations on
KVM instances.

Caution:
Microsoft Windows 8 is no longer supported by Microsoft. See https://
docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-8 for more information.
Microsoft Windows 8.1 falls out of extended support by Microsoft in January 2023.
See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle/products/windows-81 for more
information.

Table 1-2 Microsoft Windows Supported Guest Operating Systems

Guest Operating System 64-bit 32-bit

Microsoft Windows Server Yes N/A
2022
Microsoft Windows Server Yes N/A
2019
Microsoft Windows Server Yes N/A
2016
Microsoft Windows Server Yes N/A
2012 R2

1-4
Chapter 1
KVM Guest: Operating Systems

Table 1-2 (Cont.) Microsoft Windows Supported Guest Operating Systems

Guest Operating System 64-bit 32-bit

Microsoft Windows Server Yes N/A
2012
Microsoft Windows 11 Yes Yes
Microsoft Windows 10 Yes Yes
Microsoft Windows 8.1 Yes Yes
Microsoft Windows 8 Yes Yes

VirtIO Driver Requirements

For improved performance with network and block (disk) devices, and to resolve common
issues, we recommend that you install the Oracle VirtIO Drivers for Microsoft Windows. These
drivers are para-virtualized drivers for Microsoft Windows guests running on Oracle Linux KVM
hypervisors.
Microsoft Windows guests on KVM have been tested by using the Oracle VirtIO Drivers for
Microsoft Windows. For instructions on how to obtain and install the drivers, see Oracle Linux:
Oracle VirtIO Drivers for Microsoft Windows for use with KVM.

Oracle Solaris Guest Operating System

The following Oracle Solaris version supports the use of guest operating system installations
on KVM instances.

Table 1-3 Oracle Solaris Guest Operating System

Oracle Solaris version 11.4 Oracle Solaris 11.4 can be used as a guest
operating system when installed within a
standalone instance of KVM.

Note:
Oracle Solaris
version 11.4.33
(Oracle Solaris 11.4
SRU 33) is the
minimum version
that includes
functionality for
VirtIO guest
support.

Oracle Solaris ISO images and disk images are

available for download from the Oracle
Software Delivery Cloud at https://
edelivery.oracle.com/.

Special Considerations:

1-5
Chapter 1
KVM Host: System Requirements

For best results when using Oracle Solaris as a guest operating system, follow these
recommendations:
• Use at least a two-core configuration for the Oracle Solaris VM.
• Use the most current QEMU system type (Custom Emulated Machine = pc-i440fx-4.2) for
the Oracle Solaris VM.

KVM Host: System Requirements

Many of the system requirements for KVM hosts can depend on the kinds of applications
running on the virtual machine (VM) and the amount of work they're expected to perform.
The following table describes the minimum system requirements and suggested guidelines for
deploying KVM hosts.

Bare metal host KVM can be used when it's run on a bare
metal host. Note that nested virtualization
scenarios aren't supported for KVM
deployments.

CPU The host system CPU must have virtualization

features for Intel (VT-x) or AMD (AMD-V)
enabled. Arm (aarch64) CPUs can also be
used. If virtualization features aren't available,
check that virtualization is enabled in the
system firmware BIOS or UEFI. As a rule of
thumb, you can start with the following virtual
CPU to host CPU ratios (this ratio is of distinct
CPU cores and assumes SMT is enabled):
• 1:1 to 2:1 can typically achieve good VM
performance.
• 3:1 may cause some VM performance
degradations.
• 4:1 or greater might cause significant VM
performance problems.
The ratio of virtual CPUs to host CPUs can be
calculated by running performance tests on
VM and host systems. Deciding on acceptable
performance depends on many factors such
as, for example:
• Tasks that VM systems perform.
• Volume of tasks to be processed.
• Preferred rate that these tasks need to be
processed.

Memory 3 GB reserved for the host is a good starting

point but memory requirements for the host
operating system scale with the amount of
physical memory available. For systems with
lots of available physical memory, increase the

1-6
Chapter 1
KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended

reserved memory for the host operating

system.
For example, on a system with 1 TB memory,
We recommend at least 20 GB available for
the host operating system.
If system work on a host and all VMs starts
exceeding the available physical RAM, the
performance impact is severe. However, if
VMs are typically idle, you might not need to
allocate as much RAM. Ensure you do
performance testing to ensure that
applications always have enough memory.

Storage The minimum disk space required for the host

operating system is typically 6 GB. Each VM
requires its own storage for the guest
operating system and for swap usage. Cater
to around 6 GB, at minimum, per VM that you
intend to create, but consider the purpose of
the VM and scale accordingly.

KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended

To use virtualization, Oracle Linux virtualization packages must be installed on the system.
Several virtualization packages are available that enable you to work with Oracle Linux KVM.
For more details about Oracle Linux virtualization packages, see the following sections:
• Recommended Virtualization Packages
• Recommended Virtualization Package Groups
• Download Virtualization Packages
Recommended Virtualization Packages
The following individual packages are recommended for installation on virtualization host
systems.

Package Description

libvirt The libvirt package provides an interface to

KVM, and the libvirtd daemon for managing
guest VMs.

1-7
Chapter 1
KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended

Package Description

Note:
Note that the
Cockpit web
console also
provides a
graphical interface
to interact with
KVM and libvirtd
to set up and
configure VMs on
a system. See
Oracle Linux:
Using the Cockpit
Web Console for
more information.

Install example:

sudo dnf module install -y virt

qemu-kvm The qemu-kvm package installs the QEMU

emulator that performs hardware virtualization
so that guests can access host CPU and other
resources.
Install example:

sudo dnf install qemu-kvm

qemu-img The qemu-img package install provides

functionality that lets you create, convert, and
modify images offline. It supports all QEMU
image formats.
Warning: Never use qemu-img to modify
images in use by a running virtual machine or
any other process. By doing so, the image
might be destroyed.
Install example:

sudo dnf install qemu-img

virt-install The virt-install package provides

command line utilities for creating and
provisioning guest VMs.

1-8
Chapter 1
KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended

Package Description
Install example:

sudo dnf install virt-install

virt-viewer The virt-viewer package provides a

graphical utility that can be loaded into a
desktop environment to access the graphical
console of a guest VM.
Install example:

sudo dnf install virt-viewer

For information about connecting to a KVM

graphical interface by opening it in Virt Viewer,
see the virt-viewer(1) --Linux man page.

Recommended Group Virtualization Packages

Virtualization packages can also be installed from package groups. Group packages contain
the minimum set of packages that are required for a virtualization host. For example:

Group Package Description

virt The virt package group installs a collection

of virtualization packages that include libvirt,
quemu-kvm, and other dependencies.
virtualization client The virtualization client package group
is available for install on GUI environment
Oracle Linux systems.
virtualization host The virtualization host package group
contains the minimum set of packages that
are required for a virtualization host.

The command syntax to install a group package is as follows:

sudo dnf module install group-package-name

The command syntax to display the details of what a group package installs is as follows:

sudo dnf info group-package-name

For instructions on how to install virtualization on Oracle Linux 7, Oracle Linux 8, and Oracle
Linux 9, see Install Virtualization Packages.

Download: Virtualization Packages

Virtualization packages are available for download from the Oracle Linux yum server or from
the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). The virtualization packages are available from various
upstream projects, including:

1-9
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

• https://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Main_Page
• https://libvirt.org/
• https://www.qemu.org/

KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

For a description of the Yum repositories and Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN) channels that
are available for KVM deployments, see the following topics:
• Oracle Linux 9: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels
• Oracle Linux 8: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels
• Oracle Linux 7: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels

Oracle Linux 9: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels

The following table provides a list of Oracle Linux 9 yum repositories and ULN channels that
you can use for KVM deployment.
For more information about how Oracle manages software package distribution, see Oracle
Linux: Managing Software on Oracle Linux.

Note:
Unlike Oracle Linux 8, the packages for Oracle Linux 9 aren't released as part of a
DNF module.

Table 1-4 Oracle Linux 9: Repository Files and Channel Names

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

ol9_appstream ol9_x86_64_appstrea Default KVM Stack • Fully supported
m across all Oracle
Linux kernels.
ol9_aarch64_appstre
• Offer maximum
am compatibility with
RHCK and Red Hat
Enterprise Linux.

1-10
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Table 1-4 (Cont.) Oracle Linux 9: Repository Files and Channel Names

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

ol9_kvm_utils ol9_x86_64_kvm_util Oracle KVM Stack • Offer newer KVM
s features and
functionality
ol9_aarch64_kvm_uti available in
ls upstream
packages.
• Engineered to
work with KVM
features that are
enabled in the
latest releases of
UEK. If you install
these packages,
you must also
install the latest
version of either
UEK R7.

N
o
t
e
:
Y
o
u
m
u
s
t
r
e
m
o
v
e
a
l
l
e
x
i
s
t
i
n
g
v
i

1-11
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Table 1-4 (Cont.) Oracle Linux 9: Repository Files and Channel Names

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

r
t
u
a
l
i
z
a
t
i
o
n
p
a
c
k
a
g
e
s
b
e
f
o
r
e
e
n
a
b
l
i
n
g
t
h
i
s
c
h
a
n
n
e
l
o
r
r
e
p
o
s
i
t

1-12
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Table 1-4 (Cont.) Oracle Linux 9: Repository Files and Channel Names

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

o
r
y
.

Special Considerations
• Default KVM Stack – Because the Application Stream repository or channel is a system
software requirement on Oracle Linux, it's enabled by default on Oracle all Linux 9
systems. Therefore the Default KVM Stack can be installed without changing any
repository or channel configuration.
• Oracle KVM Stack – For ULN users, subscribe to the virtualization ULN channels after
registering the Oracle Linux system with ULN and then install virtualization packages. For
yum repository users enable the yum repository and then install virtualization packages.
For more details, see Oracle Linux 9: Enable Yum Repositories or Oracle Linux 9:
Subscribe to ULN Channels.

Note:
If the system is running UEK, you can choose to switch between stacks. For
more details, see Switch KVM Stacks.

Oracle Linux 8: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels

The following table provides a list of Oracle Linux 8 yum repositories and ULN channels that
you can use for KVM deployment.
For more information about how Oracle manages software package distribution, see Oracle
Linux: Managing Software on Oracle Linux.

Table 1-5 Oracle Linux 8: Repository Files and Channel Names

1-13
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Table 1-5 (Cont.) Oracle Linux 8: Repository Files and Channel Names

Special Considerations
• Default KVM Stack – Because the Application Stream repository or channel is a system
software requirement on Oracle Linux, it's enabled by default on Oracle all Linux 8
systems. Therefore the Default KVM Stack can be installed without changing any
repository or channel configuration.
• Oracle KVM Stacks – For ULN users, subscribe to the virtualization ULN channels after
registering the Oracle Linux system with ULN and then install virtualization packages. For
yum repository users, enable the yum repository and then install virtualization packages.

1-14
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

For more details, see Oracle Linux 8: Enable Yum Repositories or Oracle Linux 8:
Subscribe to ULN Channels.

• Note:
If the system is running UEK, you can choose to switch between stacks. For
more details, see Switch KVM Stacks.

Oracle Linux 7: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels

WARNING:
Oracle Linux 7 is now in Extended Support. See Oracle Linux Extended Support and
Oracle Open Source Support Policies for more information.
Migrate applications and data to Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9 as soon as
possible.

The following tables provide a list of Oracle Linux 7 Yum repositories and ULN channels that
you can use for KVM deployment.

Note:
Because of the availability of different kernel versions and the requirement for more
updated versions of user space tools, several different versions of Yum repositories
and ULN channels are available for use. Packages for each channel have different
use cases and different levels of support.

Table 1-6 Oracle Linux 7 x86_64 Platforms: YUM Repository Files and ULN Channel
Names

1-15
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Table 1-6 (Cont.) Oracle Linux 7 x86_64 Platforms: YUM Repository Files and ULN
Channel Names

1-16
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Table 1-6 (Cont.) Oracle Linux 7 x86_64 Platforms: YUM Repository Files and ULN
Channel Names

1-17
Chapter 1
KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Table 1-7 Oracle Linux 8 64-bit Arm Platforms: Yum Repository Files and ULN Channel
Names

Yum Repository File ULN Channel Name Virtualization Packages

Included
ol7_latest ol7_aarch64_latest Includes the latest
virtualization packages that
are available and fully
supported on Unbreakable
Enterprise Kernel Release 5.
The Arm platform runs only
with Unbreakable Enterprise
Kernel Release (UEK). These
virtualization packages, in this
case, are available for
developer use only.
ol7_developer ol7_aarch64_developer These packages take advantage
of newer features and
functionality that are available
upstream, but are made
available for developer use
only.
The Arm platform runs only
with Unbreakable Enterprise
Kernel Release (UEK). The
virtualization packages that
are part of this repository or
channel are available for
developer use only.

Important Usage Note:

• Virtualization Developer Packages – The virtualization developer versions
ol7_developer_EPEL and ol7_aarch64_developer) are for developer use only. These
packages contain untested virtualization features that might conflict with other virtualization
packages. If you don't intend to use the developer virtualization packages, we recommend
that you uninstall these packages on the system or exclude them from being installed.

1-18
2
Installation: Oracle Linux KVM
The process to install the KVM user space packages on Oracle Linux involves these steps:
1. Enable the yum repositories or subscribe to the ULN channels.

Important:
This step is only required when using the Oracle KVM Stack. The Default KVM
Stack is available in the standard core system repositories.

For more details on which sources include the Default KVM Stack or the Oracle KVM
Stack, see KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN.
For details on how to enable a repository or subscribe to a ULN channel, see Enable Yum
Repositories or Subscribe to ULN Channels.
2. Install the virtualization packages on an existing system running Oracle Linux.
For more details, see Install Virtualization Packages.
3. (Optional - UEK system users only) Switch the KVM stack between the Default KVM Stack
and the Oracle KVM Stack.
For more details, see Switch KVM Stacks.

Enable Yum Repositories

If the system isn't subscribed to ULN and you want to use the Oracle KVM Stack, the
appropriate yum repository must be enabled before installing the virtualization packages. For
more details, see:
• Oracle Linux 9: Enable Yum Repositories
• Oracle Linux 8: Enable Yum Repositories
• Oracle Linux 7: Enable the Yum Repository

Note:
The Default KVM Stack is available in the core system repositories and can be
installed without enabling any other repositories. If the Oracle KVM Stack is already
installed and you intend to switch KVM stacks, see Switch KVM Stacks for more
details.

Oracle Linux 9: Enable Yum Repositories

The Default KVM Stack is available in the standard yum repositories on an Oracle Linux 9
system. To use the Oracle KVM Stack, the ol9_kvm_utils yum repository must be enabled
before installing the virtualization packages.

2-1
Chapter 2
Enable Yum Repositories

What Do You Need?

• Ensure that the system meets the virtualization package requirements, see KVM Host:
System Requirements and Oracle Linux 9: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels .
• Ensure that the required version of Oracle Linux 9 is installed to use the KVM features
provided by the yum repository. For more details about the virtualization package
requirements, see KVM Host: System Requirements and .
• Ensure that UEK R7 is installed and running on the system.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
1. Install or update the release package:

sudo dnf install -y oraclelinux-release-el9

2. Enable the Oracle Linux 9 yum repositories, by running the dnf config-manager
command:

sudo dnf config-manager --enable ol9_kvm_utils

3. Proceed to the topic for installing the virtualization packages (Install Virtualization
Packages).

Oracle Linux 8: Enable Yum Repositories

The Default KVM Stack is available as an application stream module in the standard yum
repositories on an Oracle Linux 8 system. To use either of the Oracle KVM Stacks, the
ol8_kvm_appstream yum repository must be enabled before installing the chosen virtualization
application stream module.
What Do You Need?
• Ensure that the system meets the virtualization package requirements for the KVM
application stream module that you're installing, see KVM Host: System Requirements and
Oracle Linux 8: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels .
• Ensure that either UEK R6 or UEK R7 is installed and running on the system.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to enable the ol8_kvm_appstream repository.

1. Install or update the release package:

sudo dnf install -y oraclelinux-release-el8

2. Enable the Oracle Linux 8 yum repository, by running the dnf config-manager
command:

sudo dnf config-manager --enable ol8_kvm_appstream

3. After enabling the Oracle Linux 8 KVM appstream repository, proceed to the topic for
installing the virtualization packages (Install Virtualization Packages).

2-2
Chapter 2
Enable Yum Repositories

Oracle Linux 7: Enable the Yum Repository

The Default KVM Stack is available in the standard yum repositories on an Oracle Linux 7
system. To use the Oracle KVM Stack, the ol7_kvm_utils yum repository must be enabled
before installing the virtualization packages.
What Do You Need?
• Ensure that the system meets the virtualization package requirements, see KVM Host:
System Requirements and Oracle Linux 7: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels .
• Ensure that UEK R4, UEK R5, or UEK R6 is installed and running on the system.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to enable an Oracle Linux repository.
1. Install or update the release package:

sudo yum install -y oraclelinux-release-el7

2. Enable the ol7_kvm_utils yum repository by performing one of the following:

• Edit the repository configuration file at /etc/yum.repos.d/virt-ol7.repo and set the
enabled option to 1:

[ol7_kvm_utils]
name=Oracle Linux $releasever KVM Utilities ($basearch)
baseurl=https://yum$ociregion.$ocidomain/repo/OracleLinux/OL7/kvm/
utils/$basearch/
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1

• Use the yum-config-manager command if the yum-utils package is installed.

For example:

sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol7_kvm_utils

3. (Optional) To prevent yum from installing unwanted package versions from a particular
repository, set an exclude option using the yum-config-manager command.

