Virtual machines (VMs) are computer systems-within-computers that provide strong isolation from their host operating system and run their own operating system, providing upgrades or patches without affecting other virtual machines on the host computer.

KVM is an established, zero-cost hypervisor which runs natively on Linux and offers real-time priority for virtual machines (VMs). In this guide we’ll show how to set it up on an Ubuntu server.

Installation

Virtualization is the practice of creating a software-based copy of an object which would normally exist physically. This technique can be beneficial in numerous ways, including testing new systems without needing dedicated hardware and separating different tools so they can run in parallel. Depending on your hosting provider, virtualization may even reduce physical resources needed by an application.

Launching a virtual machine (VM) in Ubuntu is simple with KVM, an open source virtualisation technology. KVM allows for comprehensive virtualisation capabilities; each VM can have its own virtual hardware environment so as to provide complete independence from its host computer’s software environment.

Start by opening VirtualBox and choosing to create a new virtual machine. When the new window appears, click on the CD icon on the left column and locate your Ubuntu Desktop.iso file before pressing Start for booting the VM.

Once you’ve selected an installation type, it will be necessary to select a name and password for your Ubuntu server virtual machine. After creating an account with them, enter basic configuration commands like PING or INFCONFIGURATION; though these latter options no longer come installed by default on newer Ubuntu installs). After your virtual server has been set up successfully reboot it for final configurations to take effect.

After rebooting, your Ubuntu server VM should allow you to log in using the username and password that were entered during installation. If this does not happen, it could be because ssh service has not yet been enabled; to solve this, add a public key into /.ssh/authorized_keys file so your machine can authenticate with it against VM.

Once logged in, you can begin adding additional functionality to your Ubuntu server virtual machine host such as installing web apps. Furthermore, using ssh you can remotely access and execute Linux commands directly on it – an especially helpful method if you wish to test out performance of your server or troubleshoot issues.

Configuration

Hyper-V can offer your Ubuntu server an effective virtualization platform, offering flexible virtual machines (VMs) for all of your applications’ needs. Combine its security with Ubuntu Server’s stability for an ideal foundation for virtualized server environments.

To use Ubuntu on a Hyper-V host, you’ll require a computer with sufficient resources to run virtual machines (VMs). Furthermore, a network connection – either wired or wireless – must also exist between your laptop, desktop Windows computer, Mac machine, or dedicated server is optimal.

Once you’ve installed all of the required software, the next step in configuring virtual machines (VMs) should be easy. One way is through using virt-manager – an intuitive tool for creating and managing VMs with an easy wizard that makes starting, stopping and modifying them simple; alternatively you could use command line for similar tasks.

First step of configuring virt-manager is creating a virtual host – this server will host your virtual machines (VMs). There are multiple methods for doing so; such as logging in as root with appropriate permission and running this command:

Create a virtual machine on your host system by following this process. After entering any necessary information about its CPU, memory and storage requirements as well as running/shut off status of VM you will be asked to name and configure it before clicking “OK.” Once finished simply close out of this screen to complete creation process.

To access your VM via SSH, open up the command line and type:

Choose a different virtual machine type from the drop-down menu on the left; Generation 1 VMs offer basic virtual hardware capabilities and are suitable for legacy operating systems; Generation 2 VMs provide more advanced performance and functionality benefits.

If you prefer using a GUI interface, virt-install can install guests from ISO images with ease, then open them using virt-manager and view their main window, which includes a representation of virtual screen. It will also show a list of guests (running or shut down), with clickable links that take you directly into them so you can view them more directly.

Networking

As soon as your virtual machine (VM) is connected to the host network, creating a network bridge will ensure it remains accessible and can interact with devices on it as though it were physical machine. You do this by adding your host computer’s ethernet NIC into this bridge which then forwards L2 packets between interfaces allowing your VM access the host network as if it were one separate physical machine.

Once the bridge has been created, you can add a network adapter and IP address to a virtual machine (VM), and then log in using its credentials. Depending on your security settings, you may also wish to add an SSH key in order to further protect it.

Once your VM is connected to your local network, use VNC client to access it and navigate through Ubuntu installer to set it up and running. For any tweaking you may require you can use virt-manager’s GUI user interface; alternatively you can also use command line start/stop your virtual machines.

Virt-manager provides more than just a user-friendly graphical user interface for virtual machine management; it also features an interactive command-line interface (CLI) for performing commonly performed tasks, like creating new virtual machines (VMs) and configuring them accordingly. The CLI features useful tools like virt-install and virt-clone.

If you have a Linux virtual machine (VM), VNC client accessing localhost:5999 will provide access. When connecting, you will be asked for both username and password information; similarly, using the GUI you can create new VMs, configure their settings, and connect directly.

VM stands for virtual machine. A VM emulates physical hardware with software-based implementation that runs any OS or application that you need, offering the same features but in an isolated virtual hardware configuration. They are used to test software changes before being deployed into production environments – speeding up deployment or fixing bugs faster, making troubleshooting much simpler, and providing much simpler troubleshooting solutions to application-related problems.

Storage

When creating a virtual machine in VirtualBox, you have the option of selecting an ISO file as its disk image for Ubuntu OS installation. Once complete, VirtualBox will eject this ISO automatically once installation has completed and reboots afterwards so you can install VirtualBox Guest Additions which provide drivers and utilities to enhance usability and performance of the VM.

Your options for storage include GlusterFS, iSCSI, multipath or vHBA-based solutions. GlusterFS is an open source SAN solution and iSCSI is an enterprise-level block device management protocol; multipath allows multiple paths to a logical disk; while vHBA allows connecting physical host’s disk devices directly with virtual machines via conversion into an LVM libvirt-specific NVME format (LVM).

The auth> sub-element appears in both pool> and disk> XML elements as well as source> elements in RBD/iSCSI pool sources. The auth> field specifies where to locate the pool source such as an RBD server. Furthermore, auth_wwnn>, parent_wwnn and parent_fabric_wwnn attributes provide various levels of assurance that when rebooting occurs the same NPIV LUN will continue being utilized by its adapter.

Along with creating your pool in XML, you can also configure it using a command-line interface or use tools such as the qemu-img command to create storage volumes and add them directly into the pool.

When using a disk-based storage pool, your virtual machines (VMs) have full write access to an entire disk or block device, giving them the freedom to partition or create LVM groups on it as needed; this may cause system errors on the host host server. To avoid this scenario and prevent system errors on both hosts and guests alike, use file-based pools instead.

File-based storage pools allow you to specify storage volumes as an.vdi file. While its location, size, and format may be specified freely, any virtual machine (VM) using it must first be shut down prior to deleting its file from the host system or its XML definition will need to be deleted separately.