Virtualization components

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The virtual server management as described in this document is based on the following virtualization components.

Linux™ kernel including the kvm kernel module (KVM)
Provides the core virtualization infrastructure to run multiple virtual servers on a Linux host.
QEMU
User space component that implements virtual servers on the host using KVM functionality.
libvirt
Provides a toolkit for the virtual server management:
  • The XML format is used to configure virtual servers.
  • The virsh command-line interface is used to operate virtual servers and devices.
Figure 1 shows the virtual server management tasks using the XML format and the virsh command-line interface.
Figure 1. Virtual server administrator tasks using XML format and the virsh command-line interface

This graphic shows the virtual server administrator tasks: 1. Device setup on the host. 2. Configuration using XML format including the prepared device and network interface names. 3. Operation using virsh: Create a persistent virtual server definition. 4. Operation using virsh: Manage the virtual server life cycle.