2-3
Chapter 2
Subscribe to ULN Channels

For example, to prevent yum from installing unwanted virtualization packages that are
included in the ol7_developer_EPEL repository, you would type:

sudo yum-config-manager --setopt="ol7_developer_EPEL.exclude=libvirt*

qemu*" --save

4. Proceed to the topic for installing the virtualization packages (Install Virtualization
Packages).

Subscribe to ULN Channels

If a system is subscribed to ULN and you want to install the Oracle KVM Stack, you must
subscribe the system to the appropriate ULN channel before installing the virtualization
packages. For instructions on how to subscribe to a ULN channel, see the following topics.
• Oracle Linux 9: Subscribe to ULN Channels
• Oracle Linux 8: Subscribe to ULN Channels
• Oracle Linux 7: Subscribe to ULN Channels

Note:
A ULN channel subscription isn't required when installing the Default KVM Stack.

Oracle Linux 9: Subscribe to ULN Channels

The Default KVM Stack is available in the standard ULN channels on an Oracle Linux 9
system. To use the Oracle KVM Stack, the appropriate ol9_<arch>_kvm_utils ULN channel
must be enabled before installing the chosen virtualization packages.
What Do You Need?
• A registered ULN Oracle Linux 9 server. For details on how to register an Oracle server
with ULN, see Oracle Linux: Managing Software on Oracle Linux.
• Ensure that the system meets the virtualization package requirements for the KVM
application stream module that you're installing, see KVM Host: System Requirements and
Oracle Linux 9: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels .
• Ensure that UEK R7 is installed and running on the system.
• ULN username and password.
Steps
To subscribe to ULN channels, follow these steps:
1. Sign in to https://linux.oracle.com with your ULN username and password.
2. On the Systems tab, from the list of registered systems, select the link name for the
specified system.
3. On the System Details page, select Manage Subscriptions.
4. On the System Summary page, select the required ol9_<arch>_kvm_utils channel from
the Available Channels list, then click the right-arrow to move selected channels to the
Subscribed Channels list.

2-4
Chapter 2
Subscribe to ULN Channels

5. Click Save Subscriptions.

Oracle Linux 8: Subscribe to ULN Channels

The Default KVM Stack is available as an application stream module in the standard ULN
channels on an Oracle Linux 8 system. To use either of the Oracle KVM Stacks, the
appropriate ol8_<arch>_kvm_appstream ULN channel must be enabled before installing the
chosen virtualization application stream module.
What Do You Need?
• A registered ULN Oracle Linux 8 server. For details on how to register an Oracle server
with ULN, see Oracle Linux: Managing Software on Oracle Linux.
• Ensure that the system meets the virtualization package requirements for the KVM
application stream module that you're installing, see KVM Host: System Requirements and
Oracle Linux 8: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels .
• Ensure that either UEK R6 or UEK R7 is installed and running on the system.
• ULN username and password.
Steps
To subscribe to ULN channels, follow these steps:
1. Sign in to https://linux.oracle.com with your ULN username and password.
2. On the Systems tab, from the list of registered systems, select the link name for the
specified system.
3. On the System Details page, select Manage Subscriptions.
4. On the System Summary page, select the required ol8_<arch>_kvm_appstream channel
from the Available Channels list, then click the right-arrow to move selected channels to
the Subscribed Channels list.
5. Click Save Subscriptions.

Oracle Linux 7: Subscribe to ULN Channels

The Default KVM Stack is available in the standard ULN channels on an Oracle Linux 7
system. To use the Oracle KVM Stack, the appropriate ol7_<arch>_kvm_utils ULN channel
must be enabled before installing the virtualization packages.
What Do You Need?
• A registered ULN Oracle Linux 7 server. For details on how to register an Oracle Linux 7
server with ULN, see Oracle Linux: Unbreakable Linux Network User's Guide for Oracle
Linux 6 and Oracle Linux 7.

2-5
Chapter 2
Install Virtualization Packages

• Ensure that the system meets the virtualization package requirements, see KVM Host:
System Requirements and Oracle Linux 7: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels .
• Ensure that UEK R4, UEK R5, or UEK R6 is installed and running on the system.
• ULN user account credentials (username and password).
Steps
To subscribe to ULN channels, follow these steps:
1. Sign in to https://linux.oracle.com with the ULN username and password.
2. On the Systems tab, from the list of registered systems, select the link name for the
specified system.
3. On the System Details page, select Manage Subscriptions.
4. On the System Summary page, select the required ol7_<arch>_kvm_utils channel from
the Available Channels list, then click the right-arrow to move selected channels to the
Subscribed Channels list.
5. Click Save Subscriptions.

Install Virtualization Packages

Before you can use virtualization, the virtualization packages must be installed. The following
topics describe how to install virtualization packages on an existing Oracle Linux system.
• Oracle Linux 9: Install Virtualization Packages
• Oracle Linux 8: Install Virtualization Packages
• Oracle Linux 7: Install Virtualization Packages

Oracle Linux 9: Install Virtualization Packages

The following information describes how to install the virtualization packages on an Oracle
Linux 9 system.
What Do You Need?
• User credentials with administrator privileges.
• To install the Oracle KVM Stack, the following requirements must be met:
– Yum repository must be enabled or the ULN channel must be subscribed. See Enable
Yum Repositories or Subscribe to ULN Channels for instructions.

Note:
To install the Default KVM Stack, you don't need to enable any repositories
or subscribe to any other ULN channels.

– The host system must be running the latest UEK R7.

Steps
Follow these steps to install the virtualization packages on an Oracle Linux 9 system.
1. Log in to the Oracle Linux 9 system.

2-6
Chapter 2
Install Virtualization Packages

2. Ensure that the latest packages are installed on the system:

sudo dnf update

3. Install the latest available base virtualization packages and other utilities:
• To install the Default KVM Stack:

sudo dnf group install "Virtualization Host"

sudo dnf install qemu-kvm virt-install virt-viewer

• To install the Oracle KVM Stack, first remove any existing virtualization packages and
then install the packages as usual:

sudo dnf remove libvirt qemu-kvm edk2

sudo dnf group install "Virtualization Host"
sudo dnf install qemu-kvm virt-install virt-viewer

4. (Recommended) Reboot the system to ensure that the virtualization packages and utilities
were updated.

Note:
After performing a system update, reboot the system to ensure that the system
restarts with the latest packages.

5. Start, enable, or check the service of the libvirtd service. See Libvirtd Service:
Management Tasks for instructions.

Note:
Before you can create and manage KVM instances, the libvirtd service must be
started and enabled.

6. Verify that the system can act as act as a virtual host. See Validate Host System
7. After verifying that the system can act as a virtual host, you can proceed to KVM
Instances: Create and Manage.

Oracle Linux 8: Install Virtualization Packages

The following information describes how to install the virtualization packages on an Oracle
Linux 8 system.
What Do You Need?
• Administrator privileges.
• To install the Oracle KVM Stack, the following requirements must be met:
– Yum repository must be enabled or the ULN channel must be subscribed. See Enable
Yum Repositories or Subscribe to ULN Channels for instructions.

2-7
Chapter 2
Install Virtualization Packages

Note:
To install the Default KVM Stack, you don't need to enable any repositories
or subscribe to any other ULN channels.

– The host system must be running the latest UEK R6 or UEK R7.
Steps
Follow these steps to install the virtualization packages on an Oracle Linux 8 system.
1. Log in to the Oracle Linux 8 system.
2. Ensure that the latest packages are installed on the system:

sudo dnf update

3. Install the KVM virtualization stack and other utilities:

• To install the Default KVM Stack:

sudo dnf module install virt

sudo dnf install virt-install virt-viewer

• To install the Oracle KVM Stack, install the module stream that you want to use. For
example, to install the latest stream:

sudo dnf module install virt:kvm_utils3

sudo dnf install virt-install virt-viewer

4. (Recommended) Reboot the system to ensure that the virtualization packages and utilities
were updated.

Note:
After performing a system update, reboot the system to ensure that the system
restarts with the latest packages.

5. Start, enable, or check the service of the libvirtd service. See Libvirtd Service:
Management Tasks for instructions.

Note:
Before you can create and manage KVM instances, the libvirtd service must be
started and enabled.

6. Verify that the system can act as act as a virtual host. See Validate Host System for
instructions.
7. After verifying that the system can act as a virtual host, proceed to KVM Instances: Create
and Manage.

2-8
Chapter 2
Install Virtualization Packages

Oracle Linux 7: Install Virtualization Packages

The following information describes how to install the virtualization packages on an Oracle
Linux 7 system.
What Do You Need?
• Administrator privileges.
• To install the Oracle KVM Stack, the following requirements must be met:
– Yum repository must be enabled or the ULN channel must be subscribed. See Enable
Yum Repositories or Subscribe to ULN Channels for instructions.

Note:
To install the Default KVM Stack, you don't need to enable any repositories
or subscribe to any other ULN channels.

– The host system must be running the latest UEK R4, UEK R5, or UEK R6.
Steps
Follow these steps to install the virtualization packages on an Oracle Linux 7 system.
1. Log in to the Oracle Linux 7 system.
2. Ensure that the latest packages are installed on the system:

sudo yum update

3. Install the latest available base virtualization packages and other utilities:

sudo yum groupinstall "Virtualization Host"

sudo yum install qemu-kvm virt-install virt-viewer

4. (Recommended) Restart the system to ensure that the packages and utilities were
updated.

Note:
After performing a system update, reboot the system to ensure that the system
restarts with the latest packages.

2-9
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

5. Start, enable, or check the service of the libvirtd service. See Libvirtd Service:
Management Tasks for instructions.

Note:
Before you can create and manage KVM instances, the libvirtd service must be
started and enabled.

Validate Host System

The libvirt package provides a validation utility that checks whether a system can function
correctly as a virtualization host. The utility can check for several virtualization capabilities, but
KVM functionality is covered by testing the qemu virtualization type.

• Run the virt-host-validate qemu command to validate the host system:

sudo virt-host-validate qemu

If all checks return a PASS value, the system can host guest VMs. If any of the tests fail, a
reason is provided and information is displayed on how to resolve the issue, if such an
option is available.

Note:
If the following message is displayed, the system isn't capable of functioning as a
KVM host:

QEMU: Checking for hardware virtualization: FAIL (Only emulated

CPUs are
available, performance will be significantly limited)

If you try to create or start a VM on a host where this message is displayed, the
action is likely to fail.

Switch KVM Stacks

You can switch from one KVM stack to another KVM stack, if required.
The KVM stacks define the versions of user space packages that you can use to manage
virtual machines on Oracle Linux. To take advantage of newer functionality available in more
recent user space packages, you must install UEK.
The Default KVM Stack is compatible with both RHCK and UEK. The Default KVM Stack is
available from the standard Oracle Linux package repositories or ULN channels. If you require
RHCK, you can only use the Default KVM Stack.

2-10
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

The Oracle KVM Stack, which includes more KVM features than the default stack, requires
UEK to be running on the host system and that the system is subscribed to the appropriate
yum repositories or ULN channels.
Switching the KVM stack on an Oracle Linux system involves removing one version of the
KVM stack and then replacing it with another version of the KVM stack.

Caution:
Guests instances that were created by using one KVM stack might not be compatible
and might not start after switching to another KVM stack.

For more details on how UEK users can switch between the KVM stacks, see these topics:
• Oracle Linux 9: Switch KVM Stacks
• Oracle Linux 8: Switch KVM Stacks
• Oracle Linux 7: Switch KVM Stacks

Note:
For details about the KVM stacks included in virtualization packages from a yum
repository or ULN channel, see KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN.

Oracle Linux 9: Switch KVM Stacks

For instructions on how to switch KVM stacks on Oracle Linux 9 systems with UEK, see these
topics:
• Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack
• Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack

Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack

The following information describes how Oracle Linux 9 users can switch from the Default KVM
Stack to the Oracle KVM Stack.

Caution:
Guests instances that were created by using the default KVM stack might not be
compatible and might not start after switching to the Oracle KVM stack.

What Do You Need?

• Oracle Linux 9 system with the Default KVM Stack packages installed.
• The host system must be running the latest UEK R7.
• Administrator privileges.
Follow these steps to switch from the Default KVM stack to the Oracle KVM Stack.

2-11
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

1. Remove any packages from the existing Default KVM Stack, for example:

sudo dnf remove libvirt* qemu* virt-install

2. Enable the ol9_kvm_utils yum repository or ol9_<arch>_kvm_utils ULN channel.

See Oracle Linux 9: Enable Yum Repositories or Oracle Linux 9: Subscribe to ULN
Channels as appropriate.
3. Install the required virtualization packages from the ol9_virt_utils yum repository or
ol9_<arch>_virt_utils ULN channel:

sudo dnf install libvirt qemu-kvm virt-install

Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack

The following information describes how Oracle Linux 9 users can switch from the Oracle KVM
stack to the Default KVM Stack.

Caution:
Guest instances that were created by using the Oracle KVM Stack might not be
compatible and might not start after switching to the Default KVM Stack.

What Do You Need?

• Oracle Linux 9 system with the Oracle KVM stack packages installed.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to switch from the Oracle KVM Stack to the default KVM Stack.
1. Remove any packages from the existing Oracle KVM Stack, for example:

sudo dnf remove libvirt* qemu* virt-install

2. Disable the ol9_virt_utils yum repository or ol9_<arch>_virt_utils ULN channel.

3. Install the required virtualization packages from the ol9_appstream yum repository or
ol9_<arch>_appstream ULN channel. For example:

sudo dnf install libvirt qemu-kvm virt-install

Oracle Linux 8: Switch KVM Stacks

For instructions on how to switch KVM stacks on Oracle Linux 8 systems with UEK, see these
topics:
• Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack
• Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack
• Upgrade the Oracle KVM Stack

2-12
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack

The following information describes how Oracle Linux 8 users can switch from the Default KVM
Stack to the Oracle KVM Stack.

Caution:
Guests instances that were created by using the Default KVM Stack might not be
compatible and might not start after switching to the Oracle KVM Stack.

What Do You Need?

• Oracle Linux 8 system with the Default KVM Stack module installed.
• The host system must be running the latest UEK R6 or UEK R7.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to switch the KVM stack from the Default KVM Stack to the Oracle KVM
Stack.
1. Remove any packages from the existing default virt module stream:

sudo dnf module remove virt -y --all

Note:
Oracle Linux 8 virtualization stacks are managed by switching between
application streams for the virt module. For more information about using DNF
modules and application streams, see Oracle Linux: Managing Software on
Oracle Linux

2. Reset the virt module state so that it's neither enabled nor disabled:

sudo dnf module reset virt -y

3. Enable the ol8_kvm_appstream yum repository or ol8_<arch>_kvm_appstream ULN

channel.
For more information, see Oracle Linux 8: Enable Yum Repositories or Oracle Linux 8:
Subscribe to ULN Channels as appropriate.
4. Enable the appropriate module and stream. For example, to use the latest packages:

sudo dnf module enable virt:kvm_utils3 -y

5. Perform any necessary package upgrade or downgrade operations to handle

dependencies for the enabled module and stream:

sudo dnf --allowerasing distro-sync

2-13
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

6. Install the base packages from the appropriate module and stream. For example, to use
the latest packages:

sudo dnf module install virt:kvm_utils3 -y

Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack

The following information describes how Oracle Linux 8 users can switch from the Oracle KVM
Stack to the Default KVM Stack.

Caution:
Guest instances that were created by using the Oracle KVM Stack might not be
compatible and might not start after switching to the Default KVM Stack.

What Do You Need?

• Oracle Linux 8 system with the Oracle KVM stack module and stream installed.
• The host system must be running the latest UEK R6 or UEK R7. Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to switch from the Oracle KVM Stack to the Default KVM Stack.
1. Remove any of the packages from the existing Oracle KVM Stack module stream, for
example:

sudo dnf module remove virt:kvm_utils3 -y --all

2. Reset the virt module state so that it's neither enabled nor disabled:

sudo dnf module reset virt -y

3. Enable the virt module and stream:

sudo dnf module enable virt -y

4. Perform any necessary package upgrade or downgrade operations to handle

dependencies for the enabled module and stream:

sudo dnf --allowerasing distro-sync

2-14
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

5. Install the base packages from the virt stream:

sudo dnf module install virt -y

6. (Optional) Disable the ol8_kvm_appstream yum repository or ol8_<arch>_kvm_appstream

ULN channel.
You don't need to disable the ol8_kvm_appstream yum repository or
ol8_<arch>_kvm_appstream ULN channel during this procedure, because DNF controls
which application stream is installed, but if you don't intend to use the Oracle KVM stack
it's good practice to disable the associated repository or channel to prevent confusion or
possible conflicts in future.

Upgrade the Oracle KVM Stack

The following information describes how Oracle Linux 8 users can upgrade Oracle KVM Stack
packages to the latest version of the Oracle KVM Stack by switching module streams.

Caution:
Guest instances that were created by using an earlier Oracle KVM Stack stream
might not be compatible and might not start after switching to the later version of the
Oracle KVM Stack.

What Do You Need?

• Oracle Linux 8 system with the an earlier Oracle KVM Stack stream installed.
• The host system must be running the latest UEK R6 or UEK R7.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to switch from an earlier Oracle KVM Stack stream to the latest version of
the Oracle KVM Stack.
1. Remove any of the packages from the existing Oracle KVM Stack. For example, to switch
from the virt:kvm_utils2 module stream:

sudo dnf module remove virt:kvm_utils2 -y --all

2. Reset the virt module state so that it's neither enabled nor disabled:

sudo dnf module reset virt -y

2-15
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

3. Enable the latest module and stream. For example, to enable virt:kvm_utils3:

sudo dnf module enable virt:kvm_utils3 -y

4. Perform any necessary package upgrade or downgrade operations to handle

dependencies required for the enabled module and stream:

sudo dnf --allowerasing distro-sync

5. Install the later version of the Oracle KVM Stack packages. For example, to install the
packages from virt:kvm_utils3:

sudo dnf module install virt:kvm_utils3 -y

Oracle Linux 7: Switch KVM Stacks

For instructions on how to switch KVM stacks on Oracle Linux 7 systems with UEK, see these
topics:
• Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack
• Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack

Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack

The following information describes how Oracle Linux 7 UEK users can switch from the Default
KVM Stack to the Oracle KVM Stack.

