How To Install KVM on Rocky Linux 8 using Command Line Method

In our previous blog post we have seen How to Install Rocky Linux 8 and now in this blog post let us see how To Install KVM on Rocky Linux 8 using Command Line Method.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is an open source virtualization technology built into Linux®. Specifically, KVM lets you turn Linux into a hypervisor that allows a host machine to run multiple, isolated virtual environments called guests or virtual machines (VMs).

KVM is part of Linux. If you’ve got Linux 2.6.20 or newer, you’ve got KVM. KVM was first announced in 2006 and merged into the mainline Linux kernel version a year later. Because KVM is part of existing Linux code, it immediately benefits from every new Linux feature, fix, and advancement without additional engineering

Install and Configure KVM on Rocky Linux 8

Before you start the installation, ensure that your machine has hardware virtualization and if you are installing on a virtual machine ensure that nested virtualization is enabled. If you need help on getting the Rocky Linux 8 installed please refer our previous blogs

How to Install Rocky Linux 8 – Stepwise with Screenshots

Step 1: Check if hardware or nested virtualization is enabled

Check if hardware virtualization is enable using command below.

cat /proc/cpuinfo | egrep "vmx|svm"

If using VM running in virtual-box use command below to enable nested virtualization.

egrep --color -i "svm|vmx" /proc/cpuinfo

If the command below has no output go a head and enable with help of commands below. Make sure you shutdown of the VM.

List all VMS installed in Virtualbox.

Vboxmanage list vms

Output

"rocky-linuxu-8" {8c977920-b8e7-4edb-8e0d-26a453facb40}

Enable nested virtualization to rocky Linux 8

vboxmanage modifyvm "rocky-linux-8" --nested-hw-virt on

Verify;

egrep --color -i "svm|vmx" /proc/cpuinfo

output:



flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq monitor vmx ssse3 cx16 pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt aes xsave avx rdrand hypervisor lahf_lm pti tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority vpid fsgsbase md_clear flush_l1d

At this point our environment is good to install KVM on Rocky Linux 8. Power on the VM to continue to installation stage

Step 2: Install KVM Virtualization software on Rock Linux-8

Run command bellow to install KVM.

sudo dnf -y install epel-release

sudo dnf install @virt virt-top libguestfs-tools virt-install bridge-utils libvirt-devel

Screen output;

...

Transaction Summary
====================================================================================
Install  28 Packages
Total download size: 15 M
Installed size: 55 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y

Press Y and Continue

Start and enable libvirtd service:

sudo systemctl enable  --now libvirtd

Confirm that necessary kernel modules are loaded.

$ sudo lsmod | grep kvm
kvm_intel             303104  0
kvm                   798720  1 kvm_intel
irqbypass              16384  1 kvm

Step 3: Configuring KVM Virtualization on Rocky Linux 8

Next we have to create a directory where we will upload our ISO files for installation of VMs. At this part we are also going to configure storage domains where VM will be installed.

sudo mkdir -p /kvm/images/iso

Create virtual storage.

$ sudo qemu-img create -f qcow2 /var/lib/libvirt/images/linuxmint.qcow2 20G

Allow non-root user to run KVM commands. Run commands below as a non root user.

Add libvirtd group to Rocky Linux 8 followed by adding user to the new group

sudo groupadd --system libvirt

sudo usermod -a -G libvirt $(whoami)

Step 4: Install Virtual Machine on KVM in Rocky Linux 8

Run command below to install VM on KVM using CLI.

sudo virt-install 

--virt-type kvm 

--name Linuxmint 

--ram 2024 

--disk /var/lib/libvirt/images/Linuxmint 

--network network=default 

--graphics vnc,listen=0.0.0.0 

--noautoconsole 

--os-type=linux 

--os-variant=generic –cdrom=/kvm/iso/linuxmint-20.1-cinnamon-64bit.iso

Use virsh command to confirm that VM has started.

$ sudo virsh list --all
#output
ID       Name            State
--------------------------------
1        Linuxmint       Running

You view and manage VM on GUI with help of Virt-Manger

Step 5: Install Virt-Manager on Rocky Linux 8 (Optional)

$ sudo dnf install virt-manager