Changes/Virt 64bit ARM on x86

64bit ARM emulation on x86

Summary

Allow running 64bit ARM (AArch64) VMs on x86 hosts using standard the standard qemu and libvirt stack, as well as end user tools like virt-manager and virt-install.

Owner

• Name: Cole Robinson
• Email: crobinso@redhat.com
• Release notes owner:

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 21
• Last updated: 2014-03-26

Detailed Description

Work is quickly under way in upstream qemu to enable full AArch64 system emulation with qemu-system-aarch64. This 'Change' will track landing that work in Fedora 21, in addition to the higher level bits in libvirt and virt-manager to ensure it's all usable with standard tools.

To be clear, this stuff is still in progress in upstream qemu and I'm not really involved with the development, so it's very much 'wait and see' to determine if the actual emulation bits will make it in time for Fedora 21.

Benefit to Fedora

• Developers interested in trying AArch64 can now use virt-manager/libvirt to manage ARM VMs via qemu-system-aarch64.
• Fedora QA can use standard tools to test any future Fedora AArch64 work.

Scope

• Proposal owners:

1. Wait and see if the qemu bits will land in time for Fedora 21.
2. Once that takes shape, figure out the remaining work to get libvirt/virt-manager to support it (shouldn't be anything too drastic)
3. Document it all

Upgrade/compatibility impact

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

How To Test

• https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Testcase_Virt_AArch64_on_x86
• https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/AArch64/Install_with_QEMU

User Experience

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Dependencies

N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Contingency Plan

• Contingency mechanism: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Contingency deadline: N/A (not a System Wide Change)
• Blocks release? N/A (not a System Wide Change)

Documentation

TODO

Release Notes

AArch64 VMs can now be run on x86 hosts using standard libvirt tools like virsh, virt-manager, and virt-install.