Caution:
Guest instances that were created by using the Default KVM Stack might not be
compatible and might not start after switching to the Oracle KVM Stack.

What Do You Need?

• Oracle Linux 7 UEK system with the Default KVM Stack packages installed.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to switch from the Default KVM Stack to the Oracle KVM Stack.

2-16
Chapter 2
Switch KVM Stacks

1. Remove any packages from the existing Default KVM Stack, for example:

sudo yum remove libvirt* qemu* virt-install

2. Enable the ol7_kvm_utils yum repository or ol7_<arch>_kvm_utils ULN channel.

See Oracle Linux 7: Enable the Yum Repository or Oracle Linux 7: Subscribe to ULN
Channels as appropriate.
3. Install the required virtualization packages from the ol7_virt_utils yum repository or
ol7_<arch>_virt_utils ULN channel:

sudo yum install libvirt qemu-kvm virt-install

Switch Oracle KVM Stack to Default Stack

The following information describes how Oracle Linux 7 UEK users can switch from the Oracle
KVM Stack to the Default KVM stack.

Caution:
Guests instances that were created by using the Oracle KVM Stack might not be
compatible and might not start after switching to the Default KVM stack.

What Do You Need?

• Oracle Linux 7 UEK system with the Oracle KVM stack installed.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to switch from the Oracle KVM Stack to the Default KVM Stack.
1. Remove any packages from the existing Oracle KVM Stack, for example:

sudo yum remove libvirt* qemu* virt-install

2. Disable the ol7_virt_utils yum repository or ol7_<arch>_virt_utils ULN channel.

3. Install the required virtualization packages from the ol7_latest yum repository or
ol7_<arch>_latest ULN channel. For example:

sudo yum --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="ol7_latest" install libvirt qemu-

kvm virt-install

2-17
3
Libvirtd Service: Management Tasks
For instructions on how to start, enable, or check the status of the libvirtd service, see these
topics:
• Oracle Linux 9: Manage the Libvirtd Service
• Oracle Linux 8: Manage the libvirtd Service
• Oracle Linux 7: Manage the libvirtd Service

Oracle Linux 9: Manage the Libvirtd Service

The following information describes how to start, enable, and check the status of the libvirt
service.
What Do You Need?
• Virtualization packages installed on host system. See Install Virtualization Packages for
details.
• Understanding of libvirt driver daemons as of Oracle Linux 9.
For details, see Oracle Linux 9: Types of libvirt Driver Daemons
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to start and enable the libvirtd service:

1. To start the libvirtd service with full virtualization functionality, run:

for drv in qemu network nodedev nwfilter secret storage interface;

do
sudo systemctl enable virt${drv}d.service
sudo systemctl enable virt${drv}d{,-ro,-admin}.socket;
sudo systemctl start virt${drv}d{,-ro,-admin}.socket;
done

You don't need to start the service for each daemon, as the service is automatically started
when the first socket is established.

Note:
For legacy systems, the libvirtd socket is available for use to manage remote
virtual guest connections.

• Enable the virtproxyd daemon to let remote hosts connect to guests.

3-1
Chapter 3
Oracle Linux 9: Manage the Libvirtd Service

If connections from remote hosts are needed, the virtproxyd daemon must be
enabled and started:

sudo systemctl enable virtproxyd.service

sudo systemctl enable virtproxyd-tls.socket
sudo systemctl start virtproxyd-tls.socket

2. To check the status of the libvirtd service, type:

sudo systemctl list-units --type=socket virt*

The output identifies all enabled units and their current status.

Oracle Linux 9: Types of libvirt Driver Daemons

Oracle Linux 9 provides functionality for two different types of libvirt driver daemons:
Modular and Monolithic. The granularity in which you can configure individual virtualization
drivers depends on which libvirt daemon you use. For example:

• Modular libvirt - Oracle Linux 9 Fresh Install

Modular libvirt, which is newly introduced in Oracle Linux 9, provides a specific daemon
for each hypervisor driver. These include:
– virtqemud: is the QEMU management daemon, for running virtual machines on KVM.
– virtnetworkd: is the virtual network management daemon.
– virtnodedevd: is the host physical device management daemon.
– virtnwfilterd: is the host firewall management daemon.
– virtsecretd: is the host secret management daemon.
– virtstoraged: is the host storage management daemon.
– virtinterfaced: is the host Network Interface Card (NIC) management daemon.
– virtproxyd is a virtualization proxy daemon that lets remote clients to securely access
the libvirt APIs.
The name of the daemon reflects the name of the host driver, for example: virt [DRIVER]d.
Each driver daemon has a separate configuration file that resides in libvirt directory. For
example, the configuration file path for QEMU management driver daemon is /etc/
libvirt/virtqemud.conf.
Modular driver daemons provide better options for fine-tuning and managing the libvirt
system resources. When you perform a fresh install of Oracle Linux 9, the libvirt
modular virtualization driver daemons are configured by default.

Note:
When the virt$[DRIVER]d daemon is managed by systemd other features are
also available, most notably socket activation. For more information about the
use of modular sockets and systemd integration, see https://libvirt.org/
daemons.html#modular-sockets.

• Monolithic libvirt - Update to Oracle Linux 9

3-2
Chapter 3
Oracle Linux 8: Manage the libvirtd Service

By default, the traditional monolithic daemon, known as libvirtd is configured when you
update from Oracle Linux 8 to Oracle Linux 9. The libvirtd daemon controls a wide
variety of virtualization drivers by using a single configuration file (/etc/libvirt/
libvirtd.conf). In some instances, system resources might be used inefficiently when
using the libvirtd centralized configuration. Therefore, we recommend that Oracle Linux
9 users switch to the modular libvirt driver daemons. For instructions, see https://
libvirt.org/daemons.html#switching-to-modular-daemons
For general information about the usage of libvirt daemons, see https://libvirt.org/
daemons.htmlj.

Oracle Linux 8: Manage the libvirtd Service

The following information describes how to start, enable, and check the status of the libvirtd
service.
What Do You Need?
• Virtualization packages installed on host system. See Install Virtualization Packages for
details.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Follow these steps to start and enable the libvirtd service:

1. To start the libvirtd service, type:

sudo systemctl start libvirtd

2. To enable the libvirtd service, type:

sudo systemctl enable libvirtd

3. To check the status of the libvirtd service, type:

sudo systemctl status libvirtd

The output indicates whether the libvirtd daemon is running, as shown in the following
example output:

* libvirtd.service - Virtualization daemon

Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirtd.service; enabled;
vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since time_stamp; xh ago

3-3
Chapter 3
Oracle Linux 7: Manage the libvirtd Service

Oracle Linux 7: Manage the libvirtd Service

1. To start the libvirtd service, type:

sudo systemctl start libvirtd

2. To enable the libvirtd service, type:

sudo systemctl enable libvirtd

3. To check the status of the libvirtd service, type:

sudo systemctl status libvirtd

The output indicates whether the libvirtd daemon is running, as shown in the following
example output:

* libvirtd.service - Virtualization daemon

Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/libvirtd.service; enabled;
vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since time_stamp; xh ago

3-4
4
KVM Instances: Create and Manage
To create and manage KVM instances from the CLI, see the following topics.
• KVM Instances: Hardware Configuration
• Add Watchdog Device to KVM Instance
• Add vTPM Security to KVM Instance
• KVM Memory and CPU Allocation Configuration
• KVM Storage Configuration
• Overview: Virtual Networking

Note:
To create and manage KVM instances using a graphical user interface (GUI), see the
Virtual Machines Management Tasks topics in the Oracle Linux: Using the Cockpit
Web Console. Additionally, you can choose to manage a virtual machine environment
by using the Oracle VM Manager. For more details about using the VM Manager, see
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager documentation.

Create: KVM Instance

The following information describes how to create a virtual machine using the virt-install
utility.
What Do You Need?
• The following system requirements must be met:
– Virtualization packages are installed on the host system. See Install Virtualization
Packages for more details.
– A minimum of one virtual storage pool must exist to create a virtual machine. Note that
a virtualization storage pool is automatically provided in the /var/lib/libvirt/images
directory. See Storage Pools: Create and Manage for more details.
– A compatible guest OS is required to create a virtual machine. See KVM Guest:
Operating Systems for more details.
– All minimum host system hardware requirements must be met to create, run, and
manage KVM instances. See KVM Host: System Requirements for more details.
– The libvirt services must be started and enabled. See Libvirtd Service: Management
Tasks for more details.
• Administrator privileges.
Steps
Using the CLI, follow these steps to create a virtual machine.

4-1
Chapter 4
Create: KVM Instance

1. To create a virtual machine, use the virt-install command and its options to define the
resources required. For example:
Virtual Machine Creation: Options

virt-install \
--name [unique-virtual-machine-name]
--memory [allocated-MiB-memory-size]
--vcpus [integer-vcpus-value-for-guest]
--location [installation-source-path]
--disk [type-and-size]
--os-variant=[os-verison]
--network [default]
--graphics [none]

Note:
For a complete list of virt-install options, see the virt-install(1) man
page. Or, for a quick list of virt-install options, type: virt-install --
help.

Where:

--name [unique-virtual-machine-name] Mandatory Option:

Provide a unique name to the virtual
machine.. The assigned name is registered
as a domain within libvirt.

--memory [allocated-MiB-memory-size] Mandatory Option:

Identify the amount of memory to be
allocated to the guest, in MiB.

--vcpus [integer-vcpus-value-for- Mandatory Option:

guest] Identify the number of virtual CPUs
available for use by guest OS.

--disk [type-and-size] Mandatory Option:

Identify the appropriate values for disk type
and size, for example:
• Disk hardware size:

--disk size=[capacity size in

gigabytes]

• Disk storage pool path

--disk /storage-pool-path/volume-
path,size=#

4-2
Chapter 4
Create: KVM Instance

• Disk image media file path

--disk=/iso-images/ol8-
dvd.iso,device=cdrom

Special considerations:
• If a path isn't specified the disk image is
automatically created as a qcow file
format.
• If virt-install is run as root, the
disk image is created in /var/lib/
libvirt/images/ and is named using
the name specified for the VM at install.
• If virt-install is run as an ordinary
user, the disk image is created
in $HOME/.local/share/libvirt/
images/

--location [installation-source-path] Mandatory Option

Identify the OS installation source location,
for example:
• ISO file
• an expanded installation resource
hosted at a local path
• an expanded installation resource
hosted remotely on an HTTP or NFS
server.

Note:
For a list other source installation
options, see the virt-install
(1)– Linux man page.

--os-variant [os-version] The os-variant option is optional. You can

use this option to optimize the performance
of the guest configuration.
To obtain valid "--os-variant" values, type:
osinfo-query os

--network [default] The network option is optional. When the "--

network" option isn't specified, or when the
"--network default" options is specified, the
guest will connect to the default network.
For other network configuration options, see
the virt-install (1) – Linux man page.

4-3
Chapter 4
Create: KVM Instance

--graphics [none] The graphics option is optional.

This option lets you specify the display type
used for interactive guest installation.
Note that when "–-graphics none" is
specified, a text-only installation display is
available.
To display a graphical console for a guest
installation, you can use the virt-viewer
tool. For more information about configuring
the virt-viewer, see the virt-viewer(1) --
Linux man page.

Based on the virt-install options specified, the virtual machine is created and the guest
OS is automatically installed.
Virtual Machine Creation Examples: See Virt-Install: Command Line Examples
2. After creating the virtual machine, you can:
a. Start the virtual machine.
For details, see KVM: Start Instance.
b. Connect to the virtual machine.

Virt-Install: Command Line Examples

The following information provides command-line examples for using virt-install to create
virtual machine instances with a guest OS.

Guest OS: Oracle Linux 9

• Scenario: ISO image - text-mode only install.

virt-install \
--name ol9-guest-demo --memory 16384 --vcpus 16 --disk size=280 \
--os-variant ol9.0 --location ol9.iso \
--graphics none --extra-args='console=ttyS0'

Description: Creates a KVM instance named ol9-guest-demo using an ol9.iso image file
in text-only mode, without graphics. It connects the guest console to the serial console.
The VM has 16384 MiB of memory, 16 vCPUs, and 280 GiB disk. Note that this guest
installation example might be useful when connecting to a host over a slow network link.
• Scenario: URL installation tree path - automated Kickstart install.

virt-install \
--graphics vnc \
--name ol9-guest-demo1 --memory 2048 --vcpus 2 --disk size=160 \
--os-variant ol9.0 --location http://example.com/OS-install \
--initrd-inject /home/uniquename/ks.cfg --extra-args="inst.ks=file:/
ks.cfg console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8"

Description: Creates a VM named ol9-guest-demo1 that installs from the http://

example.com/OS-install URL. Note for the installation to start successfully, the URL

4-4
Chapter 4
Clone: Existing KVM Instance

must contain a working OS installation tree. The OS is automatically configured by the

referenced kickstart file (/home/uniquename/ks.cfg). Finally, the VM is allocated with
2048 MiB of RAM, 2 vCPUs, and a 160 GiB qcow2 virtual disk.
Additions for ARM 64 host-based scenarios:

%packages
-kernel
kernel-64k
%end

These lines ensure that the kickstart file, depicted in the ol9-guest-demo1 scenario, installs
the kernel-64k package.

Guest OS: Oracle Linux 8

• Scenario: ISO image - live CD

virt-install \
--name ol8-guest-demo --memory 4096 --vcpus 4 \
--disk none --livecd --os-variant ol8.0 \
--cdrom /home/uniquename/Downloads/ol8.iso

Description: Creates a VM named ol8-guest-demo by using /home/uniquename/

Downloads/ol8.iso image to run a Oracle Linux 8 OS from a live CD. No disk space is
assigned to this VM, so any changes made during the session aren't preserved. The VM is
allocated with 4096 MiB of RAM and 4 vCPUs.

Guest OS: Oracle Linux 7

• Scenario: Import disk image - qcow file format

virt-install \
--name ol7-guest-demo --memory 2048 --vcpus 2 \
--os-variant ol7.0 --import \
--disk /home/uniquename/backup/disk.qcow2

Description: Creates a VM named ol7-guest-demo that connects to an existing disk image

(/home/uniquename/backup/disk.qcow2). The VM is allocated with 2048 MiB of
RAM and 2 vCPUs. Note that the os-variant option is highly recommended when
importing a disk image. In cases when the os-variant option isn't specified, the
performance of the created VM might be negatively affected.

Clone: Existing KVM Instance

System administrators can easily create a KVM instance by cloning the configuration of an
existing KVM instance. Depending on the use of the clone, system administrators can either
prepare the source KVM configuration before cloning it, or simply create a KVM clone with the
identical configuration as the source KVM instance.

4-5
Chapter 4
Clone: Existing KVM Instance

Note:
When creating multiple clones from a single KVM instance, we recommend preparing
the source configuration before cloning it. Preparing the source configuration lets you
examine the configuration and remove unique parameters that would not apply to the
clone configuration and cause the clone to possibly fail or not work correctly.

For instructions on how to prepare a KVM instance for cloning or create a KVM clone, see
these topics:
• Prepare KVM for Cloning: Using virt-sysprep
• Prepare KVM for Cloning: Manually
• Create a KVM Clone Using virt-clone Command

Note:
In addition to using the CLI to create KVM clones, you can use the Cockpit web
console to clone KVM instances. For details, see Cloning VMs in Oracle Linux: Using
the Cockpit Web Console.

Prepare KVM for Cloning: Using virt-sysprep

The following information describes how to use the system preparation scripting tool (virt-
sysprep) to prepare a source KVM disk configuration for cloning.

Note:
The virt-sysprep tool helps you to prepare a KVM configuration for cloning by
removing SSH host keys, persistent network configurations, and user accounts on
the disk image. It also lets you add SSH keys, users, or logos. For more details about
virt-sysprep, see https://libguestfs.org/virt-sysprep.1.html.

What Do You Need?

• All important data on the source KVM is backed up.
Note that virt-sysprep changes the disk image in place without making a copy of it. To
keep the configuration of the source KVM intact, create a clone. For details, see Create a
KVM Clone Using virt-clone Command.
• The system preparation tool (virt-sysprep) must installed on the host.

yum install /usr/bin/virt-sysprep

• The source KVM must be shut down.

• The location of the source KVM disk image is required. Also, you must be the disk image
owner and have disk write permissions.
Follow these steps to use the virt-sysprep tool to prepare a source KVM disk image
configuration for cloning.

4-6
Chapter 4
Clone: Existing KVM Instance

1. Log in as the root owner of the KVM disk image, for example:

whoami
root

2. To prepare the source KVM disk image for cloning, use the following virt-sysprep command
syntax.

virt-sysprep -a [/var/lib/libvirt/images/a-replace me -my-kvm.qcow2]

[ 0.0] Examining the guest ...
[ 7.3] Performing "abrt-data" ...
[ 7.3] Performing "backup-files" ...
[ 9.6] Performing "bash-history" ...
[ 9.6] Performing "blkid-tab" ...
[...]

