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| Introduction to Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology | ||
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The Veritas Storage Foundation High Availability (SFHA) solutions can be used in Kernel-based Virtual Machine-based virtualization environments to provide advanced storage management, mission-critical clustering, and fail-over capabilities.
Linux Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is released by Red Hat with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6, Update 1, 2 as a full virtualization solution. KVM differs from other popular alternatives like Xen and VMware in terms of operation, performance and flexibility. KVM comes as a kernel module, with a set of user space utilities to create and manage virtual machines (VM).
Kernel-based Virtual Machine technology includes the following:
A full virtualization solution for Linux on AMD64 & Intel 64 hardware.
Each virtualized machine or "guest" is run as a single Linux process.
A hypervisor-independent virtualization API, "libvirt,"which provides a common generic and stable layer to securely manage virtualized guest on a host.
A command line tool "virsh" used to manage the virtualized guests.
This guide illustrates some reference configurations which can be customized to fit most implementations. An assumption is made that the reader understands the RHEL operating system, including its architecture, as well as how to configure and manage KVM virtual machines using the management software already provided by Red Hat. There is also an expectation that the user is familiar with the basic Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions software and is well versed with its administration and management utilities. Additional details regarding RHEL, KVM, and Veritas Storage Foundation and High Availability Solutions software are available in the Additional documentation section.
