KVM hypervisor: a beginners’ guide

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is the leading open source virtualisation technology for Linux. It installs natively on all Linux distributions and turns underlying physical servers into hypervisors so that they can host multiple, isolated virtual machines (VMs). KVM comes with no licenses, type-1 hypervisor capabilities and a variety of performance extensions which makes it an ideal candidate for virtualisation and cloud infrastructure implementation. But what are the benefits of KVM hypervisor and how do you get started?

In the following blog, we present the beginner’s guide to KVM on Ubuntu.

What is KVM hypervisor?

KVM hypervisor enables full virtualisation capabilities. It provides each VM with all typical services of the physical system, including virtual BIOS (basic input/output system) and virtual hardware, such as processor, memory, storage, network cards, etc. As a result, every VM completely simulates a physical machine.

KVM is available as a Linux kernel module. It plugs directly into the kernel’s code and allows it to function as a hypervisor. Every VM runs as a separate Linux process under systemd, with dedicated virtual hardware resources attached.  KVM can only be used on a processor with hardware virtualisation extensions, such as Intel-VT or AMD-V.

KVM hypervisor benefits

The main benefit of the KVM hypervisor is its native availability on Linux. Since KVM is part of Linux, it installs natively, enabling straightforward user experience and smooth integration. But KVM brings more benefits compared to other virtualisation technologies. Those include:

• Performance – One of the main drawbacks of traditional virtualisation technologies is performance degradation compared to physical machines. Since KVM is the type-1 hypervisor, it outperforms all type-2 hypervisors, ensuring near-metal performance. With KVM hypervisor VMs boot fast and achieve desired performance results.
• Scalability – As a Linux kernel module, the KVM hypervisor automatically scales to respond to heavy loads once the number of VMs increases. The KVM hypervisor also enables clustering for thousands of nodes, laying the foundations for cloud infrastructure implementation.
• Security – Since KVM is part of the Linux kernel source code, it benefits from the world’s biggest open source community collaboration, rigorous development and testing process as well as continuous security patching.
• Maturity – KVM was first created in 2006 and has continued to be actively developed since then. It is a 15-year old project, presenting a high level of maturity. More than 1,000 developers around the world have contributed to KVM code.
• Cost-efficiency – Last but not least, the cost is a driving factor for many organisations. Since KVM is open source and available as a Linux kernel module, it comes at zero cost out of the box. Businesses can optionally subscribe to various commercial programmes, such as UA-I (Ubuntu Advantage for Infrastructure) to receive enterprise support for their KVM-based virtualisation or cloud infrastructure.

How to install KVM on Ubuntu 20.04

In the following section, we present how to install KVM on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS in three simple steps.

Step 1: Install required packages

On your Ubuntu 20.04 execute the following command to install the required packages:

$ sudo apt -y install bridge-utils cpu-checker libvirt-clients libvirt-daemon qemu qemu-kvm

Step 2: Check virtualisation capabilities

Execute the following command to make sure your processor supports virtualisation capabilities:

$ kvm-ok

The output of this command is pretty straightforward and clearly indicates whether KVM can be used or not:

INFO: /dev/kvm exists
KVM acceleration can be used

Step 3: Launch a VM

In order to launch your first Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS instance on KVM execute the following command:

$ sudo virt-install --name ubuntu-guest --os-variant ubuntu20.04 --vcpus 2 --ram 2048 --location http://ftp.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/focal/main/installer-amd64/ --network bridge=virbr0,model=virtio --graphics none --extra-args='console=ttyS0,115200n8 serial'

This opens an interactive console that you can use to manually install the Ubuntu guest.

Virtualisation management software

In order to facilitate the management of VMs and provide a graphical user interface various types of management software are available for KVM. In the following section, we briefly present the most popular ones.

Virtual Machine Manager

Virtual Machine Manager is a desktop user interface for managing KVM VMs. It presents a summary view of running guest instances, their live performance and resource utilisation statistics. Virtual Machine Manager comes with wizards that enable the creation of new VMs and the configuration of their resource allocation and virtual hardware.

Multipass

Multipass is the recommended method to create Ubuntu VMs on workstations. It is designed for developers who want to quickly set up a fresh Ubuntu environment with just a single command. Multipass installs on Linux, Windows and macOS, and supports leading hypervisors, including KVM.

OpenStack

OpenStack is the most popular open source cloud computing platform that enables the management of distributed compute, network and storage resources in the data centre. It wraps around the KVM hypervisor providing virtualisation capabilities and enables fully automated provisioning of VMs through a self-service portal.

Next steps

Now, once you’ve learned what KVM hypervisor is and how to use it on Ubuntu, you may be wondering what next steps you should take. Here are some useful links that might help you on this journey.

Refer to Ubuntu Server documentation for more advanced scenarios and additional information about the different types of management software.

Learn more about OpenStack as the world’s leading open source software for virtualisation management and cloud infrastructure implementation.