Where:
• [/var/lib/libvirt/images/replace me-my-kvm.qcow2] replace with the source KVM disk
image path.
3. Use the virt-sysprep tool to inspect the prepared disk image. For a list of available
options, type: virt-sysprep --help
For more details, see the virt-sysprep(1) Linux man page.
4. After preparing the disk image for cloning, proceed with using the prepared KVM disk
configuration to create a clone.
For details, see Create a KVM Clone Using virt-clone Command.

Note:
On the first boot of the clone, we recommend that you change the hostname.

Prepare KVM for Cloning: Manually

The following information describes how to manually prepare a source KVM configuration for
cloning.
What Do You Need?
• All important data on the source KVM is backed up.
To keep the configuration of the source KVM intact, create a clone. For details, see Create
a KVM Clone Using virt-clone Command
• The location of the source KVM disk image is required. Also, you must be the disk image
owner and have disk write permissions.
• The source KVM must be shut down.
• Administrator privileges.
Follow these steps to manually prepare a source KVM configuration for cloning.
1. Configure the source KVM as required, for example:
• Install any required software for clone.

4-7
Chapter 4
Clone: Existing KVM Instance

• Configure any required properties that are considered non-unique for the operating
system or system applications.
2. Remove the network configuration, as follows:
a. To remove any persistent udev rules, type:

rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Note:
If you don't remove the udev rules, the name of the first NIC might be
eth1instead of eth0.

b. Change /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth[x] to remove the HWADDR and

static lines and any other unique or non-desired settings, such as UUID, for example:

DEVICE=eth[x]
BOOTPROTO=none
ONBOOT=yes
#NETWORK=10.0.1.0 <- REMOVE
#NETMASK=255.255.255.0 <- REMOVE
#IPADDR=10.0.1.20 <- REMOVE
#HWADDR=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx <- REMOVE
#USERCTL=no <- REMOVE

After modification, the file must not include a HWADDR entry or any unique information,
and at a minimum include the following lines:

DEVICE=eth[x]
ONBOOT=yes

Important:
You must remove the HWADDR entry because if its address doesn't match the
new guest's MAC address, the ifcfg is ignored.

c. If the following files exist, ensure they have the same content:
• /etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default/ifcfg-eth[x]
• /etc/sysconfig/networking/devices/ifcfg-eth[x]

Note:
If NetworkManager was used or any special settings with the KVM, ensure
that all unique information is removed from the ifcfg scripts.

3. Remote ULN registration details.

4-8
Chapter 4
Clone: Existing KVM Instance

For example, if the KVM guest from which you want to create a clone is registered with
ULN, you must unregister it. For more information, see the applicable reference:
• Oracle Linux 7: Oracle Linux: Unbreakable Linux Network User's Guide for Oracle
Linux 6 and Oracle Linux 7
• Oracle Linux 8 and Oracle Linux 9: Oracle Linux: Managing Software on Oracle Linux
4. Remove sshd public/private key pairs.
For example, type:

rm -rf /etc/ssh/ssh_host_[name]

5. Remove any other application-specific identifiers or configurations that might cause

conflicts if running on multiple machines.
6. Configure the relevant setup configuration wizard to run at first boot.
Examples:
• For Oracle Linux 7, enable the first boot and initial-setup wizard:

sed -ie 's/RUN_FIRSTBOOT=NO/RUN_FIRSTBOOT=YES/' /etc/sysconfig/firstboot

systemctl enable firstboot-graphical
systemctl enable initial-setup-graphical

• For Oracle Linux 8 and 9, remove the gnome-initial-setup-done file to configure the
KVM to run the configuration wizard on the next boot:

# rm ~/.config/gnome-initial-setup-done

7. After addressing all required modifications, proceed to using the prepared KVM
configuration to create a clone.
For details, see Create a KVM Clone Using virt-clone Command.

Note:
On the first boot of the clone we recommend that you change the hostname.

Create a KVM Clone Using virt-clone Command

The following information describes how to clone a source KVM instance using the virt-clone
command.
What Do You Need?
• Root privileges.
• Source KVM is shut down.
• Sufficent disk space to store the cloned disk images.
• (Optional) Prepared source KVM configuration for cloning.
See Prepare KVM for Cloning: Using virt-sysprep or Create a KVM Clone Using virt-
clone Command.

Steps
Follow these steps to clone an existing KVM instance:

4-9
Chapter 4
View: KVM Instances, Status, and Configuration

1. Perform one of the following:

• To clone a source KVM with its original configuration, use the following virt-clone
command syntax:

virt-clone --orginal kvm-name --auto-clone

For example, if you typed:

virt-clone --orginal My_KVM --auto-clone

Output similar to the following appears:

virt-clone --original My_KVM --auto-clone

Allocating 'My_KVM-clone.qcow2' | 55.0 GB
00:02:37

Clone 'My_KVM-clone' created successfully.

In this example, the virt-clone command copies the source My-KVM configuration
and creates: (1) a clone KVM guest named My_KVM-clone, and (2) a clone disk
image named My_KVM-clone.qcow2
-OR-
• To clone a source KVM using the virt-clone command with other options, type the
following command to view the available configuration options:

virt-clone --help

For more examples of how to use the virt-clone command, see the virt-clone(1)
Linux man page.
2. Verify that the cloned KVM instance is working, for example:
• Confirm that the clone has been added to the list of KVMs on the host:

virsh list --all

Id Name State
---------------------------------------
- My_KVM shut off
- My_KVM-clone shut off

• Start the clone and observe if it boots up:

virsh start My_KVM-clone

Domain 'My_KVM-clone' started

View: KVM Instances, Status, and Configuration

The following information describes how to use the virsh command to obtain a list of KVM
instances available on a host, along with their status (running, paused, and so on). It also
describes how to view and edit the XML configuration of a specific KVM instance.
What Do You Need?

4-10
Chapter 4
View: KVM Instances, Status, and Configuration

• Root privileges on host system.

• Existing KVM instance on a host system.
Steps
Follow theses steps to: 1) view KVM instances and their status on a host, and 2) view basic
and detailed configuration information about a specific KVM instance.
1. To list all virtual machines on a local host system, type:

virsh list --all

Example output:

Id Name State
----------------------------------------------------
1 My_KVM_Guest running

Where:
• KVM ID or Name: The unique ID and name assigned to the KVM instance.
• State: The operating status of the KVM instance. Possible status states that might
appear include:
– Running – The KVM instance is considered operational and working.
– Paused – Execution of the KVM instance has been paused until it's resumed.
– Shut off or Shutdown – The KVM instance is powered off.
– Saved – The saved state is similar to the paused state, however the KVM
instance's configuration is saved to persistent storage.
For more details on how to manage the state of a KVM instance, see Start, Shutdown,
Reboot, or Remove KVM.
2. To view basic details about a specific KVM instance, type:

sudo virsh dominfo My_KVM_Guest

Example output:

Id: 1
Name: My_KVM_Guest
UUID: c321630AA-2f5e-665c-8949-75b7d99999e1
OS Type: hvm
State: running
CPU(s): 2
CPU time: 188.3s
Max memory: 4188304 KiB
Used memory: 4188304 KiB
Persistent: yes
Autostart: disable
Managed save: no
Security model: selinux

4-11
Chapter 4
Connect to KVM: virsh Serial Console

Security DOI: 0
Security label: system_u:system_r:svirt_t:s0:###,### (enforcing)

3. To view the complete XML configuration associated with a KVM instance, use the virsh
dumpxml command. For example:

sudo virsh dumpxml My_KVM_Guest

The virsh dumpxml command output returns the guest KVM XML configuration file, which
can be viewed, saved, changed, or used in other ways.
4. To edit the XML configuration file associated with a KVM guest, use the virsh edit
command. For example:

sudo virsh edit [My_KVM_Guest_Name]

Connect to KVM: virsh Serial Console

You can access a KVM instance directly using a serial console interface.
The following information describes how to establish a serial console connection to a KVM
instance by using the virsh console command.

Note:
A serial console connection to a KVM instance might be useful when a the instance
isn't configured with a GUI display, or if the instance lacks a network configuration,
preventing SSH access.

What Do you Need?

• Administrator privileges
• Name of the KVM instance.
• The KVM instance is configured for serial console use. For example:
– KVM serial console device defined – Ensure that a serial console device is defined on
KVM. For example:

sudo virsh ttyconsole kvm_name

If output is shown, a serial console device is defined. Otherwise, define a serial

console in the KVM XML configuration. One method you can use is virsh edit. For
example, run:

sudo virsh edit

Within the <devices> tag, add the following text to the XML. For example:

4-12
Chapter 4
Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM

See Domain XML format for more information.

– KVM kernel console option enabled – Ensure that console=ttyS0 kernel option is
enabled on KVM. If this option isn't configured, the virsh console connection to the
serial console will be unresponsive.
To verify the console=ttyS0 kernel option is configured on the KVM, use the cat /
proc/cmdline command. The output configuration must include console=[console-
name]. If the output doesn't include a console configuration, you must enable the
console=ttyS0 kernel option.
To enable the console=ttyS0 kernel option, (1) type:

sudo grubby --update-kernel=ALL --args="console=ttyS0"

(2) Ensure that the changes were applied, type:

sudo grub2-editenv - unset kernelopts

(3) Reboot the KVM instance.

Steps
Follow these steps to directly connect to the KVM serial console.

• On the host system, use the virsh console command to open up a KVM session in a
serial console. For example:

sudo virsh console testguest

Where testguest is the name of the KVM guest.

You can interact with the virsh serial console in the same way as you would with the CLI.

Note:
If the connection failed and the guest serial console is unresponsive, you can exit
the connection by pressing: Ctrl key and the ] right square bracket key.

Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM

When using the CLI, you can use the following methods to start, shutdown, reboot, or remove
a KVM instance:
• KVM: Start Instance
• KVM: Shut Down Instance
• KVM: Suspend or Resume Instance
• KVM: Reboot Instance
• KVM: Remove KVM Instance

4-13
Chapter 4
Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM

KVM: Start Instance

The following information describes how to start a KVM instance that's shut down on a local or
remote host using the virsh start command.
What Do You Need?
• Administrator privileges.
• Name of the inactive KVM instance.
• For remote KVM instances, the following is required to complete the remote example
shown in Step 1.
– The host IP address where the inactive KVM instance resides.
– Root privileges to the host.
– SSH connection protocol port enabled.
– The qemu-kvm virtualization package is installed. For details about virtualization
packages, see KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended .
Steps
Follow these steps to start an inactive KVM on a host system using the virt start command:

• Perform one of the following:

• For local KVM, use the virt-start command as follows:

sudo virsh start KVM_Guest_Name

Example output:

Domain 'KVM_guest_name' started

• For remote KVM, use the virt start command and the SSH connection protocol as
follows:

sudo virsh -c qemu+ssh://root@host_ip_address/system start

Remote_KVM_guest_name

Example output:

root@host_ip-address's password:

Domain 'remote_KVM_guest_name' started

KVM: Shut Down Instance

The following information describes how to shut down an active KVM instance on a local or
remote host using the virsh shutdown command. It also describes how to force an
unresponsive KVM instance on a host to shut down using the virsh destroy command.

4-14
Chapter 4
Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM

Note:
The virsh destroy command doesn't delete or remove the KVM configuration or its
disk images. It only forces the running KVM instance to shut down, similarly to pulling
the power cord on a physical machine. However, in unique cases, the virsh destroy
command might cause corruption to the KVM file system, so using this command is
only recommended when all other shutdown methods have failed.

What Do You Need?

• Administrator privileges.
• Name of the active or unresponsive KVM instance.
• For remote KVM instances, the following is required to complete the remote example
shown in Step 1.
– The host IP address where the KVM instance resides.
– Root privileges to the host.
– SSH connection protocol port enabled.
– The qemu-kvm virtualization package is installed. For details about virtualization
packages, see KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended .
Steps
Follow these steps to shut down a KVM instance on a host system using either the virt
shutdown command or the virt destroy command.

• Perform one of the following:

• Graceful KVM Shutdown – Perform either of the following:
– For a local KVM, use the virt shutdown command as follows:

sudo virsh shutdown KVM_Guest_Name

Example output:

Domain 'KVM_guest_name' is being shutdown

– For a remote KVM, use the virt shutdown command and the SSH connection
protocol as follows:

sudo virsh -c qemu+ssh://root@host_ip_address/system shutdown

Remote_KVM_guest_name

Example output:

root@host_ip-address's password:

Domain 'remote_KVM_guest_name'is being shutdown

4-15
Chapter 4
Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM

• Forceful KVM Shutdown - Use the virt destroy command on an unresponsive

KVM instance as follows:

sudo virsh destroy KVM_Guest_Name

Example output:

Domain 'KVM_guest_name' destroyed

KVM: Suspend or Resume Instance

The following information describes how to suspend an active KVM instance on a local or
remote host using the virsh suspend command. It also describes how to resume a suspended
KVM instance on a host using the virsh resume command.
What Do You Need?
• Administrator privileges.
• Name of the active or suspended KVM instance.
• For remote KVM instances, the following is required to complete the remote example
shown in Step 1.
– The host IP address where the KVM instance resides.
– Root privileges to the host.
– SSH connection protocol port enabled.
– The qemu-kvm virtualization package is installed. For details about virtualization
packages, see KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended .
Steps
Follow these steps to suspend or resume a KVM instance on a host system.

• Perform one of the following:

• Suspend KVM – Perform either of the following:
– For a local KVM, use the virt suspend command as follows:

sudo virsh suspend KVM_Guest_Name

Example output:

Domain 'KVM_guest_name' suspended

– For a remote KVM, use the virt suspend command and the SSH connection
protocol as follows:

sudo virsh -c qemu+ssh://root@host_ip_address/system suspend

Remote_KVM_guest_name

4-16
Chapter 4
Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM

Example output:

root@host_ip-address's password:

Domain 'remote_KVM_guest_name' suspended

• Resume KVM - Use the virt resume command on an suspended KVM instance as
follows:

sudo virsh resume KVM_Guest_Name

Example output:

Domain 'KVM_guest_name' resumed

KVM: Reboot Instance

The following information describes how to reboot a KVM instance on a local host using the
virsh reboot command.

Note:
Rebooting a KVM can be helpful with various problems and might even be necessary
to complete some configurations.

What Do You Need?

• Administrator privileges.
• Name of the KVM instance.
Steps
Follow these steps to reboot a KVM instance on a host system.

• Type:

sudo virsh reboot My_KVM_Guest[--mode method]

Where:
• [--mode method] is optional. The mode method option lets you specify an alternative
shutdown method such as acpi or agent.
Example output:

Domain My-KVM_Guest is being rebooted

KVM: Remove KVM Instance

The following information describes how to remove a KVM instance on a host system using the
virsh undefine command. It also describes how to optionally remove the storage artifacts
associated with a KVM instance.

4-17
Chapter 4
Start, Shutdown, Reboot, or Remove KVM

What Do You Need?

• Administrator privileges.
• KVM information and actions required:
– KVM instance name.
– KVM storage is not in use by other KVMs.
– Removal of any KVM snapshots. To remove snapshots associated with KVM instance,
use the virsh snapshot-delete.
– KVM storage file path. To identify the storage file path associated with a KVM instance,
use the virsh dumpxml command. For example:

sudo virsh dumpxml --domain My_KVMGuest_Name | grep 'source file'

Example output:

– KVM instance is shutdown. For details, see KVM: Shut Down Instance
– (Optional) Back up all important data on KVM instance. If required, see Clone: Existing
KVM Instance.
Steps
Follow these steps to remove a KVM instance from a host system.
1. To delete the KVM instance, type:

sudo virsh undefine My_KVMGuest_Name

The virsh undefine command removes all configuration information about the KVM
instance from libvirt. Note that the associated KVM storage artifacts such as virtual disks
remain intact.
2. (Optional) To delete the storage artifacts such as virtual disks associated with the KVM
instance (removed in Step 1), use the rm command followed by the storage path.
For example:

sudo rm /home/testuser/.local/share/libvirt/images/
My_KVMGuest_Name-1.qcow2

4-18
5
KVM Instances: Hardware Configuration
Using the CLI, system administrators can add, remove, or change any of the following
hardware configuration settings as required.
• Add Watchdog Device to KVM Instance
• Add vTPM Security to KVM Instance
• Overview: Virtual Networking
• KVM Storage Configuration
• KVM Memory and CPU Allocation Configuration

Add Watchdog Device to KVM Instance

Watchdog is an Oracle Linux service that runs in the background to monitor host availability
and processes and reports back to the kernel.
The following information describes how to install the watchdog software package and enable
its service. It also includes information about how to configure the watchdog daemon
configuration file, and how to add watchdog settings to the XML configuration file for a KVM
instance.

Note:
Watchdog device configurations aren't supported on Arm-based KVMs. Arm-based
KVMs are cloud-native virtual machines that operate on Arm-based processors.

What Do You Need?

• Administrator privileges.
• Existing KVM instance on host system.
For details, see Create: KVM Instance.
Steps
Follow these steps to install and enable watchdog, update the watchdog daemon configuration
as needed, and update the guest OS configuration file to include watchdog settings.
1. Install the Watchdog software package and enable the watchdog service on the guest OS.
Example command syntax:

sudo dnf install watchdog

sudo systemctl enable --now watchdog.service

5-1
Chapter 5
Add Watchdog Device to KVM Instance

Note:
The latest version of libvirt (9.x or later) includes a number of Watchdog
enhancements and bug fixes over the earlier versions of libvirt.

The Watchdog service immediately starts and runs in the background.

