Install KVM Hypervisor on CentOS 7.x and RHEL 7.x

KVM is an open source hardware virtualization software through which we can create and run multiple Linux based and windows based virtual machines simultaneously. KVM is known as Kernel based Virtual Machine because when we install KVM package then KVM module is loaded into the current kernel and turns our Linux machine into a hypervisor.

In this post first we will demonstrate how we can install KVM hypervisor on CentOS 7.x and RHEL 7.x and then we will try to install virtual machines.

Before proceeding KVM installation, let’s check whether your system’s CPU supports Hardware Virtualization.

Run the beneath command from the console.

[root@linuxtechi ~]# grep -E '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

We should get the word either vmx or svm in the output, otherwise CPU doesn’t support virtualization.

Step:1 Install KVM and its associate packages

Run the following yum command to install KVM and its associated packages.

[root@linuxtechi ~]# yum install qemu-kvm qemu-img virt-manager libvirt libvirt-python libvirt-client virt-install virt-viewer bridge-utils

Start and enable the libvirtd service

[root@linuxtechi ~]# systemctl start libvirtd
[root@linuxtechi ~]# systemctl enable libvirtd

Run the beneath command to check whether KVM module is loaded or not

[root@linuxtechi ~]# lsmod | grep kvm
kvm_intel             162153  0
kvm                   525409  1 kvm_intel
[root@linuxtechi ~]#