Openstack / Installing kvm

This tutorial has been developed in an effort to assist OpenStack adopters more quickly migrate systems and applications into the cloud. This entry provides the foundation for KVM, the default HyperVisor in OpenStack with an overview on how to build custom images for use and deployment with KVM and ultimately deployable to OpenStack. If you are interested in finding out more, send us an email for access to our highly secure Cloud / OpenStack environment; where you can see a list of our growing library of supported images including Windows 8.X, MS Server 2012, Linux, Windows 7.

KVM only works if your CPU has hardware virtualization support compiled in or enabled.

**TIP– You may be required to have hardware virtualization support enabled in your BIOS so it may be a good idea to start off checking that you have enabled this prior to moving on..

To determine whether your CPU includes these features, run the following command (Ubuntu Specific):

egrep -c ‘(svm|vmx)’ /proc/cpuinfo

A 0 (Zero) indicates that your CPU doesn’t support hardware virtualization, while a 1 (one) or more indicates that it does. You may still have to enable hardware virtualization support in your computer’s BIOS, even if this command returns a 1 or more.

Use the following command to install KVM and supporting packages. Virt-Manager is a graphical application for managing your virtual machines — you can use the kvm command directly, but libvirt and Virt-Manager simplify the process.

sudo apt-get install qemu-kvm libvirt-bin bridge-utils virt-manager

Only the root user and users in the libvirtd group have permission to use KVM virtual machines. Run the following command to add your user account to the libvirtd group:

sudo adduser name libvirtd

After running this command, log out and log back in. Run this command after logging back in and you should see an empty list of virtual machines. This indicates that everything is working correctly.

virsh -c qemu:///system list

Now that you have KVM installed along with virt-manager, you are ready to build Images for OpenStack running KVM.

Thank You