2. Configure the watchdog service as needed for the guest OS.
The watchdog.conf file includes all Watchdog configuration properties. For more details,
see the watchdog.conf(5) Linux manual page.
3. Shut down the KVM instance.
For details, see KVM: Shut Down Instance.
4. Add watchdog settings to the guest OS XML configuration file.
a. Use the virsh edit command to edit the guest OS XML configuration.
For example:

virsh edit My_KVMGuest_Name

Note:
The virsh edit command opens the XML file in the text editor specified by
the $EDITOR shell parameter. The vi editor is set by default.

b. Update the guest OS XML configuration file to include the required watchdog device
settings.
For example:

<devices>
...
</input>
<input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
<input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>
<watchdog model='i6300esb' action='poweroff'/>
<graphics type='vnc' port='-1' autoport='yes'>
<listen type='address'/>
</graphics>
...
</devices

Where:
• model – Specifies the emulated watchdog device driver. Valid property values are
specific to the KVM machine type, for example:

Model Values Description

i6300esb The recommended device, which
emulates an Intel 6300ESB.

5-2
Chapter 5
Add Watchdog Device to KVM Instance

Model Values Description

ib700 Emulates an ISA iBase IB700, and is only
compatible with the i440fx/pc machine
type.

Note:
This device doesn't work with
the q35 machine type.

• action – (Optional) Describes the action taken when the watchdog timer expires.

Action Value Description

reset (Default option) Forcefully resets the
guest VM.
shutdown (Not recommended)
Gracefully powers off the guest OS.

Important:
The shutdown action requires
that the guest is responsive to
ACPI signals. In cases where
the watchdog timer expired,
the guests are typically unable
to respond to ACPI signals.
Therefore assigning a
'shutdown' action isn't
recommended.

poweroff Forcefully powers off the guest VM.

pause Suspends the execution of the guest OS.
none Does nothing.
dump Automatically creates a dump file
containing the core of the guest virtual
machine so that it can be analyzed.

Note:
To configure the directory to
save the dump file, set the
auto_dump_path in file /etc/
libvirt/qemu.conf.

inject-nmi Injects a non-maskable interrupt to the

guest OS.

c. Save the guest OS XML configuration changes.

5. Start the KVM instance.

5-3
Chapter 5
Add vTPM Security to KVM Instance

For details, see KVM: Start Instance.

The Watchdog service starts and runs immediately after a power reset.

Add vTPM Security to KVM Instance

The following provides information about the use of Virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM)
security. It also includes configuration information for enabling vTPM security on a KVM
instance.
About vTPM Security
A virtual Trusted Platform Module (vTPM) is a software-based representation of a physical
Trusted Platform Module 2.0 chip. A vTPM acts as any other virtual device and provides
security-related functions such as random number generation, attestation, and key generation.
When added to a KVM instance, vTPM enables the guest OS to create and store keys that are
private and not exposed to other guests. If a KVM instance is compromised and vTPM is
enabled, the risk of its secrets being compromised is reduced because the keys are only
usable to the KVM's guest OS for encryption or signing.
You can add a vTPM to an existing Oracle Linux 8, or Oracle Linux 9 KVM. When you enable
vTPM, the KVM files are encrypted but not the disks. Although, you can choose to add
encryption explicitly for the KVM and its disks.
What Do You Need?
• Administrator privileges.
• Existing KVM instance on host system.
For details, see Create: KVM Instance.
Steps
Follow these steps to install the vTPM software package and edit the guest OS configuration
file to include vTPM security properties.
1. Install the vTPM software packages.
Example syntax using Yum.

yum -y install swtpm libtpms swtpm-tools

2. Shut down the KVM instance.

For details, see KVM: Shut Down Instance.
3. Perform these steps to add the vTPM settings to the guest OS XML configuration file:
a. Use the virsh edit command to edit the guest OS XML configuration.
For example:

virsh edit My_KVMGuest_Name

Note:
The virsh edit command opens the XML file in the text editor specified by
the $EDITOR shell parameter. The vi editor is set by default.

b. Update the guest OS XML configuration file to include the vTPM security properties.

5-4
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

For example:

Where:
• model='tpm-crb' – sets the TPM model type as Command-Response Buffer (CRB).

Note:
The tpm-crb option is available only when you specify version='2.0'.

• type='emulator' – sets the device type as emulator.

• version='2.0' – sets the tpm version as 2.0.

Note:
When creating a KVM instance for the first time on Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle
Linux 9, you can also use the virt-install command --tpm option to
specify the TPM emulated device information at installation time. For
example:

virt-install --name MY_KVMGuest_ol8-tpm2 --memory 2048 --vcpus

2 \
--disk path=/systest/images/My_KVMGuest_ol8-tpm2.qcow2,size=20
\
--location /systest/iso/ol8.iso --os-variant ol8 \
--network network=default --graphics vnc,listen=0.0.0.0 --tpm
emulator,model=tpm-crb,version=2.0

c. Save the guest OS XML configuration changes.

4. Start the KVM instance.
For details, see KVM: Start Instance.

KVM Network Configuration

To configure and manage KVM virtual networks, see these topics:

5-5
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

• Overview: Virtual Networking

• Command Usage: Manage Virtual Network
• Command Usage: Add or Remove vNIC
• Bridged Networking: Setup
• PCIe Passthrough: Setup

Overview: Virtual Networking

Networking within a KVM environment is achieved by creating virtual Network Interface Cards
(vNICs) on the KVM guest. vNICS are mapped to the host system's own network infrastructure
in any of the following ways:
• Connecting to the virtual network running on the host.
• Directly using a physical interface on the host.
• Using Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) capabilities on a PCIe device.
• Using a network bridge that enables a vNIC to share a physical network interface on the
host.
vNICs are often defined when the KVM is first created, however the libvirt API can be used to
add or remove vNICS as required, and because it can handle hot plugging, these actions can
be performed on a running virtual machine without significant interruption.
Virtual Network Types:
A brief summary of the different types of virtual networks you can set up within a KVM
environment are as follows:
• Default Virtual Networking With NAT – KVM networking can be complex because it
involves: (1) physical components directly configured on the host system, (2) KVM
configuration within libvirt, and (3) network configuration within the running guest OS.
Therefore for many development and testing environments, it's often enough to configure
vNICs to use the virtual network provided by libvirt. By default, the libvirt virtual
network uses Network Address Translation (NAT) to enable KVM guests to gain access to
external network resources. This approach is considered easier to configure and often
facilitates similar network access already configured on the host system.
• Bridged Network and Mapped Virtual Interfaces – In cases where VMs might need to
belong to specific subnetworks, a bridged network can be used. Network bridges use
virtual interfaces that are mapped to and share a physical interface on the host. In this
approach, network traffic from a KVM behaves as if it's coming from an independent
system on the same physical network as the host system. Depending on the tools used,
some manual changes to the host network configuration might be required before
configuring it for KVM use.
• Host Physical Network Interface – Networking for VMs can also be configured to directly
use a physical interface on the host system. This configuration can provide network
behavior similar to using a bridged network interface in that the vNIC behaves as if it's
connected to the physical network directly. Direct connections tend to use the macvtap
driver to extend physical network interfaces to provide a range of functionality that can also
provide a virtual bridge that behaves similarly to a bridged network but is considered easier
to configure and maintain and more likely to offer improved performance.
• Direct and Shared PCIe Passthrough – Another KVM networking method is configuring
PCIe passthrough where a PCIe interface supports the KVM network functionality. When
using this method, administrators can choose to configure direct or shared PCIe

5-6
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

passthrough networking. Direct PCIe passthrough allocates exclusive use of a PCIe device
on the host system to a single KVM guest. Shared PCIe passthrough allocates shared use
of an SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization) capable PCIe device to multiple KVM guests.
Both of these configuration methods require some hardware set up and configuration on
the host system before attaching the PCIe device to a KVM guest(s) for network use.
KVM Tools for Configuring Virtual Network
In cases where network configurations are likely to be more complex, we recommend using
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager. The fundamental purpose of the CLI networking
configurations and operations described in this guide is to facilitate the most basic KVM
network deployment scenarios.
For details about Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager for more complex network
configurations, see Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager documentation.

Command Usage: Manage Virtual Network

To manage virtual networks in a KVM environment, use the virsh net-* command. For
example:
• virsh net-list all – List all virtual networks configured on a host system.

virsh net-list --all

Output example:

Name State Autostart Persistent

----------------------------------------------------------
default active yes yes

• virsh net-info – Display information about a network.

virsh net-info default

Output example:

Name: default
UUID: 16318035-eed4-45b6-99f8-02f1ed0661d9
Active: yes
Persistent: yes
Autostart: yes
Bridge: virbr0

Where:
– Name = assigned network name.
– UUID = assigned network identifier.
– virbr0 = virtual network bridge.

5-7
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

Note:
virbr0 should not be confused with traditional bridge networking. In this
case, the virtual bridge isn't connected to a physical interface. The virtual
network bridge relies on NAT and IP forwarding to connect VMs to the
physical network.

• virsh net-dumpxml – View the full configuration of a network.

virsh net-dumpxml default

Output example:

<network>
<name>default</name>
<uuid>16318035-eed4-45b6-99f8-02f1ed0661d9</uuid>
<forward mode='nat'>
<nat>
<port start='1024' end='65535'/>
</nat>
</forward>
<bridge name='virbr0' stp='on' delay='0'/>
<mac address='52:54:00:82:75:1d'/>
<ip address='192.168.122.1' netmask='255.255.255.0'>
<dhcp>
<range start='192.168.122.2' end='192.168.122.254'/>
</dhcp>
</ip>
</network>

In this example, the virtual network uses a network bridge, called virbr0, not to be
confused with traditional bridged networking. The virtual bridge isn't connected to a
physical interface and relies on NAT and IP forwarding to connect VMs to the physical
network beyond. libvirt also handles IP address assignment for VMs using DHCP. The
default network is typically in the range 192.168.122.1/24.
• virsh net-start – Start an inactive, previously defined virtual network.

sudo virsh net-start [--network] <network-identifier>

Where: network-identifier stands for either network name or network UUID

• virsh net-destroy – Stop an active network and deallocate all resources used by it. For
example, stopping appropriate dnsmasq process, releasing the bridge.

sudo virsh net-start [--network] <network-identifier>

For a more complete list of libvirt's network management commands, see the section 'Basic
Command-line Usage for Virtual Networks' on the libvirt Virtual Networking site (https://
wiki.libvirt.org/VirtualNetworking.html#virsh-xml-commands).

5-8
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

Command Usage: Add or Remove vNIC

You can use the virsh attach-interface command to add a new vNIC to an existing
KVM. This command can be used to create a vNIC on a KVM that uses any of the networking
types available in KVM.

virsh attach-interface --domain guest --type network --source default --config

You must specify the following parameters with this command:

• --domain – The KVM name, ID, or UUID.
• --type – The type of networking that the vNIC uses.
Available options include:
– network for a libvirt virtual network using NAT
– bridge for a bridge device on the host
– direct for a direct mapping to one of the host's network interfaces or bridges
– hostdev for a passthrough connection using a PCI device on the host.
• --source – The source to be used for the network type specified.
These values vary depending on the type:
– For a network, specify the name of the virtual network.
– For a bridge, specify the name of the bridge device.
– For a direct connection, specify the name of the host's interface or bridge.
– For a hostdev connection, specify the PCI address of the host's interface formatted as
domain:bus:slot.function.
• --config – Changes the stored XML configuration for the guest VM and takes effect when
the guest is started.
• --live – The guest VM must be running and the change takes place immediately, thus hot
plugging the vNIC.
• --current – Affects the current guest VM.
More options are available to further customize the interface, such as setting the MAC address
or configuring the target macvtap device when using some other network types. You can also
use --model option to change the model of network interface that's presented to the VM. By
default, the virtio model is used, but other models, such as e1000 or rtl8139 are available,
Run virsh help attach-interface for more information, or see the virsh(1) manual
page.
Remove a vNIC from a VM using the virsh detach-interface command. For example:

virsh detach-interface --domain guest --type network --mac 52:54:00:41:6a:65

--config

The domain or VM name and type are required parameters. If the VM has more than one vNIC
attached, you must specify the mac parameter to provide the MAC address of the vNIC that you

5-9
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

want to remove. You can obtain this value by listing the vNICs that are attached to a VM. For
example, you can run:

virsh domiflist guest

Output similar to the following is displayed:

Interface Type Source Model MAC

-------------------------------------------------------
vnet0 network default virtio 52:54:00:8c:d2:44
vnet1 network default virtio 52:54:00:41:6a:65

Bridged Networking: Setup

Using the CLI, administrators can set up a KVM bridged network with direct Virtual Network
Interface Cards (vNICs). For more details, see these topics:
• Setup Guidelines: Bridged Network
• Create: Bridge Network Connection
• Bonded Interfaces for Increased Throughput

Setup Guidelines: Bridged Network

Traditional network bridging using Linux bridges is configurable by using the virsh iface-
bridge command. With this command, administrators can create a bridge on a host system
and add a physical interface to it. For example, the following command syntax creates a bridge
named vmbridge1 with the Ethernet port named enp0s31f6:

virsh iface-bridge vmbridge1 enp0s31f6

After establishing a bridged network interface, administrators can then attach it to a VM by

using the virsh attach-interface command.

Traditional Linux Bridge Networking Complexities

Consider the following when using traditional Linux bridged networking for KVM guests:
• Setting up a software bridge on a wireless interface is considered complex because of the
number of addresses available in 802.11 frames.
• The complexity of the code to handle software bridges can result in reduced throughput,
increased latency, and additional configuration complexity.
Bridge Networking Advantages Using MacVTap Driver
The main advantage of a bridged network is that it lets the host system communicate across
the network stack directly with any guests configured to use bridged networking.
Most of the issues related to using traditional Linux bridges can be easily overcome by using
the macvtap driver which simplifies virtualized bridge networking. For most bridged network
configurations in KVM, this is the preferred approach because it offers better performance and
it's easier to configure. The macvtap driver is used when the network type in the KVM XML
configuration file is set to direct. For example:

5-10
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

<source dev="kvm-host-network-interface- name" mode="bridge"/>

Where:
• mac address="#:##:##:##:#:##" – The MAC address field is optional. If it is omitted,
the libvirt daemon will generate a unique address.
• interface type="direct" – Used for MacVTap. Specifies a direct mapping to an
existing KVM host device.
• source dev="kvm-host-device" mode="bridge" – Specifies the KVM host
network interface name that will be used by the KVM guest's MacVTap interface. The
mode keyword defines which MacVTap mode is used.
MacVTAP Driver Modes
The macvtap driver creates endpoint devices that follow the tun/tap ioctl interface model to
extend an existing network interface so that KVM can use it to connect to the physical network
interface directly to support different network functions. These functions can be controlled by
setting a different mode for the interface. The following modes are available:
• vepa (Virtual Ethernet Port Aggregator) is the default mode and forces all data from a vNIC
out of the physical interface to a network switch. If the switch supports a hairpin mode,
different vNICs connected to the same physical interface can communicate through the
switch. Many switches today don't support a hairpin mode, which means that virtual
machines with direct connection interfaces running in VEPA mode are unable to
communicate, but can connect to the external network by using the switch.
• bridge mode connects all vNICs directly to each other so that traffic between the virtual
machines on same physical interface isn't sent to the switch but sent directly. The bridge
mode option is the most useful for switches that don't support a hairpin mode, and when
you need maximum performance for communications between VMs. Note the bridge
mode, unlike a traditional software bridge, the host is unable to use this interface to
communicate directly with the KVM.
• private mode behaves like a VEPA mode vNIC in the absence of a switch supporting a
hairpin mode option. However, even if the switch does support the hairpin mode, two VMs
connected to the same physical interface are unable to communicate with each other. This
option supports limited use cases.
• passthrough mode attaches a physical interface device or an SR-IOV Virtual Function (VF)
directly to the vNIC without losing the migration capability. All packets are sent directly to
the configured network device. A one-to-one mapping exists between network devices and
VMs when configured in passthrough mode because a network device can't be shared
between VMs in this configuration.

Note:
The virsh attach-interface command doesn't provide an option for you to specify
the different modes available when attaching a direct type interface that uses the
macvtap driver and defaults to vepa mode. The graphical virt-manager utility makes
setting up bridged networks using macvtap easier and provides options for each
different mode.

5-11
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

Create: Bridge Network Connection

The following information describes how to create and attach a virtual bridged network
interface to a KVM guest using the MacVTap driver.
What Do You Need?
• Root privileges.
• An existing KVM guest on the host system.
• To use Ethernet devices as ports of the bridge, the physical or virtual Ethernet devices
must be installed on the host system.
Steps
Follow these steps to configure a bridge network using the macvtap driver on an existing host
KVM instance.
1. Create a bridge device and attach it to the physical network device interface on the host
using the virsh iface-bridge command.
Example:

sudo virsh iface-bridge [bridge_name] [enp0s31f6]

Where:
• bridge_name – The name assigned to the bridge.
• enp0s31f6 – The physical interface the Ethernet port name used in this example.
2. Attach the bridge interface to the KVM instance using the virsh attach-interface
command.
Example:

sudo virsh attach-interface --domain My_KVM_Guest_Name --type direct --

source wlp4s0 --config

Where:
• My_KVM_Guest_Name – The name of the KVM instance.
• wlp4s0 --config – The source interface name used in this example.
For more details about using the virsh-attach command, see Command Usage: Add or
Remove vNIC.
3. Shut down the KVM instance. For details, see KVM: Shut Down Instance
4. Edit the KVM XML configuration to set the source interface mode to bridge. For example:
a. Use virsh edit to edit the file:

sudo virsh edit [My_KVM_Guest_Name]

5-12
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

Note:
The virsh edit command opens the XML file in the text editor specified by
the $EDITOR shell parameter. The vi editor is set by default.

b. Set the source interface mode to bridge.

Note:
The source interface mode is set, by default, to vepa.

