KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is an open source full virtualization technology for Linux on hardware with virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V). It consists of a loadable kernel module (kvm.ko) and processor-specific modules (kvm-intel.ko or kvm-amd.ko) that let the Linux kernel act as a hypervisor running multiple isolated virtual machines.
KVM was created by Avi Kivity at Qumranet in 2006 and merged into the mainline Linux kernel in version 2.6.20 on 5 February 2007. After Red Hat acquired Qumranet in 2008, Red Hat became a major contributor and built its virtualization portfolio on KVM. The code is developed within the Linux kernel and licensed under the GNU GPL v2 (some components under LGPL).
KVM works together with QEMU (device emulation) and the libvirt management layer. It supports x86/x86-64, ARM, IBM Z (s390x), PowerPC, RISC-V and LoongArch architectures. Features include VM scheduling and management via the standard Linux scheduler, live migration, resource control, and isolation based on SELinux and sVirt.
A virtualization layer (hypervisor / virtual machine monitor, VMM) that abstracts hardware resources — CPU, memory, I/O — and lets multiple isolated virtual machines run on a single host. Covers type-1 (bare-metal), type-2 (hosted) hypervisors, and hybrid solutions built into the operating-system kernel (e.g. KVM).
Foundation of Red Hat's virtualization portfolio (RHEL, OpenShift Virtualization); used by public cloud providers (e.g. Google Compute Engine, AWS Nitro).
Requires a Linux kernel with the KVM module and hardware virtualization support.
z/Architecture is the 64-bit processor architecture of IBM Z mainframes, introduced in 2000 as the successor to ESA/390. It features 24/31/64-bit addressing modes and built-in accelerators (including the Integrated Accelerator for AI in the Telum and Telum II processors). In the Linux ecosystem this architecture is known as s390x.
PowerPC (Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing) is a RISC instruction set architecture. Modern IBM Power server variants include ppc64 (big-endian) and ppc64le (little-endian). The architecture is supported by, among others, the Linux kernel and the KVM virtualization technology.
License family: Strong Copyleft
First inclusion of KVM into the mainline Linux kernel.
