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Kernel Virtual Machine

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.

Using KVM, one can run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux or Windows images. Each virtual machine has private virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc.

KVM is open source software. The kernel component of KVM is included in mainline Linux, as of 2.6.20. The userspace component of KVM is included in mainline QEMU, as of 1.3.

Blogs from people active in KVM-related virtualization development are syndicated at http://planet.virt-tools.org/

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Featured Article

KVM unit tests

Introduction

kvm-unit-tests is a project as old as KVM. As its name suggests, it's purpose is to provide unit tests for KVM. The unit tests are tiny guest operating systems that generally execute only tens of lines of C and assembler test code in order to obtain its PASS/FAIL result. Unit tests provide KVM and virtual hardware functional testing by targeting the features through minimal implementations of their use per the hardware specification. The simplicity of unit tests make them easy to verify they are correct, easy to maintain, and easy to use in timing measurements. Unit tests are also often used for quick and dirty bug reproducers. The reproducers may then be kept as regression tests. It's strongly encouraged that patches implementing new KVM features are submitted with accompanying unit tests.

While a single unit test is focused on a single feature, all unit tests share the minimal system initialization and setup code. There are also several functions made shareable across all unit tests, comprising a unit test API. The setup code and API implementation are briefly described in the next section, "Framework". We then describe testdevs in the "Testdevs" section, which are extensions to KVM's userspace that provide special support for unit tests. Section "API" lists the subsystems, e.g. MMU, SMP, that the API covers, along with a few descriptions of what the API supports. It specifically avoids listing any actual function declarations though, as those may change (use the source, Luke!). The "Running tests" section gives all the details necessary to build and run tests, and section "Adding a test" provides an example of adding a test. Finally, section "Contributing" explains where and how to submit patches.

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