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Kernel-based virtual machine, or KVM is an open-source virtualization infrastructure for the Linux kernel that allows it to act as a hypervisor. A hypervisor, or virtual machine monitor (VMM), is a hardware, software, or firmware layer that runs virtual machines on a physical host. It virtualizes the hardware, enabling one system to become many. There are two types of hypervisors: Type 1 runs directly on the physical host; and Type 2 runs on top of the operating system of the physical host. KVM is a Type 1 hypervisor as it manages the hardware resources directly rather than Type 2, which relies on the operating system device drivers.
Because KVM is part of the Linux kernel, it can use the hardware virtualization features that are available in Intel VT-x or AMD-V CPUs to create and manage virtual machines. A basic representation of the KVM architecture is shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1. KVM architecture
Several common KVM components include the following:
While KVM virtualization is essentially the same across Linux distributions, for example, running KVM on Red Hat looks and feels the same as running it on Ubuntu. However, how a business chooses to manage it can vary greatly. Unlike other commercial hypervisors that have their own management solution as part of the virtualization environment, such as VMware vCenter, KVM is open-source and has many management options available – both licensed and free. One of the more straightforward open-source implementations is oVirt.