Fedora Bible 2010 Edition: Featuring Fedora Linux 12

Chapter 25. Setting Up Virtual Servers

In This Chapter

• Preparing for virtualization

• Creating virtual guests

• Managing virtual guests

• Working with virtualization commands

The future of virtualization for Fedora can be spelled in three letters: KVM. The Kernel Virtualization Module (KVM) project drives development of a range of virtualization features that have made their way into Fedora. Instead of requiring a special kernel or proprietary software, as other virtualization solutions do, KVM is built right into the standard kernel that comes with Fedora.

Although virtualization features such as Xen are being phased out, some of the same tools you may have used in earlier versions of Fedora can still be used, but with KVM on the back end. For example, you can still create and manage virtual guests with the Virtual Machine Manager (virt-manager) GUI and launch and manage guests using QEMU tools.

Using virtualization, you can have multiple operating systems running on your Fedora system. Those systems can be other Linux systems, Windows systems, or simply multiple instances of Fedora . As demands for those guests change over time, you can configure them to migrate to different machines on-the-fly, so they can instantly start running on other machines.

There are both GUI and command-line tools to create your virtual guests. You can create virtual guests by launching installers for your Linux system of choice and clicking through the installs or you can use kickstart files to fully automate the ...