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KVM + Cockpit

KVM + Cockpit — Notes from Real Use First look KVM has been part of the Linux kernel for a long time. It turns a normal Linux box into a hypervisor without extra software. Performance is usually close to bare metal. The tricky part is management: by default you get libvirt and command-line tools, which are powerful but not always friendly. That’s where Cockpit helps. It’s a lightweight web console that shows VMs, graphs of CPU/memory, and lets you control the host through a browser.

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KVM + Cockpit — Notes from Real Use

First look

KVM has been part of the Linux kernel for a long time. It turns a normal Linux box into a hypervisor without extra software. Performance is usually close to bare metal. The tricky part is management: by default you get libvirt and command-line tools, which are powerful but not always friendly. That’s where Cockpit helps. It’s a lightweight web console that shows VMs, graphs of CPU/memory, and lets you control the host through a browser.

How it actually works

– KVM uses CPU virtualization (Intel VT-x, AMD-V) to run guests. QEMU handles emulation. Together with libvirt, admins can define, start, or stop VMs.
– Cockpit runs as a daemon on the host and exposes a web UI at port 9090. With the “machines” plugin enabled, you see VM lists, can attach ISO images, tweak resources, or shut down instances.
– Multiple hosts can be connected, but in practice many use it per-server.

The combo is good when you want the power of Linux virtualization but prefer to glance at a dashboard instead of parsing CLI output every time.

Technical profile

Area	Details
Hypervisor	KVM (part of Linux kernel)
Management tools	libvirt, virsh, Cockpit web UI
Supported hosts	Linux distributions (RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, SUSE)
Guest OS	Linux, Windows, BSD variants
Storage	qcow2, raw images, LVM, NFS, iSCSI
Networking	Linux bridge, macvtap, Open vSwitch
License	Open source (GPL/LGPL)
Extra modules	Cockpit plug-ins for storage, networking, containers

Setup notes

– Enable virtualization in BIOS.
– Install qemu-kvm, libvirt, cockpit, and cockpit-machines.
– Start services: systemctl enable –now libvirtd cockpit.socket.
– Open a browser: https://host:9090.
– Use the “Virtual Machines” tab to add or manage VMs.

Where it fits well

– Small data centers or labs where Linux is already the base OS.
– Admins who don’t want to manage VMs only from command line.
– Remote servers that need a simple dashboard view of load and VM state.
– Mixed test environments with Windows and Linux guests.

Limits to expect

– Cockpit is light; it doesn’t give cluster-wide orchestration.
– For big farms, you’ll need OpenStack, oVirt, or Proxmox.
– Some features differ by distribution since Cockpit modules aren’t uniform everywhere.
– Heavy workloads may need extra tuning of I/O and storage backends.

Comparison snapshot

Tool	What stands out	Typical use
KVM + Cockpit	Native Linux virtualization + web UI, free	Small to mid Linux hosts
Proxmox VE	Full stack, clustering, backup tools	SMBs, labs
oVirt	Enterprise KVM management	Larger Linux shops
VMware vSphere	Broad feature set, enterprise HA	Enterprises with VMware legacy

Other programs

vSphere Hypervisor

vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) — VMware’s bare-metal layer What it is ESXi, officially called vSphere Hypervisor, is VMware’s bare-metal hypervisor. You install it straight on the server, no Linux or Windows host underneath. For many datacenters it’s the base layer: stable, predictable, and designed to integrate with the rest of VMware’s stack (vCenter, vMotion, HA, DRS). Free to download, but the good stuff (central management, clustering, API writes) comes only with licenses.

oVirt

oVirt — upstream virtualization for Red Hat shops What it is oVirt is the community project behind Red Hat Virtualization (RHV). At the core it’s just KVM + libvirt, but with a full management layer wrapped around it. Think of it as “vCenter, but open source and Red Hat flavored.” It’s heavier than Proxmox, but it has been running in production datacenters for years where admins wanted VMware-like features without VMware licensing.

Xen Project

Xen Project — bare-metal hypervisor that refuses to die What it is Xen Project is a type-1 hypervisor that’s been in use for more than 20 years. It started as an academic experiment in Cambridge, later became the base for many VPS platforms, and even powered AWS EC2 for years. Today it’s still maintained under the Linux Foundation. Not as trendy as KVM, but still useful if you need a small, security-focused hypervisor or want to separate workloads at the hardware level.

Windows Sandbox

Windows Sandbox — disposable Windows environment for safe testing What it is Windows Sandbox is a feature built into modern Windows (Pro and Enterprise editions, from Windows 10 1903 onward). It provides a temporary, isolated environment that runs a clean Windows instance on demand. The main idea is simple: you launch Sandbox, test or run something risky, then close it — and everything inside is discarded. No need to spin up a full VM manually or reinstall the OS after running untrusted software

Virtuozzo

Virtuozzo — mix of containers and VMs with hosting DNA What it is Virtuozzo has its roots in OpenVZ, the old Linux container project. Over time it turned into a commercial platform used by hosting providers to sell VPS long before Docker became a buzzword. Today it combines two approaches: lightweight containers for density and KVM-based virtual machines when you need a full kernel. That mix is what made it popular in the service-provider world.

VirtualBox

VirtualBox — cross-platform workhorse for labs and odd jobs What it is (short) VirtualBox is a type-2 hypervisor maintained by Oracle. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Solaris, and it spins up guest systems with minimal ceremony. Not the fastest thing on earth, and that’s fine; it’s the “it works everywhere” option that sticks around in classrooms, dev laptops, and compatibility test rigs.

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