What Guest Systems, Processor Support, and Features Does KVM Offer?

Updated

KVM runs unmodified Linux or Windows guest images on x86 hardware that includes virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V), and it provides migration plus a set of management tools around the core hypervisor. The linux-kvm.org wiki organizes these topics into separate pages — Guest Support Status, Processor support, KVM Features, Migration, and Management Tools — so the authoritative details live there rather than on the main page.

Guest support

The main page states directly that with KVM you can run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux or Windows images, each with private virtualized hardware such as a network card, disk, and graphics adapter. For the per-guest breakdown — which specific distributions and Windows versions are known to work, and at what level of completeness — the wiki points to its Guest Support Status page. That page is the place to check before committing to a particular guest OS, since the main page only gives the general Linux/Windows statement.

Processor support

KVM is described as a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). Architecturally it consists of:

  • kvm.ko — the loadable kernel module providing the core virtualization infrastructure
  • kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko — the processor-specific module

The wiki's Processor support article covers supported processor platforms in more depth. Practical implication: the host CPU must expose VT or AMD-V, and the matching vendor module must be loadable; without those, the core module alone is not enough.

Features and migration

The wiki maintains a KVM Features page and a separate Migration page. Migration is listed as a first-class topic in the site's navigation alongside Status and Features, which reflects that moving a running guest between hosts is treated as a core capability rather than an add-on. The Features page is where the individual capabilities are enumerated; check it against your requirements rather than assuming parity with another hypervisor.

Management tools

A Management Tools page lists the tooling available for managing KVM hosts and guests. This matters because KVM itself is the kernel-level virtualization layer — the main page frames the project as kernel module plus processor module, with the userspace component living in mainline QEMU (included since QEMU 1.3). Management and orchestration sit on top of that stack, so the tools page is the right starting point when choosing how you will operate guests day to day.

Project status and where to go next

The kernel component of KVM has been in mainline Linux since 2.6.20, and KVM is open source software. The wiki also links development resources: mailing lists/IRC, a bug tracker, code and TODO pages, the KVM Forum conference pages (2020–2024), a HOWTO, documents, downloads, and a book titled qemu-kvm & libvirt, plus an FAQ.

For a quick orientation to the site's structure: Status and Features, Guest Support Status, Management Tools, KVM Features, Migration, Develop, Mailing Lists/IRC, Bugs, Code, TODO, Conferences, About, HOWTO, Documents, Downloads, and FAQ are the main navigation entries. If your question is "will my guest OS and CPU work, and can I migrate it," read Guest Support Status, Processor support, and Migration in that order.