Prepare a Host for KVM Virtualization

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Prepare a Host for KVM Virtualization

In order to start creating virtual machines with KVM, it is important to properly set up the host machine. In this lab, you will need to install KVM and the related packages, configure a network bridge, and then create a virtual disk image for use with a KVM virtual machine.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 14, 2025

Duration

1h 0m

Challenge

Install KVM, libvirt (including virt-install and virt-viewer), and bridge utility packages

yum -y install qemu-kvm libvirt virt-install virt-viewer bridge-utils
Challenge

Create a network bridge name `kvmbr0`
cd /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

vi ifcfg-ens5

Take note of the current HWADDR value (your EC2 Instance's mac address) and update the file to:
```
DEVICE=ens5
HWADDR=<<Your HWADDR>>
TYPE=Ethernet
ONBOOT=yes
BRIDGE=kvmbr0
NM_CONTROLLED=no
```
-Use MAC address provided

vi ifcfg-kvmbr0

Update to:
```
DEVICE=kvmbr0
TYPE=Bridge
BOOTPROTO=dhcp
ONBOOT=yes
DELAY=0
NM_CONTROLLED=no
```
systemctl restart network
Challenge

Using the QEMU disk image utility, create an 8 GB virtual disk named disk1.img in `/var/lib/libvirt/images` using qcow2 format

qemu-img create -f qcow2 /var/lib/libvirt/images/disk1.img 8G

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