KernelTrap: KVM Paravirtualization

“A new feature that will first be availble in the upcoming
2.6.20 kernel is KVM, a Kernel-based Virtual Machine. The project’s
webpage describes KVM as, ‘a full virtualization solution for Linux
on x86 hardware. It consists of a loadable kernel module (kvm.ko)
and a userspace component. 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.’ The project’s FAQ explains that the
functionality requires ‘an x86 machine running a recent Linux
kernel on an Intel processor with VT (virtualization technology)
extensions, or an AMD processor with SVM extensions (also called
AMD-V).’ The userland aspect of KVM is a slighlty modified version
of qemu, used to instantiate the virtual machine…”

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