For more details about how to set the source interface mode to bridge, see the
macvtap driver example in Setup Guidelines: Bridged Network.
5. Save the KVM XML configuration changes.
6. Inform the libvirt daemon of the KVM XML configuration changes by using the virsh
undefine and virsh define commands.
Example:

sudo virsh undefine [My_KVM_Guest_Name]

sudo virsh define [My_KVM_Guest_Name-libvirt-xml-file]

The virsh undefine command removes the existing KVM configuration and the virsh
define replaces it with the updated configuration in the XML file.
7. Start the KVM instance. For details, see KVM: Start Instance.
The direct network interface is attached in bridge mode and starts automatically when
starting the KVM instance.

Bonded Interfaces for Increased Throughput

The use of bonded interfaces for increased network throughput is common when hosts might
run several concurrent VMs that are providing multiple services at the same time. In this case,
where a single physical interface might have provided enough bandwidth for applications
hosted on a physical server, the increase in network traffic when running multiple VMs can
have a negative impact on network performance when a single physical interface is shared. By
using bonded interfaces, the KVM network throughput can significantly increase, thereby
enabling you to take advantage of the high availability features available with network bonding.
Because the physical network interfaces that a VM might use are on the host and not on the
VM, setting up any form of bonded networking for greater throughput or for high availability,
must be configured on the host system. This process involves configuring network bonds on
the host, and then attaching a virtual network interface such as a network bridge directly to the
bonded network on the host.
To achieve high availability networking for any VMs, you must first configure a network bond on
the host system. For details on how to set up network bonding, see Working With Network
Bonding in one of the following guides:
• Oracle Linux 7: Setting Up Networking.
• Oracle Linux 8: Setting Up Networking

5-13
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

• Oracle Linux 9: Setting Up Networking

After the bond is configured, you can then configure the virtual machine network to use the
bonded interface when you configure a network bridge. This can be done by either using: (1)
the bridge mode for the interface type, or (2) a direct interface configured to use the
macvtap driver's bridge mode. Note that the bonded interface can be used instead of a
physical network interface when configuring the virtual network interface.

PCIe Passthrough: Setup

This section describes the following methods for configuring PCIe passthrough to KVM guests:
• Direct PCIe Passthrough to KVM Guest Using libvirt. Use this method to allocate
exclusive use of a PCIe device on a host system to a single KVM guest. This method uses
libvirt device assignment to configure a direct I/O path to a single KVM guest.

Note:
Using direct PCIe passthrough can result in increased consumption of host
system CPU resources and, thereby, decrease the overall performance of the
host system.

For more information about configuring PCIe passthrough using this method, see Create:
Direct PCIe Passthrough Connection.
.
• Shared PCIe Passthrough to KVM Guests Using SR-IOV. Use this method to allocate
shared use of SR-IOV (Single Root I/O Virtualization) capable PCIe devices to multiple
KVM guests. This method uses SR-IOV device assignment to configure a PCIe resource to
be shared amongst several KVM guests. SR-IOV device assignment is beneficial in
workloads with high packet rates or low latency requirements. For more information about
SR-IOV PCIe passthrough, see the following topics:
– Setup Guidelines: SR-IOV PCIe Passthrough
– Create: SR-IOV PCIe Passthrough Connection
– SR-IOV Enabled PCIe Devices

Create: Direct PCIe Passthrough Connection

The following information describes how to create a direct PCIe connection to a single KVM
guest.
Exclusive PCIe Device Control
KVM guests can be configured to directly access the PCIe devices available on the host
system and to have exclusive control over their capabilities. Use the virsh command to
assign host PCIe devices to KVM guests. Note that after a PCIe device is assigned to a guest,
the guest has exclusive access to the device and it's no longer available for use by the host or
other guests on the system.

5-14
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

Note:
The following procedure doesn't cover the configuration of enabling passthrough of
SR-IOV Ethernet virtual devices. For instructions on how to configure passthrough for
SR-IOV capable PCIe devices, see Create: SR-IOV PCIe Passthrough Connection.

Steps
Follow these steps to directly assign a host PCIe device to a KVM guest:
1. Shut down the KVM guest.

sudo virsh shutdown GuestName

2. To identify the host attached PCIe devices and their assigned IDs, use the lspci
command as follows:

lspci -D|awk '{gsub("[:\\.]","_",$0); sub("^","pci_",$0); print;}'

Where:
• lspci lists all PCIe devices.
• -D option lists the PCIe domain numbers for each device.
• awk is a scripting language that manipulates the device IDs into a format usable by the
virsh command.
For example, the output might look as follows:

pci_0000_00_00_0 Host bridge_ Intel Corporation 11th Gen Core Processor

Host Bridge/DRAM Registers (rev 01)
pci_0000_00_02_0 VGA compatible controller_ Intel Corporation TigerLake-LP
GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] (rev 01)
pci_0000_00_04_0 Signal processing controller_ Intel Corporation TigerLake-
LP Dynamic Tuning Processor Participant (rev 01)
pci_0000_00_06_0 PCI bridge_ Intel Corporation 11th Gen Core Processor PCI
Express Controller (rev 01)
pci_0000_00_07_0 PCI bridge_ Intel Corporation Tiger Lake-LP Thunderbolt 4
PCI Express Root Port #0 (rev 01)
...

3. Select the device that you want to configure for passthrough and create a variable
containing the device ID. For example:

pci_dev="pci_0000_00_07_0"

4. Use the virsh nodedev-dumpxml command to calculate the PCIe device domain, bus, slot,
and function parameters into usable variables. For example:

domain=$(virsh nodedev-dumpxml $pci_dev --xpath '//domain/text()')

bus=$(virsh nodedev-dumpxml $pci_dev --xpath '//bus/text()')
slot=$(virsh nodedev-dumpxml $pci_dev --xpath '//slot/text()')
function=$(virsh nodedev-dumpxml $pci_dev --xpath '//function/text()')

5-15
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

5. To identify the device source domain address required for passthrough, use the print
function to convert the PCIe domain, bus, slot, and function variables to hexadecimal
values.
For example:

printf "<address domain='0x%x' bus='0x%x' slot='0x%x' function='0x%x'/

>\n" $domain $bus $slot $function

6. Assign the PCIe device to a KVM guest.

Run virsh edit, specify the KVM guest name, and add the PCIe device domain address
in the <source> section.
For example:

# virsh edit GuestName

Note:
managed and unmanagedlibvirt recognizes two management modes for
handling PCIe devices: managed='yes' (default) or managed='no". When the
mode is set to managed='yes', libvirt handles the unbinding of the device
from the existing driver, resetting the device, and then binding it to the vfio-pci
driver before starting the domain. In cases when the domain is stopped or the
device is removed from the domain, libvirt unbinds it from the vfio-pci
driver and rebinds it to the original driver. When the mode is set to
managed='no', you must manually detach the PCIe device from the host and
then manually attach it to the vfio-pci driver.
For example, to detach:

sudo virsh nodedev-dettach pci_0000_device_ID_#

To reattach:

sudo virsh nodedev-reattach pci_0000_device_ID_#

Alternatively, you can use Cockpit to attach and remove host devices. For more
details, see Add or Remove VM Host Devices in the Oracle Linux: Using the
Cockpit Web Console guide.

7. On the host system, enable guest management for virtual PCIe pass-through.

sudo setsebool -P virt_use_sysfs 1

8. Start the KVM guest.

sudo virsh start GuestName

5-16
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

The PCIe device is successfully assigned to the KVM guest and the guest OS now has
exclusive control over its capabilities.

Setup Guidelines: SR-IOV PCIe Passthrough

The Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) specification is a standard for device assignment
that can share a single PCIe resource among multiple KVM guests. SR-IOV provides the ability
to partition a physical PCIe resource into virtual PCIe functions that can be discovered,
managed, and configured as normal PCIe devices.
Passthrough configuration of PCIe devices using SR-IOV involves these functions:
• Physical Functions (PF) The physical function (PF) refers to the physical PCIe adapter
device. Each physical PCIe adapter can have up to eight functions (although the most
common case is one function). Each function has a full configuration space and is seen by
software as a separate PCIe device. When the configuration space of a PCIe function
includes SR-IOV support, then that function is considered an SR-IOV physical function.
SR-IOV physical functions enable you to manage and configure SR-IOV settings for
enabling virtualization and exposing virtual functions (VFs).
• Virtual Function (VF). The virtual function (VF) refers to a virtualized instance of the PCIe
device. Each VF is designed to move data in and out. VFs are derived from the physical
function (PF). For example, each VF is attached to an underlying PF and each PF can
have from zero (0) to one (1) or more VFs. VFs have a reduced configuration space
because they inherit most of their settings from the PF.
SR-IOV Advantages
Some key benefits for using SR-IOV for PCIe passthrough include:
• Optimized performance and capacity by enabling efficient sharing of PCIe resources.
• Reduced hardware costs through the creation of hundreds of VFs associated with a single
PF.
• Dynamic control by the PF through registers designed to turn on the SR-IOV capability,
eliminating the need for time-intensive integration.
• Increased performance through direct access to hardware from the virtual guest
environment.

Create: SR-IOV PCIe Passthrough Connection

The following information describes how to create a SR-IOV PCIe passthrough connection for
KVM guests.
SR-IOV Advantages and Capabilities
Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) further extends Oracle Linux ability to operate as a high
performance virtualization solution. With SR-IOV, Oracle Linux can assign virtual resources
from PCI devices that have SR-IOV capabilities. These virtual resources known as virtual
functions (VFs) appear as new assignable PCIe devices to KVM guests.
SR-IOV provides the same capabilities of assigning a physical PCI device to a guest. However,
key benefits for using SR-IOV include optimization of I/O performance (as the guest OS
interacts directly with device hardware), and the reduction of hardware costs (elimination for
the need to manage a large system configuration of peripheral devices).
Steps
To configure SR-IOV PCIe passthrough to KVM guests, follow these steps:

5-17
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

1. Verify if the Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU options are enabled in the system firmware at the
BIOS/UEFI level. For more details, see the applicable Oracle server model documentation.
2. Verify if the Intel VT-d or AMD IOMMU options are activated in the kernel. If these kernel
options haven't been enabled, perform the following.
• For Intel virtualization, add the intel_iommu=on and iommu=pt parameters to the
end of the GRUB_CMDLINX_LINUX line, within the quotes, in the /etc/default/
grub.cfg file.

Note:
A symlink exists between /etc/sysconfig/grub and /etc/default/
grub, therefore, you could alternatively choose to configure the /etc/
sysconfig/grub.cfg file.

• For AMD virtualization, add the intel_iommu=on and iommu=pt parameters to the end
of the GRUB_CMDLINX_LINUX line, within the quotes, in the /etc/default/grub.cfg file.
Regenerate grub.cfg file and then reboot the system for the changes to take affect.

grub2-mkconfig -o /etc/grub.cfg

3. Use the lspci command to verify if an SR-IOV capable PCIe device is detected on the
host system. For example:

lspci -D|awk '{gsub("[:\\.]","_",$0); sub("^","pci_",$0); print;}'

pci_0000_00_00_0 Host bridge_ Intel Corporation 11th Gen Core Processor

5-18
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

Note:
For a list of SR-IOV compatible PCIe devices, see SR-IOV Enabled PCIe
Devices .

4. Load the device driver kernel module.

If an SR-IOV PCIe device is detected, the driver kernel module automatically loads.
If required, you can pass parameters to the module using the modprobe command. The
following example output shows the igb driver for an 82576 network interface card.

sudo modprobe igb [<option>=<VAL1>,<VAL2>,]

sudo lsmod |grep igb
igb 82576 0
dca 6708 1 igb

5. Activate the virtual functions (VFs) by performing the following:

• To set the maximum VFs offered by a kernel driver, perform the following:
a. To set the maximum VFs offered by a kernel driver, you must first remove the
device driver kernel module. For example:

sudo modprobe -r drivername

In the previous example in Step 4, igb is name of the driver. To find the device
driver name, use the ethtool command. For example:

ethtool -i em1 | grep ^driver

b. Start the module with max_vfs set to 7 (or up to the maximum number allowed).
For example:

sudo modprobe drivername max_vfs=7

c. Make the VFs persistent at boot.

Add the line options drivername max_vfs=7 to any file in /etc/modprobe.d,
for example:

sudo echo "options drivername max_vfs=7" >>/etc/modprobe.d/igb.conf

• To allocate the required amount of VFs to create, issue the following:

echo N > /sys/bus/pci/devices/${PF_DEV}/sriov_numvfs

Where:
– N is the number of VFs that you want the kernel driver to create.
– ${PF_DEV} is the PCI bus/device/function ID for the physical device. For example:
“0000:02:00.0” (as shown in the example output of Step 3.)
6. Use the lspci | grep command to list the newly added VFs.

5-19
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

For example, the following output lists VFs associated with the 82576 Network Controller.

sudo lspci | grep 82576

0b:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network
Connection (rev 01)
0b:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Gigabit Network
Connection(rev 01)
0b:10.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:10.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:10.2 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:10.3 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:10.4 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:10.5 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:10.6 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:10.7 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:11.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:11.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:11.2 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:11.3 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:11.4 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)
0b:11.5 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82576 Virtual Function (rev
01)

The physical functions (PFs) correspond to 0b:00.0 and 0b:00.1 entries. Where all the
VFs appear as a Virtual Function entry in the description.
7. Verify libvirt can detect the SR-IOV device by using the virsh nodedev-list |
grep command.
For the Intel 82576 network device example, the filtered output appears as follows:

virsh nodedev-list | grep 0b

pci_0000_0b_00_0
pci_0000_0b_00_1
pci_0000_0b_10_0
pci_0000_0b_10_1
pci_0000_0b_10_2
pci_0000_0b_10_3
pci_0000_0b_10_4
pci_0000_0b_10_5
pci_0000_0b_10_6
pci_0000_0b_11_7
pci_0000_0b_11_1

5-20
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

pci_0000_0b_11_2
pci_0000_0b_11_3
pci_0000_0b_11_4
pci_0000_0b_11_5

Note that libvirt uses a similar notation to the lspci output. Punctuation characters,
for example, such as a semicolon (;) and a period (.), appear in lspci output as
underscores (_).
8. Use virsh nodedev-dumpxml command to review the SR-IOV physical and virtual
functions device details.
For example, advanced output shows details associated with the pci_0000_0b_00_0
physical function and its first corresponding virtual function ( pci_0000_0b_10_0_),

sudo virsh nodedev-dumpxml pci_0000_0b_00_0

<device>
<name>pci_0000_0b_00_0</name>
<parent>pci_0000_00_01_0</parent>
<driver>
<name>igb</name>
</driver>
<capability type='pci'>
<domain>0</domain>
<bus>11</bus>
<slot>0</slot>
<function>0</function>
<product id='0x10c9'>82576 Gigabit Network Connection</product>
<vendor id='0x8086'>Intel Corporation</vendor>
</capability>
</device>

sudo virsh nodedev-dumpxml pci_0000_0b_10_0

<device>
<name>pci_0000_0b_10_0</name>
<parent>pci_0000_00_01_0</parent>
<driver>
<name>igbvf</name>
</driver>
<capability type='pci'>
<domain>0</domain>
<bus>11</bus>
<slot>16</slot>
<function>0</function>
<product id='0x10ca'>82576 Virtual Function</product>
<vendor id='0x8086'>Intel Corporation</vendor>
</capability>
</device>

Note the bus, slot and function parameters of the VF. These parameters are required
in the next step to assign a VF to a KVM guest.

5-21
Chapter 5
KVM Network Configuration

Copy these VF parameters into a temporary XML file, such as /tmp/new-interface.xml

for example:

<interface type='hostdev' managed='yes'>

Note:

• A MAC address is automatically generated if one isn't specified.

• The <virtualport> element is only used when connecting to an
802.11Qbh hardware switch.
• The <vlan> element transparently assigns a guest with a VLAN tagged 42.
When the KVM guest starts, it sees a network device of the type provided by
the physical adapter, with the configured MAC address. This MAC address
remains unchanged across host and guest reboots.
The following <interface> example shows the syntax for the following
optional elements: <mac address>, <virtualport>, and <vlan>. In
practice, use either the <vlan> or <virtualport> element, but not both
simultaneously as shown in the following example:

...
<devices>
...
<interface type='hostdev' managed='yes'>
<source><address type='pci' domain='0' bus='11' slot='16'
function='0'/>
</source><mac address='52:54:00:6d:90:02'><vlan><tag id='42'/>
</vlan><virtualport type='802.1Qbh'>
<parameters profileid='finance'/>
</virtualport></interface>
...
</devices>

9. Using the new-interface.xml file created in the previous step, and the virsh
attach-device command, assign a VF of a SR-IOV PCIe device to a KVM guest.
For example:

virsh attach-device MyGuestName /tmp/new-interface.xml --config

The --config option ensures that the new VF is available after future restarts of KVM
guest.

5-22
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

SR-IOV Enabled PCIe Devices

Note:
Because of the continuous development of new SR-IOV PCIe devices and the Linux
kernel, other SR-IOV capable PCIe devices might be available over time and aren't
captured in the following table.

