KVM Virtualization Packages

To run Oracle Linux KVM on a host, you must install the Oracle Linux KVM virtualization packages. Several package groups are available to match different needs and use cases.

For installation instructions, see KVM Host: Installation and Configuration.

Recommended Virtualization Packages

The following individual packages are recommended for installation on virtualization hosts.

Package Description

libvirt

Provides an interface to KVM, and the libvirt daemons for managing guest VMs.

The Cockpit web console also provides a graphical interface that interacts with KVM and libvirt to set up and configure VMs on a system. See Oracle Linux: Using the Cockpit Web Console for more information.

qemu-kvm Installs the QEMU emulator that performs hardware virtualization so that guests can access host CPU and other resources.

qemu-img

Provides functionality that lets you create, convert, and change images offline. It works with all QEMU image formats.

Never use qemu-img to change images in use by a running virtual machine or any other process. Doing so might destroy the image.

virt-install Provides command line utilities for creating and provisioning guest VMs.

virt-viewer

Provides a graphical utility that can be loaded into a desktop environment to access the graphical console of a guest VM.

For information about connecting to a KVM graphical interface using virt-viewer, see the virt-viewer(1) manual page.

Recommended Virtualization Package Groups

Virtualization packages can also be installed from package groups. Group packages contain the minimum set of packages that are required for a virtualization host.

Package Group Description

"Virtualization Hypervisor" Contains the minimum set of packages that are required for a virtualization host.

"Virtualization Tools" Contains tools for managing virtual images offline.

"Virtualization Host" Not available for the aarch64 platform. Contains "Virtualization Hypervisor" and "Virtualization Tools"

"Virtualization Client" Available for installation on GUI environment Oracle Linux systems.

Downloading Virtualization Packages

Virtualization packages are available for download from the Oracle Linux yum server or from the Unbreakable Linux Network (ULN). The virtualization packages are also available from various upstream projects, including: