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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

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Table of Contents
  1. Challenge

    Install qemu and libvirt from the Command Line

    Use apt to install the following packages

    • qemu
    • qemu-kvm
    • libvirt-bin
    • bridge-utils
    • virtinst
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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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