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Oracle Linux KVM provides a set of modules that enable the Oracle Linux kernels (the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel and Red Hat Compatible Kernel) to be used as a hypervisor. Oracle Linux KVM 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.
Oracle Linux KVM runs in the host kernel space and the VMs running on Oracle Linux KVM hosts can run as individual QEMU processes in user space. QEMU stands for quick emulator, which enables KVM to become a complete hypervisor by emulating the hardware for VMs such as CPU, memory, network, and disk devices. Oracle Linux KVM allows QEMU to run code in the VM directly on the host CPU, thus allowing the VM’s operating system direct access to the host’s resources without modification.
The libvirt daemon runs as a service on Oracle Linux KVM hosts and provides an application programming interface (API) for managing various hypervisors, including Oracle Linux KVM. VDSM uses libvirt to manage the complete life cycle of virtual machines and their virtual devices on the host, and to collect statistics about them.
A representation of the Oracle Linux KVM architecture is shown in Figure 3.
Server virtualization with Oracle Linux KVM is supported on Intel VT, AMD-V, or ARM servers that are certified for Oracle Linux 8 or 9 with the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel.[1] Users can configure KVM from a base Oracle Linux installation. Oracle Linux KVM includes support for Intel VT-x and VT-d hardware extensions along with Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) for AMD-V enabled processors.