From Fedora Project Wiki

(→‎Getting Started: Create link for a new page: magazine articles on virtualization)
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There is semi-regular coverage of Virtualization news in Fedora Weekly News, and more detailed status updates posted to the  fedora-virt Mailing List. For ease of reference, there is an [[Virtualization/News | archive of virtualization news]]
There is semi-regular coverage of Virtualization news in Fedora Weekly News, and more detailed status updates posted to the  fedora-virt Mailing List. For ease of reference, there is an [[Virtualization/News | archive of virtualization news]]


== Getting Started ==
== Getting started ==
{{Anchor|Getting Started}}


See [[getting started with virtualization]] for an excellent overview to using the virtualization capabilities in Fedora.
See [[getting started with virtualization]] for an excellent overview to using the virtualization capabilities in Fedora.
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If you wish to help triaging and fixing virtualization bugs, [[virtualization bugs]] is a good starting point.
If you wish to help triaging and fixing virtualization bugs, [[virtualization bugs]] is a good starting point.


== Mailing List & IRC ==
== Mailing list and IRC ==
{{Anchor|Mailing List & IRC}}


To get in touch with Fedora virtualization users and developers try the [https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/virt virt] mailing list or [irc://irc.oftc.net/#virt #virt on irc.oftc.net].
To get in touch with Fedora virtualization users and developers try the [https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/virt virt] mailing list or [irc://irc.oftc.net/#virt #virt on irc.oftc.net].
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== Relevant Packages ==
== Relevant Packages ==


Here's a catalogue of all the virtualization related packages in Fedora:
We have a page containing [[Virtualization packages|a catalogue of all the virtualization related packages]] in Fedora.


=== Core Virtualization ===
== oVirt ==


* {{package|kernel}} provides e.g. the kvm hypervisor core (kvm.ko), support for running as KVM and Xen guests etc.
[http://ovirt.org/ oVirt] is a Fedora based project which provides small host images and a web-based virtual machine management console. See [http://ovirt.org/ the website] to learn more and get involved.
* {{package|qemu}} is a CPU and device emulator; it also acts as the userspace component of KVM
* {{package|libvirt}} is a toolkit for interacting with the various virtualization technologies
* {{package|xen}} provides the xen hypervisor and userspace components
* {{package|xenner}} allows Xen guests to be run on KVM
* {{package|bochs}} PC BIOS for QEMU
* {{package|gpxe}} PXE boot ROMs for QEMU
* {{package|vgabios}} video BIOS for QEMU
* {{package|openbios}} sparc/ppc BIOS for QEMU
 
=== Tools ===
 
* {{package|virt-manager}} is a desktop user interface for managing virtual machines
* {{package|virt-viewer}} is used by virt-manager to connect to a virtual machine's graphical console
* {{package|python-virtinst}} provides a python API for installing virtual machines, and a bunch of useful utilitis like virt-install and virt-clone
* {{package|gnome-applet-vm}} is a GNOME applet for monitoring and controlling virtual machines
* {{package|virt-top}} is a top-like utilitiy for virtual machines
* {{package|libguestfs}} provides an API and tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
* <code>guestfish</code> lets you access and modify virtual machine disk images from the command line
* <code>libguestfs-tools</code> provides useful tools: [http://libguestfs.org/virt-df.1.html virt-df], [http://libguestfs.org/virt-cat.1.html virt-cat], [http://libguestfs.org/virt-edit.1.html virt-edit], [http://libguestfs.org/virt-ls.1.html virt-ls], [http://libguestfs.org/virt-inspector.1.html virt-inspector], [http://libguestfs.org/virt-rescue.1.html virt-rescue], [http://libguestfs.org/virt-win-reg.1.html virt-win-reg]
* <code>libguestfs-mount</code> ([http://libguestfs.org/guestmount.1.html guestmount]) lets you mount virtual machine disk images on the host
* {{package|collected|collectd-libvirt}} gathers statistics from within virtual machines
* {{package|appliance-tools}} enables the building of virtual appliance images
* {{package|cobbler}} is a network boot server that can be used to provision virtual machines
* {{package|perl-Sys-Virt-TCK}} is a functional test suite for libvirt
* {{package|virt-v2v}} is a tool for converting virtual machines to use the KVM hypervisor
 