Table 5-1 PCIe Devices and Drivers

Device Name Device Driver

Intel 82599ES 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller Intel xgbe Linux Base Drivers for Intel(R)
Ethernet Network Connections
For a list of the latest xgbedrivers, see http://
e1000.sourceforge.net or http://
downloadcenter.intel.com
Intel Ethernet Controller XL710 Series Intel i40e Linux Base Drivers for Intel(R)
Intel Ethernet Network Adapter XXV710 Ethernet Network Connections
For a list of the latest i40edrivers, see http://
e1000.sourceforge.net or http://
downloadcenter.intel.com
NVIDA (Mellanox) ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6 DX, NVIDA (Mellanox) mlx5_core Driver
and ConnectX-7
Intel 82576 Gigabit Ethernet Controller Intel igb Linux* Base Drivers for Intel(R)
Ethernet Network Connections
For a list of the latest xgbedrivers, see http://
e1000.sourceforge.net or http://
downloadcenter.intel.com
Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM57810 Broadcom bnx2x Linux Base Drivers for
Broadcom NetXtreme II Network Connections
Ethernet Controller E810-C for QSFP Oracle Linux base driver packages available
for Intel(R) Ethernet Network Connections
SFC9220 10/40G Ethernet Controller sfc Linux base Driver
FastLinQ QL41000 Series 10/25/40/50GbE qede Poll Mode Driver for FastLinQ Ethernet
Controller Network Connections

KVM Storage Configuration

Libvirt handles various different storage mechanisms that you can configure for use by KVMs.
These mechanisms are organized into different pools or units. By default, libvirt uses directory-
based storage pools for the creation of new disks, but pools can be configured for different
storage types including physical disk, NFS, and iSCSI.
Depending on the storage pool type that's configured, different storage volumes can be made
available to any KVMs to be used as block devices. Sometimes, such as when using iSCSI
pools, volumes don't need to be defined as the LUNs for the iSCSI target are automatically
presented to the KVM.
Note that you don't need to define different storage pools and volumes to use libvirt with KVM.
These tools help you to manage how storage is used and consumed by KVMs as they need it.

5-23
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

You can use the default directory-based storage and take advantage of manually mounted
storage at the default locations.
We recommend using Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager to easily manage and configure
complex storage requirements for KVM environments. Alternatively, you can use Cockpit to
manage KVM storage. For more details, see Storage Management Tasks in Oracle Linux:
Using the Cockpit Web Console.
For more details on how to use the command line to manage storage configurations for KVM
use, see these topics:
• Storage Pools: Create and Manage
• Storage Volumes: Create and Manage
• Virtual Disks: Create and Manage

Storage Pools: Create and Manage

Storage pools provide logical groupings of storage types that are available to host the volumes
that can be used as virtual disks by a set of VMs. A wide variety of different storage types are
provided. Local storage can be used in the form of directory based storage pools, file system
storage, and disk based storage. Other storage types such as NFS and iSCSI provide
standard network based storage, while the RBD type provides distributed storage. More
information is provided at https://libvirt.org/storage.html.
Storage pools help abstract underlying storage resources from the VM configurations. This
abstraction is useful if you suspect that resources such as virtual disks might change physical
location or media type. Abstraction becomes even more important when using network based
storage because target paths, DNS, or IP addressing might change over time. By abstracting
this configuration information, you can manage resources in a consolidated way without
needing to update multiple KVM instances.
You can create transient storage pools that are available until the host reboots, or you can
define persistent storage pools that are restored after a reboot.
Transient storage pools are started automatically as soon as they're created and the volumes
that are within them are made available to VMs immediately, however any configuration
information about a transient storage pool is lost after the pool is stopped, the host reboots, or
if the libvirtd service is restarted. The storage itself is unaffected, but VMs configured to use
resources in a transient storage pool lose access to these resources. Transient storage pools
are created using the virsh pool-create command.

For most use cases, consider creating persistent storage pools. Persistent storage pools are
defined as a configuration entry that's stored within /etc/libvirt. Persistent storage pools
can be stopped and started and can be configured to start when the host system boots. Libvirt
can take care of automatically mounting and enabling access to network based resources
when persistent storage is configured. Persistent storage pools are created using the virsh
pool-define command, and usually need to be started after they have been created before
you can use them.
For more details on how to use the command line to create and manage storage pools for
KVM use, see these topics:
• Creating a Storage Pool
• Creating a Storage Pool from XML
• Removing a Storage Pool

5-24
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

Creating a Storage Pool

Use the virsh tool to create a persistent storage pool.
1. Define the pool.

virsh pool-define-as pool_name type

Where:
• pool_name – The name you assign to the pool.
• type – The storage type the pool uses.
See libvirt documentation for details about the storage types you can specify:
• Storage pool and volume XML format
• Storage Management
The following table provides examples of different pool types you can define:

Command Configuration Details

virsh pool-define-as pool_name dir \ Creates a pool with the name pool_name for a
--target /share/storage_pool directory that's at /share/storage_pool on the
host system.

virsh pool-define-as pool_name fs \ Creates file system based storage, that

--source-dev /dev/sdc1 \ mounts a formatted block device, /dev/sdc1,
--target /share/storage_mount at the mount point /share/storage_mount.

virsh pool-define-as pool_name Creates an NFS share as a storage pool.

netfs \
--source-path /ISO \
--source-host nfs.example.com \
--target /share/storage_nfs

2. Confirm the pool was defined.

virsh pool-info pool_name

You can also view a list of all pools on the system.

virsh pool-list --all

3. If the target path doesn't exist, build the directory.

virsh pool-build pool_name

5-25
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

4. Start the pool.

virsh pool-start pool_name

5. Configure the pool to start automatically when the system boots.

virsh pool-autostart pool_name

After you create a pool, you can create a storage volume within the pool. See Creating a
Storage Volume for more information.
You can also indicate which pool to use when you create a VM using virt-install. Include
the --disk argument and the pool and size sub options. For example:

virt-install
...
--disk pool=pool_name, size=80

Creating a Storage Pool from XML

Use the virsh tool to load a storage pool configuration from an XML file and create the pool.
1. Create an XML file with definitions for the storage pool.
For more information on the XML format for a storage pool definition, see Storage pool and
volume XML format.
For example, you could create a storage pool for an iSCSI volume by creating an XML file
named pool_definition.xml with the following content:

The previous example assumes that an iSCSI server is already configured and running on
a host with IP address 192.0.2.1 and that the iSCSI Qualified Name (IQN) is
iqn.2024-12.com.mycompany:my-iscsi-host.
2. Run virsh pool-define to load the configuration information from the XML file into libvirt.
For example, to load the pool_definition.xml file from the previous step, run:

virsh pool-define pool_definition.xml

3. Confirm the pool was defined.

virsh pool-info pool_name

5-26
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

You can also view a list of all pools on the system.

virsh pool-list --all

4. If the target path doesn't exist, build the directory.

virsh pool-build pool_name

5. Start the pool.

virsh pool-start pool_name

6. Configure the pool to start automatically when the system boots.

virsh pool-autostart pool_name

Removing a Storage Pool

Use the virsh tool to stop and remove a persistent storage pool.
1. Stop the storage pool.

virsh pool-destroy pool_name

2. Delete the directory of the storage pool.

Note:
The directory must be empty for this command to delete the directory.

virsh pool-delete pool_name

3. Remove the storage pool definition from the system.

virsh pool-undefine pool_name

4. Confirm the removal of the storage pool.

virsh pool-list --all

Storage Volumes: Create and Manage

Storage volumes are created within a storage pool and represent the virtual disks that can be
loaded as block devices within one or more VMs. Some storage pool types don't need storage
volumes to be created individually as the storage mechanism might present these to VMs as
block devices already. For example, iSCSI storage pools present the individual logical unit
numbers (LUNs) for an iSCSI target as separate block devices.
Sometimes, such as when using directory or file system based storage pools, storage volumes
are individually created for use as virtual disks. In these cases, several disk image formats can

5-27
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

be used although some formats, such as qcow2, might require extra tools such as qemu-img
for creation.
For disk based pools, standard partition type labels are used to represent individual volumes;
while for pools based on the logical volume manager, the volumes themselves are presented
individually within the pool.
Storage volumes can be sparsely allocated when they're created by setting the allocation value
for the initial size of the volume to a value lower than the capacity of the volume. The allocation
indicates the initial or current physical size of the volume, while the capacity indicates the size
of the virtual disk as it's presented to the KVM. Sparse allocation is often used to over-
subscribe physical disk space where KVMs might eventually require more disk space than is
initially available. For a non-sparsely allocated volume, the allocation matches or exceeds the
capacity of the volume. Exceeding the capacity of the disk provides space for metadata, if
required.
You can use the --pool option if you have volumes with matching names in different pools on
the same system and you need to specify the pool to use for any virsh volume operation.
This practice is replicated across subsequent examples.
For more details on how to use the command line to create and manage storage volumes for
KVM use, see these topics:
• Creating a Storage Volume
• Creating a Storage Volume from XML
• Cloning a Storage Volume
• Resizing a Storage Volume
• Deleting a Storage Volume

Creating a Storage Volume

Depending on the storage pool type, you can create a storage volume using the virsh vol-
create-as command.
1. Run virsh vol-create-as and include the pool, volume name, and capacity as
required arguments.
For example:

virsh vol-create-as \
--pool pool_name \
--name volume_name \
--capacity 10G

Many of the available options, such as the allocation or format have default values set, so
you can typically only specify the name of the storage pool where the volume should be
created, the name of the volume and the capacity that you require.
2. Verify the creation of the storage volume.

virsh vol-info --pool pool_name volume_name

5-28
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

Output similar to the following is displayed:

Name: volume_name
Type: file
Capacity: 9.31 GiB
Allocation: 8.00 GiB

Creating a Storage Volume from XML

Depending on the storage pool type, you can create a storage volume from an XML file using
the virsh vol-create command. This command expects you to provide an XML file
representation of the volume parameters.
1. Create an XML file where you define the storage volume.
The XML for a volume might depend on the pool type and the volume that's being created,
but in the case of a sparsely allocated 10 GB image in qcow2 format, the XML might look
similar to the following:

<volume>
<name>volume1</name>
<allocation>0</allocation>
<capacity unit="G">10</capacity>
<target>
<path>/home/testuser/.local/share/libvirt/images/volume1.qcow2</
path>
<permissions>
<owner>107</owner>
<group>107</group>
<mode>0744</mode>
<label>virt_image_t</label>
</permissions>
</target>
</volume>

For more information, see Storage pool and volume XML format in the libvirt
documentation.
2. Run virsh vol-create and include the pool and source XML file as required arguments.
For example, to create a volume in storage pool named pooldir with an XML file named
volume1.xml, run the following command:

virsh vol-create pooldir volume1.xml

Cloning a Storage Volume

You can clone a storage volume using the virsh vol-clone command.

1. Run the virsh vol-clone command and include the name of the original volume and
the name of the cloned volume as required arguments.
For example:

virsh vol-clone --pool pool_name volume1 volume1-clone

5-29
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

The clone is created in the same storage pool with identical parameters.
2. Verify the creation of the cloned volume.

virsh vol-list --pool pool_name --details

Resizing a Storage Volume

If a storage volume isn't being used by a VM, you can resize it by using the virsh vol-resize
command.

• Run the virsh vol-resize command and provide the volume and capacity as required
arguments.
For example:

virsh vol-resize --pool pool_name volume1 15G

Caution:
Reducing the size of an existing volume can risk destroying data. However, if you
need to resize a volume to reduce it, you must specify the --shrink option with
the new size value.

Deleting a Storage Volume

You can delete a storage volume by running the virsh vol-delete command.

• Run virsh vol-delete and provide the volume name as a required argument.
For example, to delete the volume named volume1 in the storage pool named pool_name,
run the following command:

virsh vol-delete volume1 --pool pool_name

Virtual Disks: Create and Manage

Virtual disks are typically attached to VMs as block devices based on disk images stored at a
given path. Virtual disks can be defined for a VM when it's created, or can be added to an
existing VM.

Note:
Command line tools available for managing virtual disks aren't completely consistent
in terms of their handling of storage volumes and storage pools.

For more details about how to create and manage virtual disks for KVM use, see these topics:
• Attaching a Virtual Disk to an Existing VM
• Attaching a Virtual Disk when Creating a VM

5-30
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

• Detaching a Virtual Disk

• Resizing a Virtual Disk

Attaching a Virtual Disk to an Existing VM

You can use the virsh attach-disk command to attach a disk image to an existing VM.
Command line tools to attach a volume to an existing VM are limited and GUI tools like
cockpit are better suited for this operation. If you expect that you might need to work with
volumes a lot, consider using Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager.
1. If the disk image is a volume, obtain its path by running the virsh vol-list command.

virsh vol-list storage_pool_1

Output similar to the following is displayed:

Name Path
--------------------------------------------------------------------
volume1 /share/disk-images/volume1.qcow2

2. Attach the disk image within the existing VM configuration so that it is persistent and
attaches itself on each subsequent restart of the VM:

virsh attach-disk --config \

--domain guest_name \
--source /share/disk-images/volume1.qcow2 \
--target sdb1

This command requires that you provide the path to the disk image when you attach it to
the VM.
You can use the following options:
• --live – temporarily attach a disk image to a running VM.
• --persistent – attach a disk image to a running VM and also update its configuration
so that the disk is attached on each subsequent restart.

Attaching a Virtual Disk when Creating a VM

You can attach a storage volume to a VM as a virtual disk when the VM is created. The virt-
install command enables you to specify the volume or storage pool directly for any use of
the --disk option.

• Create a VM using virt-install and include the required --disk argument.

To use an existing volume when creating a VM, include the vol option. For example:

virt-install \
--name guest \
--disk vol=storage_pool/volume1.qcow2
...

5-31
Chapter 5
KVM Storage Configuration

To create a virtual disk as a volume within an existing storage pool automatically at install,
include the pool option. In this case, the size option is also required. For example:

virt-install \
--name guest \
--disk pool=storage_pool size=10
...

Detaching a Virtual Disk

You can remove a virtual disk from a VM by using the virsh detach-disk command.

Caution:
Before you detach a disk from a running VM, ensure that you perform the appropriate
actions within the guest OS to offline the disk correctly first. Otherwise, you might
corrupt the file system. For example, unmount the disk in the guest OS so that it
performs any sync operations that might still be remaining before you detach the
disk.

1. Display a list of the block devices attached to a guest to identify the disk target.

virsh domblklist guest_name

2. Detach the virtual disk.

virsh detach-disk --config guest_name target_name

You can use the following options:

• --live – temporarily detach a disk image from a running KVM.
• --persistent – detach a disk image from a running KVM and also update its
configuration so that the disk is permanently detached from the KVM on subsequent
restarts.
Detaching a virtual disk from the VM doesn't delete the disk image file or volume from the
host system. If you need to delete a virtual disk, you can either manually delete the source
image file or delete the volume from the host.
For example, to remove the disk at the target sdb1 from the configuration for the KVM
named guest1, you could run:

virsh detach-disk --config guest1 sdb1

Resizing a Virtual Disk

You can resize a virtual disk image while a VM is running by using the virsh blockresize
command.
1. Check the current size of all block devices attached to the VM.

virsh domblkinfo guest_name --all --human

5-32
Chapter 5
KVM Memory and CPU Allocation Configuration

2. Find the path to the disk image and note the location.

virsh domblklist guest_name --details

3. Run virsh blockresize and include the guest name, path to the disk, and intended
size as required arguments.
For example, to increase the size of the disk image at the source location /share/disk-
images/volume1.qcow2 on the running VM named guest1 to 20 GB, run:

virsh blockresize guest_name /share/disk-images/volume1.qcow2 20GB

The value you provide for size is a scaled integer which defaults to KiB if you omit a suffix.
The virsh blockresize command enables you to scale up a disk on a live VM, but it
doesn't guarantee that the VM can immediately identify that the additional disk resource is
available. For some guest operating systems, restarting the VM might be required before
the guest can identify the additional resources available.
Individual partitions and file systems on the block device aren't scaled using this command.
You need to perform these operations manually from within the guest, as required.
4. Verify that resizing has worked as expected by checking the block device information of the
VM again.

virsh domblkinfo guest_name --all --human

KVM Memory and CPU Allocation Configuration

You can configure how many virtual CPUs (vCPUs) are active, and how much memory is
available for each KVM instance. These hardware configuration changes can be made on a
running KVM by hot plugging or hot unplugging; and the changes can be stored in the KVM's
XML configuration file. Note that some changes can be limited by the KVM host, the hypervisor
manufacturer, or by the original KVM configuration.
For more details on how to use the command line to configure memory and CPU allocation for
KVM use, see these topics:
• Command Usage: Set Virtual CPU Count
• Command Usage: Allocate Memory

Command Usage: Set Virtual CPU Count

Optimizing vCPUs can impact the resource efficiency of any VMs. One way to optimize is to
adjust how many vCPUs are assigned to a KVM instance. Hot plugging or hot unplugging
vCPUs is when you configure vCPU count on a running KVM.
You can change the number of vCPUs that are active in a guest KVM using the virsh
setvcpus command. By default, virsh setvcpus works on running guest KVMs. To
change the number of vCPUs for a stopped KVM, add the --config option.

For example:

virsh setvcpus domain-name, id, or uuid count-value {--config | --live | --

current} --guest

5-33
Chapter 5
KVM Memory and CPU Allocation Configuration

Where:
• setvcpu: Sets the state of individual vCPUs using the hot(un)plug mechanism.

Note:
The count value entered can't exceed the number of CPUs assigned to a KVM
guest. Also, the allowable count value for vCPUs can vary depending on the
following factors: host logical CPUs, hypervisor manufacturer, KVM guest OS,
and so on.

• domain: A string value representing the KVM name, ID, or UUID.

• count: A number value representing the number of vCPUs.
• --maximum: Controls the maximum number of vCPUs that can be hot plugged the next
time the guest KVM is booted. This option can only be used with the --config option.
• --config: Changes the stored XML configuration for the guest KVM and takes effect
when the guest is started.
– --live: The guest kVM must be running and the change takes place immediately, thus
hot plugging a vCPU.
– --current: Affects the current guest KVM.
• --guest: Sets the vCPU count directly in the running guest.
You can use the --config and --live options together if permitted by the hypervisor. If you
don't specify --config, --live, or --current, the --live option is assumed. If you don't select
an option and the guest KVM isn't running, the command fails. Furthermore, if no options are
specified, it's up to the hypervisor whether the --config option is also assumed; and the
hypervisor determines whether the XML configuration is adjusted to make the change
persistent.

