This guide explans how you can install and use KVM for creating and running virtual machines on an Ubuntu 9.10 server. I will show how to create image-based virtual machines and also virtual machines that use a logical volume (LVM). KVM is short for Kernel-based Virtual Machine and makes use of hardware virtualization, i.e., you need a CPU that supports hardware virtualization, e.g. Intel VT or AMD-V. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!
Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) has reached release 0.8 which includes a new graphical wizards for cloning disk images adding devices to existing VMs, and a new system tray icon. Virtual Machine Manager is a desktop app for managing virtual machines. It summarises running VMs and their performance and resource utilisation statistics. The enhancements that come with virt-manager 0.8.0 include a new “Clone VM” wizard, an improved user interface that includes an overhaul of the main view and a system tray icon for easier VM access and control. Also new is a wizard for adding serial, parallel and video devices to existing VMs, CPU pinning support, the ability to view and change VM security settings and “many bug fixes and improvements”.
KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of a loadable kernel module, kvm.ko, that provides the core virtualization infrastructure and a processor specific module, kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko. KVM also requires a modified QEMU although work is underway to get the required changes upstream.