KVM

KVM is the Linux kernel's native virtualization.

Install it

SUSE 11

This has been tested on SLES 11 SP 2, SUSE Linux 11.2, 11.3 and 11.4.

Networking

You will have to set up networking for your virtual machines. Otherwise they won't start. So, on your host machine:

• start networking configuration

yast2 lan

• delete the configuration of your network card. We call it eth0 in this example.
• create an additional network device, a bridge, using yast2. Assign it your default IP address. Configure it to bridge network traffic for eth0.
• restart networking

/etc/init.d/network restart

KVM Software

• install the KVM software like this:

# yast -i kvm virt-manager
# /etc/init.d/libvirtd start
# chkconfig libvirtd on
# virt-manager

• click on new, continue as adviced

backup

# virsh list --all
# cp -r /var/lib/xen/images/virtual_machine /target

TroubleShooting

The hypervisor is not running

Now you try to create a new virtual machine. When you use Paravirtualization, you get the error message "The hypervisor is not running.". When you try to use "Full virtualization", you get an error

The operating system does not support full virtualization
The CPUs support full virtualization, but it is disabled in the BIOS

To resolve this,

• create a new connection, type "QEMU/KVM"
• reboot your computer
• start virt-manager

internal error No <source> 'bridge' attribute specified

Symptom: When starting a virtual machine you get an error

internal error No <source> 'bridge' attribute specified with <interface type='bridge'/>

To resolve this

• you disable networking

hypervisor not running

Symptom: When creating a new virtual machine you get an error message

Error launching manager: A hypervisor is not running.  For kvm, load the kvm kernel modules.  If you want to run xen, reboot and load the xen kernel.

Solution:

• load the kvm kernel modules like this:

modprobe kvm-intel

• restart virt-manager