Creating a Virtual Machine Using qemu and libvirt

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Creating a Virtual Machine Using qemu and libvirt

The leadership team at your company has initiated a new project to reduce hardware expenses and reduce the total cost of ownership. Your manager has assigned you to a team focused on reducing the need of physical hardware for development and evaluation projects. You have been assigned the task of creating a minimal virtualization environment for testing the viability of virtualizing servers for the development team.

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Lab Info

Level

Beginner

Last updated

Sep 22, 2025

Duration

30m

Challenge

Install qemu and libvirt from the Command Line
Use apt to install the following packages
- qemu
- qemu-kvm
- libvirt-bin
- bridge-utils
- virtinst
Challenge

Confirm libvirtd Service Status and Add the User Account to the libvirt Group
- Use systemctl to confirm the libvirtd service started.
- Add the cloud_user account to the libvirt group.
- Use the su command to open a new session for the cloud_user, to pick up the group changes.
Challenge

Create a Virtual Machine Using the Available CirrOS Image
- Use elevated privileges to copy the Cirros image from the home directory to the /var/lib/libvirt/images directory.
- Use the virt-install command to create a virtual machine using the appropriate parameters.
Challenge

Log into the Virtual Machine and Confirm Its Status
- Log into the virtual machine.
- Execute a few basic commands to confirm system functionality.
- Log out of the virtual machine.

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