Command Usage: Allocate Memory

To improve the performance of a KVM, you can assign additional host RAM to a KVM instance.
You can also decrease the amount of allocated memory to free up the resource for other KVMs
or tasks. Hot plugging or hot unplugging memory is when you configure memory size on a
running KVM.
You use the virsh setmem command to change the available memory for a KVM. To change
the maximum memory that can be allocated, use the virsh setmaxmem command.

To change a KVM's memory allocation, run:

virsh setmem domain-name, id, or uuid --kilobytes size

You must specify the size as a scaled integer in kibibytes and the new value can't exceed the
amount you specified for the KVM. Values lower than 64 MB are unlikely to work with most
KVM guest operating systems. A higher maximum memory value doesn't affect active KVMs. If
the new value is lower than the available memory, it shrinks memory usage possibly causing
the KVM to crash.
Use following command options to allocate memory to a KVM instance:
• domain

5-34
Chapter 5
KVM Memory and CPU Allocation Configuration

A string value representing the KVM name, ID, or UUID.

• size
A number value representing the new memory size, as a scaled integer. The default unit is
KiB, but you can select from other valid memory units:
– b or bytes for bytes
– KB for kilobytes (103 or blocks of 1,000 bytes)
– k or KiB for kibibytes (210 or blocks of 1024 bytes)
– MB for megabytes (106 or blocks of 1,000,000 bytes)
– M or MiB for mebibytes (220 or blocks of 1,048,576 bytes)
– GB for gigabytes (109 or blocks of 1,000,000,000 bytes)
– G or GiB for gibibytes (230 or blocks of 1,073,741,824 bytes)
– TB for terabytes (1012 or blocks of 1,000,000,000,000 bytes)
– T or TiB for tebibytes (240 or blocks of 1,099,511,627,776 bytes)
• --config
Changes the stored XML configuration for the guest KVM and takes effect when the guest
is started.
• --live
The guest KVM must be running and the change takes place immediately, thus hot
plugging memory.
• --current
Affects the memory on the current guest KVM.
To set the maximum memory that can be allocated to a KVM, run:

virsh setmaxmem domain-name_id_or_uuid size --current

You must specify the size as a scaled integer in kibibytes unless you also specify a supported
memory unit, which are the same as for the virsh setmem command.

All other options for virsh setmaxmem are the same as for virsh setmem with one caveat.
If you specify the --live option be aware that not all hypervisors support live changes to the
maximum memory limit.

5-35
6
KVM Known Issues
The following topics describe known issues for Oracle Linux KVM. Note that when a
workaround is available that information is also provided.
• KVM Not Starting After Upgrade On QEMU
• KVM Guest With vTPM Fails
• Downgrade Stream Conflict Error Messages

KVM Not Starting After Upgrade On QEMU

Known Issue: Upgrading from QEMU 3.10 to 4.2.1 can prevent existing KVM guests from
starting on Oracle Linux 7.
Description:
When upgrading a KVM host from QEMU version 3.10 to version 4.2.1 a libvirt server error
appears that prevents KVM guests on an Oracle Linux 7 host from starting.
For example, an error similar to the following appears:

Upgrade qemu-3.1.0-7.el7.x86_64 to qemu-4.2.1-4.el7.x86_64, kvm can not be

started, got below libvirt service error:

Dec 21 15:10:48 ca-ex05db01.us.oracle.com libvirtd[23588]: Unable to read

from monitor: Connection reset by peer
Dec 21 15:10:48 ca-ex05db01.us.oracle.com libvirtd[23588]: internal error:
qemu unexpectedly closed the monitor: 2020-12-21T23:10:48.306929Z
qemu-system-x86_64: We need to set caching-mode=on for intel-iommu to enable
device assignment with IOMMU protection.
Dec 21 15:10:52 ca-ex05db01.us.oracle.com libvirtd[23588]: internal error:
Failed to autostart VM 'ca-ex05db01vm01.us.oracle.com': internal error: qemu
unexpectedly closed the monitor: 2020-12-21T23:10:48.306929Z
qemu-system-x86_64: We need to set caching-mode=on for intel-iommu to enable
device assignment with IOMMU protection.
Dec 21 15:10:52 ca-ex05db01.us.oracle.com libvirtd[23588]: nl_recv returned
with error: No buffer space available

Workaround:
To work around this issue so that KVM guests can run the updated qemu version, edit the XML
file of each KVM guest, adding the caching_mode='on' parameter to the iommu model='intel'
section for each driver sub-element, as shown in the following example:
For example:

(Bug ID 32312933)

6-1
Chapter 6
KVM Guest With vTPM Fails

KVM Guest With vTPM Fails

Known Issue: KVM guests configured with vTPM can fail on Oracle Linux 9 when FIPs mode
is enabled.
Description:
When FIPS mode is enabled on an Oracle Linux 9 host and a KVM is configured to use vTPM,
the guest OS can fail to install or the KVM is unable to launch.
Workaround:
The current workaround is to disable FIPS mode if you need to run KVM guests with vTPM.
(Bug 34290427)

Downgrade Stream Conflict Error Messages

Known Issue: Package conflict errors appear when downgrading virt:kvm_utils2 to a
previous application stream version.
Description:
Beginning with version 20744+e9607200 of the virt:kvm_utils2 application stream, new
packages were added. If you try to downgrade to a previous version of the virt:kvm_utils2
application stream that does not contain the additional packages, the downgrade process fails
with several package conflict error messages. This issue is the result of a limitation in DNF for
handling dependencies in application streams.
Workaround:
To resolve this issue, you must remove the existing packages, reset the virt:kvm_utils2
application stream, enable the older version of the virt:kvm_utils2 application stream and
then reinstall the packages. See Switch Default Stack to Oracle KVM Stack for steps to
remove existing packages, resetting the application stream and then installing packages.
(Bug ID 34623368)

6-2

Oracle Linux: KVM User's Guide
No ratings yet
Oracle Linux: KVM User's Guide
44 pages
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager Ds 20240531
No ratings yet
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager Ds 20240531
4 pages
Book - KVM en PDF
No ratings yet
Book - KVM en PDF
174 pages
Opensuse: 11.4 Virtualization With KVM
100% (1)
Opensuse: 11.4 Virtualization With KVM
174 pages
LVMAR
No ratings yet
LVMAR
48 pages
Virtualization Guide - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2
100% (1)
Virtualization Guide - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2
366 pages
KVM (Kernel-Based Virtual Machine) Documentation Overview
No ratings yet
KVM (Kernel-Based Virtual Machine) Documentation Overview
5 pages
Oracle Database 10G: Managing Oracle On Linux For Dbas: D46590Gc11 Edition 1.1 April 2007 D49900
No ratings yet
Oracle Database 10G: Managing Oracle On Linux For Dbas: D46590Gc11 Edition 1.1 April 2007 D49900
8 pages
Lab 5a
No ratings yet
Lab 5a
6 pages
Book-Virtualization en
No ratings yet
Book-Virtualization en
394 pages
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager - Release Notes PDF
No ratings yet
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager - Release Notes PDF
48 pages
Virtualization Administration Guide-En-US
No ratings yet
Virtualization Administration Guide-En-US
191 pages
Abdul Ghafoor (21129)
No ratings yet
Abdul Ghafoor (21129)
29 pages
Lab5a Resh Final
No ratings yet
Lab5a Resh Final
7 pages
Guía de Virtualización OpenSuse en Color
No ratings yet
Guía de Virtualización OpenSuse en Color
365 pages
Lecture 11
No ratings yet
Lecture 11
27 pages
PRACTICA - Manage Virtual Machines With KVM
No ratings yet
PRACTICA - Manage Virtual Machines With KVM
39 pages
KVM Management
No ratings yet
KVM Management
5 pages
15.2 Using Virtualized Systems
No ratings yet
15.2 Using Virtualized Systems
3 pages
KVM and Cockpit
No ratings yet
KVM and Cockpit
18 pages
Installing and Working With CentOS 7 x64 and KVM
No ratings yet
Installing and Working With CentOS 7 x64 and KVM
7 pages
Chapter 1. First Steps
No ratings yet
Chapter 1. First Steps
47 pages
Book - Virt Color en
No ratings yet
Book - Virt Color en
371 pages
KVM PDF
No ratings yet
KVM PDF
37 pages
LINUX
No ratings yet
LINUX
57 pages
Introduction To Virtualization On Linux Using KVM: Pat Barron Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group
No ratings yet
Introduction To Virtualization On Linux Using KVM: Pat Barron Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group
27 pages
CentOS - Redhat - Install KVM Virtualization Software PDF
No ratings yet
CentOS - Redhat - Install KVM Virtualization Software PDF
10 pages
How To Migrate Oracle VM To Oracle Linux KVM
No ratings yet
How To Migrate Oracle VM To Oracle Linux KVM
3 pages
Virtualization Host Configuration and Guest Installation Guide/index
No ratings yet
Virtualization Host Configuration and Guest Installation Guide/index
37 pages
Linux Virtualization with KVM
50% (2)
Linux Virtualization with KVM
3 pages
Nstallation: Pre-Installation Checklist
No ratings yet
Nstallation: Pre-Installation Checklist
4 pages
Olvm 4.4 Release Note
No ratings yet
Olvm 4.4 Release Note
33 pages
Lecture 3
No ratings yet
Lecture 3
46 pages
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager - Books
No ratings yet
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager - Books
2 pages
What Is KVM
No ratings yet
What Is KVM
4 pages
Installing KVM
No ratings yet
Installing KVM
58 pages
Module 2 - Download, Install and Configure
No ratings yet
Module 2 - Download, Install and Configure
24 pages
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager Importing Virtual Machines From VMware VCenter
No ratings yet
Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager Importing Virtual Machines From VMware VCenter
13 pages
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 V2V Guide en US
No ratings yet
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.1 V2V Guide en US
63 pages
Oracle Linux Ds
No ratings yet
Oracle Linux Ds
4 pages
Installing Oracle Linux 6.7 On Virtualbox: Tutorial Target
No ratings yet
Installing Oracle Linux 6.7 On Virtualbox: Tutorial Target
13 pages
KVM Virtualization Overview
No ratings yet
KVM Virtualization Overview
6 pages
Choosing Between KVM and QEMU Hypervisors For Cloud Computing
No ratings yet
Choosing Between KVM and QEMU Hypervisors For Cloud Computing
4 pages
Redhat Virtualization
50% (2)
Redhat Virtualization
54 pages
Install KVM on Ubuntu 24.04 Guide
No ratings yet
Install KVM on Ubuntu 24.04 Guide
11 pages
2011 Forum Libvirt
No ratings yet
2011 Forum Libvirt
20 pages
KVM PDF
No ratings yet
KVM PDF
2 pages
Discussion:: English
No ratings yet
Discussion:: English
5 pages
Ol8 Relnotes8 3
No ratings yet
Ol8 Relnotes8 3
75 pages
Ubuntu Virtualization Guide
No ratings yet
Ubuntu Virtualization Guide
37 pages
On Translating Nietzche in Arabic
No ratings yet
On Translating Nietzche in Arabic
0 pages
Web3.py Patterns - Off-Chain Lookups
No ratings yet
Web3.py Patterns - Off-Chain Lookups
3 pages
ROSID Fan Fictions
No ratings yet
ROSID Fan Fictions
687 pages
Lajwanti Is The Title of A Short Story by Rajinder Singh Bedi Which Explores The Plight of Abducted Women During Theconflict
100% (1)
Lajwanti Is The Title of A Short Story by Rajinder Singh Bedi Which Explores The Plight of Abducted Women During Theconflict
2 pages
School Resolution 2021
No ratings yet
School Resolution 2021
1 page
Study Unit 2
No ratings yet
Study Unit 2
12 pages
Certificado Envío Escrito Judicial
No ratings yet
Certificado Envío Escrito Judicial
1 page
Medical Charting: Ethics & Bias
No ratings yet
Medical Charting: Ethics & Bias
28 pages
Guidelines For MBA Programme 2024-25
No ratings yet
Guidelines For MBA Programme 2024-25
9 pages
Is The Bible True PDF
100% (3)
Is The Bible True PDF
2 pages
Case Study For LMS Assignment
No ratings yet
Case Study For LMS Assignment
1 page
The Raising of Money (First Edition)
100% (1)
The Raising of Money (First Edition)
124 pages
The Taming of The Aristoi
No ratings yet
The Taming of The Aristoi
18 pages
Rome & Byzantium: A Student Guide
No ratings yet
Rome & Byzantium: A Student Guide
12 pages
A Call To Worship Psalm 100
100% (1)
A Call To Worship Psalm 100
4 pages
Somaliland National Professional Council
No ratings yet
Somaliland National Professional Council
5 pages
Why Nations Fail: Politics & Prosperity
No ratings yet
Why Nations Fail: Politics & Prosperity
2 pages
Odedele Review Update Corrections
No ratings yet
Odedele Review Update Corrections
55 pages
Danavir Goswami: ISKCON Gurus and Swamis
No ratings yet
Danavir Goswami: ISKCON Gurus and Swamis
2 pages
Breadwinner T
No ratings yet
Breadwinner T
5 pages
Andrew Manno - Toxic Masculinity, Casino Capitalism, and America's Favorite Card Game - The Poker Mindset-Palgrave Macmillan (2020)
No ratings yet
Andrew Manno - Toxic Masculinity, Casino Capitalism, and America's Favorite Card Game - The Poker Mindset-Palgrave Macmillan (2020)
215 pages
Shipping Alert: Peru Port Caution
No ratings yet
Shipping Alert: Peru Port Caution
4 pages
Penal, Remedial Statutes With CASES
No ratings yet
Penal, Remedial Statutes With CASES
11 pages
Notes On Hindu Marriage Act 1955
No ratings yet
Notes On Hindu Marriage Act 1955
10 pages
Businessfinance Powerpoint Presentation
No ratings yet
Businessfinance Powerpoint Presentation
16 pages
Strama Chapter 6 Strategic Issues
No ratings yet
Strama Chapter 6 Strategic Issues
7 pages
SLCIL Application Form
No ratings yet
SLCIL Application Form
1 page
Whole Foods Strategy for Growth
100% (1)
Whole Foods Strategy for Growth
9 pages
Free Will Vs Predestination
No ratings yet
Free Will Vs Predestination
4 pages
Lorenzo Shipping Corporation
No ratings yet
Lorenzo Shipping Corporation
6 pages

Oracle Linux KVM Guide

Uploaded by

Oracle Linux KVM Guide

Uploaded by

Oracle Linux

KVM User's Guide

Copyright © 2020, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates.

1 Deployment Overview: Oracle Linux KVM

2 Installation: Oracle Linux KVM

3 Libvirtd Service: Management Tasks

4 KVM Instances: Create and Manage

5 KVM Instances: Hardware Configuration

6 KVM Known Issues

Access to Oracle Support for Accessibility

Diversity and Inclusion

KVM Management: Deployment Options

Standalone KVM Hypervisor This KVM option provides a set of modules

Oracle Linux KVM environment, including

KVM Guest: Operating Systems

Linux Guest Operating Systems

Table 1-1 Linux Guest Operating Systems

Linux Operating System 32-bit Architecture 64-bit Architecture

Table 1-1 (Cont.) Linux Guest Operating Systems

Linux Operating System 32-bit Architecture 64-bit Architecture

Microsoft Windows Guest Operating Systems

Table 1-2 Microsoft Windows Supported Guest Operating Systems

Guest Operating System 64-bit 32-bit

Table 1-2 (Cont.) Microsoft Windows Supported Guest Operating Systems

Guest Operating System 64-bit 32-bit

VirtIO Driver Requirements

Oracle Solaris Guest Operating System

Table 1-3 Oracle Solaris Guest Operating System

Oracle Solaris ISO images and disk images are

KVM Host: System Requirements

CPU The host system CPU must have virtualization

Memory 3 GB reserved for the host is a good starting

reserved memory for the host operating

Storage The minimum disk space required for the host

KVM Virtualization Packages: Recommended

libvirt The libvirt package provides an interface to

sudo dnf module install -y virt

qemu-kvm The qemu-kvm package installs the QEMU

sudo dnf install qemu-kvm

qemu-img The qemu-img package install provides

sudo dnf install qemu-img

virt-install The virt-install package provides

sudo dnf install virt-install

virt-viewer The virt-viewer package provides a

sudo dnf install virt-viewer

For information about connecting to a KVM

Recommended Group Virtualization Packages

Group Package Description

virt The virt package group installs a collection

The command syntax to install a group package is as follows:

sudo dnf module install group-package-name

sudo dnf info group-package-name

Download: Virtualization Packages

KVM Repositories and Channels: Yum and ULN

Oracle Linux 9: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels

Table 1-4 Oracle Linux 9: Repository Files and Channel Names

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

Yum Repositories ULN Channels KVM Stack Virtualization Package

Oracle Linux 8: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels

Table 1-5 Oracle Linux 8: Repository Files and Channel Names

Yum Repository ULN Channel KVM Stack Package Description

Yum Repository ULN Channel KVM Stack Package Description

Oracle Linux 7: Yum Repositories and ULN Channels

Yum Repository ULN Channel KVM Stack Description

Yum Repository ULN Channel KVM Stack Description

Yum Repository ULN Channel KVM Stack Description

Yum Repository File ULN Channel Name Virtualization Packages

Important Usage Note:

Enable Yum Repositories

Oracle Linux 9: Enable Yum Repositories

What Do You Need?

sudo dnf install -y oraclelinux-release-el9

sudo dnf config-manager --enable ol9_kvm_utils

Oracle Linux 8: Enable Yum Repositories