Installing and Configuring Kernel Virtual Machines (KVM)

KVM Stands for Kernel Virtual Machine.  KVM is a virtualization technology built into the Linux Kernel based on QEMU (Quick Emulator).  QEMU allows for virtualizing hardware, all the way from a complete hardware stack to a single device.  KVM basically takes QEMU and allows it to use hardware extensions to achieve better performance.

In this article I will outline the steps it takes to get a two node KVM farm running using Open Filer for your storage and Fedora Core 14 for your KVM hosts.  By the end of this tutorial you should know how to install and configure KVM, create a virtual machine and perform a live migration between two hosts.

Throughout these instructions I will use gedit for the text editor.  you can of course use any text editor you are comfortable with.  For example, if you are doing this through SSH you will want to use vi or nano.

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