20.2 KVM Hardware Requirements

Before proceeding with this chapter we need to take a moment to discuss the hardware requirements for running virtual machines within a KVM environment. First and foremost, KVM virtualization is only available on certain processor types. As previously discussed, these processors must include either Intel VT or AMD-V technology.

To check for virtualization support, run the following command in a terminal window:

# lscpu | grep Virtualization:

If the system contains a CPU with Intel VT support, the above command will provide the following output:

Virtualization: VT-x

Alternatively, the following output will be displayed when a CPU with AMD-V support is detected:

Virtualization: AMD-V

If the CPU does not support virtualization, no output will be displayed by the above lscpu command.

Note that while the above commands only report whether the processor supports the respective feature, it does not indicate whether the feature...