Kernel Based Virtual Machine
KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of a loadable kernel module, kvm.ko, that provides the core virtualization infrastructure and a processor specific module, kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko. KVM also requires a modified QEMU although work is underway to get the required changes upstream.
Using KVM, one can run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux or Windows images. Each virtual machine has private virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc.
The kernel component of KVM is included in mainline Linux, as of 2.6.20.
KVM is open source software.
Download
Most Linux distros already have KVM kernel modules and userspace tools available through their packaging systems. This is the easiest and recommended way of using KVM.
If you want to use the latest version of KVM kernel modules and supporting userspace, you can download the latest version from http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=180599.
For the userspace components, you will find both qemu-kvm- and kvm- there. qemu-kvm is the stable branch of kvm, it's based off of qemu's point releases with the kvm extras on top; kvm-NN releases were previously known as the development releases, but are deprecated today and should not be used.
The kernel modules can be found in kvm-kmod-. A kernel version of 2.6.32.3 means that these are the same modules as those included with the 2.6.32.3 kernel from http://www.kernel.org
