Virtualization with QEMU, KVM, and libvirt
Fedora Linux comes with native support for virtualization extensions. This support is provided by Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) and is available as a kernel module. QEMU/KVM in combination with the Libvirt management toolkit is the standard virtualization method in Fedora Linux.
Quick Emulator (QEMU) is a full system emulator that works together with KVM and allows you to create virtual machines with hardware and peripherals.
Finally, libvirt is the API layer and allows you to manage the infrastructure – that is, create and run virtual machines. It includes a local virtual network that enables secure communication between virtual guest systems with each other and with the host. libvirt’s default configuration also allows NAT access to the public network, which is useful for virtual machines or containers that don’t have direct access to the public interface.
The following figure illustrates the QEMU/KVM architecture...
