Chapter 2: KVM as a Virtualization Solution

In this chapter, we will discuss virtualization as a concept and its implementation via libvirt, Quick Emulator (QEMU), and KVM. Realistically, if we want to explain how virtualization works and why KVM virtualization is such a fundamental part of 21st-century IT, we must start by explaining the technical background of multi-core CPUs and virtualization; and that's impossible to do without delving deep into the theory of CPUs and OSes so that we can get to what we're really after – what hypervisors are and how virtualization actually works.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Virtualization as a concept
• The internal workings of libvirt, QEMU, and KVM
• How all these communicate with each other to provide virtualization