KVM

KVM is the Linux kernel's native virtualization.

Install it

SUSE 11.3

Networking

You want networking for your virtual machines, so

• 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

• click on new, continue as adviced

KVM Software

• install the KVM software like this:

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

SUSE 11.2

• Make sure you have a modern computer and "virtualization technology" switched on in your BIOS
• open a console and enter

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

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

create a new virtual machine. You get an error

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

To resolve this

• you disable networking

Now it works - you can create a virtual machine without networking.

Network

If you want networking in your virtual machines, you will have to set up bridged networking on your host computer first. So:

• 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

• restart the hypervisor

/etc/init.d/libvirtd restart

• create a new virtual machine with networking

more information

brctl show
brctl addbr br0
brctl addif br0 eth0
route del -net 192.168.0.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 eth0

Reference: http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/docs/DOC-19071

backup

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