=== Language Bindings ===
 
For {{package|libvirt}}
:* {{package|libvirt|libvirt-python}}
:* {{package|perl-Sys-Virt}}
:* {{package|ruby-libvirt}}
:* {{package|ocaml-libvirt}}
:* {{package|libvirt-java}}


For {{package|libguestfs}}
== Other virtualization information ==
:* {{package|libguestfs-java}}
:* {{package|ocaml-libguestfs}}
:* {{package|perl-libguestfs}}
:* {{package|python-libguestfs}}
:* {{package|ruby-libguestfs}}


=== Obsolete ===
You can find more virtualization information at the [[:Category:Virtualization|virtualization category page]] on this wiki.


* {{package|kvm}} used to provide the userspace component of the kvm hypervisor. It has since been replaced by [https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/packages/name/qemu qemu]
* {{package|etherboot}} has been replaced by {{package|gpxe}}
* {{package|virt-mem}} is going to be replaced by other virt tools
== oVirt ==
[http://ovirt.org/ oVirt] is a Fedora based project which provides small host images and a web-based virtual machine management console. See [http://ovirt.org/ the website] to learn more and get involved.


[[Category:Virtualization]]
[[Category:Virtualization]]

Revision as of 12:39, 9 April 2010

This page covers the efforts to integrate various virtualization technologies into Fedora.

Introduction

Virtualization allows one to run many guest virtual machines on top of a host operating system such as Fedora. What this means is that using one computer, you can mimic several individual computers and even run different operating systems in each of these virtual machines. There are many different virtualization technologies, including both free and open source software and proprietary offerings.

At time of writing, Fedora includes full support for the following virtualization technologies

  • KVM hosts support for fully virtualized guests. A hypervisor included in the Linux kernel which requires hardware virtualization support like Intel VT or AMD-V. KVM is currently the main focus of Fedora's virtualization efforts.
  • QEMU, a fast CPU emulator capable of virtualizing OS on both native and non-native architectures (such as allowing a PowerPC OS to run on x86_64).
  • Xen paravirtualized guests supported from install media. NB Xen Dom0 host support was dropped after Fedora 8, its re-introduction blocked on the inclusion of Xen Dom0 support in upstream Linux.
  • xenner is a utility which allows paravirtualized Xen guests to be run using KVM.

A number of 3rd parties provide add-on packages for other virtualization technologies. OpenVZ and Linux-VServer, both provide container based virutalization which can partition a single OS into several isolated zones -- a chroot with much stronger resource isolation. VirtualBox provides a full virtualization technology which does not require hardware virtualization extensions.

Anticipating this diversification of technology, since the days of Fedora Core 5, all core management applications have been built on top of the libvirt toolkit, which offers a technology independent API for managing virtual systems.

History

Fedora Core 5 was the first release to include Xen as a core integrated technology. The new Linux native virtualiation, KVM, was introduced to Fedora 7. For a more detailed account of virtualization progress in Fedora, consult the Virtualization History page.

News

There is semi-regular coverage of Virtualization news in Fedora Weekly News, and more detailed status updates posted to the fedora-virt Mailing List. For ease of reference, there is an archive of virtualization news

Getting started

See getting started with virtualization for an excellent overview to using the virtualization capabilities in Fedora.

A few magazine articles on virtualization have introductory material as well.

Bugs

See How to debug Virtualization problems for some tips on reporting virtualization bugs to bugzilla.

If you wish to help triaging and fixing virtualization bugs, virtualization bugs is a good starting point.

Mailing list and IRC

To get in touch with Fedora virtualization users and developers try the virt mailing list or #virt on irc.oftc.net.

Relevant Packages

We have a page containing a catalogue of all the virtualization related packages in Fedora.

oVirt

oVirt is a Fedora based project which provides small host images and a web-based virtual machine management console. See the website to learn more and get involved.

Other virtualization information

You can find more virtualization information at the virtualization category page on this wiki.

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